Prallent after Dodd

View of the Celestial Influx on the Body as illustrated in Culpeper's Family Physician and Sibley's Occult Sciences

Line and stipple engraving printed in black and bistre, circa 1810, hand colored later

Sheet  9.125 x 6.75 in, 232 mm x 172 mm

An early 19th C. representation of the purported influences of the signs of the Zodiac on the body.

Physician, astrologer and occult philosopher, Ebenezer Sibly (1751-99) wrote popular works of medical theory and advice, including Culpepers English Physician (1789) and this companion volume of 1795. A synthesis of theology, natural philosophy and medical science, the book argues for a microcosmic understanding of the human body as a composite of the four essential elements. An ambitious work, it bears witness to an important era in the development of modern medicine, as Sibly looks to combine an older hermetic tradition with new Enlightenment-era insights into the physical universe. In the final section of the work, Sibly touts his remedies, Lunar Tincture and Solar Tincture, developed to act upon female and male ailments, respectively. Composed from the pabulum of the universe, these medicines, Sibly claims, cure everything from gunshot wounds to dog bites.