John Silas Scalf was a self-taught mountain medicine man. He was always addressed as Doc Scalf. In addition to raising huge fields of watermelons and cantaloupes for sale at roadside stands and to his neighbors, he operated a small laboratory in his home. In this laboratory he produced many different kinds of ointments, salves, and herb tonics for all the aliments that plagued his neighbors. The most famous herb tonic produced by John Scalf in the 1930s was renamed, mass produced, and marketed on a large scale throughout Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia by his brother, Dawrity Scalf, as “Scalf’s Indian River Medicine". The medicine books were provided to Virgil Scalf by Leo "Skip" Scalf II, the great-grandson of John Silas Scalf.

Listed below are the recipes from the medicine books for many different kinds of  medicines.