A fascinating and compelling look at an everyday aspect of one of the world's best-known historical personalities. The author offers a new approach to understanding Jefferson: by way of an ordinary (rather than extraordinary) aspect of his life. With careful research, John Holmes documents a Jefferson mistrustful of the medical practices of his time, fully prepared to grow and prescribe his own medications, and actually achieving through his self-treatment, a long and relatively healthy life. 
The reader will see Jefferson engaged in the fight for good health, and under such conditions as the modern man can hardly envision. Jefferson lived in a time when medicine was practiced in the most literal sense of the word. A doctor's training, even for those graduated from the finest European medical schools, consisted almost exclusively of theory. Very little was known or understood about the complexities of the human body. As a consequence, patients, rich and poor alike, believed that they could treat themselves as well as (or better than) the doctor by using medicines obtained from woodland plants or herbs grown in the home garden. Like his contemporaries, Jefferson followed this traditional approach to home health care. At Monticello he cultivated many varieties of herbs and plants that held therapeutic properties. Together, these herbs and plants comprised Jefferson's mountain-top pharmacy. Jefferson also developed an understanding of preventive health maintenance. Combining exercise, diet, and learning, he devised a holistic regimen of daily health care. He was determined to stay physically and mentally healthy and, as much as possible, away from the doctor.

Thomas Jefferson Treats Himself: Herbs, Physicke, & Nutrition In Early America

Biographies & Memoirs

Holmes, John M.

Leaders & Notable People

Loft Press

Three compelling novellas with Hitchcockian twists. Old Poison - Lylah has managed to hold her marriage together for a dozen years in 1960's suburbia, when on a seemingly ordinary afternoon, her family life begins to disintegrate. A doctor's diagnosis, troubling memories from her past, and the strange power of an antique family artifact - all begin to join forces against her as the day progresses. Her husband, stepson and eleven year old daughter are caught in a whirlpool of anxiety as a storm converges on the city hospital where the family is drawn together on this awful night.Dash - Set in the same town and turbulent decade of the 1960's, a young male librarian asks one of the patrons, Bea Wood, for a date. Gradually, she insinuates her way into his life and relationship with his best friend, Dash. The town's resident "mad scientist" collides with Dash's efforts to evade the draft by crossing the border into Canada.The librarian and his new fiancée begin to connect the sinister dots in a strange mystery that is enveloping their lives in the tranquil town.Dr. Jekyll's Graveside Service - Victorian London and Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale are given a sharp spin in this sequel, as new life is injected, literally, into the familiar story. The chief focus here, however, is the doctor's devoted butler, John Poole. Along with several other of the original characters, and a young inspector from Scotland Yard, they take part in a grisly adventure in a cemetery the night following Jekyll's burial. It leads to shocking revelations and dark deeds appropriate to the famous story's gothic atmosphere.

Three Dark Jewels

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Independently published

PRESTO CHANGE-O: a novel of dark enchantment

The Greens: Watch the skies . . . but FIRST watch your back

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Science Fiction

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Books by Holmes, John M.