THE MEDICAL COMPANION, OR FAMILY PHYSICIAN; Treating of the Diseases of the United States...the Management and Diseases of Women and Children...an American Materia Medica...also the Nurse's Guide. The Seventh Edition, Revised, Enlarged, and Very Considerably Improved.
Washington: Printed for the Proprietors, 1827. 22 cm. xxxix, (1), [37]-852pp. Full contemporary leather, heavily rubbed, chipping to gilt-stamped spine label, marbled endpapers. Previous owner's signature at head of title page. Of note here, though all his editions of this work were dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, this one also includes a dedication to Andrew Jackson. Item #68108
"James Ewell (1773–1832), physician and author, was born near Dumfries. His father, Jesse Ewell, was a classmate of Thomas Jefferson at the College of William and Mary. Ewell studied medicine first under his uncle James Craik, of Alexandria, and later with the Baltimore physician Henry Stevenson, and he attended lectures in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. His medical practice began in Lancaster County, Virginia, followed by a move to Dumfries, and from 1801 to 1808 he worked in Savannah. During this time Ewell wrote and published The Planter’s and Mariner’s Medical Companion (Philadelphia, 1807; Sowerby, no. 893). The volume went through numerous editions under varying titles, all of which were dedicated to Thomas Jefferson. Settling in Washington by 1808, the British army made Ewell’s home its headquarters during the occupation of 1814. His willingness to negotiate with the occupiers and treat British soldiers attracted criticism that he answered in 1816 in the third edition of his Medical Companion. In 1831 Ewell made a final move to New Orleans, where he died of cholera." [see his brief biography on the National Archives site].
Price: $250.00