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  • Popular Print and Popular Medicine: Almanacs and Health Advice in Early America
  • Lisa A. Mix, MLA
Thomas A. Horrocks . Popular Print and Popular Medicine: Almanacs and Health Advice in Early America. Amherst, Massachusetts, University of Massachusetts Press, 2008. xii, 221 pp., illus. $29.95 paper.

This fascinating book brings to light an overlooked primary source for studying the history of medicine in early America: the almanac. In Popular Print and Popular Medicine, Thomas A. Horrocks explores the wealth of information found in early American almanacs, and demonstrates that they can be used for studies of social history, the history of printing and popular culture, as well as the history of popular health practices and beliefs. In researching the book, Horrocks consulted 1,533 general almanacs and 253 specialty almanacs. The results of his study are both revealing and entertaining.

The introduction gives an overview of the development of American almanacs from their first appearance in the colonies in 1639 through the Civil War. As almanacs were produced to appeal to people at all levels of society, they serve as a "microcosm of society" (2) and reveal much about American culture of their time.

Horrocks looks at almanacs through a medical history lens, focusing on their health-related aspects. Numerous examples demonstrate that almanacs were a major source for health advice in early America, and as such, are a useful source for studying early American attitudes toward health. In [End Page 257] some parts of the country, particularly rural areas, physicians were not readily available, so people took greater responsibility for their own health and well-being, and most health care took place in the home. Antebellum Americans often turned to almanacs for advice on home health practices, herbal remedies, regimens for staying healthy, and news of epidemics.

To be clear, Horrocks is not arguing that almanacs should be the only source for studying early American health practices, but that they are an important primary source, along with domestic health guides, popular health periodicals, newspapers, and other publications aimed at the general public. Moreover, he contends that as "an integral component of a complicated, fragmented, semi-vernacular health literature" (112), almanacs influenced health attitudes in pre-Civil-War America.

The book considers three categories of health-related information in depth—astrology; cures and remedies; and regimen advice—devoting a chapter to each. A final chapter looks at the use of almanacs to advance a moral or philosophical agenda, or to sell proprietary medicines. "Heavenly Guidance" examines the importance of astrological advice and astronomy in early American almanacs. Though some almanac publishers eschewed astrology, its overwhelming popularity with readers made it a staple of the best-selling almanacs. Readers believed that movements of the planets had health implications, and that certain heavenly bodies and astrological signs governed specific parts of the body. Astrology could advise the optimum time for remedies such as blood-letting (and when to avoid such activities). Most almanacs included "the Anatomy," also known as "Zodiac Man," a figure of a man showing each zodiac sign linked to its respective part of the human anatomy. In Chapter two, "Advice for the Afflicted," Horrocks looks at remedies for three common ailments: dropsy, dysentery, and rheumatism. Horrocks' study of almanacs reveals that the remedies presented are very similar to those presented in more formal remedy books and domestic health guides. Chapter three, "Prescribing Prevention" examines regimen advice in almanacs. The examples in these two chapters illustrate how almanacs provide a window into domestic health care practice.

The final chapter, "Health Advice with an Agenda," introduces various types of specialty almanacs that were prevalent in the first half of the nineteenth century. Some almanacs advanced "moral" causes such as temperance or abstaining from smoking. Others were produced by proprietary medicine manufacturers to promote their products. An epilogue discusses the decline of the almanac as a source for health advice after 1860. A very useful appendix provides a table of data on general almanacs by date, region, and content; a table of specialty almanacs by content; and a list of the almanacs consulted. As such, it is a good reference source for almanacs [End Page 258] of the period. The book...

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