THE REEFER MADNESS ERA
BOOKS
Medical Books

A Page from the Ebers Papyrus - 1,550 BC
Oldest Complete Medical Texbook known to exist
Ancient Egyptian for Medical Marihuana

The following is a listing of Medical Books that the museum has been able to obtain, which have specific write-ups dealing with the subject of Medical Marihuana. It is present here solely as a service to the historian or scholar doing research on the subject.

This listing, of and by itself, has absolutely NOTHING whatsoever to do with the Reefer Madness campaign. However, it does point out one solid truth and that is that, the truth was out there, all one needed (no matter how gullible) to do was to simply look.

How could a medicine, in used with satisfactory results, for so many decades prier to that, now be seen as, "The Killer Weed." How could a simple sedative now all of a sudden be used by . . . .
"A cheap and evil girl sets a hopped-up killer against a city." - "Marihuana turns weak King Turner into a deadly weapon, a conscienceless killer with no more human feeling than a hooded cobra or a mad dog."
Obviously something somewhere is wrong.

Note, this index consists ONLY of those medical books that the museum has been able to obtain copies of. Due to our financial situation, as well as the cost of antiquated medical books, it is not very large. (Hint, why don't you join us, pay the $15 a year membership fees and help us out)

However, it does bring emphasis on the shear volume of works that had been written about the subject in the decades preceding the campaign, during which physicians were (with satisfactory results) employing the drug in their practices. How than was it possible for these same journals to have remained so silent during the campaign?


1989 - AN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN HERBAL - By Lise Manniche - Pub University of Texas Press, Austin. Some scholars believe that medical marihuana was in use in ancient Egypt.

1956 - PHARMACOGNOSY By Edward P. Claus - Pub Lea & Febiger - Despite the late date, it has a good description and history on the drug. Pages 380-382.

1951 - AN INTRODUCTION TO MATERIA MEDICA & PHARMACOLOGY (6th Ed) By Elsie E. Krug and Hugh Alister McGuigan. Pub. C.V. Mosby Co. A two page write up, not worth reading.

1948 - PRACTICAL THERAPEUTICS - Some uses for Headaches are mentioned. Negative mentions etc, as it is habit forming drug use only as a last resorts etc

1943 - TEXTBOOK OF PHARMACOLOGY FOR NURSES By Margene O. Faddis & Joseph M Hayman - Pub J.B. Lippincott Co.

1942 - Synopsis of Materia Medica, Toxicology, and Pharmacology - By Forrest Ramon Davison. . Pub. C.V. Mosby Co. Mostly negative, but the medical uses are noted.

1939 - HEADACHE AND HEAD PAINS - By Walton Forest Dutton M.D. - Pub - F.A. Davis Company. Must reading, lots of post-1937 Cannabis mentions. Every kind of headache pain imaginable.

1939 - EXPERIMENTAL PHARMACOLOGY AND MATERIA MEDICA - By Dennis E. Jackson, Publisher "C.V. Mosby Co." - not worth looking at, Cannabis is only mention in terms of a Corn Remedy, with instructor telling students that it's OK not to use it.

1939 - THE INTER-RELATIONSHIP OF MIND AND BODY - By the Association for research in Nervous and mental Disease. From the Proceedings of the Association (1938) Meeting in New York. Contains the chapter "The Effects of Marihuana" by Walter Bromberg.

1938 - PHARMACOLOGY, MATERIA MEDICA AND THERAPEUTICS - By Charles Solomon, Pub J.B. Lippincott Co. - Only a small (one page) section of cannabis, but of interest.

1936 - THE CYCLOPEDIA OF MEDICINE - By George Morris Piersol, MD. Pub F.A. Davis co. - This is part of a multi volume medical encyclopedia set. Mentions insomnia, senile, melancholia and mania, delirium tremens, chorea, tetanus, rabies, bronchitis, pulmonary, cough mixtures, paralysis agitans, spasm of the bladder, goiter, ophthalmic, gonorrhea, chordee, headaches, migraine + more

1932 - A MANUAL OF HOMCEO- THERAPEUTICS By Edwind A. Neatby, MD and Thomas George Stonham, MD. - The Missionary School of Medicine - Mostly a lot of negative (reefer madness like) stuff, but does have some medical uses in it.

1931 - BIOASSAYS - A HANDBOOK OF QUANTITATIVE PHARMACOLOGY By James C. Munch - Pub. Williams & Wilkins Co. James Munch (who would latter on work directly with Harry Anslinger during the reefer madness campaign) wrote a pretty scientific study given the man, either that or it was done long before he joined the reefer madness movement.

1931 - TREATMENT IN GENERAL PRACTICE - By Harry Beckman MD - Pub- W.B. Saunders Co. Section on migraines included.

1928 - THE ART OF MEDICAL TREATMENT - By Francis W. Palfrey, M.D. Only mention of Cannabis is under Migraine Pain. (pages 287,398)

1927 - TEXTBOOK OF MATERIA MEDICA - By A.S. Blumgarten Pub. The MacMillan Co. Only a one page description on the subject.

1925- THE ART OF MEDICAL TREATMENT - By Frances W. Palfrey - Pub. W.B. Saunders Co. Has a section on Cannabis and Migraine Pain.

1921 - MATERIA MEDICA FOR NURSES - By A.S. Blumgarten - 3th Ed. Pub. MacMillan Co. Cannabis is treated pretty much like all other medicines.

1917 - Modern Dental Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics - By J.P. Buckley - Pub P. Blakiston's Son & co. Only mentions Cannabis, not its uses, but it is odd that a Dental book would mention it at all.

1915 - AN INDEX OF TREATMENT- By Various Writers -Pub. William Wood Co. Must reading, many uses of Cannabis for various aliments. Asthma, Dysmenorrhoea, Haemorrhage, Migraine, Menorrhagia, Metrorrhagia, Meningitis.

1909 - KING'S AMERICAN DISPENSATORY - By Harvey Wickes Felter MD and John Lloyd PhD. Pub. The Ohio Valley Co. - Lot's of stuff in it.

1910 - THERAPEUTICS, MATERIA MEICA, AND PHARMACY By Sam'l O.L. Potter, Pub. P.Blankiston's Son & co.

1905 - NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASES By Church and Peterson - Pub W.B. Sandders - Mostly negative stuff about cannabis, but that it does have its uses.

1904 - TEXT-BOOK OF INSANITY - By R. Von Krafft-Ebing - Only a couple of negative references to Cannabis. It is important to be able to see the negative as well as the positive.

1904 - CLINICAL LECTURES OF MENTAL DISEASES By T.S. Clouston MD - Insanity, Cannabis is used for - Mania, Melancholia, Sedatives. Selective pages photocopied only.

1903 - DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS - By Clifford Mitchell MD. - Cannabis is used to treat Headache, Renal Calculus, Cystitis.

1901 - MENTAL DISEASES AND THEIR MODERN TREATMENT - By Selden Haines Talcott - Pub. Boericke & Runyon co.

1898 - LECTURES ON THE ACTION OF MEDICINES - By T. Lauder Brunton, Pub. MacMillan and co. - a couple of examples of Cannabis used are mentioned, pages 210, 643. Note the Assassin myth is mention.

1895 - PRACTICAL THERAPEUTICS By Hobart Amory Hare, M.D. --Pub Lea Brothers & Co. Great reference book. Mentions uses of Cannabis, read MS-word file for book.

1890 - DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS - By Clifford Mitchell MD - Oxaluria, cystitis, all sort of bladder diseases. 1885 - DISEASES OF WOMEN - By Alexander J.C. Skene, MD - Pub. D. Appleton and Company. - Various (but not a great many) genealogical references to Cannabis as a treatment to diseases of women.

1882 - THE INCIDENTAL EFFECTS OF DRUGS - By Dr. L. Lewin, Pub. William Wood & Co. Very short section on Cannabis, generally negative. Pg's 147,148.

1881 - The Opium habit and alcoholism: by Dr. Frederick heman Hubbard - A treatise on the habits of opium and its compounds ; alcohol ; chloralhydrate ; chloroform ; bromide potassium ; and cannabis indica : including their therapeutical indications : with suggestions for treating various painful complications. Published: New York : A.S. Barnes & Co. 259 p.

1873 - THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEW REMEDIES - By Edwin M. Hale MD. - about 7 pages worth of stuff.

1871 - Opium and the opium-appetite : with notices of alcoholic beverages, cannabis indica, tobacco and coca, and tea and coffee, in their hygeienic aspects and pathologic relations by Alonzo Calkins. Published: Philadelphia : Lippincott, 1871. - Physical Details: 390 p.; 19 cm.


Selected pages from these books are available (CD-Rom format) from the museum.




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