MY Beloved Sex:

I have taken upon myself a great task, at the age of sixty-two, through love for you and the rising generation. The Scripture teaches,—Where much is given, much will be required; that is the case with me. Nature’s gift was liberal, and this gift I had ample means to cultivate.

I left Boston, my native place, and kind parents, at the age of fifteen, for Montreal, there to acquire and master languages which my native home could not bestow. Here I devoted three years to French and Latin, as they were absolutely necessary for my advancement in Philosophy and Botany. I remained here some years, and frequently visited the Iroquois tribe, learning much of them in the healing art.

I began to keep a regular manuscript of all I could possibly learn from every tribe and nation, not allowing myself to be biased by prejudice.

My beloved friends, daily do I read books that are styled Herbal, on the Virtues of Roots, Herbs, &c., and have not only discovered in them an almost innumerable quantity of errors and defects, but also a multiplicity of directions for their uses which my own knowledge and practice proves ineffectual in the cure of the complaints to which these treatisers have directed their applications.

I likewise give you a description of the human body, or, in a word, the Living Animal, easy and comprehensive, that it may be understood by every one who reads it. I have written it in a plain, easy and familiar style, adapted to all capacities. It is the sincere wish of my heart, that it may prove a blessing to all.

MADAME YOUNG, M. D.