The Project Gutenberg EBook of Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and
Powders, by William A. Alcott

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Title: Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders
Cogitations and Confessions of an Aged Physician

Author: William A. Alcott

Release Date: October 5, 2010 [EBook #34038]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: Engraved by J. C. Buttre, expressly for Fireside
Lectures.

Doct. W'm. A. ALCOTT.]

FORTY YEARS

IN THE WILDERNESS

OF

PILLS AND POWDERS;

OR, THE

COGITATIONS AND CONFESSIONS OF

AN AGED PHYSICIAN.

BOSTON:
JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY.

NEW YORK:
C. M. SAXTON AND COMPANY.
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK: E. DARROW AND BROTHER.
1859.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by
JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the district of
Massachusetts.

LITHOTYPED BY COWLES AND COMPANY,
17 WASHINGTON ST., BOSTON.

Printed by Geo. C. Rand and Avery.

PREFACE.

The present volume was one of the last upon which its author was
engaged, the facts having been gathered from the experience and
observation of a long life. It was his design to publish them
anonymously, but under the changed circumstances this is rendered
impracticable.

A short time previous to his death, the writer spoke of this work, and
said, in allusion to the termination of his own somewhat peculiar
case,--"This _last chapter_ must be added." In accordance with this
desire, a brief sketch, having reference chiefly to his health and
physical habits, with the closing chapter of his life, has been
appended.

Boston, June, 1859.

TO THE READER.

In the sub-title to the following work, I have used the word
"Confessions"--not to mislead the reader, but because _to confess_ is
one prominent idea of its author. It is a work in which confessions of
the impotence of the healing art