Free summaries
Health & Medicine — page 2
354 public-domain health & medicine books, summarised. Page 2 of 8.
The Prolongation of Life: Optimistic Studies
Elie Metchnikoff
Human biology is a series of unfortunate evolutionary leftovers, yet science might one day allow us to master our own decline. By viewing aging as a treatable condition rather than an inevitability, we can reclaim our lives.
Premature Burial and How It May Be Prevented
William Tebb
Terrifying documented accounts and precise medical observations illuminate the profound societal danger of mistaking profound suspended animation for actual death.
The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher: Containing his Complete Masterpiece and Family Physician
Unknown
Ancient lore meets practical household medicine in a manual where bodily fluids, celestial alignments, and domestic remedies converge.
Manual of Surgery Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition
Alexis Thomson
A classic Scottish textbook offers a rigorous, clear-eyed journey through the physical mechanics of tissue trauma, infection, and surgical repair.
Why Worry?
George Lincoln Walton
Worry is a mental habit, not a moral failing. By applying discipline and shifting one's focus, the mind can be trained to abandon the cycle of anxious, insistent thoughts.
Strength and How to Obtain It
Eugen Sandow
Vitality and strength are not merely inherited traits, but attainable results that follow from a disciplined, mind-centered approach to physical culture.
How and When to Be Your Own Doctor
Steve Solomon
A self-reliant guide to reclaiming health through diet and rest, arguing that the body possesses an innate, often misunderstood capacity to heal itself. This manual provides a practical framework for taking charge of your own physiological well-being.
Text-book of forensic medicine and toxicology
R. J. M. (Robert James McLean) Buchanan
The final arbiter of truth lies in the cold silence of the body, where science must decode the hidden language of violence and decay. This manual provides the systematic map for that grim excavation.
The Care and Feeding of Children: A Catechism for the Use of Mothers and Children's Nurses
L. Emmett (Luther Emmett) Holt
A rigid, precision-minded guide to raising infants, written as a direct series of questions and answers. It treats the physical nursery as a controlled laboratory where warmth, milk strength, and daily habits are measured to the exact degree.
The Mother and Her Child
William S. (William Samuel) Sadler
Expecting a child is a natural, normal procedure, but it demands careful planning and a disciplined approach to hygiene, nutrition, and early character formation.
The Evolution of Modern Medicine: A Series of Lectures Delivered at Yale University on the Silliman Foundation in April, 1913
Osler, William, Sir
This sweeping historical overview traces the human journey from primitive superstition to the triumphs of modern scientific medicine. It serves as an essential record of how our understanding of the body was painstakingly built.
The Practice of Autosuggestion
C. Harry (Cyrus Harry) Brooks
A systematic guide to the practice of mental suggestion, this work outlines a technique for self-improvement and healing that emphasizes the power of the imagination over the conscious will. It documents a method based on the belief that simple, repetitive thoughts can influence the unconscious mind to restore…
New, Old, and Forgotten Remedies: Papers by Many Writers
Unknown
This collection of medical papers serves as a curated archive of late 19th-century homeopathic inquiry, gathering diverse reports on both obscure and established botanical, mineral, and animal-based remedies.
Bloodletting Instruments in the National Museum of History and Technology
Audrey B. Davis
This meticulously documented study examines the evolution of phlebotomy through the artifacts held in the Smithsonian's collection, tracing the transition from ancient medical orthodoxy to modern obsolescence.
Galen: On the Natural Faculties
Galen
The internal workings of the body are not merely mechanical, but driven by "natural faculties"—the intrinsic powers of organs to attract, retain, and transform what they need to thrive.
Searchlights on Health: The Science of Eugenics
B. G. (Benjamin Grant) Jefferis
Navigating the thresholds of personal conduct, physical vigor, and domestic duty, this manual outlines a disciplined path from youthful courtship to parental responsibility.
Special report on diseases of cattle
United States. Bureau of Animal Industry
Practical medical advice for livestock owners balances immediate emergency interventions with long-term herd management to safeguard agricultural vitality.
Handbook of Medical Entomology
William A. (William Albert) Riley
An essential bridge between biology and public health, this survey exposes the unseen arthropod vectors driving global disease. It offers a precise, grounded map of how microscopic parasites rely on insects to infect human hosts.
A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene (Revised Edition)
Calvin Cutter
The human body operates under natural laws that demand understanding, care, and daily discipline to preserve health and prevent physical decay.
Sex: Avoided subjects Discussed in Plain English
Henry Stanton
Breaking the silence surrounding human reproduction, this earnest guide frames sexual education as a vital necessity for personal health, moral stability, and social harmony.
A Treatise on Physiology and Hygiene: For Educational Institutions and General Readers
Joseph C. (Joseph Chrisman) Hutchison
A structured, accessible manual demystifies the mechanics of the human body, transforming complex anatomical science into everyday practical wisdom for the home and classroom.
Old English Patent Medicines in America
George B. Griffenhagen
In eighteenth-century England, a handful of proprietary nostrums captured the popular imagination; imported to the American colonies, these bottled cures established commercial patterns, medical habits, and legal challenges that lingered across two centuries.
The Epidemics of the Middle Ages
J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl) Hecker
When unseen microbial horrors swept through medieval Europe, they reshaped human history, tore apart social bonds, and drove whole populations into collective, frantic madness.
How to Live: Rules for Healthful Living Based on Modern Science
Irving Fisher
A methodical manual for individual well-being shows how daily choices in breathing, eating, posture, and mental outlook form an essential defense against chronic disease and premature physical decline.
Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages: Including a System of Vegetable Cookery
William A. (William Andrus) Alcott
A century-old prescription for human vitality grounds its radical claims not in trend or dogma, but in medical testimony and strict physiological reason.
Medical Jurisprudence, Volume 3 (of 3)
John Ayrton Paris
A rigorous early nineteenth-century survey reveals how medical science and English law intersect to establish proof, assign guilt, and protect human life.
Outwitting our nerves
Josephine A. (Josephine Agnes) Jackson
A mind trapped by its own bodily alarms can be freed through clear logic, honest self-scrutiny, and a steady understanding of subconscious drives.
The Fasting Cure
Upton Sinclair
A radical plea for voluntary starvation, this early twentieth-century treatise promises that abstaining from food clears toxins, restores vitality, and frees the human body from reliance on traditional medicine.
Married Love: A New Contribution to the Solution of Sex Difficulties
Marie Carmichael Stopes
True marital harmony is not a matter of chance, but a science of mutual understanding, physiological awareness, and shared physical joy. This guide offers a path toward enduring intimacy by dismantling the ignorance that often ruins the lives of newlyweds.
Physiology and Hygiene for Secondary Schools
Francis M. (Francis Marion) Walters
Physiology and Hygiene for Secondary Schools provides a systematic, scientific overview of the human body, intended to ground adolescent students in the biological realities of their own physical existence. It emphasizes the interconnectedness of bodily systems and the necessity of maintaining personal health…
A Treatise on the Diseases Produced By Onanism, Masturbation, Self-Pollution, and Other Excesses
L. (Léopold) Deslandes
This sobering medical text from 1838 catalogues the perceived physiological and psychological ravages of self-stimulation, presenting it as a hidden root cause of chronic illness, insanity, and premature death.
Outdoor Sports and Games
Claude Harris Miller
This comprehensive manual serves as a practical, foundational guide for the youth of the early twentieth century, encouraging self-reliance through organized play, nature study, and physical discipline. It acts as a bridge between the structured morality of the era’s scouting movements and the spontaneous, rugged…
A Practical Physiology: A Text-Book for Higher Schools
Albert F. (Albert Franklin) Blaisdell
This textbook serves as a comprehensive manual on the mechanics of the human body, designed to teach students how the physical framework functions and how to maintain it through informed, healthy choices. It combines anatomical description with a strong emphasis on the practical application of hygiene and the…
Resonance in Singing and Speaking
Thomas Fillebrown
A seasoned physician and voice educator demystifies the vocal instrument, arguing that clarity and beauty are natural results of proper resonance rather than complex, mechanical maneuvering. This work remains a cornerstone for those seeking a practical, science-based approach to vocal health.
The seven books of Paulus Ægineta, volume 2 (of 3)
Aegineta Paulus
A manual of practical operative logic, clinical pathology, and systemic therapeutics compiled by a Byzantine physician and exhaustively annotated by a nineteenth-century scholar.
The Hindu-Yogi Science of Breath
William Walker Atkinson
Air carries more than invisible gases; it holds an energetic essence that, when directed through disciplined rhythm, bridges physical health, mental focus, and spiritual awakening.
Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles
Daniel Hack Tuke
A historical journey across the British Isles uncovers a centuries-long evolution from brutal, superstitious confinement to scientific, compassionate mental healthcare reform.
The Funny Side of Physic
Addison Darre Crabtre
A century and a half of medical hubris and human gullibility unfolds here, revealing the thin line between the life-saving physician and the calculating charlatan. Through a blend of historical record, personal memoir, and biting anecdote, this work invites the reader to peer behind the curtain of the healing arts…
The sex side of life
Mary Ware Dennett
A refreshingly candid guide to human sexuality, this work replaces Victorian-era shame with a grounded, honest explanation of biology and emotion. It treats the development of the self as a vital journey toward mature, joyful connection.
American Woman's Home
Harriet Beecher Stowe
To manage a household is to govern a small republic, and to do so well is the most vital contribution a woman can make to the strength and moral character of her nation.
Old-Time Makers of Medicine: The Story of The Students And Teachers of the Sciences Related to Medicine During the Middle Ages
James J. (James Joseph) Walsh
These profiles of medieval medical practitioners argue that modern scientific discovery is often a rediscovery, revealing a sophisticated heritage of clinical observation and surgical skill long overlooked by history.
The Anatomy of Suicide
Forbes Winslow
The desire to end one’s own life is a medical crisis, not a moral failing. A Victorian physician argues that the mind’s tragic unraveling is a phenomenon rooted in physical health and physiological disturbance.
Sane Sex Life and Sane Sex Living: Some Things That All Sane People Ought to Know About Sex Nature and Sex Functioning
H. W. (Harland William) Long
HOOK This guide seeks to demystify the physical and emotional complexities of marriage by replacing outdated social taboos with practical, scientifically grounded instruction for couples.
The Mediæval Hospitals of England
Rotha Mary Clay
The medieval hospital was rarely a place of medical cure, serving instead as a sanctuary for the weary, the aged, and the spiritually burdened. This study uncovers the quiet, compassionate history of these forgotten refuges.
Sexual Neuroses
J. T. (James Tyler) Kent
This clinical monograph examines the physiological and psychological consequences of sexual dysfunction, advocating for a rigorous, non-judgmental approach to treating conditions previously hidden by social modesty. It serves as both a medical guide and a historical document of late 19th-century attitudes toward…
Every Man His Own Doctor: The Cold Water, Tepid Water, and Friction-Cure, as Applicable to Every Disease to Which the Human Frame Is Subject, and Also to the Cure of Disease in Horses and Cattle
R. T. (Richard Tappin) Claridge
This manual serves as a definitive guide to the 19th-century "water-cure," advocating for the healing properties of cold water, friction, and sweating to replace the reliance on medicinal drugs. It acts as both a biographical tribute to its pioneer and a practical reference for treating ailments in humans and…
The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800
Albert H. (Albert Henry) Buck
From mythic divine healers to the systematic observations of the eighteenth century, medicine evolved through centuries of trial, error, and stubborn genius.
Keeping fit all the way
Walter Camp
A simple, scientifically grounded physical regimen can reverse the middle-aged slump and prepare a nation’s citizens for any crisis. Built on twelve core trunk movements, this system replaces grueling, outdated exercises with accessible daily habits.