H. R. (Henry Rice) Stout

Henry Rice Stout, M.D., was born on March 17, 1843, in Westfield, New York. A biographical sketch published in a homoeopathic reference work says he was educated at Kenyon College, spent a short time in business, and also served in the United States Army during the Civil War before studying medicine in Chicago.

He became known as a physician and author of large family medical manuals, including Our Family Physician and the German-language Unser Familien-Arzt. These books were designed for readers without medical training and presented advice in straightforward, practical language, which helps explain why his work continued to circulate in libraries, reprints, and digital archives long after its original publication.

Some later sources identify him as a homeopathic physician, while his books themselves are described as drawing on several healing traditions common in the late 1800s. Because the surviving online record is limited and scattered, the safest picture is of a late-19th-century doctor who wrote accessible medical reference books for the general public.