Jean Rachael Dow
Why are female physiomedicalist/eclectic physicians invisible and can we identify and evaluate their contribution to herbal literature
Abstract
Part of the study of herbal medicine is reviewing our traditional therapeutic uses of herbs, and it was during this process that it was noted that there appeared to be a dearth of female influence in the physiomedicalist/eclectic traditions. Considering the rich history of women healers/herbalists, this posed the question of "where had the women gone". The aim of this project was to attempt to identify the women physiomedicalist/eclectic physicians, to ascertain if they made any literary contributions to herbal medicine and to find out why we know so little about them. There are no secondary sources that detail the female physiomedicalist/eclectic contributions and therefore the project consisted of searching primary sources. Information was gained by contacting libraries and medical schools throughout the United States as well as a personal visit to one such library in Dallas. Other study had to be undertaken to understand the social conditions in both America and Great Britain at this time, to evaluate the influences of women. Through this I was able to gain an understanding of the difficulties placed upon women and the courage that it took to become a female doctor/herbalist at this time. Rich therapeutic knowledge was collected with seven complete books detailing herbal treatment of women and children, along with another 55 pieces of work. The writings were split into therapeutics and political writing, with women arguing for the right to practice medical herbalism. The conclusions reached were that not only did women contribute to the therapeutic writings at the time, but there is a strong argument that when we look to the historical therapeutics of herbs in relation to woman and children that we should be learning from the women physiomedicalist/eclectic physicians, as they had unrestricted access to women which was denied to men due to social propriety.
