The New Jewell of Health: The Four Books of Distilations. 1576.
The New Jewell of Health wherein is contained the most excellent Secretes of Physicke and Philosophie was written by the English surgeon George Baker (1540–1600), in 1576. Published as four books the work was compiled from the earlier medical text Evonymus by the Swiss naturalist, physician and father of modern biology Conrad Gessner (26 March 1516 – 13 December 1565). The work is a treatise on distillation and the use of distillated herbs in medical practice, a precursor to modern chemistry distillation was at the time still under the branch of alchemy. Baker published a second edition of The New Jewel of Health in 1599 under the title The New and Old Physic. In the 16th century, surgeons (called barber-surgeons, due to the duality of the profession), did not need to have a medical degree (or indeed any formal qualification), unlike physicians, who held a University medical degree.