Description: Dr. Clark's New Illustrated Marriage Guide: A Treatise on the Anatomy and Physiology of the Generative Organs of Both Sexes, and their Organic and Functional Diseases, being a Complete and Comprehensive Private Medical Instructor and Guide to the Married and Those Contemplating Marriage, in Language within the Comprehension of All. yes that's the title. 1st edition of a very hard to find book.sounds like a completely normal Victorian era sexual health book, right? and for the first 384 pages it is.it has the most unsexy illustrations of sexual organs you've ever seen.it is in teeeeeeeeny font, so it goes into very comprehensive detail about the difference between men's and women's bodies, how they work, how they work ~together~, pregnancy, childbirth, sexual diseases and "derangements", health and medicine, medical anomalies and anecdotes, cultural differences around the world, all that.it's even better because you could tell the author was just an angry old man, and his personality really comes through his writing which makes it way more entertaining of a read than you'd expect.his views don't completely align with modern ideals ("mixing of the races is good, unless its white and black folks"), and some of the science is also outdated, but he still seems pretty progressive for his era. and then, after page 384, the book just goes off into left field without any warning, turning into a random, disorganized "Clark's Secrets" almanac. there are common recipes for household cleaners, medicines, etc, mixed with magic spells (yes, in a medical book), some of which are fabulously ridiculous (i.e.,all you have to do is use hare's fat instead of normal oil in your lamp, and you can force an entire room into a naked party). there's also divination, fortune telling and other occult sciences, housekeeping, etiquette, fashion tips, and other "womanly" things, and also other disconnected life hacks of varying degrees of usefulness, like how to bait animals, how to do basic arithmetic, picking friends and lovers based solely on phrenology,how to make stickers, which was apparently a new technology ("decalomanie"), whether or not you should eat fruit, how to alter your show horse's condition, including how to make it look sick or not eat (???to sabotage other horses???), making counterfeit silver (seriously starting to question this guy's morals),the 7th book of Moses (an apocryphal, cabalistic Hebrew text that appeared around this time),how to build a house out of "sand & refuse",how to make colorful fire and other parlour tricks, etc.... it then ends with advertisements for other books, which returns us to to the realm of normalcy.there's abouuuut 100 pages of this stuff after the first 384 numbered pages, but they're not cohesively numbered or referenced. pure chaos. seriously just take a few minutes to read some of the pages i took pics of. those aren't even the highlights, that was me randomly opening the book to different pages. SPECS: small, about 6 x 4 x 1".dark teal cloth hardcover.384 pages for the main book, plus about 100 pages afterwards of random spells and almanac stuff. CONDITION: great!in excellent condition for the age. minor wear to cover's edges, inside almost perfect. check out my other listings for more old & rare books from my personal collection. i have several other occult and medical treatises. if you're more into the almanac portion of this book, please also check out the "business guide" book i have listed. definitely not as unhinged as this one, but still an interesting collection of how-tos from the period.
Price: 250 USD
Location: Farmington, Michigan
End Time: 2024-09-09T16:34:03.000Z
Shipping Cost: 4.85 USD
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Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Book Title: Dr. Clark's New Illustrated Marriage Guide
Signed: No
Narrative Type: Nonfiction
Publisher: Union Publishing Company
Original Language: English
Item Length: 4 in
Intended Audience: Young Adults, Adults
Edition: First Edition
Vintage: Yes
Publication Year: 1873
Type: Non Fiction
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Era: 1800s
Item Height: 6 in
Author: Dr. Clark
Features: Illustrated
Genre: Antiquarian & Collectible, Family, Parenting & Relations, Health, Treatments & Medicine, Life Sciences, Magic, Mind, Body & Spirit, Mysticism, Pharmacology, Physiology, Sexuality, Almanac
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Topic: Alternative Health, Alternative Medicine, American History, Anatomy, Biology, Childbirth, Diseases, Divination, Doctors, Etiquette, Family Life, Gender Studies, Health, History of Ideas, Love, Maternity, Medicine, Metaphysical, Occultism, Popular Science, Pregnancy, Puberty, Quackery, Science, Almanac
Item Width: 1 in
Number of Pages: 480-ish
