La Médecine et la Chirurgie des Pauvres

Paris: du fonds de la Veuve Lecomte; chez Didot, Nyon, Damonville, Savoye et Durand, 1758.

A fascinating mid-18th-century French popular medical compendium designed for the rural poor and charitable practitioners. This anonymous guide presents hundreds of remedies and treatments for common ailments, organized by body part and symptom—from headaches, fevers, and ulcers to gout, hernias, and venereal disease. Written in straightforward, practical French, it reflects the Enlightenment effort to democratize medical knowledge, offering recipes using household or inexpensive ingredients (“remèdes sans dépense”) to make healing accessible to those without physicians or wealth. It also covers simple surgical care (“chirurgie des pauvres”), including treatment of wounds, burns, and abscesses.

A remarkable artifact of early public-health philosophy, this work blends empirical healing with traditional folk practice and domestic pharmacy. Its goal was moral as much as medical: to alleviate the sufferings of the poor while avoiding costly apothecaries and speculative “quacks.” The text remains a vivid document of 18th-century medical thought and vernacular healing culture—part self-help guide, part humanitarian manual.

Condition & Binding: In full contemporary mottled calf, the spine gilt-decorated in compartments with floral tools and red morocco title label (“Medecin des Pauvres”). Marbled endpapers in red, yellow, and blue swirl pattern; red edges. Binding shows moderate wear and rubbing, small chips to head and tail of spine, corners worn, and joints with minor cracking but holding soundly. Interior clean and bright, with only light scattered foxing, some mild age toning at margins. Overall- Very good. Item #750

Price: $220.00