About the Book
Fong Wan ran a herb company at 576–578 Tenth Street in Oakland, California, and Herb Lore (1927) is his own account of the Chinese herbal tradition he practised: the herbs and their uses, the organs and complaints they were held to address, testimonial cases, and a closing section of Chinese cookery.
It is also a document of Chinese-American life under pressure. Herbalists like Fong Wan were repeatedly prosecuted for practising medicine without a licence; he fought the charges and won, and the book is partly a public defence of his trade.
The medical claims in this book are historical, not medical advice, and pages carrying treatment instructions or dosages are marked with a safety warning. The text is left exactly as printed.
This digital edition is built from a dual-engine OCR, reconciled page by page, with the original photographs.