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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
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Dr. William M. Starr. 
 
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 IN DEFENSE 
 
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 MEDICAL BOTANY. 
 
 THIRD EDITION 
 
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 BY T*S<.<oVVt 
 
 * DR. WIL IL STARR. * 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
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J* 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1891, 
 By Dr. WII,I,IAM M. STARR, 
 
 In the office of the librarian of Congress, at Washington* 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The design of this work is to profit the many 
 thousand persons who are suffering from diseases 
 of every kind, even to the advanced or chronic 
 stage. I presume that ever} r man, woman, and child 
 farmer, mechanic and da}^ laborer, as well as profess- 
 ional men, have a right to acquire all the knowledge it 
 is in their power to grasp. This book is calculated for 
 the many who are not able to obtain the important 
 and essential medical knowledge that is necessarj" for 
 the perpetuation of health, longevity, wealth, and hap- 
 piness, b} T purchasing the regular medical text books 
 of our classical colleges, as well as those who live in 
 the palace and take pleasure in the barouche and phae- 
 ton. It is to teach the humble and poor, the farmer 
 and mechanic, the merchant and his clerk, that God, 
 in his infinite wisdom, has created and grown an herb 
 with medicinal properties to prove a balm to every ail- 
 ment that the human organization is heir to. My ob- 
 ject is also to teach the many that a large number of 
 these Valuable herbs, roots, barks, leaves and flowers, 
 grow within the immediate reach of those who may be 
 unfortunate enough to need them to heal their ail- 
 ments. Every person's physical organization is his 
 own, and he has a right to understand it, and most 
 especially hygiene and Nature's remedies that will 
 relieve and heal all afflictions or at least a great many 
 of them, or the great majority of them. It is admitted 
 
by all of our classical medical men, that the great 
 masses of the people know too little about themselves 
 and remedies that grow in their yards, gardens, and 
 woodlands. It is the author's object to acquaint 
 the people with an important and valuable knowl- 
 edge of the medical action of a great many of 
 our most- common herbs, roots, barks, flowers, and 
 leaves, and he will teach how to gather them in the 
 proper season, and cure them by the proper process, 
 so that they may have and retain all of their original 
 pure medicinal virtues, and so that they can well un- 
 derstand how to make their own gatherings into safe, 
 reliable, and efficient infusions, decoctions, and tinc- 
 tures; their dose, and how to administer; when and 
 what for. Knowledge is power, and he who seeks it 
 is wise, and he who neglects it does so to his own sor- 
 row and detriment. Hippocrates, who is admitted by 
 • the medical profession to be the father of medicine, 
 says : "All men ought to be acquainted with the 
 medical art." I have written this work with the be- 
 lief that the people in general are ready to receive 
 such knowledge, and will be thankful for and profit, 
 fey it. 
 
 DR. WM, M. STARR.. 
 
SKETCH OF 
 
 DR. WM. M. STARR'S LIFE 
 
 Dr. Starr, whose office is at No. 709 G Street, 
 northwest, is a native of Virginia, born in Prince 
 William County in 1813; moving to Ohio in 1817. 
 He resided there until the commencement of the 
 Mexican War, in which he took an active part. In 
 1849 he made his way to California, where he orga- 
 nized a company to fight Indians in the Digger 
 Indian outbreak, and held them in check until Gen- 
 eral Smith came to his relief. From California he 
 found his way to Texas, and then to Washington city 
 and commenced the practice of his profession (having 
 graduated in medicine at Xew Orleans), and soon 
 -afterwards commenced the manufacture of medi- 
 cines on new and scientific principles, having pro- 
 duced many well-known preparations, such as his 
 celebrated Cough Syrup, Liver Pills, Kidney Tea, 
 Rheumatic Balm, Balm of Gilead Salve, Balm of 
 Gilead Wash, and Chill and Fever Tea, the efficacy 
 of which is attested by thousands of testimonials 
 of the most reliable character. 
 
6 
 
 It was a marked feature in his nature, from his 
 infancy up, to be a close observer of Nature in 
 reference to the vegetable kingdom. When but a 
 boy he loved flowers, and wondered what kind of 
 roots they had, and what they were good for ; 
 which indicated a natural gift for botany and the 
 herbal kingdom. Consequently he would go into 
 the mountains, hills, prairies, and woodlands, and 
 gather Nature's remedies and manufacture them into 
 Botanical remedies. He at once observed the fact 
 that the Indian doctors never injured their patients 
 with their innocent remedies, and that they soon 
 recovered without aching bones or a salivated 
 mouth. In this way, he became strongly impressed 
 with the fact that what was good for an Indian cer- 
 tainly was good for a white man, and that it was a 
 duty he owed to civilization to introduce or bring 
 before the people the Herbal Theory. Being con- 
 scientiously impressed with this fact, he at once be- 
 gan to more thoroughly fit his mind with botanical 
 medical knowledge, and acquaint himself with the 
 roots, flowers, barks, leaves and herbs, from which 
 their medicines were made. To acquire this knowl- 
 edge took a long time. The object of the author is 
 to give each one the opportunity of learning how to 
 care for his own system, and to rectify the wrongs 
 that may assail it, with harmless remedies, that will 
 
do good, and never harm when taken according to 
 
 directions. 
 
 A balm is hidden in the leaf, 
 
 That God has given for relief, 
 
 The Indians of the Western plains 
 
 Have found that they will cure our pains. 
 
 So now the author does extend 
 A helping hand, an honest friend, 
 He'll cure your aches, relieve your pain, 
 If you will buy his Balm for Pain. 
 
 It's made of barks, and oils, and leaves, 
 
 And seldom ever man deceives, 
 
 It never fails to satisfy, 
 
 And on it, friends, you can rely. 
 
 Unkind words, and acts, and deeds. 
 To war and bloodshed often leads. 
 Gigantic oaks from acorns grow, 
 And wicked acts brine: weal and woe. 
 
 Anatomy. 
 
 Human anatomy describes the organization and 
 construction of the human body, and how it is put 
 together: how 7 the bones are held together by liga- 
 ments, aponurotic bands and muscles. It. tells the 
 shape of the bones, the number, and how they are 
 made, and what they are made of. It names each 
 organ, and describes the construction of each par- 
 ticular department of it. It numbers the bones, the 
 
muscles, nerves, arteries, ligaments, veins, and all 
 that is found by the dissection of the dead body. 
 
 Every man should know enough about his own 
 "body in reference as* to how it is made, and the 
 functions or actions of the essential or principal 
 organs, to care properly for himself, and protect 
 himself or body from a great many poisons and sur- 
 roundings that cause disease, pain, sorrow, suffer- 
 ing and death. Knowing this to be an essential fact 
 I feel that it is a duty that I owe to my fellow man, 
 or humanity in general, to embody in this work a 
 few important and essential anatomical ideas that 
 #re useful for man, woman and child to know. 
 
 The human skeleton is composed of 208 bones, 
 -the teeth not included, and these bones are con- 
 trolled by 600 muscles, and through these bones and 
 muscles, nerves, arteries, veins, and capillaries are 
 very numerously distributed. There are 32 teeth 
 in the grown person, with which we nlasticate, or 
 chew, or grind our food. These teeth are coated 
 with a material called enamel, which, when once in- 
 jured by improper habits, will never renew itself 
 again. The teeth are not like bones. Bones, when 
 broken, if held in position, will grow together again, 
 solid and firna as before breaking. But not so with 
 ihe teeth, which, when once injured ; are, like a 
 pane of glass, destroyed forever. Xow there are 
 ninety-nine out of every hundred of my readers who 
 
know this statement to be a fact by actual experi- 
 ence. Boys destroy their teeth when quite young 
 by crushing hickory-nuts, almonds, cream nuts and 
 pieces of ice. Cold causes sudden contraction ; heat 
 sudden expansion. The white pearly substance 
 which covers that portion of the tooth which pro- 
 jects above the gum, called enamel, is admitted by 
 all in the profession of medicine, most especially the 
 chemical and dental professions, to be extremely 
 susceptible to these two extremes, namely cold and 
 heat; consequently ice, ice water, ice lemonade or 
 any thing or substance near the same temperature,, 
 should never, during health be put in the mouthy 
 which everybody knows is practiced or indulged in 
 every day by hale and hearty persons ; and just so- 
 soon as such substances come in contact with the 
 teeth, they being about 98 J degrees of heat, the ice,, 
 or whatever it may be, being about 32 degrees,, 
 causes a sudden contraction of the enamel, causing 
 it to contract to such a degree that it cracks the enamel^ 
 and decay follows. Parents should caution their 
 children about cracking nuts, and chewing ice, and 
 drinking hot tea and coffee. I have known men 
 who have been free from all such indiscretions dur- 
 ing their life, that had their full set of teeth, thirty- 
 two in number, free from all decay. The Indiana 
 have no need of a dentist, from the fact they do not 
 drink hot tea and coffee. The Indian doctor has- 
 
10 
 
 no steel forceps to crush the gum and jaw-bone, in 
 order to extract an injured tooth, from which injury 
 it has decayed. Their dentist is simply the strict 
 observation of the laws of nature. If a man cuts 
 his finger a scar will be the final result ; if a man 
 violates the law§ af nature, and causes the enamel 
 of his teeth to be cracked, or cut, the result is a scar 
 in the form of a tooth ache, toothless gums, or false 
 teeth. The teeth are especially intended for the 
 mastication of food, or in words more plain, for the 
 grinding of the food in order that the fluids of the 
 stomach may have free access to every portion of 
 it when it enters the stomach. When a person is 
 eating a common meal, the salivary glands excrete 
 eight ounces of saliva, which mingles with the food 
 and has a special chemical property, and one special 
 mission to perform outside of a chemical action, and 
 that is, to oil or lubricate the bolus of food, that it 
 may pass clown the esophagus or tube that leads 
 from the mouth to the stomach. The stomach is an 
 organ just beneath the lower tip of the breastbone, 
 and hangs in the shape of a half moon, with the 
 convex surface down when not filled with food ; but 
 upon being filled with a meal of food or victuals, 
 it turns upside down and commences to contractor 
 relax, or, in other words, churn up the food so it is 
 in a soft pulpy form, and at the same time mingles 
 the gastric juice with it, which chemically seperates 
 
11 
 
 the dross from the nutritious portion so that it may 
 be absorbed by the little lacteal s, the same as a leech 
 sucks up blood. Hence you see how the many abuse 
 their stomachs ignorantly, by eating and drinking 
 between meals, which obstructs and prevents the 
 process of digestion, and ultimately causes dyspep- 
 sia. The North American Indians were never 
 known to be afflicted with dyspepsia, simply from 
 the fact that their habits of eating and character of 
 food were in accordance with the laws of nature. 
 They never drink hot coffee, tea, whisky, wine, 
 beer, pound cake, or pudding; but they live on 
 plain diet, and the result is they never have dys- 
 pepsia, cancer of the stomach, and thousands of 
 ailments that civilization is heir to and afflicted with. 
 The first portion of the bowels that leads from 
 the stomach is called the duodenum. About two 
 inches from where it connects with the stomach the 
 bile from the liver and pancreatic fluid are emptied. 
 These two fluids serve the purpose of converting 
 the fatty portion of the food we eat into a saponi- 
 fied condition — that is, a soapy condition ; both of 
 the fluids being of an alkaline nature, and coming 
 in contact with fat, the same chemical process oc- 
 curs as does when common lye from ashes comes in 
 contact with grease or fat in the soap kettle ; and 
 when the fatty portion of our food is thus saponi- 
 fied, it is ready for the lacteals of the bowels to ab- 
 
12 
 
 sorb or suck up. When the nutritious portion of 
 our food is thus absorbed it is carried into what is 
 -called the thoracic duct, which is a tube about the 
 size of a crow's quill running up the spinal column. 
 "This tube is the medium through which our bodies 
 receive our entire physical support.. The nutrition 
 ^which is absorbed by the lacteals and carried into 
 ^this tube is called chyle ; before it leaves the stomach 
 it is called chyme. When it enters the thoracic 
 duct, it is carried by it into the left subclavian vein, 
 where it becomes blood, and is carried by the cir- 
 culation to all the tissues of the body, to strength- 
 en, support, and renew them. 
 
 The second section of the bowels, or that part 
 which follows the duodenum, or the first section of 
 .the -small bowels, is called the jejunum. The third 
 .•section, following the jejunum, is the illium. At 
 the end of this section there is what is called the 
 ulleocoecal valve, or the entrance from the small 
 bowel into the large one, which is called the as- 
 cending colon. This section runs upon the right 
 side of the abdomen until it comes to the ribs and 
 .liver, and then turns squarely to the opposite side, 
 running just beneath the stomach and spleen. This 
 is called, in anatomy, the transverse colon. After 
 .reaching the left side it turns squarely down the 
 left side. This section is called the descending 
 •colon. After it reaches. the margin of the hips, or 
 
13 
 
 in medical terms, the crest of the illium, it becomes 
 pouched like a Scottish bagpipe, which is called the 
 sigmoid flexure. Following this is what is called 
 the rectum, the last portion, and the outlet of the- 
 alimentary canal. At the outlet, which is called': 
 the anus, there are muscles called sphincter or cir- 
 cular muscles, which serve as a gate to the bowels,. 
 and when the rectum becomes loaded with the 
 drossy portion of that which we eat, or food, there 
 is a pressure produced against these muscles, and 
 a nerve sensation produced, which apprizes the in- 
 dividual of the fact that nature calls him to stool. 
 Xow the mouth, stomach, throat, and entire tract 
 of the bowels, are lined with what is called a mu- 
 cous membrane, and this membrane is netted with 
 millions of little veins and capillaries. The veins 
 in the lower portion of the rectum are called hem- 
 orrhoidal veins. Now when a great many persons 
 become constipated or costive, the circulation of the 
 blood is checked or obstructed, and then these 
 hemorrhoidal veins become full and engorged with 
 blood, and pouch out the mucous membrane in 
 lumps or rolls, and they become inflamed and pain- 
 ful. This condition of the rectum is what is called 
 piles. The Indian method for the cure of piles is 
 a certainty, if the party so afflicted conforms to the 
 directions. 
 
 The human body has three sets of nerves in it, 
 
 
14 , / 
 
 sensory, motor, and sympathetic. The sensory 
 nerves are those nerves that feel all pain and carry 
 it to the brain and nerve centres for recognition. 
 The motor nerves are nerves by which we control 
 and move our muscles. The sympathetic nerves 
 are nerves that govern nutrition. Our brain is 
 locked up in a bony box of eight bones. It has 
 two sections, the cerebrum, which means the large 
 brain, and the cerebellum, which means the small 
 brain. These lay in folds called convolutions. It 
 is the dwelling place of intellect and the throne of 
 life. The human body is covered with an integu- 
 ment called skin. It is composed of four layers, 
 and has seven millions pores, which, if they were 
 stretched out in one line, would measure twenty- 
 eight miles in length, and there is more deleterious 
 matter and poison eliminated or thrown off from the 
 body by the skin than any other eliminator known 
 in the human organization. The skin has two sets 
 of glands, namely, sudoriferous and sebaceous. The 
 sudoriferous glands are what are called the sweat 
 glands ; the sebaceous are glands that excrete an 
 oily substance, to keep the skin soft, silky, and plia- 
 ble. Any person can readily ascertain this fact by 
 squeezing the nose, when they will see a white, oily 
 substance come from the pores. We have hair on 
 our heads to protect the scalp and brain ; we have 
 eve-brows to act aseave troughs to lead the sweat 
 
15 
 
 from the eves. We are told by Divine history that 
 "man shall earn his bread by the sweat of his brow." 
 The eye-brows do not sweat, but simply lead the 
 sweat of the forehead from the eyes. We have 
 eye-winkers, which are sentinels standing on guard 
 to protect the eye from any foreign substance or 
 material that may come in contact with the eyes 
 and injure them. For instance, when a bee flies 
 against the eye to sting you, he first strikes the 
 winkers, and your eye-lids shut, and the delicate eye- 
 ball is sheltered from danger. We have hair on 
 other parts of our body, for the purpose of keeping 
 the sweat that comes from the sudoriferous glands 
 from scalding or chafing the skin. We have two 
 eyes to see; two ears to hear; two nostrils to breathe; 
 a mouth to taste; a nose to smell; and a body and 
 lingers to feel with; through \yhich organs we have 
 the live grand senses transmitted to the brain, 
 through which we recognize all of God's blessings: 
 seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling, and tasting. AVe 
 have two sets of muscles — voluntary and involun- 
 tary. The voluntary muscles are those that are 
 controlled by the will ; the involuntary are those 
 that are governed by the fixed chemical laws of 
 animal creation, free from the will, and cannot pos- 
 sibly be controlled by it. We are fearfully and won- 
 derfully made. We are a greater mystery to our- 
 selves than all of our surroundings. No one can 
 
16 
 
 tell why a man's vital force begins to fail at the age 
 of forty-five or fifty ; but every organ that consti- 
 tutes his body fades, in the healthy man, at the 
 above-named age, in sweet harmony, and he has 
 reached the summit of life, and taken the swift 
 wings that carry man to the bosom of his Father 
 and his God. 
 
 With these few anatomical remarks, my kind 
 readers, I will say that my object has been to give 
 you a profitable glimpse of the temporal body we 
 own and dwell in that you may profit by it and be 
 partially enabled to know thft man has the finest 
 machinery in his body to care, for that our Allwise 
 God ever created in the animal kingdom of the 
 earth. 
 
 Physiology and Hygiene. 
 
 Physiology treats of the functions or actions, or in 
 other words, the work the healthy organs of our 
 bodies perform. In these remarks I can give you 
 a few of the most essential facts, warranting you, if 
 you remember them, that you may profit by them and 
 lengthen the number of your years of life. We 
 will first consider the process of digestion. When 
 we take food in our mouth and commence to chew 
 
!7 
 it, we find that there is a slippery fluid thrtiwn 
 out into the mouth. This is intended by nature to 
 accomplish a very important purpose : first, to 
 moisten the food, so that when it is ground up into 
 a bolus or ball, it may be slippery and moist, that 
 it w T ill readily pass down the stomach tube to the 
 stomach when swallowed, and be in a fit condition 
 for the gastric juice to enter and dissolve. Second- 
 ly, it has a chemical property that unites with the 
 starchy portion of the food, and converts it into glu- 
 cose or sugar. After the food enters the stomach, 
 the gastric follicle of the stomach throws out a fluid 
 as sour as the juice of a lemon, called gastric juice, 
 which is caused to mingle with the food and satur- 
 ate it, and dissolve it ready to be absorbed and as- 
 similated. The greater portion of the albuminous 
 part of the food is taken up by the stomach, and 
 that which remains is carried with the fatty portion 
 of the food through the pyloric orifice, or valve of 
 the lower portion or end of the stomach, into the 
 bowels, where it is taken up by the lacteals of the 
 bowels, and carried to perform its mission. The 
 bowels have what is called a peristaltic or vermicu- 
 lar action, which means, in common language, a 
 worm-like or squirming motion, which worms the 
 food-through the bowels. When there is a cathartic 
 medicine taken into the system, it irritates and 
 stimulates this action, and the result is frequent 
 
18 
 
 actions on the bowels. Then, after the stimulation 
 find irritation subsides, the vermicular action falls- 
 as far behind the normal or natural standard as it 
 was stimulated above it, and the usual result is, 
 constipation or costiveness follows for a few days, 
 till nature can regain herself again. We have an 
 organ called the heart, which has four chambers or 
 apartments, consisting of two apartments called 
 auricles and ventricles, situated it the left breast, in 
 a sack called pericardium. The two auricles are 
 called right and left, and the ventricles are called 
 the same. The muscular power of the left ventricle 
 is greater than that of the right, from the fact it 
 has to throw the blood farther. With the heart is> 
 connected two main arteries; aortic and pulmonary 
 The auricles are to receive the blood, and the ven- 
 tricles to throw it out to all parts of the body. The 
 heart, in a healthy person, pulsates seventy times 
 per minute. The blood is thrown from the left 
 ventricle into the aortic artery, which has branches 
 that lead to all parts of the system. After it 
 reaches the end of the arteries, it enters a system of 
 vessels called capillaries, which means hair-like, and 
 carries the blood through the tissues of the body, 
 and empties it into the veins, which carries it back to 
 the right auricle, and from there it goes to the right 
 ventricle, which throws it to the lungs, through the 
 pulmonic artery, where it receives oxygen from the 
 
19 
 
 air we inhale or breathe into our lungs, which con- 
 verts the blood from a dark venous character to 
 that of a bright arterial character. From there it 
 enters the pulmonic veins, and is carried to the left 
 auricle, and from there to the left ventricle, from 
 whence it is propelled in the same course as I have 
 just described. The lungs are two organs situated 
 in the thorax or breast. They have a tube that 
 leads to them, and forks into two branches, and 
 these two branches, and all the little ones into 
 which they subdivide, in combination are called the 
 bronchial tubes, and the little cavities to which 
 these little branches lead are called air cells, and 
 the walls of these air cells are called peranchymic 
 Avails, and these delicate walls are filled with nu- 
 merous minute, little, hair-like capillary vessels, 
 which receive oxygen from the air, and in return 
 give off carbonic acid gas. Man has two kidneys 
 that lay in the small of the back, which are filters 
 of the blood, with this peculiar characteristic — 
 they throw off the poison urine, and leave the blood 
 purer than they found it, while the artificial filter 
 lets the pure fluid go through, and retains the dross 
 or the part unfit for use. There is a tube to each 
 kidney about the size of a crow's quill, that leads 
 the urine to an organ of an oval form like unto a 
 cistern, to receive the urine, and when filled, warns 
 the owner that he must evacuate it. The brain is 
 
20 
 
 an organ through which we think and exert ner- 
 vous forces that control the voluntary muscles of 
 the body. The liver is an organ that excretes about 
 fourteen ounces of bile every twenty-four hours, of 
 an alkaline nature, to emulcify or saponify the fatty 
 portion of our food. In the common adult it weighs 
 about four pounds and a half, and is one of the 
 most important glands of the human body. The 
 spleen is an organ lying in the left side, in connec- 
 tion with the stomach. Its functions or duty is not 
 thoroughly understood by the ablest physiologists *. 
 The common name is melt. The' pancreas lies just 
 under the stomach, and excretes a fluid called pan- 
 creatic fluid, that is similar in character to the bile, 
 and joins hands with it in the process of digestion. 
 This organ, in swine, is commonly called the sweet- 
 bread. The voluntary muscles of the body are the 
 muscles that are under the control of the will, with? 
 which we move, act, walk and talk, and put our 
 ideas into effect. The involuntary muscles are con- 
 trolled by chemical forces. Man breathes, and his 
 heart beats when asleep as well as when awake. 
 The voluntary muscles are organs of perpetual mo- 
 tion, running day and night all the time until they 
 wear out. The two hundred bones constitute the 
 skeleton or framework of the body, and hold it erect^, 
 and serve as levers for the muscles and will power- 
 to work with. There are twelve pairs of nerves 
 
sent off from the brain, and thirty-one pairs from 
 the spinal cord, which are distributed to every part 
 of the body. The brain is the temple of thought, 
 
 the throne of intellect, — the telegraphic office, — and 
 the nerves are the wires on which we send dispatch- 
 es to all parts of our anatomical and physiological 
 government. 
 
 The sympathetic nervous system, or sympathetic 
 nerves, link the body together in harmonious ac- 
 tion. It guards one part of the system from acting 
 detrimentally against another. It is the principal 
 influence in controlling the circulation, nutrition., 
 digestion, and assimulation. All involuntarv or- 
 gans are governed by this system of nerves, so that 
 when the brain is asleep the work that is vitally* 
 essential to our existence will go on correctly. 
 
 Hygiene is a body of facts or principles that are 
 essential to the preservation of our bodies, health 
 and happiness. I shall abridge my sentences in 
 speaking of this subject. In the first place a man 
 should be regular in his habits : that is, have regu- 
 lar hours for sleep ; regular hours for meals, three 
 meals per day when laboring, six hours apart, and 
 should never retire to rest until two hours after 
 supper. Should not drink anything while eating, 
 so that the saliva,- Nature's fluid, may mingle prop- 
 erly with the food, that it may be digested readily 
 and properly. Persons should chew their food so 
 
32 
 
 fine before swallowing that they can feel no lumps 
 in it with the tongue, in-order that the gastric-juice 
 may readily penetrate and digest it. 
 
 The room or place a person sleeps in should be 
 well ventilated, so that the air is pure and refresh- 
 ing, which gives life and activity to the entire body; 
 &nd he should bathe twice per week, in order that 
 the skin may be kept pure and clean, that it may 
 not reabsorb the poisons that are thrown out from 
 the pores. The water should only be a few degrees 
 above the temperature of the body. The body 
 should be well rubbed after bathing with a rough 
 towel till the skin is glowing. This calls the blood 
 to the surface and promotes a healthy circulation, 
 and makes a person feel better every way. The 
 clothiug should be changed once every week, be- 
 cause they become saturated with the fumes and 
 odors of the body, which, if reabsorbed, are poison- 
 ous to the general system. Cleanliness is next to 
 godliness, and beyond question or doubt, is the key 
 note of man's health. Every one, when eating, 
 should stop before they realize the sensation that 
 they have got enough. Franklin says : "If you 
 would have an appetite stop with one/' and it is 
 true. Knick knacks, if eaten at all, should be eaten 
 before substantial food, because when they are left 
 till the last, you have already eaten all the neces- 
 sary food that you need, and then come dainties 
 
23 
 
 that tickle the appetite and cause you to eat more 
 than is demanded by nature: and the result is indi- 
 gestion or dyspepsia. Everybody needs exercise is 
 order that they may have proper development 
 the bodies they own. No one should work in \ 
 room where it is dark, for darkness is a sedative, 
 and light is a stimulant, to the animal organization 
 as well as the vegetable. Take a man and let him 
 work.in a dark cellar, and the result is he soon be- 
 comes pale and poor in flesh. Take a plant and 
 set it in the shade, and it becomes a pale green, slim 7 
 tall, and spindling ; hence my readers, you see the 
 importance of good light In concluding my re- 
 marks on hygiene, I will say that it is strictly im- 
 portant, in order that we may have good health, 
 we should have good light, good air, good food, 
 good water, sufficient clothing, strict cleanliness, 
 and discretion and temperancj in all things. All 
 persons observing these rules will seldom be obliged 
 to call the physician to administer unto him in a 
 case of sickness, unless of a contagious character. 
 
 Digestion. 
 
 Digestion is one of the most important features 
 or functions that is performed in our physical or— 
 
24 
 
 ganization, from the tact that we receive our sup- 
 port from it, and by it our bodies are entirely re- 
 newed every four months. The weight of the body 
 that we now own in four months will be entirely 
 new in every particular. The old theory was, that 
 the body renewed itself every seven years, but that 
 idea is now exploded. If you will mark the finger 
 nail at the root, or where it comes in contact with 
 the skin or flesh, with a file or piece of caustic, you 
 will find, at the end of four months, that the mark 
 will have grown clear out to the end of the nail, 
 which proves the nail has grown entirely new; and 
 S) it is with the entire body. Knowing this to be 
 a fact, we realize the importance of having a knowl- 
 edge of digestion; how long it takes every article 
 of food to digest that we have in e very-lay life and 
 during life, for good digestion makes good blood, 
 good blood a good body, and without a good body 
 no man can be happy, for the healthy body is the 
 machinery in which we accomplish success and hap- 
 piness in life. So, in order to teach my kind read- 
 ers some facts on digestion ; I will give a list of 
 facts that were actually observed in the human 
 stomach by the naked eye of scientific medical men. 
 This fact, I have the pleasure of stating to my read- 
 ers, I obtained from a statement of Dr. I J. War- 
 ren, of Boston, Massachusetts. I shall simply give 
 .the substance in brief, and the table of digestion. 
 
25 
 
 It appears that the medical profession and human- 
 ity in general were providentially presented with this 
 occurence that they might know the true history of 
 their stomachs, in reference to the time it takes to 
 digest the various articles of food we eat in our life 
 time. The following table will profit all those who 
 read it and regard the truths or facts it teaches. 
 The way these facts were discovered areas follows : 
 A man by the name of St. Martin accidentally got 
 the walls of his abdomen and stomach blown away 
 by the explosion of a gun. They refused to heal, 
 but a delicate membranous film grew down and pro- 
 tected the food from falling out of the stomach, yet 
 it was transparent like a window pane, so that the 
 process of digestion could be clearly seen with the 
 naked eye, and the time it took each article of food 
 to digest was taken note of by me. I will give 
 the table from my own observation : 
 
 Rice boiled 1 h. 00 min. 
 
 Kig's Feet, soused boiled 1 00 
 
 Tripe, soused boiled 1 00 
 
 Trout Salmon, or Salmon fresh. boiled 1 30 
 
 Trout SaJmoii. or Salmon fresh. fried 1 00 
 
 Apples, sweet and mellow raw 1 35 
 
 Venison steak broiled 2 00 
 
 Sago boiled 2 00 
 
 Apple-, sour and mellow raw 2 00 
 
 Cabbage, with vinegar raw .4 00 
 
 Codfish, cured dry boiled 2 00 
 
 Eggs, fresh raw 2 00 
 
26 
 
 Beef Liver, fresh broiled 2 00 
 
 Milk boiled 2 15 
 
 Turkey, wild boiled . .2 30 
 
 Turkey, domesticated ..- raw 2 25 
 
 Potatoes, Irish baked.. 2 30 
 
 Parsnips boiled .2 30 
 
 Pig, sucking roasted 2 SO 
 
 Meat Hash, with vegetables warm 1 30 
 
 Lamb, fresh ..broiled ....2 30 
 
 Goose roasted.. ...2 30 
 
 Cake, sponge baked 2 30 
 
 Cabbage, raw.. raw 2 45 
 
 Beans, pod boiled 2 50 
 
 Custard baked 2 h7> 
 
 Chicken, full grown fticaseecd 3 00 
 
 Apples, sour and hard raw 3 00 
 
 Oyster?, fresh raw 4 00 
 
 Bass, striped, fresh . broiled 3 00 
 
 Beef, fresh, lean and rare boiled 3 0) 
 
 Steak broiled 3 00 
 
 Corn Cake baked 3 CO 
 
 Dumplings, Apple boiled .... .3 00 
 
 Eggs boiled soft. 3 00 
 
 Mutton, fresh broiled 3 00 
 
 Pork, recently salted... raw ....... .3 15 
 
 Pork Steak broiled 3 15 
 
 Corn Bread baked 3 20 
 
 Mutton, fresh roasted 3 20 
 
 Carrots, orange boiled. 3 30 
 
 Sausage, fresh broiled....:. 3 30 
 
 Beef, fre-h, lean, and dry roasted 3 30 
 
 Bread, wheat, fresh baked 3 30 
 
 Butter melted 3 30 
 
 Cheese, old and strong raw 3 30 
 
 Eggs, fresh boiled hard3 30 
 
 Flounder, fresh fried 3 30 
 
27 
 
 Oysters, fresh fried 3 30 
 
 Potatoes, Irish stewed 3 30 
 
 Soup, mutton boiled 3 30 
 
 Oysters boiled 3 30 
 
 Turnips, flat boiled ,.3 45 
 
 Beets boiled 3 45 
 
 Corn and Green Beans boiled 4 00 
 
 Beef, fresh and lean boiled 4 00 
 
 Fowls, domestic boiled 4 00 
 
 Veal, fresh broiled 4 00 
 
 Soup, Beef, Vegetables, Bread.. .boiled 4 00 
 
 Salmon, salted boiled 4 00 
 
 Heart, animal fried 4 00 
 
 Beef, old, hard, and salted boiled 4 15 
 
 Pork, recently salted fried 4 15 
 
 Cabbage, with vinegar boiled 4 30 
 
 Ducks, wild roasted 4 30 
 
 Pork, recently salted boiled 4 30 
 
 Suet, Mutton boiled 4 30 
 
 Veal, fresh fried 4 30 
 
 Pork, fat and lean roasted 5 15 
 
 Suet, Beef, fresh boiled 5 30 
 
 Tendon boiled 5 30 
 
 This table of the time it takes to digest the dif- 
 ferent articles of food will hold good in the great 
 majority of cases. Food will digest quicker if a 
 person keeps still after meals an hour or so; than it 
 will in one who commences work immediately after 
 meals. This fact was discovered by one of the great 
 physiologists of Europe by taking two healthy dogs 
 and feeding them both at the same time on the same 
 kind of food. Shutting one up, and taking the 
 
28 
 
 other hunting, at the end of an hour he killed both r 
 and took out their stomachs and examined their 
 contents. In the one that was shut up the food had 
 nicely digested, and in the one that went hunting 
 the food was the same as when swallowed. Every 
 one should rest at least one hour after 'each meal,, 
 and should never eat between them. Hygiene is 
 the best doctor. If a man will bathe regularly, eat 
 regularly, and sleep regularly, and be regular in all 
 of his habits, he will seldom ever need a doctor to 
 dose him with pills, potions and lotions. There is 
 a penalty that will follow the violation of each law 
 of nature, just as sure as fire will burn if you stick 
 your finger in it. 
 
 Diseases. 
 
 There are as many diseases as there are organs 
 in our body, and I am of the firm belief that there 
 is a remedy for every disease if it were only known, 
 and I believe the only method that will bring these 
 remedies into practice, is liberty and freedom of 
 thought on the part of the various departments or 
 schools of the medical profession, and the privilege 
 of all to let the people try them. The allopaths 
 have a code of ethics that restricts them from eoun- 
 
20 
 
 selihg with any doctor, unless he is a regular, and 
 of his own faith. Such a code only casts a shadow 
 of bigotry and discredit on themselves. A wise 
 man will glean knowledge from whatever source it 
 may come ; a fool will say all are quacks but those 
 that believe as he does. Incorporated professions 
 may stand for a while, but when people become edu- 
 cated to that degree that they reason from cause to 
 effect, and think. for themselves, they will have to 
 hoist the flag of liberty on the mast-head of their 
 old ship called Code of Ethics, and extend the hand 
 of friendship to all, and own that there are other 
 men that know as well as themselves. 
 
 Why Medicines are better in a 
 Powdered Form. 
 
 I extend to the public my medicines in a pow- 
 dered form, and I will give you my reasons for so 
 doing. I make my medicines from the fresh inner 
 barks of trees, shrubs, roots, leaves, and flowers, of 
 my own gathering, consequently I know they are 
 pure, and have all their medical properties. I never 
 use my medicines after they arrive at certain ages 
 .from the time of gathering, from the fact that there 
 
30 
 
 is a time when everything begins to lose its strength 
 and force. Every farmer well knows the fact that 
 hay and corn will finally by age get stale and unfit 
 for use, and the horses refuse to eat it. He knows 
 that turnips, and potatoes, and vegetables in gen- 
 eral, after they have been gathered a certain length 
 of time, begin to wither and shrink, and are no 
 longer fit to be used. These are facts that are well 
 known to everybody. The same facts are true in 
 reference to medicine. Medicine will lose its 
 strength and become worthless after it arrives at a 
 certain age, and is no longer fit for use. This I 
 know is true. I have samples of old medicines in 
 my office, and they have so far lost their strength 
 that you cannot tell, by their odor or smell, what 
 they "are. Your drug stores have medicines upon 
 their shelves that have been there ten and fifteen 
 years. It is not reasonable to suppose that they, 
 are as good as medicines from the fresh, green 
 herb, bark, root or flower. I have been botanizing 
 in the several States of the Union for the last fiftv 
 years, gathering my own material, and having them, 
 or making them myself, into medicines of various 
 forms : fluid extracts, tinctures, infusions, decoc- 
 tions, and pills; but I have learned in my career 
 with medicine that the majority of medicines in the 
 form of fluid extracts and tinctures that are on the 
 market are adulterated, and are not what they are 
 
31 
 
 ' represented to be. I do not ask you to examine 
 them yourselves, for it would be folly in me to do 
 so, from the fact that you never made medicine a 
 study, consequently you do not know a good medi- 
 cine from a bad one. Neither do I ask you to take 
 my word alone ; but I will refer you to a statement 
 that is reliable, and ean be called a positive fact. 
 This statement, will be found on page 347 in the 
 American Pharmacist Journal, published in New 
 York, September 23, 1882. I will simply give 
 the substance of the statement, written by Chas. B. 
 Allaire. He says there are two principal sources 
 from which we get all our medicines, namely ; drug 
 millers, who buy their crude material as cheap as 
 possible and powder it, and sell it to large buyers, — 
 these are designated merchant millers ; and custom 
 millers, that is, mills that any one can send their 
 own goods and gatherings to, and get them ground 
 and returned. Prosably nine-tenths of all goods 
 put upon the market in this country come from 
 these two sources. The usual mode on shipping 
 these goods is in twenty-five and fifty pound pack- 
 ages, or in barrels, according to the demands of the 
 purchaser, who, if he sells them again, sells them 
 in, or ships them in, paper packages, and here is 
 where their identity is for ever lost. The retail 
 dealer who thus receives them, knows nothing of 
 their history, or who is responsible for their lackol 
 
32 
 
 quality, or entitled to. credit if found reliable. I 
 am glad to be able to state that there are several 
 custom mills in the large cities where drugs may be 
 sent for powdering, with the certainty that they will 
 be returned to the sender in a state of absolute pur- 
 ity ; and from this source our most careful jobbers 
 supply themselves, sending prime good£, and receiv- 
 ing pure, prime quality powders in return. A cheap 
 article of drags that are important, is seldom genu- 
 ine. The present large per centage of inferior and 
 adulterated drugs in the market is the result of a 
 widespread demand for cheap goods or drugs, or 
 rather low prices. The per centage of goods in the 
 market of an inferior character, is clearly shown by 
 the fact that four hundred and sixteen samples, 
 taken from various sources and examined during 
 the past year, gave the following results : 227, or 
 about 57 per cent., were pure, or at least no adul- 
 teration was detected, and 189, or about 46 per 
 cent., were adulterated so that detection was easy. 
 From this fact I have resolved to institute a new 
 theory, in order to know that the medicines I han- 
 dle are pure and unadulterated. It is this : I bot- 
 anize and gather my own material, and see it ground 
 myself, and see that no one handles it but my trust- 
 worthy assistants and myself, and by so doing I 
 know 7 that my medicines are pure. So I am proud 
 to say to my fellow suffering man, that I extend to 
 
33 
 
 you a pure medicine in a powdered formj made 
 from the inner barks of various vegetable growths, 
 knowing it to be a convenient form; and cheaper 
 than the fluid extracts or tinctures that are on our 
 markets. And knowing that the preparation has 
 never been from under my care to get adulterated, 
 I can most positively and conscientiously offer it to 
 you as a new form of medicines, that of being pure, 
 in a powdered form, made from inner barks, con- 
 venient to take, the price of which is within the 
 reach of the poor and all suffering humanity. 
 
 Medicine. 
 
 'Medicine, in its common acceptation in the minds 
 of the people, is a substance that cures diseases, 
 but the truth of the matter is, medicine never cured 
 anything. It is the natural tendency of a majority 
 of diseases to get well within themselves, free from 
 medical aid. Medicine, properly administered, 
 simply assists nature to remove the cause that ob- 
 structs her acting m a normal condition. Medicine 
 is not a humbug. The humbug is in its improper 
 administration. When medicine is properly ad- 
 ministered it comes to the sufferer as a gift from 
 God. Medicine is unjustly j udged. It is not med- 
 icine that is at fault, but it is those who give it 
 without the proper knowledge of its effects, and 
 
34 
 
 when it is indicated. Medicine, when it is not 
 properly given, proves an actual poison to the sys- 
 tem. Botanic Materia Medica treats of herbs and 
 vegetation in general. That is, that part of vege- 
 tation which is known by me to have medicinal 
 properties. They will never injure the system 
 when conformed to according to directions given. 
 
 Ail Indian Poem. 
 
 We first came to this glorious land 
 A free and happy little band.; 
 Tradition says we crossed the strait 
 That joins two oceans large and great. 
 
 This link is called the Behring Strait 
 By Anglo-Saxon, wise and great, 
 Modern history truly shows 
 By temperature we almost froze. 
 
 Upou this land we lived and homed. 
 And o'er the hills and plains w r e roamed, 
 Infidels were never known 
 In our little band we loved and owned. 
 
 You bowed the knee, — and so did we, — 
 And worshiped God, the triune three ; 
 You said God, and we came so near it, 
 Instead of God we said Great Spirit. 
 
 We loved our wives and firesides, too, 
 And worshiped God as well as you, 
 Our tribe it never run saloons 
 Called whisk}^ shops and gambling rooms. 
 
 Fire-water maddens nerve and brain. 
 And causes bitter woe and pain, 
 We Red Men cannot understand 
 Why you brought it to our land. 
 
35 
 
 God sheltered us with leaf and tree. 
 
 We were so happy and so free 
 Before, the white man crossed the sea 
 And stole our lands and liberty. 
 
 They preached us Christ, Him crucified. 
 And then their docirine they denied, 
 By robbing, stealing, far and wide, 
 Parting families, groom and bride. 
 
 You gave us tire-water bad. 
 And set our warrior- raving mad, 
 We found that you were not so true 
 As what we first did think of you. 
 
 We know that you did play a lie : 
 AVe thought to fight till we would die ; 
 Your favor then we chose to gain 
 By selling you the Balm for Pain. 
 
 It cures your aches, it cures your pains, 
 And everywhere an honor gains, 
 It surely cures, both near and fear, 
 When made and sold by Dr. Starr. 
 
 In Defence of Botany. 
 
 To the People and the Medical World. 
 
 Science in "Medical Botany, the great medical 
 desideratum of the world, has at last been discov- 
 ered by Dr. Wm. M. Starr, after fifty long years of 
 study and practice and at an expense of over thirty 
 thousand dollars. He has analyzed nearly every 
 herb in the Vegetable Kingdom, and ill forty -two 
 
36 
 
 of the leading herbs he has discovered enough 
 medical substance to make medicines to cure every 
 disease in human life, and every medicine is sep- 
 arate and distinct for every different disease. No 
 two are alike as no two diseases are alike. He 
 compounds over sixty different* medicines from 
 forty-two leading herbs, which will, if used correctly, 
 cure any disease of the human Family. He be- 
 lieves that he understands each and every disease 
 -of the human frame and he has a cure for each and 
 every disease in the human body. 
 
 He will teach all who may wish to learn the use 
 of his valuable remedies in Medical Botany for any 
 disease of the man, woman or child. He will teach 
 what herbs to gather, what time in the year to se- 
 cure them and manufacture the medicine, and the 
 proportion of the different herbs to make separate 
 and distinct medicines for each and every separate 
 disease in human afflictions. 
 
 He has as many different medicines as there are 
 diseases in human life; all in botany. It took 
 him fifty long years, and cost over thirty thousand 
 dollars in cash to find out these valuable medi- 
 cines. Ever since he perfected these remedies and 
 found out their use in every case whatsoever he 
 has had no cause to change his medicines in any 
 way from their original use in any disease, and can 
 cure many old chronic cases of all kinds even where 
 
37 
 
 the patient has been poisoned from the use of other 
 medicines. 
 
 He has a positive cure among his list of medi- 
 cines for any disease of mankind, if it is not chronic 
 and past curing; he cures many of these old cases. 
 When he says sure cure or positive cure he means 
 that the patient shall use his medicines and no 
 other until he says stop or until the patient is 
 cured. They must remain strictly under his medi- 
 cines and under his rules first, last and all the 
 time. 
 
 He will teach the whole Botanical Profession 
 from the raw herbs to this science for the sum of 
 five hundred dollars ($500). 
 
 Every student must stay one year so as to take 
 in one summer to learn what herbs to gather and at 
 what time to gather them, so it will take at least 
 that time. He can make any shrewd or smart per- 
 son a perfect Botanical Doctor in one year, just 
 what it took him fifty years to find out. It is a 
 perfect work and all young men and women should 
 take this into consideration and give him a call or a 
 bid. 
 
 During the year 1890 he had nine hundred cases 
 of La Grippe and lost none. The same year he had 
 eight cases of scarlet fever, twenty-one cases of 
 diphtheria, five cases of typhoid fever, thirty-one 
 cases of bilious fever, twelve cases of St. Vitus 
 
38 
 
 Dance, sixty-one cases of kidney disease, forty-three 
 cases cholera infantum, twenty-two cases chills and 
 fever and lost none. Daring the months ef Janu- 
 ary, February, March, and April he had 307 cases 
 of La Grippe and lost none. He also had many 
 other diseases and lost none. No man on earth 
 can beat these Botanical cures. They might as 
 well do away with wheat, rye, corn, oats, barley } 
 rice, beans, potatoes, buckwheat, meats, fruits, milk 
 and sugars which are the necessaries of life and 
 make flesh and blood. The human body is purely 
 a vegetable body composed of purely vegetable 
 matter. So he uses purely vegetable medicines for 
 purely vegetable bodies. Botanical Doctors are 
 the free thinkers of medicine, with the right to 
 choose the best form of all the best Botanic theories 
 of medicine. Liberty uncircumscribed by the 
 teachings of fanatics. Freedom to judge for them- 
 selves that which is best of all that you can learn 
 of the many ideas of medical men of the world. 
 
 Love to all, hatred toward none. Freedom of 
 thought. The right to counsel with all. Un- 
 governeci by any mean disgraceful conduct, esthics, 
 or force bills. Give us liberty to exercise good 
 common sense, and use that which is best to do 
 good in the case for which it is intended. This is 
 the true principle of Botanical practice. They are 
 the most successful doctors on the face of the earth 
 
3<j 
 
 who believe in personal liberty as well as general 
 
 liberty and that which is right, is right and best for 
 
 11 G>ccfc\ 
 
 Every 4M^ on earth ought to be careful what he 
 gives to his patients, so as not to make any mis- 
 take at all or give any medicines that could harm 
 any person, even if it could do no good. If he 
 don't know what is the matter with the patient he 
 has no business to give any medicine; and it should 
 be made a law that no man should be allowed to 
 experiment on any person in any case. He should 
 know what is wrong and what to give and what to 
 do, or quit and give it up. 
 
 I hold that no doctor has any right to give medi- 
 cines to kill or cure under any circumstances what- 
 soever ; because if he don't know what to give first 
 he is less fit to give the last remedy, as they call it. 
 If he knew what to give, his patient would not 
 come to this last remedy point. It ought not to be 
 allowed at all. They have no moral right to give 
 medicines to any person at guess-work or random. 
 
 Suppose you had a new sewing machine all in 
 good order and it became a little out of order and 
 you should send for a machinist to repair it, and he 
 would come every day and work on it and your 
 machine kept getting worse and worse for weeks 
 and weeks and the tinker charging you pay for 
 every day; and at last your machine was entirely 
 
40 
 
 destroyed. What would you say of such a machan- 
 ic? Would you not say he was a fraud? You 
 would be right in calling him a fraud and wholly 
 unfit to undertake such a job. But suppose your 
 •child was to get a little out of health and you were 
 to call a workman in the medicine business and he 
 was to make equally as bad a job, w T hat would you 
 say of him? Would you not say that they were 
 both frauds alike ? You could not say anything 
 else. If he should tell you that your machine had 
 just turned into something else since he began to 
 work at it, and that you can look out for the worst, 
 after two or three weeks working on it ; what 
 would you say then 9 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher said there was no reason 
 why any person who is once healthy should not 
 live to be a hundred years old. 
 
 Botanical Doctor Wm. M. Starr says that if all 
 doctors were what they ought to be or what their 
 friends take them to be ; no children who were 
 once in good health would die under a good old age, 
 from 80 to 100 years or more. 
 
 He further says that no young person once in good 
 health would die, without a gross violation of the 
 laws of nature, either by those who have them in 
 charge or of themselves. The body best taken 
 care of will last the longest, the same as with a 
 machine or anything else. 
 
41 
 
 The people can do without any monoply in doc- 
 tors or hi any other business. To pass a law to 
 give any class of men the exclusive right to 
 practice medicine means human speculation and 
 murder. It means to destroy, to kill, without any 
 regard to law. It means human destruction, to pass 
 a law to grant to any one school of medicine the 
 whole right to practice exclusively. 
 
 Force bills passed into laws by the States, to 
 stop all doctors from making any medicines or to 
 practice, except the graduates of certain schools 
 which commend the use of poisons is an outrage 
 on humanity. A law to give the whole practice to 
 any one class is an abomination. Look at Pitts- 
 burg, Pa. in March, 1891 ; fifty per cent of all La 
 Grippe cases died. Look at Chicago the same 
 month; nine hundred in one week. Look at New 
 York City ; still worse. 
 
 That those who make any improvement in medi- 
 cines, or that men who have positive cures, shall be 
 driven out of practice, because they do not believe in 
 using poison as a medicine, or because they believe 
 entirely in the Botanical remedies, home-made on 
 scientific principals, is a violation of human liberty 
 and human rights and human safety, and destroys the 
 very principles of invention and prosperity. The 
 people can do without Force Bills but they can't do 
 without the farmers. They are the producers and 
 
42 
 
 feed us all. The farmers are the noblest men on 
 earth. Were I to select a board of the greatest 
 men on earth I would go to the largest farmers to 
 choose them, because they are the best. And 
 were I to select doctors I would choose them of 
 those who made their own medicines from the raw 
 herbs, fresh from the farms and wdods. I have 
 analyzed wheat, rye, corn, oats, barley, beans, po- 
 tatoes, rice, meats, and milk, and then the human 
 body, which are all composed of purely vegetable 
 matter. You cannot live without vegetables. This 
 fact being true, then who is right? The doctors 
 who gather their medical cures from the vegetable 
 kingdom for a vegetable body, or the doctors who 
 use mineral medicines for a vegetable body ? Ap- 
 ply common sense and you have the answer. You 
 mast have vegetables to live on and Botanical cures 
 are right. If the human body can't live without 
 mineral food then the mineral doctors are right.. 
 The idea that the human body must be treated 
 with minerals and other poisons for any of its dis- 
 eases is an impossibility, mere speculation. 
 
 It is an historical and important fact, that in the 
 Gulf Cities south in Yellow Fever seasons, all the 
 people become alarmed, doctors and all. Why is 
 all this ? It is because the doctors have no cure 
 for it, and have no confidence in themselves, in fact 
 the doctors die the same as the common people, so- 
 
43 
 
 •all hopes for cure are lost and all have to await for 
 the frost. This is positive proof that in a hundred 
 years experiments these doctors know less what to 
 do with Yellow Fever than they did an hundred ' 
 years ago. In fact they don't know anything about 
 it at all, only to run from it and quarantine against 
 and trust to Providence for an early frost. Yet 
 they say we have no right to make any improve- 
 ment in medicines or to practise medicine, even if 
 we have sure cures. . They pretend that they know 
 it all and are the only doctors that do know it all. 
 
 It was still a little worse in the city of Washington 
 D. C, during the first four months in the year 
 1891, there were more deaths from La Grippe than 
 •ever died in New Orleans in any four months in 
 history, from any disease. Why was this ? La 
 Grippe is an easy disease to cure. In Pittsburg, 
 Pa., it was still worse. In Chicago it was worse 
 than Yellow Fever ever was in Xew Orleans. 
 What is the matter ? These diseases are cureable. 
 Is there no Balm of Gilead or is there no man to 
 gather it. I say there is a positive cure and a pos- 
 itive preventative in the vegetable kingdom. Bo- 
 tanical medicines are the only positive and safe cures 
 on earth. 
 
 A little improvement in medicine would harm no 
 one. All doctors can have the benefit of my Botan- 
 ical medicines, and their patients as well, if they 
 
44 
 
 choose to do so. Then why object to have any im- 
 provement in medicines ? Is it possible that the 
 present medical profession now in charge have come 
 to a halt in science and invention and to a point 
 where there is no sure cure for any disease ? It 
 looks very much as if it had come to this point 
 when there are from 160 to 200 deaths per week 
 2 n "Washington, D. C. Now the people are looking^ 
 or relief from a change of weather, &c. If the 
 death rates over those of births were to continue a& 
 they did during the months of February, March, 
 April, and May, 1891, it would take only twenty 
 years to exterminate the entire population of Wash- 
 ington, New York, Chicago, and Pittsburg. 
 
 .Statistics in the Health Office of Washington 
 show that there were about one-third more deaths 
 than births during the first six months of 189 1* 
 How long would it take to exterminate the popula- 
 tion, if there was no emigration? 
 
 Are the doctors who had charge of those cities 
 the same doctors who had those force bills passed 
 in the cities and states, to prevent any doctors out 
 side from practicing, selling, or making any new 
 improvements whatsoever in medicines? That they 
 must dictate what the people shall or what they 
 shall not use? Dictate that a class of men shall 
 monopolize the whole practice of medicine, who- 
 have not a single sure cure for any disease in hu- 
 
45 
 
 man life. They lost 800 children in two months 
 of cholera infantum in the year 1890, and still 
 more in 1891, this has become alarming. 
 
 It was worse in Chicago in 1891 than the yellow 
 fever ever was in any one year in New Orleans. 
 La Grippe is a eureable disease and can be very 
 •easily cured. I had during the first two weeks in 
 April, 1891, 104 cases of La Grippe and lost none. 
 I used only pure Botanical medicines. I have also 
 analyzed every part of the human body and find it 
 & purely vegetable body, a perfect composition of 
 vegetable matter and I find that Botanical medi- 
 cines are the only medicines that will agree with 
 this pure vegetable body. This is as true as truth 
 •can be. 
 
 I commend the following article to my readers, 
 taken from the works of the late eminent Botanical 
 Physician, Dr. C. L Coffin, of London, England.: 
 
 " In presenting this w r ork to the public, we do not 
 seek to obtain any of those flattering encomiums 
 which are often purchased at the expense of truth. 
 We know that the science of Medical Botany will, 
 •ere long, produce a complete revolution in the 
 medical world, and as we shall, in animadverting 
 on the errors of the ignorant excite the envy of 
 
46 
 
 some, and awaken the hatred of other interested 
 individvals, it will be our consolation to know 
 that our reputation is now so fully established 
 whenever our lectures have been heard and ou r 
 practice has become known, that w T e neither have to 
 fear the one, nor shrink from the consequences of 
 the other. 
 
 Doubtless the faculty will denounce us in the 
 most ungenerous terms for having dared to arraign 
 their practice before the bar of public opinion ; for 
 this too we are prepared; so as we can summon to* 
 our aid such evidence as will not only establish our 
 principles, but silence effectually those who oppose 
 us. 
 
 Though we live in an age remarkable for its im- 
 provements, and wonderful in its resources, science 
 having given development to powers as incredible 
 as they are astonishing ; yet, in the midst of all 
 these advantages, selfishness steps in and proclaims 
 aloud that none — save the Diplomatised — are com- 
 petant to cure the sick, or minister to the afflicted,, 
 when every day's history proves the folly of such a 
 vain and egotistical policy. Why the medical 
 world should arrogate to itself the prescriptive 
 right of killing or curing at pleasure, is a problem 
 we are not learned enough to solve; or why a man 
 should be esteemed a clever physician because he 
 has been educated in a college,, we are at a loss to* 
 
AT 
 
 divine. Education is proper for all men. We 
 would that all men were better educated than they 
 are ; but education either means something or noth- 
 ing — and if it be a reality, why should a physic- 
 ian seek his diploma in a college ? Certainly not, 
 but in the cottage where human nature lies suffer- 
 ing on its couch of pain. Will a shred of parch- 
 ment confer ability upon its possessor? Certainly 
 not; it is a delusion to suppose it. An acre of 
 parchment, a thousand books, or a \ ead stored with 
 bad Latin, will not even make a shoemaker; what 
 an absurdity then to suppose such things capable 
 of making a physician. 
 
 At this particular time when the schools are di- 
 vided upon first principles, it is somewhat amusing 
 to find the faculty not only disagreeing amongst 
 themeslves, but positively denouncing each other 
 as quacks, L e., ignorant pretenders in a work en- 
 titled " Fallacies of the Faculty" we have abundant 
 proof of this. The author ridicules, and justly too, 
 the use of the lancet and the dissecting-knife ; what 
 sensible man can admire the policy of cutting up a 
 body after death in order to ascertain the nature 
 of the malady of which the patient died? This ab^ 
 surdity is only equalled by that of the philosopher 
 who cut the bellows open to find out where the 
 wind came from, and there is certainly as much 
 philosophy in one case as in the other. 
 
48 
 
 Indulgent nature provides a fitting remedy for 
 every ill that flesh is heir to. Man in his igno- 
 rance, too frequently rejects the boon that nature 
 offers, and seeks in artificial aid an anodyne for ill. 
 And so long as monoply in medicine is countenan- 
 ced and applauded, so long must this state of things 
 continue to exist; what better proof can we ask 
 than that a man who undertakes to cure the sick, 
 should be able to ascertain the cause of sickness, to 
 know where to find a remedy and how it should be 
 applied ? A physician should be taught that 
 disease is a problem which it is his duty to solve. 
 He should know that heat is the source of life — its 
 absence death ; that a change of temperture w T ill 
 produce a change in the animal economy; food is 
 only administered for the purpose of creating blood, 
 which, when distributed through every artery and 
 veir, imparts health to the nerves, vigor to the 
 muscles, and strength to the limbs; to preserve 
 health we must regulate the temperature of the body 
 and above all things avoid such irregularities as 
 may lead to decay. 
 
 After all, even though we succeed in proving 
 more than was ever previously attempted by any 
 other man, we know the faculty will not admit us, 
 neither can we expect any favor at their hands nor 
 will their practices receive much from us, we shall 
 show that a knowledge of nature is not indigenous 
 
49 
 
 to college life, but must be sought for in the woods 
 and forests ; each sun-lit vale or verdant meadow, 
 contains some agent of a remedial kind. A green 
 herb is worth more than a latin phrase. 
 
 Nature has a college of her own — in it we have 
 studied, our sensibilities have been extremlv pained, 
 when we beheld the young and beautiful cut down 
 like the cedar which bends before the blast, when 
 fever scosched the veins, or consumption dried up 
 their crimson rivulets, and we beheld them carried 
 to "that bourne from whence no traveller returns.' 
 We reasoned thus with nature, "Is there no balm 
 in Gile&d — no aim to save from death — no respite 
 from the grave?'' The voice of nature breathed 
 within our soul. We sought the woods, the fields, 
 and the forests of our native land; from verdant 
 banks we gathered healing herbs. We sought the 
 sufferer on his bed of pain, we raised his drooping 
 head, we bade him drink and live — nature revived 
 within him, his languid eyes unclosed, his feeble 
 arm again grew strong, his wife and children bless- 
 ed us with their tears. This nerved our heart with 
 hope. 
 
 When the hot pestilence rained dow T n its firey 
 ruin, we planted health where death had else beeni 
 found. Amidst the fair fields of America we left 
 a germ of knowledge richer far than stories of treas- 
 ured gold; and providence has spread its sacred 
 
50 
 
 wings around our daily path, and the grateful 
 prayers of sufferers saved from pain are our reward. 
 Thus our diploma is seen in the success which 
 heaven hath thrown around us. 
 
 Mortality. 
 
 On account of violating the laws of nature, man 
 is degenerating in the length of life, strength and 
 durability every century. When he used nature's 
 remedies for medicines and lived according to the 
 laws of nature, he lived to the age of from one hun- 
 dred to nine hundred years. The average at that 
 time was one hundred and seventy-seven years. 
 After he commenced to use artificial medicine he 
 decreased in lei Jjth of life. Two thousand years 
 ago the average length of man's life was one hun- 
 dred and seventy-seven years, now it is only sixteen 
 years and ten months. Fifteen hundred years ago 
 down to eight hundred years ago the average stood 
 at .three score and ten — seventy years. In eight 
 hundred years the average has fallen from seventy 
 to sixteen years and ten months. Why is this ? 
 I will give to my dear readers just one starting 
 point and they can work it out themselves and can 
 then see why this is all so. 
 
 In the summer of 1890 in two months eight hun- 
 
51 
 
 dred children died under five years of age in Wash- 
 ington, D. C; the average age being about one year 
 
 and one month. Those who died under sixteen years 
 and ten months during the same two months aver- 
 aged about >even years. 
 
 At What Age Do Most People Die? 
 
 This question is often asked without any answer. 
 I will answer it correctly to my readers. The high- 
 est number of deaths are from the birth of the child 
 to its first year ; the next highest is from the first 
 to the second year ; next is from the second to the 
 third year and so on it gradually decreases up to a 
 hundred years. The average age of mankind is 
 sixteen years and ten months. There are sixty - 
 nine thousand deaths under one year of age to one 
 between ninety-nine and one hundred years. 
 
 There are sixty -nine thousand more deaths be- 
 tween one and two years of age than there are be- 
 tween ni net^-ei^ht and ninety-nine years; there 
 are fifty-four-more deaths between the age two and 
 three than'there are between ninety-seven and 
 ninety-eight. This is the way it runs and it comes 
 to an average of a little under seventeen years. 
 This table may be denied; if it is let the one who 
 
52 
 
 denies it make out a table himself and show where 
 this one is not correct. 
 
 My headquarters are failing to control my king- 
 dom ; my picket guard cannot guard my constitu- 
 tion, it is gone. I have no laws to go by. My 
 ■stomach is my government ; my teeth are my pick- 
 et guards; my brain is my headquarters. I know 
 that I have failed to keep a strict guard against the 
 enemy of my government. In fact they have the 
 balance of power over my head. They lead me in- 
 to all sorts of vice and woe, but it is never to late 
 to do good, so I will ally with another kingdom, 
 known as the kingdom of good sense, and fight 
 them again on this line and I will not let anything 
 pass through my picket line unless I am perfectly 
 satisfied that it is in full harmony with my consti- 
 tution. 
 
 Let it be food, drink or medicine, there is danger 
 in all these, so I will look out for all of them from 
 this time on as long as I live. I will not be led 
 around longer by my stomach to places where I do 
 not want to go, and where this last party says don't 
 go you are safer at home. I like this last re- 
 solution, where it says apply good common sense to 
 everything you are going to do before you do it. 
 
53 
 
 Now is it not wise for any person to be very 
 careful what kind of fuel or food they put in their 
 stomach, its what you eat that keeps you alive, your 
 body is your own machine and the better care you 
 take of it the longer it will last. It is a duty you 
 owe to yourself and the God who gave you life, to 
 look after your health and to be very careful how 
 you eat and drink so as to live long. This is more 
 important than anything in all your life. You can 
 prolong your life if you will or you can destroy it 
 at your will. Everything you eat or drink or do 
 is surely a benefit or an injury to you. Nothing 
 stops still to wait for you, you must look out for 
 yourself through all this life. This is only too true. 
 An honest man is the noblest work of God. 
 
 If all men were honest and true, 
 
 This world would be a paradise to you.. 
 
 Europe had a Newton and a Wellington. 
 
 Asia had a Mohammed and a Confucius. 
 
 America had a Washington and a Franklin. 
 
 The whole union of nations have a Christ and a 
 Devil. 
 
 Four were teachers of good to the people and 
 four were teachers of strife and war. 
 
 The devil is directly or indirectly at the head of 
 
54 
 
 all evil, he leads the weak minded people to ruin in 
 such a way that they cannot discover his ways and 
 and tricks to deceive them. 
 
 A WORD TO PARENTS. 
 
 As soon as a child is three or four weeks old 
 feed it with every thing thatagrees with mother; what 
 the mother eats makes milk and likewise will agree 
 with the baby. If the mother has no milk for her 
 baby have a cow fed on corn-meal, wheat, beans and 
 timothy hay, and a few potatoes, once a day ; then 
 feed the baby on the same nutritious food and you 
 will have fat and healthy children. 
 
 Feed your children with a spoon or cup ; not a 
 bottle or tube. Don't toss your baby up and down 
 but when they get tired lying in one position turn 
 them over; they ought to be turned over often. 
 Don't hug your children while their bones are soft 
 and tender. 
 
 If there is any doctor or any one else who wants 
 to make a specialty of any one disease I mention in 
 this book, I will teach them confidently and separ- 
 ately. 
 

 DR. STARR'S BOTANICAL PILLS. 
 
 If you want to live healthy and long rake one of 
 Dr. Starr's Liver Pills once or twice a week. If 
 you go to a yellow fever country take one of Dr. 
 Starr's Liver Pills every day and you won't have 
 it. If you have La Grippe take one of Dr. Starr's 
 Liver PjIIs every day and they will cure it. 
 
 It is not natural nor was it intended by the Cre- 
 ator of nature for plants to die in the middle of the 
 summer ; if they do, something is surely wrong. 
 Neither was it intended by the Great all wise God 
 for any human being to die in mid-life or under 
 his or her normal age. If a child is once healthy 
 and sound in every respect and is then treated 
 strictly according to the intention of the Creator, 
 it will live to its' normal age, three-score and ten 
 years or more. If a child is once in perfect health 
 and its parents know just what to give it to eat at 
 all times and how much, and at what hours, and 
 how much to exercise it and at what hours, just as 
 Nature s Law demands all through life ; then such 
 person or persons would live their days out as in- 
 tended from the beginning. 
 
 Every human being should go to bed at dark: 
 
56 
 
 and do all their work by the light of the sun. Do 
 not work by artificial lights at all. 
 
 Children should go to bed at dark to become 
 healthy and strong: men and women. 
 
 How the author of this book has lived all through 
 his life. 
 
 He never drank any intoxicating liquors of any 
 kind. He never chewed or smoked tobacco. He 
 never ate as much as he could at any meal. He 
 never drank more than a half tumbler of ice water 
 or more than a tumbler of pump water at a time. 
 He never would eat anything that was not good for 
 his stomach or cause any disorder in his digestive 
 organs. This was the great study of Ins life as to 
 what to eat, how much and at what time, to be healthy 
 and strong. He never ran as fast as he could. 
 Jvever lifted as much as he could. Never went 
 under the water with his head. He goes to bed at 
 eight and gets up at five o'clock. He eats at seven, 
 iwelve and five o'clock. These have been his habits 
 since he was fourteen years of age and he is now 
 nearly seventy-eight, and is in perfect health and 
 can endure as much as most young men. He has 
 not lost a meal on account of sickness for fifty-seven 
 years. He takes regular exercise every day, rain 
 «or shine. 
 
.)< 
 
 The greatest man in the world is the one that 
 raises the most grain to feed mankind. 
 
 The greatest woman in the world is the one that 
 raises the most children. 
 
 The greatest friend to the working man is the 
 man who employs the most of them. 
 
 The wisest man in the world is the man that 
 takes best care of his health every day. 
 
 The wisest man in business is the man that saves 
 what he makes and earns. 
 
 The greatest fool in the world is the man that 
 works the hardest all the week and spends all his 
 money on Saturday and Sunday and goes to work 
 penniless and sick on Monday. 
 
 Every body ought to go to bed when the sun 
 goes down, and rise with the sun in the morning ; 
 this is Nature's Law since the beginning of the 
 world. 
 
 The man that lives nearest to the Laws of Nat- 
 ure will naturally live the longest. 
 
 The man that violates the laws of nature sins 
 .against his own flesh, 
 
 A boy who smokes and chews tobacco before he 
 is sixteen years of age will never grow to his nor- 
 mal size in body or strength, nor will he live his 
 normal days out. 
 
 Every thing you eat, drink, smoke, or chew is 
 either a benefit or an injury to you. Examine 
 
53 
 
 this yourself and you will find this only too true. 
 
 The following is the death and birth rate accord- 
 ing to the Health Officer's .report for. the last five 
 vears in the District of Columbia.. 
 
 Deaths, year 
 
 en 
 
 ding June 3-0 
 
 , 18.8-6,. 
 
 4,671 
 
 a u 
 
 
 i c u a 
 
 1887,. - 
 
 4,665 
 
 a a 
 
 
 ' u u u 
 
 1888, 
 
 5,040' 
 
 u u 
 
 
 u ex. a 
 
 1889, 
 
 5,152 
 
 u a 
 
 
 u u U 
 
 1890, 
 
 5,564 
 
 
 25,09.5- 
 
 Births, year 
 
 ai 
 
 iing June 30, 
 
 1886, 
 
 3,522 
 
 u a 
 
 
 « a a 
 
 1887, 
 
 3,728 
 
 u a 
 
 
 a a a 
 
 1888<, 
 
 3,670- 
 
 U u 
 
 
 ll a. a 
 
 1889, 
 
 4,001 
 
 i. iC 
 
 
 u u a 
 
 1890, 
 
 4,070- 
 
 
 18,991 
 
 Still birth, year 
 
 ending June 
 
 30, 1886, 
 
 - 421 
 
 a a 
 
 a 
 
 a a 
 
 " 1887, 
 
 406 
 
 a a 
 
 u 
 
 a u 
 
 '< 1888, 
 
 - 458 
 
 a a 
 
 u 
 
 a a 
 
 " 1889, 
 
 - 443 
 
 cc u 
 
 u 
 
 a a 
 
 " 1890, 
 
 - 474 
 
 2,202 
 
m 
 
 Births, ------ 18,991 
 
 Still births, ----- 2,202 
 
 Total, 21,193 
 
 Deaths for five years ending June 30, ? 90 25,094 
 Births for five years ending June 30, ? 90 21,193 
 
 Deaths over births. 3,902 
 
 The figures show three thousand nine hundred 
 and two more deaths than births. 
 
 Reports of the Health Officer for the two weeks 
 ending June 23, 1891, were 140 deaths and follow- 
 ing week ending June 30, 1891, were 170 deaths; 
 showing an increase of 30 deaths in one week. 
 
 The above is the two last weeks before the pub- 
 lication of this book. 
 
 It shows a gradual increase of deaths. Now 
 where are our doctors if it depends altogether on 
 the weather as to how many people die. 
 
 This is a point blank proof that the present prac- 
 tice of medicine is a failure and that the number of 
 deaths depend entirely on the changes of the weath- 
 er and the care the people take of themselves. I 
 have a positive cure for Cholora Infantum in hot 
 or cold weather- 
 
60 ZZZ 
 
 From April 7, 1888 to August 19, 1888, 800 
 babies died under 3 years of age, said to be caused 
 by milk. About August 19, average deaths were 
 10 per day. 
 
 Remedies. 
 
 This is the way a doctor writes about drugs: — 
 As for treatment I have just been looking over 
 Lander Brunton, Aitken Hooper and some others 
 of the same class. Certainly I had to study them 
 in the days gone by, but just now, for the sake of 
 my fellow men I have been giving them special at- 
 tention. Dear me ! How can miserable disease 
 live in front of so terrible an array of terrible re- 
 medies! What canst thou not have, poor man? 
 Dry cupping, hot poultices, muriate, tincture of 
 iron (muriatic acid and iron filings dissolved), car- 
 bonate, chlorate of ammonia, aconite, tartar emetic r 
 foxglove, ipecacuanha, paregoric, opium and its- 
 preparations, chloral hydrate, belladonna, colchi- 
 cum, copabia, croton oil, quinine, turpentine, lead,, 
 jalap, lobelia, mercury, eucalyptus, nitric acid r 
 alum, pilocarpine, calabar bean, zinc, potash, thorn 
 apple, strychnia, arsenic, hemlock, petroleum, in- 
 dian hemp, and other drugs equally glorious — all 
 
61 
 
 are ready to woo the serpent of thy life to rest, or 
 to kill thee in the attempt. 
 
 Truly, I would as soon face a regiment of the old 
 guard of France, as the formidable drugs mention- 
 ed. Never mind, its an ill wind that blows nobody 
 good, especially registers of births and deaths. 
 
 From HalVs Journal of Health. 
 
 I have a positive cure for gonorrhoea in any 
 stage. 
 
 
 Deatli Rate, 
 
 There are 30,000 regular Botanical Doctors in 
 the United States. If Congress were to pass a law 
 excluding them from practice and destroying their 
 influence, the mortality would increase at least 40 
 per cent, and reduce the average length of the life 
 of man below the average of twelve years. In other 
 words, people could not say that their lives were 
 their own. 
 
•62 
 
 Xiivex* Fills. 
 
 For Bilious Complaint, Colds, Headaches, Pains 
 t in the Body or Limbs, &c, and are a positive cure 
 for Nervousness or Indigestion. 
 
 They never fail in any case of fever. ' This pill 
 has been more successful in curing deseases than 
 any other pill ever made. The more they are 
 used the more they pleas£. They -have "no equal on 
 earth. There is no' harm in them, and they can be 
 used by either man, women or -child in every kind 
 1 of complaints. 
 
 They are a positive cure for St. Vitus Dance and 
 other cases of bad health. Their use will build up 
 -any person if properly and regularly taken. 
 
 I have cured many cases of fevers with them 
 without giving anything else. 
 
 I have also a pill that will cure any ease of La 
 Grippe in this country every time, they have not 
 failed in a single case in a thousand cases. 
 
 Sent to any part of the United States, postage 
 £paid, on receipt of price. 
 Price 25 cents per box. 
 
 DR. V. M. STARR, 
 .709 G Street, N- W-, Washington, D. C. 
 
DH, STARR'S KIDNEY TEA. 
 
 A Positive Cure, this tea has been used by men, 
 women and children with perfect success in many 
 thousand cases of all kinds of Kidney Diseases, it 
 Dissolves Gravel, cures Diabetus r Backache, drives- 
 gases from the stomach, is healthy and has a good 
 taste, is often used as table tea, can use it hot or 
 cold, sugar and milk as your choice, and as much 
 and as often as you want. Price 25 cents per box.. 
 
 This Kidney tea is the first and only positive- 
 cure ever discovered for any case of Kidney Disease. 
 It will cure any case and has never failed yet. It 
 tastes better than store tea and is as cheap, and is 
 perfectly healthy to use as regular table tea at your* 
 meals. It can be cultivated as plentiful in this 
 country as China tea is in China, and is a thousand 
 times as Jiealthy. It can be made to out sell China 
 tea if some moneyed men would take it in hand 
 and run it vigorously. The flavor of it can be 
 changed, by the combination of the plants, to suit 
 the taste of any tea drinker. It is the most per- 
 fect discovery ever made in the vegetable kingdom., 
 and it will save millions of lives^ in this country. 
 
34 
 
 . Dr. Starr's Cough Syrup. 
 
 The great medical desideratum of the world at 
 last discovered, all in herbs. 
 
 This wonderful discovery consists of a syrup 
 compounded of twelve herbs, and pills compounded 
 of four herbs, constituting a perfect and infallible 
 oure for coughs, colds, croup, hoarseness, catarrh, 
 or any case of throat and lung diseases. 
 
 If -used for first cold or cough is a preventative 
 of consumption and a pleasant relief for whooping 
 cough. Not a single person who has used this 
 medicine for coughs or colds has ever been known 
 to go into decline. 
 
 It has a good taste; is healthy, nutritious and 
 harmless, and can be given to children of any age. 
 
 I have thousands of letters of the most miracu- 
 lous cures that I have made of old and long stand- 
 ing cases, cases that had been considered hope- 
 lessly lost; everything had failed. I never exhibi- 
 ted a letter of recommendation where I was the 
 first doctor called, in any case of any kind, or of 
 any disease. All my letters are of cases that 
 Tiad received no relief or good from any other 
 source. 
 
 I am prepared and do ship these medicines to all 
 1 parts of the Union or Europe in any quantity. 
 
6a 
 
 CHILLS AND FEVER TEA. 
 
 ALL HERBS. 
 
 ►For Chills and Fever this tea is a perfect cure, 
 :and will cure any kind of fever used with my Liver 
 .Pills, and is also an excellent tonic. 
 
 AVe are prepared and do ship these Medicines to 
 all parts of the Union or Europe, in any quantity. 
 
 FRIDAY HAPPENINGS. 
 
 Washington born on Friday. 
 
 Queen Victoria married on Friday. 
 
 Xepoleon'Bonaparte born on Friday. 
 .Battle of Bunker Hill fought on Friday. 
 .America discovered on Friday. 
 
 Mayflower landed on Friday. 
 • Joan of Arc burned at the stake on Friday. 
 
 Battle of Waterloo fought on Friday. 
 .Bastile destroyed on Friday. 
 
 Declaration of Independence signed on Friday. 
 
 Battle of Marengo fought on Friday. 
 
 Julius Caesar assassinated on Friday. 
 
 Moscow burned on Friday. 
 
 Shakespeare born on Friday. 
 
 King Charles 1 beheaded cm Friday. 
 .Battle of New Orleans fought on Friday. 
 .Lincoln assassinated on Friday. 
 
66 
 
 mmsm a ws ¥«&#w flirt m 
 Pills and Tea. 
 
 A most wonderful discovery in Botany and one 
 of very great importance to the American people, 
 especially in the southern states. 
 
 I have a pill and tea which will prevent any case 
 of yellow fever if used according to the directions, 
 and they will cure nine out of ten cases in their 
 first stage. I believe they will be made a perfect 
 preventative and cure in all the yellow fever sec- 
 tions of this country, whenever a party with money 
 will put them in the market for that purpose. 
 
 I sent a man from this city to Florida with them 
 three years ago where he cured every case he could 
 get. 
 
 He even cured two cases after they were given 
 up by their doctors. One was a servant of the 
 health office in Tampa and one was a captain of a 
 ship. In new cases we had no trouble. 
 
 I can send these remedies by mail, postpaid, to 
 any part of the country. 
 
 Pills, price fifty cents per box. 
 
 Tea, price fifty cents per box. 
 
07 
 
 Cholera Infantum Powders. 
 
 Will cure any case of Cholera Morbus, Cholera 
 Infantum in man, woman or child. It is healthy, 
 nutritious and strengthening, is purely botanical 
 and can be used as food for children of any age 
 with milk or water. 
 
 They are a positive and infallible cure every 
 time. We have used them in many thousand cases 
 and have not lost one case yet and do not expect to. 
 
 This is the most wonderful discovery yet made 
 by mortal man. Over one hundred thousand chil- 
 dren die annually from cholera infantum in the U. 
 S., and not a single doctor has ever come to their 
 relief with a sure cure, but they come to see them 
 and give them one kind of medicine and the next 
 time give some other kind and soon until the child 
 is dead, without receiving any benefit whatever 
 from the medical aid, but have been cheated out of 
 their lives. One hundred thousand per annum! 
 What a shame ! What a rebuke to the medical 
 profession ! Can't cure cholera infantum, can't 
 cure la grippe, cant cure kidney diseases. Can't 
 cure anything ; if they will come to me I will 
 teach them positive cures for a consideration. 
 Dr. W. M. STARR, Prest, 
 
 Botanical School of Medicines. 
 
68 
 
 us. sir &&&'§ 
 
 ffiffi#A?$€ BALSA] 
 
 The finest and only perfect Balsam in use, and is 
 a sure cure for all cases of rheumatism, headache,, 
 neuralgia, toothache, pains, bruises, sprains, etc. 
 
 The ancient Balm of Gilead again discovered and 
 in use. A pure and useful preparation in vegetable 
 chemistry, which by its cleansing powers drives alii 
 pains and impurities from the skin, and imparts a 
 clearness and freshness to the painful places. 
 
 Truly wonderful ! It drives out all pain ! Cures- 
 bruises and sprains! It will cure frost-bites, bun- 
 ions, all pains in the body or limbs, swellings, etc. 
 This Balm of Gilead Balsam for the purposes 
 for which it is intended, is the purest and most ef- 
 fective liniment in the world, if properly and suffi- 
 ciently used in all cases. 
 
 All of my preparations are composed of herbs, 
 fresh from the fields and woods. They are gather- 
 ed by myself and prepared on scientific principles, 
 and make the best and safest family medicine in use- 
 All dry paks sent free by mail to any part of the- 
 United States. DR. W. M. SMARR, 
 
 709 G Street, N. W*. 
 
69 
 
 BALM OF GILEAD WASH, 
 
 For the Toilet, Bathing, Shampooing, Cleaning 
 Jewelry, or any other goods or washing any fine 
 garments and for Ladies' use generally. 
 
 For washing silver, gold, or tin-ware more or 
 less may be used. 
 
 For shampooing or toilet use, cleaning marble, 
 •door knobs, and in like cases it is cleansing, sweet, 
 and healthy, and for washing children of all ages it 
 is the best preparation in use, it is good for swollen 
 feet and ankles caused by too much standing or 
 -walking. It is an excellent preparation for ladies' 
 use generally. 
 
 BALM OF G-ILEAD SALVE. 
 
 Cures Piles and other Sores. 
 
 Dr. Starr's La Grippe Pills. 
 
 They have never been known to fail to cure in 
 any case and it is a positive fact that they will cure 
 all cases every time, without changing to any other 
 disease whatsoever. 
 
'70 
 
 Every farmer in the world is abotonist, a botan- 
 ical doctor. They support and feed the whole peo- 
 ple and the people can't live a single w T eek without 
 the farmer's products, neither can business of any 
 kind go on without these products. In fact the 
 farmer is the supporter of the whole world. 
 
 If the farmers were to fail and stop all would 
 stop. There would be no use for doctors then to 
 give poison medicines to vegetable bodies and de- 
 stroy them that way. Is not farmonian and boto- 
 nian principles the fundimental principles of all 
 medicines ? 
 
 I say there is nothing on earth to make perfect 
 medicine from outside the vegetable kingdom ; nor 
 is there anything to sustain life outside the farmers 
 products ; both of which go together, first, last and 
 all the time. 
 
 I challenge any man or sect on earth to dispute 
 one w T ord of this and prove it not to be true. 
 
 Poison is good for rats, mice, flies, wolves and 
 sheep killing dogs or something like these, but not 
 for children, men or women. 
 
 Never drink more than a wine glass of ice water 
 at a time and not more frequent than once in half 
 an hour, nor more than a glass of any water at a 
 time. 
 
71 
 
 Never eat as much at a time as you could, always 
 eat a little less. 
 
 Never over work yourself. 
 
 Never stand, sit or lie in a draft when you are 
 overheated. 
 
 Boys and girls should eat but very little or no 
 pickle and very little lemon at all. What you eat 
 often makes you sick, eat healthy food only, protect 
 your stomach and you will protect your health and 
 prolong your life. 
 
 I say the people have a right to go to a dry goods 
 house and buy what they want or go to grocery 
 store and buy what they want or go to a drug store 
 and buy what they want. Use their own judgment 
 as to what they want or what they need. Know ye 
 thyself, be ye wise. 
 
 The alopathic idea that the way to cure one dis- 
 ease is to create another of a different sort, and that 
 therefore the most powerful poisons are the most 
 potent medicines, may justly claim that its system 
 is sound in theory and successful in practice. This 
 is a gigantic mistake and wrong. 
 
72 
 
 COKN POEM. 
 
 People violate nature's laws, 
 Which truely is disease's cause ; 
 Tight boots they wear without a fear, 
 But corns you know will then appear. 
 
 Nature has the strictest way, 
 Who violates will get their pay, 
 In bunions and those cursed corns, 
 Which pain the feet as bad as thorns. 
 
 But Dr. Starr's Balsam Extractor, 
 Is warranted to be au actor, 
 And when applied upon your corn, 
 Kemoves a scale as hard as horn. 
 
 Never causing any sore, 
 Nov the blood to run or pour. 
 A bottle costs you fifty cents, 
 Saving pain and great expense. 
 
 Soak your corns well every evening and scrape 
 off all hard parts of them and they will soon be 
 cured. 
 
 HOESBS. 
 
 In writing this work I feel it my duty to say 
 something about the horse, an animal, beyond all 
 question or doubt, a helpmate of men in his many 
 avocations of life. The horse is shamefully abused, 
 and without cause in many instances, and he wh o 
 
73 
 
 mistreats a horse or any dumb animal without cause 
 or provocation, is in human, and should be chatised 
 to teach him the fact that a horse cannot reason, 
 and a man can, and that cruelty is the offspring of 
 a mean person. When a man is riding a horse he 
 should always remember that a horse has to walk 
 and carry him too. A man that will mistreat his 
 horse will also mistreat his wife and children. The 
 wild Indians have an instinctive kindness for their 
 •horses and their dogs. Men should remember that 
 a horse has an appetite, and a body made of flesh 
 and bone, nerves and blood, and can feel as well as 
 man, and needs shelter and care. 
 
 There is a horse hygiene as well as a human one; 
 there is a horse physiology as well as a human phy- 
 siology, and all good men know this is a fact. I 
 have seen men plough horses all day when they 
 ^vould stagger under the harness for the want of 
 feed, and at the same time their crib was full of corn. 
 I once knew a man who was a thief and a miser, 
 who would work his horses from sun-up till sun 
 •down, and feed them a little morning and night, 
 and at the same time had plenty of corn in his crib. 
 When he was filling his stomach with what his 
 brutish nature demanded, I would steal from his 
 •crib a bountiful feed of corn and give it to the poor 
 tired, hunger horses. They would nicker so thank- 
 ful when they saw it coming, and would eat cob kS 
 
74 
 
 and all. In a short time the man made the remark: 
 that his horses were looking better, and he was not 
 obliged to whip and holloa at them so much. This- 
 man belonged to the Methodist church and profes- 
 sed religion; but ye shall know a tree by its fruit. 
 A man owes a duty to every animal under his con- 
 trol, and the horse in special. I will now give you 
 a few Indian ideas of how to take care of horses. 
 They pride themselves in taking good care of all 
 their pets, and I Avould to God it was the case with 
 the white man. The Indian, when he feeds his 
 horse always feeds him on the ground, that is, he 
 places his feed so that he is obliged to hold, his 
 head down in order to get it. The wild horse has 
 to get all his food with his head down. It is nat- 
 ural. 
 
 HOW TO KEEP HORSES HEALTHY AT LITTLE EX- 
 PENSE. 
 
 If you would have healthy horses, with pure 
 blood and slick hair, give them twice a week a 
 pinch of equal parts of pulvarizcd sulphur, wood 
 ashes and salt, equal to the size of a common mar- 
 ble, mixed with their feed. This is cheap nnd 
 simple and will keep your horses healthy. The 
 Indians keep their horses in good condition with 
 ashes and eggs. 
 
To My Many Readers. 
 
 I will say to you, use your own judgment, unin- 
 fluenced by any prejudice that may have previously 
 existed in your minds. Give my advice a trial if 
 you need it, and judge me and what I say by the 
 effects. I give you my word and honor most sol- 
 emnly, that all I have told you is safe for the most 
 delicate person to try without the slightest danger 
 of producing any effect detrimental, either tempor- 
 ary or permanent. A wise person will glean know- 
 ledge from whatever source it may arise. The 
 compass of the Indian is the moss on the north side 
 of the tree, which is knowledge from a natural 
 source gleaned by the wild untutored savage. I 
 will further say, good education is the only reliable 
 means to lasting reforms, and will teach people 
 to think for themselves, and that simple medical 
 facts have been hidden in the past by technical 
 words, but to-day are told in common English. 
 
 DR. STARR. 
 
 Botanicism— The Free Thinkers of Medicine. .. 
 
 The right to choose the best from all of the many 
 ideal theories of medicine ; liberty uncircumscribed 
 by the teachings of fanatics; freedom to judge for 
 
ire 
 
 yourself that which is *best of -all that you can learn 
 of the many ideas of medical men of the world. 
 Love for all, hatred toward none; freedom of thought 
 and the right to counsel with all, ungoverned by a 
 mean disgraceful code of ethics. Liberty to exercise 
 -good common sense, and use that which is best cal- 
 culated to do good in the case in which it is indica- 
 ted. This is the true definition of the Botanical Pro- 
 fession. They are the most prosperous class of 
 'doctors on the face of the world, because they be- 
 lieve in personal liberty as well as general liberty, 
 :and that which is right, and hate smart fanatics. 
 
 When persons living at a distance desire treat- 
 ment, they can, by writing answers to the following 
 -questions, send such a statement of their condition 
 ^ts will enable me to comprehend the character of 
 their disease, and prescribe the proper remedies foi- 
 sts cure. 
 
 All letters should be addressed to Dr. Wm. M. 
 Starr, Botanical Medicines, 709 G Street, N. W., 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS. 
 
 Your name. 
 
77: 
 
 Age and occupation. 
 
 Post Office address. 
 
 Are you strong or weak ? 
 
 Give a short account of your disease? 
 
 rasnromiAB. 
 
 Washington, D. C, July 30, 1890. 
 Dr. W. M. Starr . 
 
 This certifies that twice I was operated upon at 
 Garfield Hospital at different times and each time 
 was a perfect failure. J. Ford Thompson was my 
 Surgeon. I grew worse and saw certain death was 
 for me, so I left in a perfect wrecked condition : 
 utterly unable to lift five pounds, or stand one 
 minute, so great was my agony. I had other phy- 
 sicians, all without one jot of help. I continued to 
 grow worse, until at my brothers house I drank 
 some of Dr. Starr's Kidney Tea and at once I saw 
 its Diuretic action and I had some hope. On meet- 
 ing Dr. Starr I demanded of him if I could be 
 cured (for I had lost the coating of my stomach and 
 I was in the very last stage of Bright's Disease of 
 the Kidneys, and I also had a very large stone in 
 my bladder). Dr.. Starr said that the cause was 
 
78 
 
 still in my system which caused me to go to the 
 hospital. I said, Doctor, can you cure me, for I 
 was given up to die by all physicians. He said 
 certainly I can cure you. I at once went under 
 his treatment and to-day nearly one pound and a 
 half of stone has come out of my bladder. My 
 Bright's Disease is perfectly cured and the coating 
 of my stomach is sound and new. I thank God 
 when all physicians and friends gave me up to die, 
 Dr. W. M. Starr positively declared in my dying 
 presence that I should live, and I am alive and will 
 gladly answer any inquiry as to the enormous stone 
 taken from my bladder, which I have in my pos- 
 session. 
 
 I remain a devoted advocate to Dr. W.. M. Starr 
 and all his positive remedies. 
 
 Dr. Nelson Calvin Page, 
 406 7th Street, S.-W., 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 Washington, D. C, February 5, 1878. 
 Dr. W. M. Starr, 
 
 Dear Sir: Injustice to you and for the benefit 
 of suffering humanity, I make this statement. I 
 have been a sufferer for years ^vith what the physi- 
 cians term Bright's Disease of the Kidneys. 
 
 Though I had the most eminent physicians, still 
 I found no relief, until I found your Balm of Gilead 
 
70 
 
 which did all it was recommended to do. I was so- 
 bad at that time that the doctor said I would have 
 to go through an operation which I dreaded very 
 much. It was at this time I was persuaded to try 
 your medicine, of which I found relief almost im- 
 mediately. I have recommended it to others with 
 the same result. Very respectfully, 
 
 George W. Hill, 
 90 Myrtle St., n. e. 
 
 Washington, D. C, March, 1885. 
 Dr. W. M. Starr, 
 
 Dear Sir : Having suffered at intervals for ten 
 years with kidney troubles and found scarcely any 
 relief, concluded to try your Kidney Tea, ?t the 
 time I had had no rest for three successive weeks,, 
 and was also suffering from a cold which affected my 
 back and kidneys, causing intense misery, so much 
 so that no physician gave me any relief until taking 
 about a pint of your tea. In fifteen minutes or 
 less relief came, such a change that it was like unto 
 a perfect health restored, that was indeed relief as- 
 sured and since, or to this time, September, I am 
 still enjoying the benefits of such wonderful treat- 
 ment of such delicate members of the body. You 
 will please ever accept the thanks of, 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 David E. Dutrow, 
 
 Butter Dealer, 
 La. Ave. n. w. 
 
80 
 
 Washington, D. C, Nonember 26, 1884. 
 Dear Sir : I take this method of returning my 
 thanks for the great benefit I have derived from the 
 vise of your medicine. For a long time I was afflic- 
 ted with Kidney disease, having tried several re- 
 medies without any relief, I was induced to give 
 your Kidney medicine a trial. I did so, and it 
 acted upon me like magic, for it give instant relief, 
 and one box made a permanent cure, and I cheer- 
 fully recommend it to any sufferer from the dread- 
 ful malady. Very respectfully, 
 
 R. C. Gover, 
 
 317 4J St., n. w. 
 
 The following persons of Washington, D. C. 
 have voluntarily given testimonials of the superior 
 merit and value of Dr. Starr's Cough Syrup in the 
 cure of Coughs, Colds, Catarrh and Croup, and w r e 
 present them as reference. 
 
 Mrs. Wheeler, 1626 L Street. 
 
 M. Daniels Cor. Penn. Ave. and 6th St. 
 
 R. H. Moore 1427 9th St. 
 
 . Annie Watkins '. 206 7th St. 
 
 M. A. Lock 420 Capitol St. 
 
 : Mrs. A. Cronan ,, 326 13th St. 
 
 Mrs. W. M. Boyd..... 209 36th St. 
 
 vC. Comially 9 5th St. 
 
81 
 
 John Engall 27 and L St. 
 
 Mary Sandfrey 614 1st St. 
 
 Rich. Hunt 1735 N. I.Ave. 
 
 S. M. Ney 610 G St. 
 
 NathDyer 27 E St. 
 
 L. Groover 517 N. I. Ave. 
 
 C. Strauss Centre Market. 
 
 G. C. Smith 316 A St, 
 
 Mis. E. Steffin 520 12 St. 
 
 Mrs. Snyder 611 N. Y. Ave. 
 
 H. B. Vanns 325 A St. 
 
 W. P. Stragham 19th and M St. 
 
 Joe Henley 1810 M St. 
 
 Emma Copersmith 467 N St. 
 
 M. A. Carman 219 Centre Market. 
 
 D. S. Brown 113 Pudge Court, 
 
 Sarah Jones 
 
 Susan Swutze 3239 K St. 
 
 J. Belim 
 
 J. C. Jackson 120 B St. 
 
 C. W. Chapman 309 14th St. 
 
 M. E. Hayes,.'. 1610 16th St. 
 
 G. H. Tacker 623 Va. Ave. 
 
 Jane Ames 1101 6th St. 
 
 C. C. Mayer ...486 La. Ave. 
 
 Jane Williams ...415 7th St. 
 
 Annie Hanley 1119 19th St. 
 
 S. N. Dillan 502 11th St. 
 
82 
 
 John E. Rolin ; Rolin, Va. 
 
 Brook King Rolin, Va. 
 
 Emma Avery Alexandria, Va. 
 
 Each one of these testimonials are from persons 
 who were afflicted with chronic cases most of them 
 having been given up as incurable or past all hope 
 of recovery. I never exhibited any letters from a 
 person whom I attended first, all are from old cases. 
 
 A house which cannot stand alone without being 
 propped up is a dangerous house to live in, and in 
 fact is not fit to live in at all. Neither is a doctor 
 or any other class of men who need laws to force, 
 the people to employ them fit to be trusted in any 
 way. 
 
 A doctor who claims that he has a license to give 
 poison medicine to " kill or cure " at his will, is in 
 effect to claim that he has a license to murder. 
 
 If the Czar was to issue such a license his 
 head would not be on his shoulders one week. If 
 the Emperor of China were to make such a law the 
 walls around Pekin would not save him a day. 
 Let a doctor stand alone on his own merits and his 
 success in making cures. No monopoly. 
 
S3 
 
 Copies of two of the Bills now pending before Con- 
 gress. The first Bill offered in the interest of 
 the Allopaths and second Bill in defense of the 
 Botanists. My readers can judge which of them 
 
 is right and honest. 
 
 51st CONGRESS, Q1 oon^ 
 
 1st Session. io. &0\y\J. 
 
 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 January 20, 1890. 
 
 Mr. Ingalls (by request) introduced the following 
 bill; which was read twice and referred 
 to the Committee on the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia. 
 
 A BILL 
 
 To regulate the practice of medicine in the District 
 
 of Columbia. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
 sentatives of the United State* of America in Congress 
 assembled, That there shall be for the District of 
 Columbia a board of medical examiners, consisting 
 of fifteen physicians or surgeons (five of whom shall 
 be of the homeopathic school) and three dental sur- 
 geons, whose terms of office shall be four years, or 
 until their successors are appointed. 
 
84 
 
 Sec. 2. That the board shall be appointed by the 
 District Commissioners immediately, upon the pass- 
 age of this act, and every four years thereafter. 
 Vacancies occurring in the said board shall be filled 
 in the same manner. If any of the said examiners 
 shall cease to reside in the District, it shall vacate 
 his office. No member of the said board shall be 
 a member of the faculty of any medical school. 
 
 Sec. 3. That the officers of the board shall be a 
 president, a vice-president, and a secretary (who 
 shall also act as treasurer) ; said officers to be mem- 
 bers of and elected by the said board. The first 
 meeting shall be held within thirty days after the 
 District Commissioners shall have notified the 
 members of their appointments. Subsequent meet- 
 ings shall be held at such times as the board may 
 prescribe, upon the call of the president issued by 
 the secretary. Said board may organize at its first 
 meeting, and at its first, or any subsequent meeting, 
 prescribe rules, regulations, and by-laws for its own 
 proceedings and government, and for the examina- 
 tion of all candidates for the practice of medicine 
 or dentistry appearing before it. 
 
 Sec. 4. That it shall be the duty of the said 
 board at any of its meetings to examine all persons 
 of either sex, appearing before it who desire to prac- 
 tice medicine or dentistry in the District of Co- 
 lumbia ; and when a candidate shall have passed a 
 satisfactory examination before the board in session 
 the president thereof shall grant to such candidate 
 certificate to that effect. A fee of ten dollars shall 
 be paid to said board by each candidate before such 
 examination is had. Examinations may be in whole 
 
or in part in writing and shall be elementary and 
 practical in character, but sufficiently strict to test 
 the qualifications of the candidate. No candidate 
 shall be kept waiting for an examination for a lon- 
 ger period than thirty days. In case any candidate 
 shall fail to pass a satisfactory examination before 
 the board such failure shall not bar the said candi- 
 date against a re-examination after the lapse of 
 three months, nor shall he again have to pay the- 
 fee prescribed as aforesaid: Provided, That the 
 members of the board representing each school of 
 medicine shall have the right to examine all the ap- 
 plicants who are of that school, and that the mem- 
 bers of the board representing the dental branch of 
 the medical profession shall have the right to ex- 
 amine all applicants for the practice of dental sur- 
 gery, and the board shall issue the certificate of 
 qualification to candidates who are recommended 
 after such examination by the members of the board 
 who belong to said school of medicine or said branch 
 of the medical profession. No examination shall 
 be held by less than three members of the board, 
 one of whom shall be the secretary of the same. 
 
 Sec. 5. That any person who shall obtain a cer- 
 tificate as aforesaid from the president of the board 
 shall cause the same to be registered in the office of 
 the health officer of the District ; and it shall be the 
 duty of said health officer to indorse thereon the 
 fact and date of registration, and to register the 
 name of every such person, together with descrip- 
 tion of such certificate and the date thereof, signing 
 the same in a book kept for the purpose ; this reg- 
 ister shall be open for inspection during office hours 
 
8G 
 
 end Fhall form part of the records of his office. 
 
 Sec. 6. That the board of medical examiners 
 shall keep a record of its proceedings, which shall! 
 be open for inspection, and shall record the name 
 of each applicant, the date of and names of mem- 
 bers of the board present at each examination, to- 
 gether with a list of all questions put to the candi- 
 dates and the percentage attained by each. 
 
 Sec. 7. That all physicians, surgeons, and den- 
 tists who are in practice in the District of Colum- 
 bia on the date of the passage of this act and mem- 
 bers of the Marine-Hospital Service, the Medical 
 Corps of the Army and of Navy, who may be now or 
 hereafter detailed on duty in this Distriet to heal 
 the sick, shall be granted certificates of qualification 
 by the board without any examination whatever* 
 Salaried employees of the United States Govern- 
 ment, other than those hereinbefore provided for,, 
 shall not be eligible for examination or certification* 
 and shall not be registered as practitioners of medi- 
 dine or dentistry in the District of Columbia. 
 Practitioners of medicine in the adjoining States 
 whose professional duties require them to officiate 
 in the District shall not be required to register if 
 they are legal practitioners of the States in which 
 they reside. 
 
 Sec. 8. That no persons shall practice medicine 
 or dentistry in the District of Columbia after the 
 passage of this act without first having obtained 
 from the said board of medical examiners a certifi- 
 cate of qualification and caused the same to be re- 
 gistered asaforasaid : Provided, That all physicians, 
 surgeons, and dentists who are in practice in the 
 
87 
 
 District of Columbia on the date of the passage of 
 this act, who shall procure certificates of qualifica- 
 tion and present the same at the health office for 
 registration within sixty days after the date of the 
 first meeting of the said board of medical examiners, 
 shall be taken as having complied with the provis- 
 ions of this section. 
 
 Sec. 9. That any person shall be regarded as 
 practicing medicine or dentistry within the mean- 
 ing of this act who shall advertise by sign in front 
 of office or dwelling, or shall treat or operate for 
 tiny physical ailment of another. But nothing in 
 this act shall be construed to prohibit service in 
 -cases of emergency or the domestic administration 
 of family remedies. 
 
 Sec. 10. That no person not a registered prac- 
 titioner of medicine shall offer for sale any drug, 
 nostrum, ointment, or any application of am kind, 
 or by writing, printing, or other methods profess 
 to cure or treat any disease or deformity by any 
 drug, nostrum, manipulation, or other expedient 
 in this District without first obtaining from the 
 secretary of said board a certificate setting forth 
 that the said article or articles may be offered for 
 sale, or the said method of treatment may be allow- 
 ed without manifest injury to the public welfare ; 
 and it shall be the duty of the said board to regu- 
 late the issue of said certificates. 
 
 Sec. 11. That any person violating any of the 
 provisions of this act shall be punished by a fne of 
 not less than twenty dollars nor more tliMi * ne 
 hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for a period 
 of not less than thirty (lavs nor more than three 
 
ss 
 
 hundred and sixty-five days, or by both such fine 
 and imprisonment for each and every offense. 
 
 Sec. 12. That nothing in this act shall be taken 
 as including or affecting in any way the business of 
 the registered pharmacist, nor shall it include phy- 
 sicians or surgeons residing elsewhere and called in 
 consultation with a physician residing in the Dis- 
 trict, nor shall it apply to women who pursue the 
 avocation of midwife. 
 
 Sec. 13. That the board shall make an i nnual 
 report to the District Commissioners. 
 
 Sec. 14. That the fees received from the candi- 
 dates for examination shall be applied by the board 
 towards its expenses, including a reasonable com- 
 pensation to its members. 
 
 Sec. 15. That all acts or parts of acts inconsis- 
 tent or in conflict with this act are hereby repealed. 
 
 Sec. 16. That this act shall be in force from its 
 
 51st CONGRESS XT "R 11 ^A^ 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 
 
 July 28, 1890. 
 Read twice, referred to the Committee on the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia, and ordered to be printed. 
 
 Mr. Culbeesox, of Texas, (by request) introduced 
 
 the following bill : 
 
89 
 
 A BILL 
 
 To regulate the practice of medicine in the District 
 
 of Columbia. 
 
 Re it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
 sentatives of the United States of America in Con- 
 gress assembled, That the Botanical School of Medi- 
 cine shall have all the rights, privileges, and pro- 
 tection now provided by the law for allopathic and 
 homeopathic schools of medicine within the District 
 of Columbia, and the teachers and professors of said 
 Botanical School of Medicine shall have the same 
 privileges and rights respecting the teaching and 
 practice of their profession as may be accorded by 
 existing laws to either of said other schools of 
 medicine. 
 
 Why shall this Bill. not Pass? 
 
 Is it not fair ? Is it not just ? Is it not right ? 
 Is it not in accordance with our system of govern- 
 ment ? Does it not give equal rights to all ? Does it 
 not correspond with the right granted to all other 
 business men in this country to make all improve- 
 ments they can and use them under all laws ; then 
 why shall the Botanical Schools of Medicines not 
 have the right to make improvements in medicines 
 as any other school, and to practice and to teach 
 
90 
 
 the new and wonderful discovery in Medical Botany 
 such as has never been discovered before ? 
 
 SCIENCE IK BOT-AHY. 
 
 The Botanical By-Law. 
 
 Sec. 1. Any man who wants to be a student in 
 this profession, must first prove himself to be a 
 natural genius in every respect. 
 
 Sec. 2. He must be a good chemist in "botany. 
 
 Sec. 3. He must be a chemist in mineral, earth 
 and water. 
 
 Sec. 4. He must understand how to gather all 
 the raw material for all the medicines he may want 
 to use in our practice. 
 
 Sec. 5. He must then know how to manufacture 
 them on scientific painciples without any mistake. 
 
 Sec. 6. He must manufacture each article separ- 
 ate and distinct for each and every respective disease 
 in human life. 
 
 Sec. 7. He can then practice under instruction 
 and if he finds a case that he don't understand he 
 must at once report to the nearest headquarters. 
 
 Sec. 8. Such student or students, are not allow- 
 
9i 
 
 ed to change [their medicines at all, in any case~ 
 
 Sec. 9. If they find a case they do not understand 
 perfectly, they must report at once, without any 
 experimenting at all. 
 
 Sec. 10. They must know what is the matter 
 and what to give, and what to do first, last and aU 
 the time, or stop at once and report such case or 
 cases to headquarters. 
 
 Sec. 11. Every student must understand Mid- 
 wifery perfectly. 
 
 Sec. 12. All students must thoroughly under- 
 stand surgery so as to see whether it is necessary 
 for an operation or not, and how if necessary with- 
 out any mistake at alL 
 
 Sec. 13. No mistake or experiments are allowed,, 
 they must report such to the nearest headquarters 
 at once without any delay. 
 
 To the Senate and House of Representatives of 
 the United States, and to the people of the District 
 of Columbia. 
 
 About sixty per cent of the people of the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia, had no Doctor during the "Grippe" 
 epidemic of 1890 but had the " Grippe" all the 
 same. 
 
 They used Nature's own remedies, the Botanical; 
 not a case was lost out of something like sixty per 
 cent. Eighteen per cent were attended directly and 
 
92 
 
 indirectly by the Botanical Doctors, having over 
 nine hundred cases of " Grippe " not a case was 
 lost of the eighteen per cent; something like twenty- 
 two per cent were attended by the Allopathic and 
 Homeopathic Doctors, and they have lost over five 
 hundred cases ; the Allopathic lost more than the 
 Homeopathic , Doctors did during the La Grippe 
 season. 
 
 Some people in all three classes resorted to their 
 own judgment and went to the drug stores and 
 called for what they thought was the best for La 
 Grippe which they had a perfect right to do, a;id 
 none was lost. 
 
 The result was about the same for years pa.-t <>t 
 Dyphtheria, Scarlet Fever and other diseases as it 
 was this year of La Grippe in favor of the Botani- 
 cal. 
 
 So much for the scientific mechanism of Chemis- 
 try in- Botany in Washington City, D. C. 
 
 In care of Dr. W. M. Starr, 
 Pres. of the Botanical Sdiool of Medicine, 
 
 709 G St., X. W.. 
 By request. Washington, i). C- 
 
 A Protest Against Medical Monopoly* 
 
 To the Senate and House of Representatives, in Con- 
 gress Assembled.: 
 
 We, the. Botanical Schools of Medicine, de-ire to 
 
93 
 
 •enter our protest against Senate bills 2352 and 
 
 2396, Fifty-first Congress, first session, and all 
 similar bills which may be introduced. 
 
 The bills referred to, announce it as their pur- 
 pose to regulate the practice of medicine in the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia, by placing in the hands of a board 
 ■of medical men the power to limit at will the prac- 
 tice of medicine to such persons as this board may 
 -chouse to grant permits or licenses to. They are 
 •clearly in the interest of certain classes of medical 
 men, granting them special privileges in violation 
 •of the Constitutional rights of other physicians and 
 of all other citizens. 
 
 There are quite a number of sects in medicine, 
 .as there are in religion. 
 
 The bills named, provide for giving two sects, 
 ■" the allopathic and homeopathic," the power to mo- 
 nopolize the practice of medicine and surgery in this 
 District, to the exclusion of all other sects, and to 
 place in their hands the power to enforce their spe- 
 cial class privilege by fines and imprisonment 
 again- 1 members of the medical profession who be- 
 long to schools not represented in the board of ex- 
 aminers. 
 
 The disciples of the renowned Swiss empyric, 
 ■" Paracelsus," who, in 1625, burned the works of 
 Galen, the Botanist, and founded a new medical 
 sect on the .allopathic dogma of "contra rid contra- 
 
94 
 
 Tiusmirantur" — in plain English, "the way to cure 
 one disease is to create another of a different sort" 
 — and that, therefore, the most powerful poisons 
 are the most potent medicines, is not sound in the- 
 ory nor successful in practice, and is therefor false 
 and dangerous, and is so heretical as to deserve 
 no quarter from good orthodox doctors — if this sect, 
 founded 350 years ago, and which, by virtue 
 of age and numbers, now assumes to be regular, 
 i. e., orthodox, could sustain such a claim, then 
 there would be no need of statutes to protect them 
 against the competitions of the physicians of other 
 sects. But if such claim could be sustained it 
 would still be a violation of the genius of our insti- 
 tutions to pass laws giving them a monopoly. 
 
 The people have a perfect right to employ quacks 
 if they want to do so, or to take patent medicines, 
 or to rely on nature, refusing to be dosed by any- 
 body, But this claim of perfection is not set up by 
 any intelligent allopathic physicians, and if it were 
 it woidd be not only false but ridiculous. Instead 
 of claiming perfection the leading men of that school 
 are on record as having pronounced its theories 
 false, and its practice empyrical and dangerous, 
 
 We quote briefly from some of the most renown- 
 ed and honored allopathic physicians of this country 
 and Europe, opinions of their own creed and sys- 
 tem of practice. 
 

 95 
 
 • Dr. Joseph Bigelow, ex-president of the Massa- 
 chusetts Medical Society, says : 
 
 " Medicine is an ineffectual speculation. 1 sin- 
 cerely believe that the unbiased opinion of most 
 medical men of sound judgment is that the amount 
 of deaths and disasters in the world would be less 
 than it now is if left to itself." 
 
 Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes says : 
 
 " It would be better for men, but worse for the 
 fishes, if all medicines were poured into the sea." 
 
 Professor Gregory, of Edinburgh College, says : 
 
 " Ninety-nine out of every hundred so-called 
 medical foots are medical lies." 
 
 Dr. Magendie says : 
 
 " Medicine is a great humbug." 
 
 Dr. Alexander M. Ross, F. R. S., of London, 
 says : 
 
 " The medical practice of to-day has no more 
 foundation in science, in philosophy, or in common 
 sense, than it had one hundred years ago. It is 
 still based on conjecture." 
 
 Dr. Willard Parker, of Xew York, says : 
 
 " As we place more confidence in nature, and 
 less in medicines, mortality diminishes." 
 
 Dr. Alonzo Clark, of Xew York, says: 
 
 " Physicians hurry thousands to their graves who 
 would have recovered, if left to nature." 
 
 Sir Astley Cooper, says: 
 
" The system of medidbe is founded on conjec- 
 ture, and improved by murder." 
 
 Dr. John Mason Good, F. R. S., of London, says :. 
 
 u The science of medicine is a meaningless jar- 
 gon." 
 
 Dr. Evans, F. R. S., of London, say : 
 
 "The so-called science of medicine has neither 
 philosophy nor common sense to commend it to- 
 confidence." 
 
 Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the- 
 Declaration of Independence, said : 
 
 " The physician is like a blind man striking at 
 random. If he hits the disease he kills it, but he- 
 is full as likely to hit the patient, and kill it. We 
 (physicians) have multiplied diseases, and increased 
 their mortality." 
 
 He further said: "The conferring of exclusive 
 privileges upon bodies of physicians, and forbid- 
 ding men of equal talents under penalties from 
 practicing medicine, are inquisitions, however sanc- 
 tioned by ancient charters, and names serving as 
 the Bastiles of our science." 
 
 Hundreds of similar quotations could be given,- 
 but surely these are sufficient. When this Repub- 
 lic was founded there were many religious sects in. 
 the country, and the framers of the Constitution, 
 provided specifically against religious monopoly .. 
 But there was then but one medical sect, hence no 
 
97 
 
 person thought of any necessity For providing speci- 
 fically against medical monopoly. Had there been 
 at that time, as there are now, rival medical sects, 
 it is probable that such provision would have been 
 suggested, and adopted, for certainly a person has 
 as clear a right to choose a physician for his body 
 as for his soul, and any infringement of this right 
 in either case is a violation of his right to " life, 
 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." We insist, 
 therefore, that all laws restricting the practice of 
 medicine to any school, or any number of schools, 
 is unconstitutional, despotic, and wrong. 
 
 As already stated, but one medical sect existed 
 when this Government was founded, but the liber- 
 alizing influence of freedom on this continent gave 
 breadth and depth to thought and investigation in 
 all departments of life. Men of vigorous minds 
 sought, discovered, and proclaimed new truths in 
 medicine and new remedies for disease. They were 
 denounced by the regular profession as pretenders 
 and quacks. But this being a free country, they 
 appealed to the people, resting the claims of their 
 discoveries upon their merits. The people divided 
 and the old and new sects flourished side by side 
 under the protecting branches of the tree of liberty. 
 This was right. Under this system medicine has 
 made more substantial progress during the last cen- 
 tury than it had in 2,000 years before. This fact 
 
"98 
 
 establishes the superiority of the American system 
 of free competition over that of professional monop- 
 oly. 
 
 It is an historic fact with which all intelligent 
 people are familiar, that when one sect enjoys a 
 monopoly of religious privileges there is no religi- 
 ous progress, and that when one medical sect enjoys 
 a monopoly of the practice of medicine, progress in 
 the art of healing is not perceptible; and, that in 
 both these fields of human inquiry progress is de- 
 pendent upon the freedom of men of thought and 
 research to present their latest theories and discov- 
 eries to the people, and submit them to the popular 
 verdict. 
 
 We therefore ask that the American system of 
 free competition in medicine, as in religion, be con- 
 tinued in force, and that no legislation be had which 
 shall limit the freedom of the people. 
 
 DR. W. M. STARR, Pres't, 
 
 Botanical Schools of Medicine. 
 
 M. D'S. 
 
 The law which demands that an M. D. must be 
 called in to see any sick person, old or young, 
 to secure a certificate of burial in case of death, is 
 
09 
 
 an inhuman outrage. It is to compel people to hire 
 ti do.tor of only one school whether they want them 
 or not. It means to force and impose 
 
 these M. D's. on the people without their free will 
 or consent. This is an outrage and tyrants have 
 often suffered death for less tyranical acts than such 
 a law imposes upon the people. Great consolation 
 for the 800 mothers in Washington, in the two 
 months of 1890, to know from the M. Ds. that 
 their children died from the use of milk. Botanic 
 Doctors never give such medicines as will cause 
 a child to die from the use of milk, and why should 
 they not be allowed to give a certificate of burial in 
 case one of their patients should happen to die. 
 Botanic Doctors are entirely opposed to all force 
 measures or sectarian laws. Botanic Doctors claim 
 that three quarters of the whole people of the United 
 States are with them on this issue. 
 
 The following deaths occuring from zymotic 
 diseases of the miasmetic order, called in the health 
 officers' reports : measles, scarlet fever, rotheln, 
 rubeola, erysipelas, eczema, pemphigus, typhoid 
 fever, typho-malarial fever, congestive fever, inter- 
 mittent fever, remittent fever, malarial fever, 
 
100 
 
 catarrhal fever, diphtheria, croup, tonsillitis, whoop- 
 ing cough, mumps, pyaemia, septicaemia, furunculo- 
 sis, cholera morbus, cholera infantum, dysentery 
 diarrhoea, entero-colitis ; 
 
 For year ending, 1886, - 776 
 
 " " " 1887, - - T 829 
 
 « « " 1888, - - - 937 
 
 " " " 1889, - - - 1,093 
 
 3,635 
 I claim that the above named diseases are all 
 
 cureable, and that not one of said deaths would 
 
 have occured under my treatment. 
 
 Then why shall the Botanical profession not be 
 
 equally protected in their rights under all laws with 
 
 other medical professions ? 
 
 One feature in Dr. Starr's life is that whenever 
 lie meets a farmer coming to the city with his 
 wagen load of produce, he invarably takes his hat 
 off to bid him a cordial welcome. He never was 
 known to tip his hat to any other class except the 
 farmer. 
 
101 
 
 In concluding I will refer to one historical fact. 
 Before the Botanical Library was burnt by a "King 
 of Terror" in 1625, there was no monopoly in 
 medicine whatsoever and they were composed of 
 Botanical preparations, gathered fresh from the 
 fields where the oats, beans and barley grew by the 
 skilful farmers and their wives. 
 
 Ever since the use of Botanical medicines were 
 forced out of general use by this cruel edict, and 
 the dogma proclaimed that poisons were the proper 
 medicines to be used, the death rate has increased. 
 Up to that time men were strong and lived long, 
 since that time they have become weaker, and mor- 
 tality has increased rapidly until in 1891, it has 
 fallen to the low rate of sixteen years and ten 
 months. If this poison dogma had been univer- 
 sally accepted by the people, the mortality would 
 have been much greater, but thank God, the Far- 
 monians and Botanians have always objected to 
 this haphazard and poisonous system of practice, 
 and in defiance of all Force bills which have been 
 passed, or may be passed in the future, seventy-five 
 per cent of the common people of America have re- 
 fused and still refuse to accept it, and cling to Bo- 
 tanical remedies. 
 
102 
 
 After the burning of the Botanical Library in 
 1625, so much attached were the women of that 
 day to their Botanical Medicines, that a committee 
 of one hundred ladies were selected to go to the 
 King and beg that the names of certain medi- 
 cal herbs sho- Id be placed in the Bible. When 
 asked why these names should be inserted in the 
 Bible, the King was told that it was because 
 the Bible would never be destroyed, and they want- 
 ed the names preserved so they would not be 
 lost. The King granted their request, and the 
 names of the herbs can be found in the Bible to- 
 day. The ladies on retiring from the presence of 
 the King rejoiced that they had a balm hidden in 
 the leaf. 
 
 Dr. William M. Starr, 
 Pres. of the Botanical Ass'n 
 
 of the U. S. A. 
 
riflBI 
 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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