Finley Ellingwood was an American doctor of

eclectic medicine Eclectic medicine was a branch of American medicine that made use of botanical remedies along with other substances and physical therapy practices, popular in the latter half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. The term was coined by ...

who was the author of the influential American Materia Medica, therapeutics, and pharmacognosy in 1919. Ellingwood was an active Chicago physician with many years experience, and an acknowledged expert in

obstetrical Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgic ...

gynecological Gynaecology or gynecology (see American and British English spelling differences) is the area of medicine concerned with conditions affecting the female reproductive system. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, which focuses on pre ...

medicine. He was a vocal advocate of women physicians, and edited ''Ellingwood's Therapeutist'' for many years. His brand of Eclectic Medicine differed from the more subdued Cincinnati style as mentored by Scudder, Lloyd, Fyfe, and Felter. The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and

Pharmacognosy Pharmacognosy is the interdisciplinary scientific study of natural drugs and bioactive compounds from plants, animals, and minerals—originally focused on identifying crude drugs but now expanded to molecular, chemical, ecological, and medicin ...

is a serious medical text from the early 20th century, intended for practicing physicians and surgeons, which refers to difficult medical situations found in that period. There is an emphasis on physical diagnosis. The book is organized by organ system affected instead of by herbal name, so it will have headings such as "agents acting on the

nervous system In biology, the nervous system is the complex system, highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its behavior, actions and sense, sensory information by transmitting action potential, signals to and from different parts of its body. Th ...

" or "agents acting on the

heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...

". This type of listing is somewhat controversial as

herbal medicine Herbal medicine (also called herbalism, phytomedicine or phytotherapy) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. Scientific evidence for the effectiveness of many herbal treatments ...

s tend to work on more than one system. The book had been substantially lost until it was scanned by herbalist

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. Moore's work frequently addresses various Social issue, social, political, and economic topics. He first became publicly known for his award-winning debut ...

in pdf format. The book is also available in

HTML Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...

format at

Henriette Kress Henriette Kress (born 1963) is a Finnish herbalist. Early life Kress was born in Germany and is of German descent. She moved to Finland with her family when she was eleven years old. Kress is a Swedish-speaking Finn The Swedish-speaking p ...

's website.http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic/ellingwood Henriette Kress version in html

Works

* ''American Materia medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy : developing the latest acquired Knowledge of Drugs, and especially of the direct Action of single Drugs upon exact Conditions of Disease, with especial Reference to the Therapeu tics of the Plant Drugs of the Plant Drugs of the Americas''. – Evanston ll.: Ellinwood's Therapeutist, 1919
Digital edition
by the

University and State Library Düsseldorf The University and State Library Düsseldorf (, abbreviated ULB Düsseldorf) is a central service institution of Heinrich Heine University. Along with Bonn and Münster, it is also one of the three State Libraries of North Rhine-Westphalia. ...

* ''A systematic Treatise on Materia medica and Therapeutics : with Reference to the most direct Action of Drugs''. – Chicago : Chicago Medical Pr., 1902
Digital edition
by the

* ''A Synopsis of Medical Chemistry''. – Chicago Veterinary College., 1889.

References

Herbalists 20th-century American physicians Physicians from Illinois Year of death missing Year of birth missing {{pharmacy-stub