Practische Beobachtungen uber Nervenschwäche und körperlicher Erschöpfung (Practical Observations on Nervous Debility & Physical Exhaustion)

Item Details

St. Louis, MO, 1878, Softcover

Good

Scarce German-language medical booklet issued by the proprietors of the Grand Museum of Anatomy in St. Louis. 5.75" x 3.75", 161 pp. Text complete and binding sound. but lacks wrappers, and a large chip is missing from the lower corner of the title page; good.  

According to Atwater (1399, describing a catalogue from the museum, but also citing the English-language edition of this work), "In 1874 David Davieson received his degree from the Eclectic Medical College of New York. For two years prior to graduation, he was one of the partners in the European Anatomical, Pathological, and Ethnological Museum in Philadelphia. The year of his graduation, Davieson returned to St. Louis, where he opened the Grand Museum of Anatomy," where he was later joined by his brother, Sydney. The museum displayed "an eclectic assortment of stuffed birds, anatomical models, dissected parts, pathological specimens, petrified botanicals, mastodon tusks, freaks of nature" and other oddities. "Interspersed at random were items that reveal the true purpose of the museum, i.e., to provide a (somewhat distorted) view of sex and sex disorders and to advertise the professional services of the Drs. Davieson, whose offices were conveniently located upstairs over the museum."  An 1878 advertisement in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat states that the Daviesons specialized in "the treatment of nervous and chronic diseases, especially those arising from youthful follies or indiscretions." This booklet would have helped market their' business to German immigrants, who accounted for more than half the population of St. Louis in 1880.  One copy located in OCLC.