Dorothy Hall's Herbal Medicine
Botany Reference Alternative Medicine Holistic Health Natural Health Herbal Medicine Wellness Iridology
Dorothy Hall’s Herbal Medicine (1980s, Hachette Australia) is the classic Australian handbook that turned kitchen benches into mini-apothecaries long before the modern wellness boom. In 327 generously illustrated pages, Hall—one of the country’s best-known naturopaths—distils decades of clinical practice into a single, easy-to-follow reference that covers 150+ medicinal herbs, their planetary correspondences, iridology clues, and exact dosages for everything from childhood earaches to adult burnout. Young adults and seasoned herb-nerds alike appreciate her no-nonsense tone: each plant profile lists what part to use, when to harvest, how to brew the strongest tea, and what prescription drugs it may interact with, so you can self-treat safely without wading through dense scientific jargon.
What makes this particular paperback special is that it preserves the original 1980s charts and line drawings that later printings replaced with lower-resolution artwork. The botanical sketches are crisp enough for confident plant ID on bush-walks, while the moon-phase calendars still guide urban gardeners who want to replicate Hall’s famous “planting by the signs” routine. Owners repeatedly flag the iridology chapter—complete with colour-eye photos—as the fastest way to spot constitutional weaknesses before symptoms appear; second-hand copies in tidy condition (like this one) are snapped up because the photos are often missing or tea-stained in ex-library copies.
Collectors and natural-health students hunt the first-edition ISBN for two reasons: the formulae ratios were tweaked in the 1998 reprint, and the original index cross-references both Latin and common names, saving precious minutes in clinic. This copy is clean, tight-spined, and free of the highlighting that usually obscures dosage tables; only a discreet removed publication page and minor inner-cover marks keep the price reachable. If you want the complete, unedited 1980s wisdom that launched Australia’s herbal renaissance—without paying collector-signed premiums—this sturdy, lightly carried copy is the sweet-spot addition to your alternative-medicine shelf.
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