These are two delightful books written by a little-known nature-curist and herbalist who practiced in Maywood, Illinois, from the mid-1930s to the end of WWII. I know nothing more about him, but I presume he was one of the German charismatic healers, like Lust, Ehret and Mausert, who immigrated to the USA between the wars. There are over 300 illustrations
Michael’s Commentary: An enigma, Deschauer wrote a number of self-published books, maintained a practice and ran an herb and vitamin business in Maywood, Illinois up until, I gather, the late 1940s. It would seem, from his exhaustive knowledge of rural German plant names, that he was one of the German nature-cure charismatics who immigrated to the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. Others include Benedict Lust, Arnold Ehret and Otto Mausert. Going by the appearance of Dr. Deschauer in his photograph in volume one, he was already an aged man, and perhaps he died before finishing the planned third volume of this series. As a former printer, I presume that these (as well as his other) books were published on a small press (an A.B.Dick or Multilith, most likely) and bound by hand, with staples and binding tape…Old-school desktop printing. The illustrations appear to have been carefully cut out of existing books (I know most of them by sight), photographed and burned into metal plates for in-house printing. I know nothing more about the good doctor (he is quoted several times by John Christopher in HIS books) except that the first volume has been reprinted a few times over the years by others and that his several other books are unknown by anyone I have contacted. Nonetheless, except for some peculiar Latin names (retained) and several (noted) misidentifications of American plants (understandable if one were of German training), there is a sure and experienced hand at work in these two books and they deserve to be available.
Volume one (1945) , 113 pages, 147 illustrations of about 150 distinct plants, bookmarked Acrobat (.pdf) file, 2.4 MB
Volume two (1945) 116 pages, 155 illustrations of about 160 distinct plants, bookmarked Acrobat (.pdf) file, 2.7 MB