— 1814 — to the Members of the Methodist Episcopal Church
ASB_VOL3.PDF, PDF page 617
Preface to Wesley’s Primitive Physic
Republished by Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury
In the days when there were few doctors, Wesley thought it necessary to do some practicing medicine himself. He published a book, Primitive Physic. On the frontiers of America there were even fewer doctors than in the British Isles. Asbury at times, like Wesley, thought it was his duty to prescribe for the sick. Sometimes his prescriptions were very crude as, for instance, a concoction of sugar and rusty nails. However, this book was edited by Henry Wilkins, who seems to have been an eminent doctor.
— 18141
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL
CHURCH
Friends and Brethren:
The grand interest of your souls will ever lie near our hearts; but we cannot be unmindful of your bodies. In several parts of this extensive country, the climate, and in others the food, is unwholesome; and frequently, the physicians are few, some of them unskilful, and all of them beyond the reach of your temporal abilities. A few small publications excepted, little has been done by physical books, in order to remove these inconveniences; and even those have been written in Europe, and do therefore partake of the confined ideas of the writers, who could not possibly be fully acquainted with the peculiarities of the various diseases incident to a people that inhabit a country so remote from theirs.
Simple remedies are, in general, the most safe for simple disorders, and sometimes do wonders under the blessing of God. In this view we present to you now, the Primitive Physic,2 published by our much honored friend John Wesley. But the difference being in many respects great between this country and England, in regard to climate, the constitution of patients, and even the qualities of the same simples,—we saw it necessary for you, to have it revised by physicians practising in this country, who at our request have added cautionary and explanatory notes where they were necessary, with some additional receipts suitable to the climate.
In this state we lay the publication before you, and earnestly recommend it to you.
As we apply all the profits of our books to charitable purpose, and the promoting the work of God, we think we have some right to intreat you (except in particular cases) to buy only our books, which are recommended by the Conference, and signed with our signatures: and as we intend to print our books in future within the States, and on a much larger scale than we have hitherto done, we trust we shall be able soon to supply you with as many of the choicest of our publications, as the time and temporal abilities of those of you, who do not live a life of study will require. We remain, dear brethren, as ever,
Your faithful pastors,
THOMAS COKE
FRANCIS ASBURY
Library, Methodist Publishing House, Nashville, Tennessee
Notes (2)
- The fifth edition was dated 1814. The Wesley work printed there was the twenty-seventh edition, corrected. ↩
- Henry Wilkins, M.D., was the editor of the Family Adviser, or a Plain and Modern Practice of Physic: Calculated for the Use of Families Who Have Not the Advantages of a Physician, and Acquainted to the Diseases of America, to Which Is Annexed Mr. Wesley’s Primitive Physic, from 5th ed., New York, 1814. He was the son of Joseph Wilkins and was born in Annapolis, Maryland, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. They moved to Baltimore. (Jacob S. Payton.) Asbury makes at least three references in the Letters to the work which Wilkins did on the Journal. However, Asbury is not sufficiently explicit to tell how much Wilkins did. He married the daughter of Samuel Owings, one of Asbury’s early converts. His wife was the leader “of the first female class” in Baltimore. ↩