The Clairvoyant's Family Physician, Containing a Course of Treatment for All the Diseases Prevalent in This Country. with an Introduction.

xix, 216 pp. "Mr. J.C. Walker and Mrs. Lucina Tuttle indicate in their preface that Tuttle is the clairvoyant partner, that they have been in the business of examining and prescribing for patients in Byron, Genesee Co., N.Y., that they have been subject to 'foul-mouthed slander' during the course of their work, and that The Clairvoyant's Family Physician is occasioned by their intention 'to close our business in its present form' within a few months. The book contains an introductory essay by Mrs. S.G. Love (Walker's sister)) entitled 'An essay on animal magnetism.' Love posits the presence of a 'nervo vital fluid' in all persons, that some possess to a greater degree than others. She states that if a person who is 'fully charged with the nervo vital fluid' is able 'to fix his mind intently upon another, whose nervous system is deficient,' then 'a portion of his vitality shall be imparted.' The result is that when 'the nervous system of the subject is fully subdued by the conjoined action of the mind, and electricity of the operator, the former, as it were, lives by the latter.' This interaction is the basis of mental healing: 'Let a person of low nervous vitality be thrown into the mesmeric sleep, and he awakes with an increased supply of the nervo vital fluid, and a corresponding increase of buoyancy and health.' It is also the mechanism for inducing a clairvoyant state in which the mesmerized subject is free to roam where the spirit wills - in the case of a clairvoyant physician, within the body of one who is ill. Love describes the first association of Walker and Tuttle in the village of Byron, N.Y., and relates how Tuttle discovered her clairvoyant powers after being mesmerized by Walker for the surgical removal of a tumor. Afterward, Walker and Tuttle combined their powers for the benefit of others. Love writes of Tuttle in the clairvoyant state that the 'broad field of medical science is to her as an unsealed book. Wherever directed, her spirit takes flight, and bending over the couch of the suffering, detects the hidden sources of disease, and if restoration be possible prescribes appropriate remedies.' Tuttle was not a magnetic healer. Her clairvoyant powers were used for the diagnosis of disease and for determining the course of treatment - not for healing. The 'Family Physician' portion of her book, therefore, is not a description of the process of mental healing, but a straightforward manual of domestic medicine that provides the description and treatment of seventy-one common diseases. Pages [109]-136 contain a formulary; pages [137]-168 describe medicinal plants; and pages [169]-210 provide 'Certificates from persons who have been treated by Mrs. Tuttle' (the earliest dated 1847). On page 210, Walker & Tuttle inform their readers that 'various preparations, including syrups, ointments, &c., &c., can all be obtained, properly put up and prepared for use' by addressing them in Byron Centre. In the late 1840s and 1850s, the Fowler family became deeply interested in the connection between phrenology and mesmerism. As a result, the Fowler & Wells publishing firm added authors on mesmerism and animal magnetism to a list that included Mrs. Tuttle. The Clairvoyant Family Physician was reissued at New York in 1855 by Partridge & Brittan."