self-doctoring

Updated: May 22, 2025

So vast was the confidence of the community in some or any kind of a doctor, and in self-doctoring, that as late as the year 1721 there was but one regularly graduated physician in Boston Dr. Samuel Douglas; and it may be noted that he was one of the most decided opponents of inoculation for small-pox.

Alice Morse Earle - Customs and Fashions in Old New England

Acute conditions, are usually inflammations or infections with irritated tissue, with swelling, redness, and often copious secretions of mucous and pus, such as colds, flu, a first time case of pneumonia, inflamed joints as in the early stages of arthritis, etc. These acute conditions usually remedy in one to three weeks of fasting. Acute conditions are excellent candidates for self-doctoring.

Isabel Moser - How and When to Be Your Own Doctor