1775 Medical Book of Dr. Jacob Corey Sturbridge Materia Medica. Robert Bell Printer

Rare early American medical book with exceptional provenance of prominent Sturbridge father and son physicians with handwritten notations such as “chocolate an excellent food” ; “vegetables the principle of all nourishment” and “opium useful in pains of the head”

Jacob Corey Sr. Was born on March 15, 1754, in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, son of John (1716–1783) and Hannah Smith (1718–1803) He was a physician in Sturbridge for over 60 years and studied under Dr. John Frink of Rutland. He married Matilda Walker (1760–1835) on November 15, 1779 in Sturbridge. She was a daughter of Elnathan Walker (1727–1815) and Hannah Bugbee (1740–1810). (Matilda’s grandfather Elnathan Walker (1706-1775) is a 4th generation descendent of Thomas Rogers, a passenger on the 1620 voyage of the Mayflower. He was also Delegate to 2nd Provincial Congress for Dighton, MA. And served in the Revolutionary War.) Jacob Corey died in 1837. The Dr. Jacob Corey House was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, as part of the Sturbridge Common Historic District.

First American printing.

Lectures On The Materia Medica ... Now Published By Permission Of The Author, And With Many Corrections From The Collation Of Different Manuscripts By The Editors. By CULLEN, William

[Philadelphia] America : Printed for the subscribers, by Robert Bell, next door to St. Paul's Church, Third-Street, Philadelphia, MDCCLXXV [1775]

Topics include beneficial uses of fruits and vegetables, some of Corey’s handwritten notes: truffles are an aphrodisiac; chestnuts afford copious nourishment, page 85 Chocolate an excellent food; alum good for intermiting fevers, be cautious in the use of iron, polygonatum Solomon’s seal is an astringent, wild chamomile cure for rheumatism, usefulness of bark, external use of opium, opium useful in spasms in the uterus, etc

see online at eBay for more photos, details & condition report.