Kitchen Physic (c. 1901) - W. T. Fernie

Kitchen Physic: At Hand for the Doctor, and Helpful for Homely Cures

W. T. Fernie, M.D. | 1901 | Historical digital facsimile (PDF)

Before the modern medicine cabinet, there was the kitchen. In this wonderfully curious Edwardian volume, physician and herbal author W. T. Fernie explores the idea that everyday foods, herbs and household preparations could serve as medicine, gathering centuries of domestic healing traditions into one extraordinary book.

Published in 1901, Kitchen Physic is part medical history, part culinary folklore and part cabinet of curiosities. Its pages move between familiar ingredients, traditional herbal preparations and some truly astonishing historical beliefs.

What makes this book remarkable?

• The kitchen as an apothecary: discover how food, drink and ordinary household ingredients were discussed as remedies at the turn of the twentieth century.
• Botanical lore: references to dandelion, burdock, milk thistle, elderflowers, chamomile and other plants familiar to herbalists today.
• Strange historical remedies: Fernie recounts the use of cockroach tea for kidney disease and discusses cobwebs and other unconventional materials in medicine.
• Folklore and famous healers: encounters with beliefs surrounding the evil eye and Bridget Bostock, a celebrated eighteenth-century folk healer.
• A glimpse of Edwardian medicine: a revealing mix of emerging dietary science, inherited folk practices and ideas that have since been abandoned.

Book details

Author: W. T. Fernie (William Thomas Fernie), M.D.
Full title: Kitchen Physic: At Hand for the Doctor, and Helpful for Homely Cures
Original publication: 1901
Publisher: John Wright & Co., Bristol
Format: Downloadable PDF scan of the historical book
Collection: The Ancestral Library

Important historical and safety notice: This book is provided for historical research, education and enjoyment only. It contains outdated medical claims, unverified remedies and practices that may be unsafe, including the use of insects, animal materials and potentially toxic substances. It is not a modern guide to diagnosis or treatment. Do not prepare, ingest or apply historical remedies on the basis of this text. Consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical concerns.

For readers drawn to the old apothecary, forgotten folk remedies and the wonderfully peculiar history of healing.