Madame Young's Guide to Health; Her Experience and Practice for Nearly Forty Years; a True Family Herbal, Wherein is Displayed the True Properties and Medical Virtues of All the Roots, Herbs, &c., Indigenous to the United States, and Their Combination in…

iv, 224, vi pp. Hoolihan 3906. In her preface, Young claims to be sixty-two years of age; to be a native of Boston who left home aged fifteen to study in Montreal; and to be familiar with the Iroquois, "learning much of them in the healing art." On p. [175] she claims to be a resident of St. Vincent de Paul, nine miles from Montreal, where she is able "to accommodate a few invalids, at my own house." Patient testimonials at the end of the volume testify to her presence in western Massachusetts and Albany in 1849-50, and in Rochester in 1854. The book was copyrighted 1858 by Amelia Young in the "Northern District of New York." Madame Young's Guide to Health is a miscellany that begins with a brief description of gestation (illustrated with five wood-engraved plates), and provides a "family herbal" (of ninety-four plants); seventy-three pages of recipes for powders, pills, bitters, poultices, etc.; remarks on anatomy, physiology and hygiene; and advice on diet, infant care, etc. Pages [191]-222 contain a priced catalog of herbs, medicinal plants, extracts and waters available from Mme. Young in "St. Vincent de Paul, Lower Canada [i.e. Quebec]."