Praxis Catholica: Or, The Countryman's Universal Remedy: Wherein is Plainly and Briefly Laid Down the Nature, Matter, Manner, Place and Cure of Most Diseases, Incident to the Body of Man; Not Hitherto Discovered. Whereby Any One of an Ordinary Capacity May Apprehend the True Cause of His Distempers, Wherein His Cure Consists, and the Means to Effect It; Together with Rules How to Order Children in that Most Violent Disease of Vomiting and Looseness, &c. Useful Likewise for Seamen and Travelers. Also an Account of an Incomparable Powder for Wounds Or Hurts which Cure Any Ordinary Ones at Once Dressing. Written by Robert Couch, Sometimes Practitioner in Physick and Chyrurgery, at Boston in New-England.

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[48], 165, [3] pp. Recent full-leather. Very Good. First Edition. Wing C6510. In addition to the name of Robert Couch on the title page, there is also the name of Chr. Pack [Christopher Packe]: "Now Published With Divers Useful Addititons (for publick benefit) by Chr. Pack, Operator in Chymistry." Written while Robert Couch was "Sometimes Practitioner in Physick and Chyrurgery, at Boston in New-England," this is the first medical book composed in the British colonies. In 1663 Couch emigrated from England. Upon arrival in Boston he established himself as a physician and surgeon and spent most of his remaining life in Boston, with the exception of two years (1667-1669) in Portsmouth (New Hampshire), and a period in the late 1670s when he resided in Virginia and where he died prior to 1680. His manuscript was acquired by Francis Willis of Ware River, Virginia, who sent it to the London chemist Christopher Pack, who arranged for its publication with his own additions, and with a dedication of the work to Willis. Couch's book was not published in the colonies, but his manuscript was composed in the colonies, and then published posthumously in England. There are very few 17th century American medical publications. Those published in the colonies include the following. Austin, Early American Medical Imprints, records three: (1) Thomas Vincent's 31-page pamphlet on the London fire and plague (Cambridge 1668; Austin 1977); (2) Thomas Thacher's broadside on small pox (Boston 1678; Austin 1881); and (3) John Oliver's 129-page book for pregnant women (Boston 1694; Austin 1433). Guerra, American Medical Bibliography [a-1 through a-12], records two printings of Vincent's pamphlet (1667, 1668); Thacher's broadside; two variant printings of a religious pamphlet by Allen James (1679); four works by Cotton Mather (1689, 1692, 1696, 1698); Oliver's book; and two printings of legislation in the Province of Massachusetts-Bay relating to health matters (1694, 1699). New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. I, p. 601. OCLC locates copies of Couch's book in these US libraries: American Antiquarian Society, Harvard, Huntington Library, National Library of Medicine, New York Academy of Medicine, Virginia. In the UK, there are copies in Aberdeen, British Library, Sion College, Wellcome Library. Garrison-Morton (online) 9698. Seller Inventory # 15211

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