For easier reading, I've transcribed the copy below. Some of the words are caught in the margin binding, or tattered at the bottom edge of the page, making them illegible. In these instances you will find {?} indicating that I cannot read it.
PREFACE
We see the ruthless and wild savage, whose manners are uncouthe and disposition cruel, softened and made smooth, and the mind expanded and enlightened by the advancement of society and education. Whatever may be the situation of society in other parts of the world, in this country, we may boast of our superiority to those liberal prejudices, which not only cramp the juices but sour the temperament and disturb all the pleasing intercourse of society.
With us, in this happy country, education is no longer confined within the schools of the wise, but like all the greatest blessings which heaven has bestowed upon us, it becomes as universal as useful. This general diffusion of knowledge is the effort of the happy constitution, which is the pride and boast of the American people.
The author of this work has principally applied to the productions of nature for the remedies by which he has affected his great and principle faculty. To the herbs and roots which grow in natural gardens, on the mountains and in the forests, does he apply for the means by which he performs the many cures, which the living can now attest. These he now offers to the public, which has been the result of a long, extensive and very successful experimental practice among all ranks and ages of this country.
The object of the following treatise, is to suggest the proper means for preventing the numerous train of every incident to the human family, the means which he has found effectual when comp{?} have laid hold of the patient, and to re{?} the prejudices of opinion arising from ignorance against the author. While reasoning and experiment have been applied to almost every other branch of science and which has been with peculiar advantage to many other branches of medicine, there can be nothing urged why the same reasoning and experimentation may not be applied to herbs and roots, to show their powerful efficacy which has hitherto been little understood and too much despised and neglected by arbitrary custom and ignorant prejudice.
Every improvement in the use of herbs and roots must take its rise from more just ideas concerning their nature and the different course which produce the different complaints and by a proper attention to this, not only the method of cure may be much ador{?} but what is still more important, that preventions of these distressing and {??} complaints often be effected. The author in prosecuting this work may seem to pay more particular attention to some minute circumstances than they may really seem to deserve. But let the reader recollect that the slightest reasoning drawn from real observation may be of more validity, and may give greater information to a judicious inquirer, than the most extensive theory produces, drawn from hypotheses alone.
We often define what is simple and plain for the sake of those fancies of the mind which may be given at pleasure. The author has wrote a sketch of his life in the first part of the book with a few cases of his trials from his youth, both in sickness and in health, and has concisely given directions how to make different kinds of diet drinks. He has received considerable information from several eminent Physicians. He has given his own receipts (recipes) for those of other physicians, and others he has bought and has made considerable improvements from his own practical observations. The author has supplied himself with a good library of the approved medical authors to which he has frequent reference in difficult and important cases. He treats the various complaints incident to the human family. He has exhausted more labor and spent more time with the consumption then any other disease.
For many years the medical faculty have endeavored to check the progress of Chronic Diseases in the human system. In this attempt, however, they have in general failed, owing to the pernicious practice of impregnating the body with Mineral Medicines thereby confirming, instead of removing the diseases, after dooming to slow and certain death the unfortunate subjects of these com{?}. To ameliorate the sufferings of mankind, hath been made known to the author the life preserving quality contained in the herbs and flowers that beautify the earth; thus opening to the enquiring mind the vast resources in the laboratory of Nature, whose magic powers may be used by extracting from simple flowers, shrubs and plants Medicines that almost snatch from the grave the suffering victim.
By adhering to the medicines extracted from herbs, plants and flowers, he has succeeded in curing many Chronic Diseases, which have for years withstood the effects of the best practitioners. From the great success he has had, in treatment of long standing cases, he feels it his duty and privilege to communicate his knowledge to the world.
