John Tennent (24)
Election date: 1744 (Elected to the original American Philosophical Society.)John Tennent (1710–27 October 1748) was a physician and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1744. Born in Scotland, he immigrated to Virginia in 1727. Known for his controversial recommendations of Native American herbal remedies, Tennent pioneered the use of rattlesnake root, a popular indigenous cure for snake bites, to treat pleurisy, which exhibited similar symptoms. Although Benjamin Franklin recommended the cure in Poor Richard’s Almanac, many doctors remained skeptical. Responding to them in the Virginia Gazette, Tennent accused the medical profession at large of obscurantism and greed. In 1737 and 1739, he visited England, where his connections to William Byrd earned him an introduction to Royal Society President Sir Hans Sloane. However, he was unable to secure financial support from Parliament or a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh. By 1740 Tennent was in debtors’ prison. After his release, his professional and personal fortunes did not improve. He failed to obtain an appointment as physician-general to the British forces in the West Indies and faced a bigamy indictment after marrying a wealthy widow. He continued to criticize the medical profession, arguing that knowledge should be shared rather than monopolized. This belief is epitomized by the widely popular Every Man His Own Doctor, the first American domestic medical manual, which he likely authored. (PI, ANB, DAB)
Member(s): John Tennent
24.001
Detection of a conspiracy, to suppress a general good in physic, and to promote error and ignorance in that important science : being the singular case of John Tennent, M.D. which has brought against him, maliciously, a trial at the Old Bailey for bigamy.
Creator(s):
Tennent, John, 1710-1748 (Author)
Publication:
London: Printed for the author, 1743.
Record Source:
APS Subjects:
Law | Medicine
Editions:
1x 1743
Editions Note:
One edition.
Holding Note: APS does not own this text. Help the APS acquire this item.
Member(s): John Tennent
24.002
An epistle to Dr. Richard Mead, concerning the epidemical diseases of Virginia, particularly, a pleurisy and peripneumony : wherein is shewn the surprising efficacy of the seneca rattle-snake root, in diseases owing to a viscidity and coagulation of the blood; such as pleurisies and peripneumonies, these being epidemick, and very mortal in Virginia, and other colonies on the continent of America, and also the Lee-Ward Islands : to which is prefixt, a cut of that most valuable plant : and an appendix annexed, demonstrating the highest probability, that this root will be of more extensive use than any medicine in the whole materia medica, and of curing the gout, rheumatism, dropsy, and many nervous diseases.
Creator(s):
Tennent, John, 1710-1748 (Author)
Publication:
Edinburgh: Printed by P. Matthie, and sold by most booksellers in town, [1738]
Subjects:
Epidemics -- Virginia. | Senegal.
Record Source:
References:
Sabin 94711
APS Subjects:
Botany | Medicine | Natural History | Pathology | Physiology | Science
Editions:
1x 1738, 1x 1742
Editions Note:
Two editions: one in 1738, one in 1742. Sabin also lists two texts by Tennent with related titles, Epistle to Dr. Mead respecting the bite of a viper and its poison (Edinburgh, 1742; Sabin 94710) and Observations on the senekka snake-root (London, 1741; Sabin 94714), but neither text appears in any library catalogs.
Holding Note: APS does not own this text. Help the APS acquire this item.
Member(s): John Tennent
24.003
An essay on the pleurisy.
Creator(s):
Tennent, John, 1710-1748. (Author)
Publication:
Williamsburg [VA]: Printed and sold by William Parks, [1736]
Subjects:
Pleurisy.
Record Source:
References:
Sabin 94712 | Evans 4085 | Evans 40213 | Evans 5074
APS Subjects:
Medicine | Pathology | Physiology | Science
Editions:
1x 1736 (Williamsburg, VA), 1x 1740 (Williamsburg, VA), 2x 1742 (New York, Philadelphia)
Editions Note:
Four editions: the first two in Williamsburg, VA (1736 and 1740), the third in New York (1742), and the fourth in Philadelphia (1742).
Holding Note: APS does not own this text. Help the APS acquire this item.
Member(s): John Tennent
24.004
Every man his own doctor : or, the poor planter’s physician : prescribing plain and easy means for persons to cure themselves of all, or most of the distempers, incident to this climate, and with very little charge, the medicines being chiefly of the growth and production of this country.
Creator(s):
Tennent, John, 1710-1748 (Author)
Publication:
[Williamsburg, VA]: Printed and sold by William Parks at his printing-office in Williamsburg, and Annapolis, 1734.
Subjects:
Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions. | Medicine, Popular.
Record Source:
References:
Sabin 23299 | Sabin 94713 | Evans 3843 | Evans 3844 | Evans 40103 | Evans 4086 | Evans 4202 | Evans 6340 | Evans 40608
APS Subjects:
Medicine | Pathology | Physiology | Science
Editions:
2x 1734 (Williamsburg, VA; Philadelphia), 2x 1736 (Williamsburg, VA; Philadelphia), 1x 1737 (Philadelphia), 1x 1749 (Philadelphia), 1x 1751 (Williamsburg, VA), 1x 1802 (Richmond, VA)
Editions Note:
Seven extant editions plus a translation: two in 1734 (a named second edition from Williamsburg, VA, and a named third edition from Philadelphia), two in 1736 (a "third edition, with additions" from Williamsburg, VA, and a named fourth edition from Philadelphia), one in 1737 (Philadelphia), a 1751 "fourth edition, with additions" from Williamsburg, VA, and a named fourth edition printed in Richmond, VA, in 1802. There is also a German translation printed in Philadelphia in 1749 by Benjamin Franklin (who had printed the earlier Philadelphia editions) entitled, Ein jeder sein eigner doctor, oder des armen land-manns artzt... Authorship attributed (published anonymously). Often described as the first American domestic medical manual. Notable for Tennent's controversial recommendation of Native American herbal remedies. The named second edition from 1734 is the earliest surviving edition. Widely reprinted with other texts: for example, in several editions of George Fisher's The American instructor : or, young man’s best companion : containing, spelling, reading, writing, and arithmetick ... published between roughly 1748 and 1779.
Holding Note: APS does not hold any copies of Every man his own doctor but does hold two editions of The American instructor (1748 and 1753) containing Tennent's text: http://opac.amphilsoc.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=183881|http://opac.amphilsoc.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=195173
Member(s): John Tennent
24.005
Physical disquisitions : demonstrating the real causes of the blood’s morbid rarefaction and stagnation, and that the cure of fevers, acute and chronic diseases, in general, can be effected with greater certainty than by the established rules of the practice of physic : the theory confirmed by an authentic account of curing various distempers, in America and London, wherein these rules proved abortive : the symptoms and nature of each case commented upon, and the prescriptions stated in English : the whole discovering, that the simple laws of nature, and the analogy of diseases, have been very much perplexed in the prolix and too metaphysical reasonings of numerous authors, and that some regulations in the practice of physic would obviate many deaths.
Creator(s):
Tennent, John, 1710-1748 (Author)
Publication:
London: Printed for W. Payne, at Horace’s Head in the Strand: and sold by the booksellers in town and country, 1745.
Subjects:
Epidemics -- Early works to 1800. | Fever -- Early works to 1800.
Record Source:
APS Subjects:
Epidemiology | Medicine | Pathology | Physiology | Science
Editions:
1x 1745
Editions Note:
One edition.
Holding Note: APS does not own this text. Help the APS acquire this item.
Member(s): John Tennent
24.006
Physical enquiries : discovering the mode of translation in the constitutions of northern inhabitants, on going to, and for some time after arriving in southern climates : an error of the college of physicians in recommending vinegar to His Majesty’s fleet in the West-Indies, to prevent the epidemic fever there so fatal to Britons : the deadly effect of all acids in that case, whether used for cure or prevention : a plain easy method both to prevent and cure that disease : and the barren state of useful physical knowledge, as well as the mercenary practice of physicians, by an impartial state of Dr. Ward’s qualifications for the practice of physic, and by his pernicious progress with medicinal secrets : illustrated with remarks upon a printed letter to a member of Parliament, signed philanthropos.
Creator(s):
Tennent, John, 1710-1748 (Author)
Publication:
London: Printed by T. Gardner, near Temple Bar, and sold by Andrew Millar, bookseller, opposite St. Clement’s Church in the Strand, and John Millan, near Wills’s Coffee House, Charing Cross, [1742]
Subjects:
Medicine -- Great Britain -- Early works to 1800. | Vinegar -- Great Britain -- Early works to 1800.
Record Source:
References:
Sabin 94715
APS Subjects:
Medicine | Pathology | Physiology | Science
Editions:
1x 1742, 1x 1749
Editions Note:
Two editions: one in 1742, one in 1749.
Holding Note: APS has one copy of the 1742 edition.
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Member(s): John Tennent
24.007
A reprieve from death : in two physical chapters : viz. chap. I. objections against the use of vinegar, or other acids, to prevent or cure the epidemic and mortal fever of the West-Indies, on occasion of vinegar being recommended by the College of Physicians, for that purpose, to the English squadron there : chap. II. reasons why all medicines should be freely published.
Creator(s):
Tennent, John, 1710-1748 (Author)
Publication:
London: Printed for John Clarke, at Homer’s-Head the Corner of Essex-Street in the Strand, 1741.
Subjects:
Epidemics -- Early works to 1800. | Fever -- Early works to 1800.
Record Source:
APS Subjects:
Epidemiology | Medicine | Pathology | Physiology | Science
Editions:
1x 1741
Editions Note:
One edition.
Holding Note: APS does not own this text. Help the APS acquire this item.
Member(s): John Tennent
24.008
A supplement to Physical enquiries, lately published : in a letter to ... William Pulteney, Esq.
Creator(s):
Tennent, John, 1710-1748 (Author)
Publication:
London: Printed by T. Gardner, and sold by Andrew Millar, and John Millan, 1742.
Record Source:
APS Subjects:
Medicine | Pathology | Physiology | Science
Editions:
1x 1742
Editions Note:
One edition.
Holding Note: APS does not own this text. Help the APS acquire this item.
Member(s): John Tennent
24.009
Truth stifled, and an appeal to the genius of the ancient Romans : being the case of Dr John Tennent, with respect to his free publication of his discovery of the farther efficacy of the Senekka rattlesnake root, which cures with, great certainty, the American epidemical fever, ... which also contains enquiries into the operation of the rattle-snake’s venom upon the human body.
Creator(s):
Tennent, John, 1710-1748 (Author)
Publication:
London: Printed for C. Corbett, 1741.
Record Source:
References:
Sabin 94717
APS Subjects:
Epidemiology | Medicine | Pathology | Physiology | Science
Editions:
1x 1741
Editions Note:
One edition. Sabin also lists another text by Tennent with a related title, Observations on the senekka snake-root (London, 1741; Sabin 94714), but it doesn't appear in any library catalogs.
Holding Note: APS does not own this text. Help the APS acquire this item.