The Universal Home Doctor Illustrated

As part of the massive clean out that is taking place on my Nan's flat as she downsizes, my Dad is rescuing certain curios, presumably to pass this job onto me when he hits 94 and moves to a smaller place. You can be assured that when that happens, I shall be keeping this particular book safe from the tip;

The Universal
Home
Doctor
Illustrated*

 

Birth Control:

The first thing that all young married people ought to realize is that there is no convenient time for having babies, and that it is best for young people to have their babies right away and face possible hardships than to wait for a 'convenient' time, which is hardly ever likely to arrive....Nature's plan, as that great philosopher, Dr. Havelock Ellis, has pointed out, is to provide an excess of offspring and to ensure that at all events a small proportion of them will escape the risks of destruction and carry on the race.

Eyebrows:

The eyebrows are one of man's prerogatives. Some birds have specially arranged feathers above the eyes, and the seal has a few stiff hairs; but no animal, not even the higher apes, can lay claim to true eyebrows.

Mental Hygiene:

The shocks experienced at the dawn of adolescence by both boys and girls who have not been prepared for the normal developments which take place at that period in their lives has driven many a youth and maiden to self-destruction.

In general, there is very good evidence for the inheritance of at least some forms of mental trouble; thus it would be wiser for those in whose families there is a history of mental disorder not to beget children. At the present time in this country, there is no law enforcing the sterilisation of physically or mentally unfit persons. The question of producing mentally or physically unsound children is one which must be left to the public conscience [emphasis mine]

Electricity in Medicine:

Types of current: Galvanism is the name given to current direct or flowing in one direction when used medically...Application and uses of Galvanism: Central Galvanism or Galvanism applied to the brain or spinal cord, is given in such cases as: Mentally or physically under-developed children; persons subject to seizures of an epileptic form or true epilepsy in its early stages; all forms of nervous exhaustion brought about by overwork, worry, or ill-health; nervous headaches and shell-shock.

It would be a mistake to suggest this book has stepped entirely from an unrecognisable past, after all it was published at the end of World War II - the world was changing - and in some ways it is very forward thinking;

Young women are said to feel the urgency of this problem [wanting to have sex] less than do young men and those who do feel it are often looked upon as abnormal, but this is an unfair view. The modern young woman has her sex problems almost as much as the young man does, and her remedies are the same as his, mentioned above [sublimate the problem, engage in games]. Healthy companionship of the two sexes in work and play is the best safeguard against sex difficulties.

 

Mental disease is one of the penalties of civilisation and there is no doubt that owing to the rush and hurry of modern life it is - at any rate in its milder forms - on the increase....the old stigma of being a 'certified lunatic' has been largely removed, as any patients who are no actually incapable of understanding their position can now be received in mental hospitals as voluntary and temporary patients. No relative should hesitate to risk the delayed recovery of a person mentally ill because he fears the words 'mental hospital'.
 

This book has everything; average height and weights of adults aged 16 to 50 (in order to tell if you are obese), a guide to absinthe drinkers, home facials, exercises for fat necks, what to do with your "difficult child" (send them to a Ministry of Health and Education hostel in the country). In the a-z section there is everything from nostalgia to neurosis, obesity (fat clogs the brain!) to obsession.

There are even diet plans; the Banting diet (lose 35lbs in 38 weeks!) is, the book confesses, "a form of starvation, as it, practically speaking, comprises protein food alone". Yes, you guessed it; it's the original Atkins diet. There is also a 3 and a half page entry on hysteria - the longest entry in this 832 page tome I've found on anything as yet. There is also one of the most terrifying instruments I have ever seen illustrated; a 'magnet for Extracting Metallic Foreign Body from the Eye' - it's a massive cylinder about 10 foot long and 2 feet in diameter

With this resource at my fingertips, I ask you, dear reader, what information would you like? Give me a word, condition or affliction and I shall look it up and post the entry in a new post here soon.

The next post will also include the full entry on 'absinthe'.

* There doesn't seem to be a publishing date anywhere but based on mentions of 'recent' years, I estimate it was published in 1945 or 1946