Popular and Plain "Primitive Physick"

  Now that you are aware of the brouhaha, let's discuss the praiseworthy stuff.

  To clarify, those who taught physick did not give the actual treatments, but gave health and medical advice (Maddox, Randy. "John Wesley's The Primitive Physick: Q&A with Randy Maddox, Part II." interviewed by John Shorb, Church Health Reader. Published 10 February 2011, accessed 5 September 2012 at www.chreader.org/contentPage.aspx?resource_id=684). So Wesley was not giving treatments (except for electricity, which we'll talk about later); he is giving health recommendations.

Me with John discussing his  views on preventive health care. (Yes, he was only 5'3".)

  Primitive Physick is judged nowadays to be as good or better than other health care books published in the 18th century (Maddox, "Eccentric Parent," 34). It sold more copies than all of Wesley's other publications (back cover of New Room reprint of Primitive Physic, 2003). By the time Wesley died in 1791, 23 editions in London alone had been published, a "new edition" came out in 1828, and a "revised" one was published in 1840, making a total of 36 editions (Rogal, 82-83). It stayed in print consistently until the 1880s, which meant it was still being used then (Maddox, "Holistic Health", 4). It was immensely popular.

  It was written in English for a people who were increasingly literate. In contrast, faculty physicians, to promote their prestige, wrote in Latin with lots of medical jargon. (Madden, Deborah. "Pastor and Physician: John Wesley's Cures for Consumption" in Madden, 'Inward and Outward Health,' 115.) This is why Wesley, in his introduction to Primitive Physick, complained about physicians who "filled their writings with abundance of technical terms utterly unintelligible to plain men." (Wesley, Primitive Physic, vii.)

  His health recommendations were founded, not on old wives' tales or folklore or superstition, but were compilations of what Wesley felt was the best medical advice of the time (Maddox, "Holistic Health," 6). He left out a lot of treatments of the time that he felt were unreliable or dangerous. He was much more cautious than other writers of the time to recommend mercury, blood letting, or "cupping," (Maddox, "Q&A," 2) which was putting scalding plasters on the skin to cause blistering.

  The focus was on natural and simple remedies. Of the 225 treatments he lists, 17 are plant-based, 24 are minerals, and 184 are made from plants (Maddox, "Holistic Health", 23). He was not swept along with the evolving practices of physicians and apothecaries, who preferred chemicals, compound medicines with multiple ingredients, and exotic sources (Maddox, "Eccentric Parent," 20.)

  An herb garden in the back of his brother Charles' home in Bristol. Charles is famous for his hymns, most well-known being "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."

  Wesley instructed his lay assistants to leave a guide to spiritual health and a guide to physical health in every Methodist home. The spiritual guide was Wesley's excerpt of The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis. The physical guide was, of course, Primitive Physick (Maddox, "Holistic Health," 8). So Primitive Physick was disseminated throughout England and on to America (Maddox, "QA", 1), where it was adapted to include remedies using North American ingredients.