Top Twelve

Due to lack of time related to my new job, plus beginning another independent study class at MTSO, I have reluctantly decided to end this blog.  There is more rich information to embroider John Wesley's world and the perspectives of early Methodist medicine, but we have covered the basics, you and I, in only 90 posts.

So I would like to leave you with the important things to remember from primitivephysick.blogspot.com.

Bronze fennel
for heartburn

The Top Twelve

 

1. John Wesley wrote Primitive Physick out of his passion for the poor and their health care.
2.  It was the #1 best selling health care book of 18th century Britain.  It had 23 printings during his life, and continued to be published until the 1880s.
3.  Wesley lived in a time when a fever in the morning could mean death by nightfall, aspirin had not yet been created, and people died of things easily cured today.  Causes of illness were unknown.

Celendine for
breast cancer, sty,
thrush and jaundice

4.  Everyone discussed their health, exchanged treatment recipes for illness, and anyone with a bent or gift for healing could treat.

5.  Although physicians were emerging as the dominant form of medical caregiver, any educated and well-read man of the time knew as much as the physicians.  Wesley mentions or refers to over 100 medical texts in his writings.

Lavender
for headache and
swollen tonsils

6.  Primitive Physick was organized in alphabetical order, using the common English names for items that could be easily grown or obtained by the poor.
7.  Wesley offered several options for each illness or condition, encouraging people to try one at a time rather than several at once (the common practice).

St. John's wort
for swelling

8.  He used the recipes on himself, and included feedback from others about what worked and what didn't.  This was at a time when physicians didn't prescribe based on data and outcomes but based on centuries old Greek theory.
9.  He was one of the primary practioners of electification (for free) to treat muscle and nerve problems.  This is a common treatment now for healing damaged muscles and treating pain.

Mallow
for sore breasts,
vertigo and
constipation

10.  He was not anti-physician, but wanted his readers to seek out Christian physicians who would understand the importance of the soul as well as the body.
11.  Wesley taught physical healing could occur through both medical and spiritual care, but that it rarely occurred without both.  (In other words, to expect faith alone to heal did not make sense to him.)

Horseradish
for headache and
consumptive
cough

12.  He made no money on Primitive Physick.  He sold it for 1/6th of the cost of the next most popular health care book, and its profits were channeled back into the Methodist movement.

Purple sage
for spitting or
vomiting blood

John Wesley's contributions as a theologian are well documented and well recognized.  These have overshadowed his contributions to medical care, especially electrical treatment, so that few people know about his passion for the whole person.  Learning more about John's integration of body and soul in the 18th century through both medical and spiritual care gives us a better understanding how we integrate the care of body and soul in the 21st century.

Thank you for sharing this journey with me.

All photos taken at the John Wesley Physic Garden at the Old Rectory in Epworth, UK on 9 October 2012.  Thanks to the volunteers who planted and maintain this garden.