Written by the grandfather of Charles Darwin, this book is a masterful treatise on the medical disorders and how to treat them. Primarily of interest to people who are interested in the period, because very little of the information would be taken seriously by a medical doctor today. It is fun to read to see the odd things they called diseases (biting nails, for instance, is considered quite pathological), and the treatments, which included healthy doses of opium on a regular basis. I suppose if it didn't cure you, it might make it where you didn't mind so much being sick. The book suffers quite a bit from being a scanned version of the original, with all the problems attendant on scanning text, primarily s's that look like f's; this is particularly bad because the f's also look like f's, and you have to figure out from the context which letter it's meant to be. Also, some pages were nearly impossible to read because of poor copy quality in the scanning. Overall, though, it is enjoyable, but long, so not for the faint of hear. I suppose if you have enough opium handy, the time will go much quicker... ( )