Free summaries
Health & Medicine — page 4
323 public-domain health & medicine books, summarised. Page 4 of 7.
Technic and Practice of Chiropractic
Joy Maxwell Loban
This technical manual serves as an early, foundational guide to the mechanics of chiropractic, detailing the diagnostic palpation, nerve tracing, and physical adjustment techniques developed in the early twentieth century. It bridges the gap between abstract theory and clinical application, offering a comprehensive…
In Time of Emergency: A Citizen's Handbook on Nuclear Attack, Natural Disasters (1968)
United States. Office of Civil Defense
This official civilian guide outlines practical, concrete preparations for surviving the immediate aftermath of a nuclear detonation or severe natural disaster.
Object Lessons on the Human Body: A Transcript of Lessons Given in the Primary Department of School No. 49, New York City
Sarah F. (Sarah Frances) Buckelew
A Victorian classroom transcript reveals how primary school children were taught to view their own anatomy through strict recitation and moral warnings.
Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneuroses
Sigmund Freud
A young physician presses his hands against a patient’s forehead, urging forgotten scenes to surface, and uncovers a hidden architecture of repressions, forbidden desires, and buried memories shaping human distress.
Vitality Supreme
Bernarr Macfadden
Unlocking genuine bodily power requires no secret remedies, only an aggressive commitment to natural physical discipline. True personal force flows directly from robust internal health and targeted daily habits.
Aristotle's works:: Containing the Master-piece, Directions for Midwives, and Counsel and Advice to Child-bearing Women with Various Useful Remedies
pseud. Aristotle
Long before modern gynecology, generations of readers sought answers to the mysteries of human reproduction and bodily health in a single, deeply practical handguide.
Benign Stupors: A Study of a New Manic-Depressive Reaction Type
August Hoch
A psychiatric pioneer examines a mysterious state of total human withdrawal, revealing how profound mental silence is not mere decay, but a temporary psychological retreat.
A Study of Association in Insanity
Grace Helen Kent
Words mirror the mind, but in illness, the mirroring shifts from common paths into deeply idiosyncratic landscapes.
Valere aude (dare to be healthy)
Louis Dechmann
Humanity's suffering from bodily ailments can be cured not through drugs or germ-hunting, but by restoring proper mineral balance to the blood and soil through a precise system of cell-food therapy and natural hygiene.
Backwoods Surgery & Medicine
Charles Stuart Moody
When a simple trip into the wilderness turns catastrophic, knowing how to set a bone with a cedar branch or neutralize a rattlesnake bite can mean the difference between life and death.
Essays in medical sociology, Volume 1 (of 2)
Elizabeth Blackwell
In an era that reduced human sexuality to biological mechanics or social taboos, a pioneering female physician insists that body and spirit are inseparable—and that true social medicine must begin with a single, unyielding moral standard for all.
Horrors of vaccination exposed and illustrated
Chas. M. (Charles Michael) Higgins
A treatise against state-mandated medical procedures argues that bodily autonomy is a foundational civil right. It asserts that forced inoculations spread deadly animal contagions, corrupting public health under the guise of disease prevention.
Medicine in the Middle Ages: Extracts from "Le Moyen Age Medical" by Dr. Edmond Dupouy
Edmond Dupouy
This sweeping inquiry chronicles the slow, turbulent separation of medical science from ecclesiastical dogma and superstition, tracing the long path from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance.
Plain Talks on Avoided Subjects
Henry N. (Henry Newell) Guernsey
Human health and morality depend upon the strict regulation of sexual impulses through the exercise of the rational mind. This guide argues that disciplined restraint is the only path to physical vigor and domestic harmony.
Radiant Motherhood: A Book for Those Who are Creating the Future
Marie Carmichael Stopes
This guide offers a vision for the future of the human race by advocating for the enlightened, informed, and physically healthy management of the earliest stages of parenthood.
How to Eat: A Cure for "Nerves"
Thomas C. (Thomas Clark) Hinkle
HOOK This guide reveals how a physician conquered his own years of debilitating "nerves" through a simple, rigorous commitment to mindful eating and outdoor activity.
Rules and Regulations of the Insane Asylum of California: Prescribed by the Resident Physician, August 1, 1861
Stockton State Hospital (Calif.)
This document serves as a precise administrative manual defining the rigid hierarchy and moral expectations governing a nineteenth-century psychiatric institution. It offers a stark window into the institutional philosophy of the era.
Poison-ivy, poison-oak and poison sumac
D. M. (Donald Mundell) Crooks
Learning to identify poisonous plants on sight is the most effective way to avoid the misery of a rash. This practical bulletin provides the essential knowledge needed to recognize and safely eradicate common botanical hazards.
General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 3 (of 3)
Xavier Bichat
The human body is not a single, monolithic machine, but a complex tapestry of distinct tissues, each governed by its own vital laws. This profound shift in understanding defines the foundational work of modern clinical anatomy.
Medical Thoughts of Shakespeare
Benjamin Rush Field
This collection serves as a methodical index of the medical knowledge, terminology, and health-related metaphors found throughout the plays and sonnets of William Shakespeare. It organizes these observations into a technical, diagnostic framework for the reader.
Nerves and Common Sense
Annie Payson Call
An invitation to reclaim one’s vitality by identifying and dropping the habitual mental and physical tensions that masquerade as necessary reactions to the demands of daily life.
The Voice: Its Production, Care and Preservation
Frank E. (Frank Ebenezer) Miller
The human voice is a delicate instrument of infinite complexity, requiring not just disciplined training but a profound, subconscious harmony between the singer’s mental intent and their physical anatomy.
Radioisotopes and Life Processes (Revised)
Walter E. Kisieleski
Radioisotopes act as silent, invisible guides, allowing scientists to track the movement of molecules within living cells. This exploration reveals the complex biological architecture that sustains all life, from simple organisms to humans.
Experiments on Animals
Stephen Paget
Scientific progress often demands a heavy toll, yet the defense of medical research requires more than just good intentions. This account provides a rigorous examination of the relationship between physiological advancement and the ethics of laboratory practice.
Text book of veterinary medicine, Volume 1 (of 5)
James Law
A disciplined investigation into animal disease, this systematic treatise outlines the diagnostic frameworks, physiological mechanics, and clinical interventions required to understand and treat livestock ailments across the American continent.
Moral Principles and Medical Practice: The Basis of Medical Jurisprudence
Charles Coppens
In an age of rapid scientific progress, a Catholic professor delivers a stark warning to future doctors about the fragile boundary separating legitimate medicine from moral lawlessness.
Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 1: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
Benjamin Rush
In early post-revolutionary Philadelphia, a prominent physician turns a rigorous, observant eye onto the physical and social afflictions of a developing nation.
The Ethics of Medical Homicide and Mutilation
Austin O'Malley
Life belongs solely to a supreme creator, making every human individual—from a single-cell embryo to a dying mother—an absolute end that can never be sacrificed for another's convenience.
Occult science in medicine
Franz Hartmann
A true medicine of the body remains impossible without a parallel science of the soul.
Herself: Talks with Women Concerning Themselves
E. B. (Edith Belle) Lowry
This guide serves as a candid, no-nonsense primer on female anatomy and hygiene, arguing that ignorance of one's own body is the primary source of suffering for women.
Man's Redemption of Man: A Lay Sermon
Osler, William, Sir
Through the lens of medical history and humanitarian resolve, this reflection argues that humanity has transitioned from an era of helpless suffering to one of agency, secured by the diligent application of scientific inquiry.
Hydriatic treatment of Scarlet Fever in its Different Forms
Charles Munde
A guide to the Victorian-era medical practice of water-cure, this manual offers a rigorous, systematic method for treating scarlet fever at home. It challenges the conventional medical establishment of the mid-19th century.
Philosophical transactions, Vol. L. Part I. For the year 1757.: Giving some account of the present undertakings, studies, and labours, of the ingenious, in many considerable parts of the world
Various
This collection of eighteenth-century scientific reports captures the rigorous, often eccentric curiosity of an era grappling with everything from the mechanics of earthquakes to the nature of mineral waters.
Fletcherism: What It Is
Horace Fletcher
A simple shift in how one interacts with food can unlock boundless physical vigor, reversing the decline of age and transforming the body into a well-oiled engine of endurance.
Power Through Repose
Annie Payson Call
This guide to physical and mental economy argues that most human fatigue, anxiety, and illness stem from a chronic, unconscious habit of holding unnecessary tension in our muscles and nerves. It offers a practical methodology for regaining the natural grace and efficiency we possessed as children.
Encyclopedia of Diet: A Treatise on the Food Question, Vol. 5
Eugene Christian
A structured blueprint for physical health, this guide bridges nutrition, evolutionary biology, and daily exercise to turn diet into a science of longevity.
A Treatise on Gunshot Wounds
Longmore, T. (Thomas), Sir
High-velocity lead and heavy iron shatter human bone, tearing skin and driving dirty uniform fabric deep into bleeding flesh.
Loimologia
Nathaniel Hodges
An invisible poison drifts through the streets of London, killing thousands each week while tearing through the bodies of its victims with terrifying speed.
A Comprehensive Guide-Book to Natural, Hygienic and Humane Diet
Sidney Hartnoll Beard
This guide offers a compassionate blueprint for replacing the slaughter-house with the pantry, proving that a life of mercy can be nourished by simple, artful, and meat-free fare.
Discourses on a Sober and Temperate Life: Wherein Is Demonstrated, by His Own Example, the Method of Preserving Health to Extreme Old Age
Luigi Cornaro
A life of physical harmony is within reach of anyone who chooses to master their own appetites through the discipline of temperate living. By replacing indulgence with careful moderation, one can transform the later years of existence from a period of decay into a sustained, vibrant, and joyful conclusion.
Remarks on the Subject of Lactation
Edward Morton
This medical treatise presents a stark, urgent argument against the practice of extended breastfeeding, linking it directly to severe childhood illnesses and maternal decline.
Health, Happiness, and Longevity: Health without medicine: happiness without money: the result, longevity
Louis Philippe McCarty
True health is not a matter of medicine, but a result of one’s own daily habits and choices. This guide offers a practical, self-reliant philosophy for achieving a long and vigorous life.
Observations on the Diseases of Seamen
Blane, Gilbert, Sir
A vital medical chronicle that transformed naval life, shifting the fight against disease from the crowded, infectious hospital ward to the clean, well-ventilated deck.
Plastic and cosmetic surgery
Frederick Strange Kolle
This technical manual serves as an early, systematic guide to the burgeoning field of reconstructive and aesthetic medicine at the turn of the twentieth century. It offers a clinical window into the foundational practices of surgery before the modern era.
The Eugenic Marriage, Volume 1 (of 4): A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies
W. Grant (William Grant) Hague
This text acts as a comprehensive, early twentieth-century medical manual designed to instruct young married couples in the principles of hygiene, prenatal care, and the burgeoning science of eugenics.
Insomnia
Henry M. (Henry Munson) Lyman
The restorative power of sleep remains a profound mystery, linking the quietude of our nightly rest to the final silence of death itself. Understanding this vital necessity requires navigating the delicate interplay between body and mind.
Philosophical transactions, Vol. L. Part II. For the year 1758.: Giving some account of the present undertakings, studies, and labours, of the ingenious, in many considerable parts of the world
Various
This volume serves as a mid-eighteenth-century clearinghouse for global scientific inquiry, documenting everything from earthquake tremors in Cornwall to the distillation of fresh water at sea.
The Four Epochs of Woman's Life
Anna M. (Anna Mary) Galbraith
The path to a woman’s physical well-being is paved with scientific understanding, discipline, and the rejection of ignorance. This guide provides a comprehensive, clinical map of the female life cycle, emphasizing that self-knowledge is the foundation of health.