First American edition. Light stain to page edges, bookplate on front endpaper reads 'Library of Allison J. Coover', one section of pages slightly dog-eared. 1862 Hard Cover. xv, 274 pp. 8vo. Black blind-stamped cloth, gilt titles. Hoolihan 236/237 (describing the German original and the first English translation) together with Baunscheidt's treatise on the eye (Hoolihan 238): [Baunscheidt's] interest in medicine followed a moment of enlightenment described in the 1859 English translation of this treatise... In this treatise Baunscheidt outlines his peculiar theories of life and disease, the importance of applying therapeutic processes to the surface of the skin (rather than poisoning the internal organs with medicines), the practical application of the Lebenswecker and Oleum Baunscheidtii, and the 'abducent' principle on which this therapy rests. The Lebenswecker consisted of needles released by a spring mechanism in the handle that punctured the skin to a depth determined by the operator. Baunscheidt stresses that the instrument is of limited effectiveness without the oil, which is responsible for the exanthematic irritation that 'tends to remove quickly, and efficaciously, all infectious diseases'. 'Baunscheidtism,' the author declares, 'desires to deliver the world from the errors and abuses of the old faculty of physic and offers to the people the Lebenswecker, instead of the illegible and in most cases steril [sic] receipts, as a true theory of healing, and faithful family doctor, to be easily understood by every body, and always ready at hand.'