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The practice of medicine during the Colonial era in the United States included professional methods borrowed from England and Europe, and widely observed home remedies. The collections of the National Library of Medicine contain numerous primary and secondary sources that would have been available to doctors and surgeons, and healers and families throughout the colonies. These digitized collections include material medica, treatises, and popular home remedies.

In addition, the National Library of Medicine has a rich collection of historical images including cartoons, caricatures, and illustrations that comment on medical questions of the day.

Please explore the digital gallery to learn more about George Washington and medicine.

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  Title: Benjamin Smith Barton, MD
  Author/Artist: artist unknown
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Portrait
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  Author/Artist: artist unknown
  Title: William Buchan, MD
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Portrait
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  Title: Auxiliary to health: description, use, and recommendations of Chamberlin's patent bilious cordial: with directions and use of many other compounds, Boston, 1807,
  Author/Artist: Chamberlin, Samuel
  Type: Pamphlet
  Topic: Patent Medicines
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  Title: Domestic medicine: or, A treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases, by regimen and simple medicines: with an appendix, containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners, Philadelphia, 1784.
  Author/Artist: Buchan MD, William
  Type: Book
  Topic: Popular Home Remedies
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  Title: The Marshall Apothecary Parke, Davis & Company, 1954.
  Author/Artist: Thom, Robert A.
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Apothecary Shop
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  Title: Collections for an essay towards a materia medica of the United States: read before the Philadelphia Medical Society, on the twenty-first of February, 1798.
  Author/Artist: Barton MD, Benjamin Smith
  Type: Book
  Topic: Materia Medica
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  Title: Head quarters, Peeks-kill, general orders for the army under the command of Brigadier General M'Dougall: the rank and file of each company will be equally divided among the serjeants, Fishkill, NY, 1777.
  Author/Artist: Washington, George
  Type: Pamphlet
  Topic: Cleanliness
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  Title: Head quarters, Peeks-kill, general orders for the army under the command of Brigadier General M'Dougall: the rank and file of each company will be equally divided among the serjeants, Fishkill, NY, 1777.
  Author/Artist: McDougall, Alexander
  Type: Pamphlet
  Topic: Cleanliness
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  Title: Hand-book for the military surgeon: being a compendium of the duties of the medical officer in the field, the sanitary management of the camp, the preparation of food, etc.: with forms for the requisitions for supplies, returns, etc.: the diagnosis and treatment of camp dysentery, and all the important points in war surgery, including gunshot wounds, amputation, wounds of the chest, abdomen, arteries and head, and the use of chloroform, Cincinnati, 1862.
  Author/Artist: Tripler AM MD, Chas. S.
  Type: Pamphlet
  Topic: Military Medicine
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  Title: Hand-book for the military surgeon: being a compendium of the duties of the medical officer in the field, the sanitary management of the camp, the preparation of food, etc.: with forms for the requisitions for supplies, returns, etc.: the diagnosis and treatment of camp dysentery, and all the important points in war surgery, including gunshot wounds, amputation, wounds of the chest, abdomen, arteries and head, and the use of chloroform, Cincinnati, 1862.
  Author/Artist: Blackman MD, George C.
  Type: Pamphlet
  Topic: Military Medicine
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  Title: Charles S. Tripler
  Author/Artist: artist unknown
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Portrait
• 
  Title: An inquiry into the causes and effects of the variolae vaccinae: a disease discovered in some of the western counties of England, particularly Gloucestershire, and known by the name of the cow pox, Springfield, MA, 1802 (Reprint from the 1802 London edition).
  Author/Artist: Jenner MD, Edward
  Type: Book
  Topic: Smallpox
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  Title: Dr. Edward Jenner
  Author/Artist: Smith, J.R.
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Portrait
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  Title: A prospect of exterminating the small-pox, being the history of the Variolae vaccinae, or kine-pox, commonly called the cow-pox: as it has appeared in England : with an account of a series of inoculations performed for the kine-pox, in Massachusetts, Cambridge, MA, 1800.
  Author/Artist: Waterhouse MD, Benjamin
  Type: Pamphlet
  Topic: Smallpox
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  Title: Benjamin Waterhouse
  Author/Artist: artist unknown
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Portrait
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  Title: The new method of inoculating for the small-pox: delivered in a lecture in the University of Pennsylvania, on the 20th of February, 1781.
  Author/Artist: Rush MD, Benjamin
  Type: Pamphlet
  Topic: Smallpox
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  Title: Directions for the use of the mineral water and cold bath, at Harrogate, near Philadelphia, Philadelphia, 1786.
  Author/Artist: Rush MD, Benjamin
  Type: Pamphlet
  Topic: Mineral Springs
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  Title: Benjamin Rush, MD
  Author/Artist: Dodson, R.W.
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Portrait
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  Title: Illustration from Delle terme porrenttane, 1768.
  Author/Artist: artist unknown
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Mineral Springs
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  Title: Vaccinating the Poor
  Author/Artist: Eytinge Jr, Sol
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Vaccination
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  Title: Vaccinating the Baby
  Author/Artist: Hamman, Ed
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Vaccination
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  Title: An essay on the canine state of fever, Philadelphia, 1801.
  Author/Artist: Chapman MD, Nathaniel
  Type: Dissertation
  Topic: Rabies
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  Title: N. Chapman, M.D.
  Author/Artist: Sully, T.
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Portrait
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  Title: Benjamin Bell, Surgeon
  Author/Artist: Raeburn, Henry
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Portrait
• 
  Title: A system of surgery (Volume IV), Worcester, MA, 179, page 221.
  Author/Artist: Bell MD, Benjamin
  Type: Book
  Topic: Surgery
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  Title: A system of surgery (Volume IV), Worcester, MA, 179, page 146.
  Author/Artist: Bell MD, Benjamin
  Type: Book
  Topic: Surgery
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  Title: An essay on the nature and cure of the phthisis pulmonalis, or, consumption of the lungs, Philadelphia, 1785.
  Author/Artist: Reid MD, Thomas
  Type: Book
  Topic: Tuberculosis
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  Title: Observations on the superior efficacy of the red Peruvian bark, in the cure of agues and other fevers: interspersed with occasional remarks on the treatment of other diseases by the same remedy, Boston, 1783.
  Author/Artist: Saunders MD, William
  Type: Book
  Topic: Red Peruvian Bark
• 
  Title: William Saunders, MD, FRS, FSA
  Author/Artist: Meyer, H.
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Portrait
• 
  Title: On baths and mineral waters, Philadelphia, 1831.
  Author/Artist: Bell MD, John
  Type: Book
  Topic: Mineral Springs
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  Title: Every man his own physician: being a complete collection of efficacious and approved remedies, for every disease incident to the human body; with plain instructions for their common use, Philadelphia, 1794.
  Author/Artist: Theobald MD, John
  Type: Book
  Topic: Popular Home Remedies
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  Title: Every man his own physician: being a complete collection of efficacious and approved remedies, for every disease incident to the human body; with plain instructions for their common use, Hartford, 1800.
  Author/Artist: Theobald MD, John
  Type: Book
  Topic: Popular Home Remedies
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  Title: A treatise on the human teeth: concisely explaining their structure, and cause of decay: to which is added, the most beneficial and effectual method of treating all disorders incidental to the teeth and gums; with directions for their judicious extraction, and proper mode of preservation: interspersed with observations, New York, 1801.
  Author/Artist: Skinner, Richard Cortland
  Type: Pamphlet
  Topic: Dentistry
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  Title: The medical student's guide in extracting teeth: with numerous cases in the surgical branch of dentistry, Philadelphia, 1851.
  Author/Artist: Hornor, Stockton S.
  Type: Book
  Topic: Dentistry
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  Title: A Curious Herbal, containing five hundred cuts of the most useful plants which are now used in the practice of physic, London, 1737 to 1739.
  Author/Artist: Blackwell, Elizabeth
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Herbal Remedy
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  Title: Now string's put fast on tooth that aches, 1773.
  Author/Artist: Collier, John
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Dentistry
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  Title: Illustration from Dissertation sur les dents artificielles…1797.
  Author/Artist: artist unknown
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Dentistry
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  Title: "The Dental Art." Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, 1853.
  Author/Artist: Gleason
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Dentistry
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  Title: J. Jackson
  Author/Artist: Wagstaff, C. E. and Andrews, J.
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Portrait
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  Title: Memoir on the last sickness of General Washington and its treatment by the attendant physicians, Boston, 1860.
  Author/Artist: Jackson MD, James
  Type: Book
  Topic: Memoir
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  Title: The history, diagnosis, and treatment of edematous laryngitis, Louisville, 1850.
  Author/Artist: Bartlett MD, Elisha
  Type: Book
  Topic: Laryngitis
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  Title: Elisha Bartlett, MD.
  Author/Artist: artist unknown
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Portrait
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  Title: Compendium of the practice of physic: pointing out the symptoms, causes, diagnoses, prognoses, and method of cure of diseases, Philadelphia, 1818.
  Author/Artist: Clarke MD, Edward Goodman
  Type: Book
  Topic: Diseases
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  Title: Ventouses
  Author/Artist: artist unknown
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Bloodletting
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  Title: Illustration from Frederic Dekkers, Exercitationes practicae circa medendi methodum, autoritate ratione, observationibusve, 1694, page 108.
  Author/Artist: artist unknown
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Cupping
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  Title: Dr. Elisha Cullen Dick
  Author/Artist: artist unknown
  Type: Illustration
  Topic: Portrait