A Guide to Health Being an Exposition of the Principles of the Thomsonian System of Practice 1844

7/29/2019 A Guide to Health Being an Exposition of the Principles of the Thomsonian System of Practice 1844

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

y . .FOUNDED 1836

WASHINGTON, DC.OPO 1667244-1


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M A o^v-v.A/


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GUIDE TO HEALTH;BEING AN

EXPOSITION OF THE PRINCIPLESOF THE

THOMSONIAN SYSTEM OF PRACTICE,

THEIR MODE OF APPLICATION IN THE CURE OFKYERY FORM OF D I S E A S EEMBRACING A CONCI3E VIEW OF THE VARIOUS THEORIES OF

ANCIENT AND MODERN PRACTICE.

BY BENJAMIN COLBY.Let vis strip our profession of every thing that looks like mystery.Rusn.

NASHUA, N. H.PUBLISHED BY CHARLES T. GILL.

1844.


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FORCES MEDICAL LIBRARY5T0N, d. C -

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, byBENJAMIN COLBY,In the Clerk's Office of the District of New Hampshire.

MURRAY & KIMBALL, PRINTERS.


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'V,

TOTHE HUMAN RACE 9F BOTH SEXES,THIS FEEBLE ATTEMPT

WITH THE MEANS OFBEING THEIR OWN PHYSICIANS,

AND THEREBY AVOIDING THE MISERIESENTAILED ON THEM

BY LEARNED AND IGNORANT QUACKS,JJs HespectfuUs 31eirate&,

BY THEIRSINCERE FRIEND,THE AUTHOR.


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PREFACE.In presenting to the public this little volume, advocating and ex-

plaining a system of Medical Practice, diverse from the popular sys-tems of the daya system against which there exists much unfound-ed, deep-rooted prejudiceprejudice, not based on a knowledge ofits principles, on a trial of its remedial agents, but on the false andridiculous reports in circulation against it ; a brief history of the cir-cumstances and motives that led to its publication, may not be unin-teresting to the reader.Having spent a large proportion of the last fifteen years of my life

in examining the different medical theories, and observing the re-sults of those theories carried out in practice, I arrived at conclu-sions that were to me startling that were painful to contemplatethat could not fail to inspire in every benevolent man, a fixed deter-mination to wage an uncompromising war against systems, produc-tive of so much sorrow, misery, and death.The evidences brought to bear upon my mind, in the testimony of

the most eminent of the faculty statesmen and philosophers, andmy own personal experience and observation, compelled me to be-lieve, although very reluctantly, in consequence of the regard I hadfor those ofmy friends who were engaged in the practice of medicine,that the science of medicine, as taught in the schools of physic, andas practiced from the time of Paracelsus until the present, was a se-ries of blind experiments with the most deadly poisonsthe effectof which is now felt by millions of its unhappy victims ; while mil-lions more sleep beneath the clods of the valley, cut off" in the vigorof youth, and strength of manhood, by these poisons. I do not feelresponsible for a belief, that the force of evidence urges upon me,any more than I should for falling to the ground from a height, whenall intercepting objects are removed. Justice to my fellow men de-


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VI.

mauds of me that I should fearlessly express my views, and I shallnot demur. It is my candid opinion, and that opinion has not beenformed hastily, that nine-tenths of all the medical practice of thenineteenth century, including a portion, but by no means an equalportion, of all the different systems, is not based on scientific princi-ples, or benevolence and truth, but on cupidity, avarice, and a desirefor fame, on the one part, and ignorance and misplaced confidenceon the other. Remove these pillars, and the gilded temple calledmedical science, that medical authors have been propping up for 4000yearsthe material of which it is composed not being sufficientlystrong to sustain its own weightwould fall to the ground with asmuch certainty as did the edifice from which Sampson^ with giant'sstrength, removed the pillars.One quarter part of nearly all the newspapers throughout the coun-

try is filled with flaming advertisements of quack nostrumsthemost of which are prepared without any regard to scientific princi-ples or adaptedness to cure disease ; for which millions of dollarsare annually paid, and not one in a hundred receives any permanentbenefit therefrom.The Editor of the Portland Tribune gives the following as the or-

igin of that celebrated medicineBrandreth's Pills:"A few yearsago a young Englishman, by the name of Anson, was an under ser-vant in a large pill establishment in London, where he received tri-fling pay ; but he managed to lay by sufficient funds to bring him tothis country. He arrived at New Yorkcalled himself Dr. Bran-dreth, from Londonsaid he was a grandson of a distinguished Dr.by that name, who died some years since. He was so extremely ig-norant, that he wrote his name, or scratched it rather, "Dr. Benja-min Brandreth, M. D." He hired an officemade pillsadvertisedthem pretty freelyand now they are all over the country. By suchempiricism, this individual, whose real name is Anson, has obtainedthe cognomen of "Prince of Quacks," and has accumulated a hand-some fortune, while not one in a thousand who lias taken his pills,has any doubts of his being a regular physician. Such is the suc-cess of quackeryand in this manner are the American people gull-ed, when if known, they themselves of brown bread and aloes couldmake a better pill. Mr. A. alias Dr. B. in the course of time open-


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VI 1.ed a shop in Philadelphia, for the sale of his medicine, and appoint-ed a man by the name of Wright as his sole agent. In a short timethe Dr. and he quarrelledhad a newspaper controversy the resultof which was Mr. W. set up for himselfmade a new pill, or rathergave a new name to an old one, calling it the "Indian Purgative Pill,"advertised it freely, employed agents, &c. and now it is used prettyextensively as an Indian medicine, when probably not a son of theforest knows of its existence.

"In a similar way nearly all the medicines advertised so exten-sively, and recommended so extravagantly for their intrinsic virtueswere first brought into existence. Should the thousand pills of dif-ferent names daily vended in this country and swallowed by the do-zen, be analyzed by the nicest process, they would be found to con-tain nearly the same ingredients."The 'Matchless Sanative,' said to be a German invention, was

sold in very small vials, at the moderate price of two dollars and fiftycents, as a certain cure for the consumption. It was nothing more,we believe, than sweetened water, and yet hundreds were induced tobuy it, because its price was so exorbitant, presuming by this thatits virtues were rareand many a poor widow was drained of herlast farthing to obtain this worthless stuff. Even the Sanative, inits conspicuous advertisements, was not lacking in lengthy recom-mendations of its superlative virtuesthrowing all other medicinesfar into the shade."These quack nostrums stand on the same platform, and are sup-

ported by the same pillars that support the regular systems of prac-tice, although they do not produce so much injury, not generally be-ing composed of so powerful agents. Thomson, Curtis, Graham,Alcott, Combe, Fowler, Mrs. Gove, and others, have done much inthe work of Medical Reform. Much yet remains to be accomplish-ed, by diffusing knowledge among the people, and uniting the in-terest of the physician with that of the patient. These objects areadmirably accomplished by the plan of social re-organization, pro-posed by Charles Fourier, and advocated by some of the most learn-ed and philanthropic of this country. This enterprize is destined todo more to elevate the down-trodden, oppressed and injured of ourrace, than all other organizations combined. Place man in a true


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relation with his fellow manunite their interestscombine theirlaborlet every man understand that his highest happiness consistsin making his fellow man happy; and what would be the result?The physician, instead of dealing out poison, would deal out adviceto his fellow men to live according to the dictates of nature, and pointout to them the proper course to pursue to avoid being sick. Solong as the interests of physician and patient are at variance, wemust expect long doctors' bills and long runs of fever.

In view of these faets, the path of duty is plain to me.1st. I am bound to give the public all the information my advan-

tages may have enabled me to obtain, relating to the prevention andcure of disease, in as cheap form as possible. This I have made afeeble effort to do in this little work; begging the pardon of the''literati" for entering the authors' ranks, with so few of the requi-site qualifications, but asking no favors of the Medical Faculty, sci-entific as they may be ; for if I have not succeeded in proving theThomsonian system true, it cannot possibly eome farther from thetruth than their own.

2d. I am bound to use my influence to advance an enterprizepromising so much for the world as the Association system.My position is now fully definedmy views before the world. Ihave treated the subject just as I understand itreserving nothingfor future emolument, for which I expect to be ridiculed by those itis designed to benefit, and persecuted by those whose craft is in dan-ger.

I have endeavored to present plain, simple facts in a plain, simplemanner ; so as to be easily understood by all. The technicalities ofmedical works are left out, or explained in a glossary, where anymedical word used in this work may be found, with its meaning. Iacknowledge my indebtedness to Drs. Thomson, Curtis, and others,for the principles herein contained, especially to Dr. Curtis, Profes-sor of the Medical Institute at Cincinnati, who has done more thanany other man to present the Thomsonian system to the world in areceivable shape.This little work is designed to be, as its name declares, a Guide

to Health. Not a guide for a few to enable them to get rich byselling advice and medicine to the manv ; but a guide to all to ena-


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IX.

ble them to avoid becoming the victims of the avarice and duplicityof physicians. Many of them, to be sure, take a philanthropic andnoble course, consulting always the interest of those who place con-fidence in them. But common observation leads me to think thatthe large majority of physicians consult their own interests first, indoing which they are not "sinners above all others," as the commonmotto is, let every man look out lor himself. Therefore, if everyman was his own physician, the interest of physician and patientwould be identified. Those who make the practice of medicine asource of gain, will ridicule the idea of every man being his ownphysician. So have priests ridiculed the idea of letting every manread the bible and judge for himself of the important truths thereincontained. As well might the village baker ridicule the idea of thegood housewife making her own bread ; alleging that it required along course of study to make bread, and the people must not onlybuy all their bread of them at an exorbitant price, but pay them afee for telling them what kind they must eat and hovr much. Thepreparation and use of medicine to cure disease, requires no morescience than the preparation and use of bread.Every head cf a family ought to understand the medicinal proper-

ties of a sufficient number of roots and plants to cure any diseasethat might occur in his or her family, and teach their children thesame. This is in accordance with the declaration of the learnedand philanthropic, and justly celebrated Rush. He says : "Let usstrip our profession of every thing that looks like mystery and im-position, and clothe medical knowledge in a dress so simple and in-telligible, that it may become a part of academical education in allseminaries of learning. Truth is simple on all subjects ; and uponthose essential to the happiness of mankiud, it is obvious to themeanest capacities. There is no man so simple, that cannot betaught to cultivate grain ; and no woman who cannot be taught tomake it into bread. And shall the means of preserving our health,by the cultivation and preparation of proper aliments be so intelligi-ble, and yet, the means of restoring it, when lost, so abstruse, thatwe must take years of study, to discover and apply them ? Tosuppose this is to call in question the goodness of the Deity, and tobelieve that he acts without system and unity in his work. Surgi-cal operauons and diseases that rarely occur, may require profession-


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al aid ; but the knowledge necessary for these purposes, is soon ac-quired ; and two or three persons, separated from other pursuits,would be sufficient to meet the demands of a city containing fortythousand people."

Dr. Rush certainly knew all the mysteries of medical theories andtheir importance in the cure of disease, the study of which requiresmany years' close application ; yet he says we question the goodnessof the Deity in not believing that a man or woman who can cultivateand prepare food, cannot gather, prepare, and administer medicine,and the knowledge necessary to treat rare cases and perform all ne-cessary surgical operations is soon acquired.

It has been generally remarked, that those families that employno physicians, in cases of scarlet fever, canker rash, measles, &c,lose a less number of children, than those who employ them. Thereason is obvious; the physician gives physic and the mother warm-ing teas ; the former is injurious, the latter all that is needed. Ihave been informed by Mrs. Whitney, formerly of this town, thatprevious to becoming acquainted with Thomsonian medicine, herhusband had paid physicians about $75 a year, but for six years pastthey had not paid a dollar for medical service. She said they hadhad as severe cases within the last six years as when they employedphysicians, but were soon overcome by medicine used by herself.She has also had an extensive practice in this village, with a suc-cess which any physician might be proud to equal. Some of themost intelligent and wealthy of our citizens have employed her indifficult cases, and she has been enabled by her attention and suc-cess to secure their entire confidence. Many are indebted to her forthe preservation of their lives after the faculty had given them up todie. Many others within the limits of my acquaintance have beenequally as successful in saving their money and health.With these preliminary remarks we submit this volume to the

people, trusting it may lead many a bewildered victim of disease in-to the paths of health.

Nashua, N. H., July, 1844.


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GUIDE TO HEALTH.

PART I.CHAPTER I.

THE SCIENCE OF MEDICINE.What is it ? What are the principles on which

it is founded? and what are the results of thoseprinciples, carried out in practice ? Science isknowledge. The science of Medicine, is aknowledge of the art of preventing and curingdisease. Where can this knowledge be obtain-ed ? Should we heap together all that has beenwritten on the subject of Medicine, it would forma mountain, the base of which would spread outover the earth, and its summit penetrate theclouds. In perusing these works, we are delight-ed, astonished, and disappointed. Delighted, withthe sublimity of style,the talent and learningdisplayed. Astonished, that such a combinationof talent, erudition, and persevering research,should arrive at conclusions so visionary and un-satisfactory. Disappointed, in not finding theknowledge of a remedy for the cure of disease.We must give these authors the credit of makinguntiring effort, and bestowing incessant labor up-on the subject, but like the man who attempted


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12 THE GUIDE TO HEALTH.

to cross a pond frozen over, during a violentsnow-storm. The snow flew so thick, that hesoon lost sight of either shore, and after wander-ing many hours, he found himself on the sameshore from which he started. So with medicalauthors : having no compass, and the visionarytheories of others flying so thick about them, in-volved them in darkness, and they wandered inuncertainty and doubt, until they arrived at thesame point from which they started, having foundno facts on which to base Medical Science.The reason is obvious. Truth is plain andsimple. God, in his wisdom, has adapted im-portant truths to the capacity of feeble intellects,"has chosen the weak things of the world toconfound the wise." While the learned and wisein the literary lore of Medical Universities, weregroping amidst this darkness, uncertainty anddoubt, in search of facts on which to base a cor-rect theoryeach fully conscious that the discov-ery of such facts would enable him to write hisname high on the temple of fameDr. Thomson,an illiterate farmer, stumbled on the prize. Rudeand uncultivated though he was, he has discov-ered facts which are destined to overturn the vis-ionary theories of his predecessors.


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CHAPTER II.BRIEF REVIEW OF DIFFERENT THEORIES OF MEDICINE.Tf medical works have been wanting in facts,

they have abounded in theories.Dr. James Graham, the celebrated Medico-

Electrician, of London, says of medicine, " Ithath been very rich in theory, but poor, verypoor, in the practical application of it."

Dr. Jacob Bigelow, Professor in Harvard Uni-versity, says in his annual address before theMedical Society, in 1836 : The premature deathof medical men, brings with it the humiliatingconclusion, that while other sciences have beencarried forward within our own time, and almostunder our own eyes, to a degree of unprecedent-ed advancement, medicine, in regard to some ofits professed and important objects, (the cure ofdisease,) is still an ineffectual speculation.

It is almost universally believed that the sci-ence of medicine, as taught in the schools ofphysic and practiced by the regular faculty, isbased on established principles,principles thaihave been handed down from generation to gen-eration, that are as demonstrable as those ofmathematics, and that a man who has studiedthree years is prepared to practice scientifically.If this were the case, it would save us the neces-sity of writing this little volume, as the literaryworld groans under the weight of medical worksthat have been thrown upon itthe errors ofwhich, each succeeding author has proved to beas numerous as its pages.At what age of the world medicine for the cineof disease was introduced, history does not in-

'*


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14 THE GUIDE TO HEALTH.form us. Frequent reference is made in inspiredwrit, to leaves for the healing of the nationstheplant of renown, and to various other Botanicmedicines ; but we have no account in that book,of mineral poisons ever being used to cure dis-ease. Snch an inconsistency sanctioned by holywrit, would have placed in the hands of the in-fidel a more powerful argument against its truththan now exists.At whatever age disease may have made itsappearance, the first man whose writings on me-dicine have descended to posterity in anythinglike a respectable shape, is Hippocrates ; born inthe island of Cos, about 460 years before Christ.Supposing himself descended from the ancientand fabled Esculapius, he devoted his mind as-siduously to the healing art. He examined at-tentively the opinions of others, thought andjudged for himself, and admitted only those prin-ciples that to him seemed founded on reason.As a theory of life, he advanced the doctrine, thatthe body is endowed with a semi-intelligent prin-ciple capable of applying to its own use whatev-er is congenial with it, and calculated to improveand restore it ; and of rejecting and expellingwhatever is noxious, or tends to the generationof disease.He believed in the conservative and restorativepower of nature, when its laws were strictly fol-lowed, or aided by suitable remedies. Hippo-crates studied diligently, and almost exclusively,the great book of nature, instead of the visionarytheories of men, and probably adopted a morecorrect theory, and safe and successful practice,than any who succeeded him, until the time ofThomson.

Claudius Galanus, or Galen, was born in Per-


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 15gumos in Asia Minor, A. D. 131. He dependedon innocuous vegetables ; sometimes simple, gen-erally very much compounded ; and his practicewas so successful as in many instances to be as-cribed to magic. The Theory of Galen was theacknowledged theory of medicine, until aboutthe time of

Paracelsus, who was born in Switzerland, in1493. He appeared as a reformer of the systemof Galen, rejecting his safe botanic treatment,and administering with a bold and reckless hand,mercury, antimony, and opium.Notwithstanding thousands were destroyed by

this reckless quack, his practice has been handeddown to the present time: undergoing variouschanges and modifications. Says Prof. Water-house : He (Paracelsus,) was ignorant, vain andprofligate, and after living the life of a vagabondhe died a confirmed sot. He studied mystery,and wrapped up his knowledge in terms of hisown invention, so as to keep his knowledge con-fined to himself, and a few chosen followers. Itappears by Prof. Waterhouse, of Harvard Uni-versity, that mercury, antimony, and opium, wereintroduced into common practice by Paracelsus,who was the chief of quacks, which remediescontinue to the present day to be the most potentand commonly used by the faculty.

Stahl, a native of Auspach, rejected all the no-tions of his predecessors, and has the credit ofundoing all that had been done before him.

Hoffman, hiscotemporary and friend, supposedlife dwelt some how or other in the nervous sys-tem.

Boerhaave, a native of Holland, selected fromall the preceding writings whatever he deemedvaluable, preferring Hippocrates among the an-


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cients, and Sydenham among the moderns. Thiscelebrated physician and scholar, ordered in hiswill, that all his books and manuscripts shouldbe burned, one large volume with silver claspsexcepted. The physicians flocked to Leyden,entreating his executors to destroy his will. Theeffects were sold. A German Count, convincedthat the great gilt book contained the whole ar-canum of physic, bought it for ten thousand guil-ders. It was all blank except the first page, onwhich was written, Keep the head cool thefeet warm the body open, and reject all physi-cians. How noble the course of this justly cele-brated physician. After thoroughly investigat-ing the theories of all his predecessors, and writ-ing out a theory of his own, which, when he cameto practice, he found so uncertain and dangerous,that he would not leave it with his sanction, toentail misery and death on future generations.He therefore gave his dying advice to the world,with a full knowledge of the value of all the sys-tems of medicine that had preceded him, to use afew simple medicines, and reject all physicians.Had this advice, given in the 17th century, beenregarded by the world, what a vast amount ofFullering and human life would have been saved.Its benefits would have been incalculable. Amonument should have been erected to his mem-ory, on which should have been inscribed in let-ters of gold, " Here lies an honest man, the no-blest work of God."

Succeeding Boerhaave, were Haller, Cullen,Hunter, Bostock, Brown, Rush, and Chapman,of modern times; the history of whom may betold in the language of Thomas Jefferson, the il-lustrious statesman and philosopher. In a letterto Dr. Wistar, he says: I have lived myself, to


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 17see the disciples of Hoffman, Boerhaave, Cullcnand Brown, succeed one another like the shiftingfigures of the magic lantern ; and their fancies,like the dressers of the annual doll babies fromParis, becoming from their novelty the vogue ofthe day, each, yielding to the next novelty itsephemeral favors. The patient, treated on thefashionable theory, sometimes gets well in spite ofthe medicine; the medicine therefore cured him,and the doctor receives new courage to proceedin his bold experiments on the lives of his fellow-creatures. I believe continues Mr. Jefferson we may safely affirm, that the presumptuousband of medical tyros, let loose upon the world,destroy more human life in one year than all theRobinhoods, Cartouches, and Macbeths do in acentury. It is in this part of medicine I wish tosee a reform, an abandonment of hypothesis forsober facts, the highest degree of value set up-on clenical observation, the least on visionarytheories.

Dr. William Brown, who studied under thefamous Dr. William Cullen, lived in his family,and lectured on his system, says in the preface tohis own works, "The author of this work hasspent more than twenty years, in learning, teach-ing and scrutinizing every part of medicine. Thefirst five years passed away in hearing others,and studying what I had heard, implicitly believ-ing it, and entering upon the possession as a richinheritance. The next five, I was employed inexplaining and refining the several particulars,and bestowing on them a nicer polish. Duringthe five succeeding years, nothing having pros-pered according to my satisfaction, I grew indif-ferent to the subject; and with many eminentmen, and even the vulgar, began to deplore the2*


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healing art, as altogether uncertain and incom-prehensible. All this time passed away without(he acquisition of any advantage, and withoutthat which, of all things, is most agreeable to themind the light of truth ; and so great a portionof the short and perishable life of man was total-ly lost ! Here I was, at this period, in the situa-tion of a traveller in an unknown country, who,after losing every trace of his way, wanders inthe shades of night."

Dr. Brown's experience probably differs in on-ly one particular, from that of every student ofthe theories of medicine, and that is, he spentseventeen years longer than is customary, to ob-tain authority to kill according to law.Dr. Rush says, in his lectures in the Univer-

sity of Pennsylvania, "I am insensibly led tomake an apology for the instability of the theo-ries and practices of physic. Those physiciansgenerally become most eminent, who soonestemancipate themselves from the tyranny of theschools ot physic. Our want of success is owingto the following causes, 1st. Our ignorance ofdisease, of which dissections daily convince us.2nd. Our ignorance of a suitable remedy, havingfrequent occasion to blush at our prescriptions.*"Had not Rush so soon fallen a victim to hisown favorite practice of bleeding, he would un-questionably have laid a foundation for medicalreformation, that would ere this have swept awaythose false theories with the besom of destruc-tion. He says, " We have assisted in multiply-ing diseases ; we have done more, we have in-creased their mortality. I will beg pardon of thefaculty, for acknowledging in this public manner,the weakness of their profession." He thenspeaks forth in the dignity of his manhood, and


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 10from the honesty of his heart, "I am pursuingtruth, and am indifferent where I am led, if sheonly is my leader." A man of so much benevo-lence and conscientiousness as the venerableRush, could not long have reconciled his acknowl-edgments and practice.

Dr. L. M. Whiting, in a dissertation at an an-nual commencement in Pittsfield, Mass., franklyacknowledges that, " the very principles uponwhich most of the theories involving medicalquestions have been based, were never establish-ed. They are, and always were, false ; conse-quently the superstructures built upon them, wereas the baseless fabric of a vision, transient intheir existence

;passing away before the intro-

duction of new doctrines and hypotheses, like dewbefore the morning sun. System after system,has arisen, flourished, and been forgotten, in rap-id and melancholy succession, until the wholefield is strewed with the disjointed materials inperfect chaos and amongst the rubbish, thephilosophic mind may search for ages, withoutbeing able to glean from it hardly one solitarywell established fact.

Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, after lecturing inHarvard University twenty years, retired, sayingof all he had been so long and zealousy teaching."I am sick of learned quackery."We have now clearly shown, by incontestibleevidence, that the science of medicine, as taughtin the schools of physic, is based on no establish-ed principles ; and therefore, must,be false in the-ory and destructive in practice. Can the objectof medical science be accomplished by these the-ories, while all admit it to be the prevention andcure of disease ?


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CHAPTER III.THE EFFECT OF THE REMEDIES USED BY THE MEDICAL

FACULTY.Notwithstanding the darkness, uncertainty and

doubt in which medical science is involved itsincapability of answering the desired object ofsuch a science ; if its remedial agents were in-nocent there would be much less occasion for areform than there now is. Should we see a blindman armed with a pistol, shooting into a groupcomposed of friends and enemies, should we notsuppose he would be as likely to kill his friendsas enemies? Equally as liable is the physician,armed with deadly poisons, administered withoutany certain criterion to guide him in their use, tokill nature instead of disease, or kill more thanhe cures.The most common remedies used by the facul-ty, are Mercury in some of its forms, Antimony,Opium, Bleeding, and Blistering.

Mercury, or the ore which contains it, aboundsin China, Hungary, Spain, France, and SouthAmerica ; and of all the metals used as a medi-cine, is the most extensively used there beingscarcely a disease against which some of its pre-parations are not exhibited.Calomel, a preparation of Mercury, is said to

be the Sampson of the Materia Medica, and, asanother has expressed, has destroyed more Amer-icans than Sampson did of the Philistines.

Dr. Powell, formally professor in the MedicalCollege at Burlington, Vt., in a letter to Dr. Wrightof Montpelier, says : " It is to be hoped the timeis not far distant, when all deleterious poisons


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 21will be struck from our Materia Medica. It ismy opinion, calomel or mercury has made farmore disease since it has been so universallyexhibited, than all the epidemics of the country.It is more than ten years since I have adminis-tered a dose of it, although I have been daily inthe practice of physic, and I am sure I have beenmore successful in practice than when I made useof it. The last dose I had in the house, I gaveto some rats, and it as radically killed them asarsenic."

Dr. Powell, having administered calomel formany years, could not have been mistaken in re-gard to its effects.Dr. Chapman, Professor in the University of

Pennsylvania, after speaking of the extravagantuse of calomel at the South, says: " He who foran ordinary cause resigns the fate of his patientto mercury, is a vile enemy to the sick; and ifhe is tolerably popular, will, in one successfulseason, have paved the way for the business oflife, for he has enough to do ever afterwards, tostop the mercurial breach of the constitutions ofhis dilapidated patients."

Dr. Graham, of the University of Glasgow,says : " We have often had every benevolent feel-ing of our mind called into painful exercise, uponviewing patients, already exhausted by protract-ed illness, groaning under accumulated miseriesof an active course of mercury, and by this farcedeprived of perfect restoration. A barberouspractice, the inconsistency, folly and injury ofwhich no words can sufficiently describe."

Dr. Robertson, of Cincinnati, says in his lec-tures : "It is astonishing and will remain an as-tonishment to future generations, that the veryrankest poisons are the greatest remedies now in


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use in the world, and have been for the last fifty-years past. It would be a melancholy tale couldit be told of the millions who have perishedthrough this practice."

Prof. Waterhouse says : "When calomel ispushed to a salivation it delipidates, if we mayso speak, or dissolves the human fluids, all ofwhich are made of globules or round particles onthe crasis of which depend the vital energy ofour bodies and of course our health and vigor.After the hazardous process of salivation, thephysician may, perhaps, be able to saynow Ihave so far changed the morbid state of the pa-tient, that his disease is conquered, and entirelyovercome by the powerful operation of the mer-cury. But then in what condition does he findthe sufferer? His teeth are loosened, his jointsare weakened, his healthy countenance is im-paired, his voice is more feeble, and he is moresusceptible of cold, and a damp state of the wea-ther. His original disorder is, to be sure, over-come, but it is paying a great price for it. Se-cret history conceals from public notice innumer-able victims of this sort."

Prof. Barton, of the Medical College of Lou-isiana, says of the tomato, "I freely wish it suc-cess, after having vvittiessed, for sixteen years,the horrible ravages committed by calomel."The administration of calomel, to be safe, de-pends on circumstances beyond the knowledge ofthe prescriber ; therefore, he who administers adose of calomel, under any circumstance, strikesa blow in the dark, the result of which will beexhibited too late to be remedied.

Antimony, says Hooper, is a medicine of thegreatest power of any known substance ; a quan-tity too minute to be sensible in the most delicate


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 23balance, is capable of producing violent effect.Tartar Emetic is a preparation of antimony com-monly used by the faculty as an emetic. A Mr.Deane, of Portland, Me., was poisoned to deatha few years since, by taking a dose of TartarEmetic through mistake; had it been adminis-tered by a physician, his death would have beenattributed to some fatal disease. It is said thatBasil Valentine, a German monk, gave it to somehogs, which, after purging them very much, fat-tened ; and thinking it might produce the sameeffect on his brother monks, gave them each adose, who all died in the experiment ; hence theword is derived from two Latin words, anti,against, and monas, the monks.Opium is obtained from Turkey and East India.It is the most common article used by those who

wish to shuffle off this mortal coil, to accomplishtheir object. In the form of paregoric it is usedto quiet children, and thousands have no doubtbeen quieted beyond the power of being disturbed.It does not remove the cause of disease, but re-lieves pain by benumbing sensibility.Blistering. This practice, though not so fa-tal as bleeding, is evidently as inconsistent andmore tormenting. In some isolated cases, blis-ters may produce an apparent good effect, butthe amount of injury is so much greater than theamount of good accruing from their use, that theymay well be dispensed with.Bleeding. Blood-letting was introduced as afrequent remedial agent, by Sydenham, in theearly part of the 16th century ; since which timeit has consigned millions to the tomb, and cut offthe fond hopes of many a tender parent, affec-tionate husband and wife, and dutiful child.

Dr. J. J. Steele, a member of the medical fac-


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24 THE GUIDE TO HEALTH.ulty of N. Y. says, Bleeding in every case, bothof health and disease, according to the amounttaken, destroys the balance of circulation, androbs the system of its most valuable treasure andsupport. This balance must be restored and thistreasure replaced, before a healthful action canbe complete in the system.

Dr. Reid says : If the employment of the lan-cet were abolished altogether, it would perhapssave annually a greater number of lives, than inany one year the sword has ever destroyed.

Dr. Beach, a member of the Medical Society ofN. Y., says, Among the various means made useof to restore the sick to health, there is none soinconsistent and absurd as blood-letting. Thosewho were so unfortunate as to fall victims to dis-ease were doomed to suffer the most extravaganteffusion of blood, and were soon hurried to anuntimely grave.

Dr. Lobstein, late physician of the hospital andarmy of France, reprobates, in strong terms, theuse of the lancet. He says, During my residenceof 14 years past, in this happy land of libertyand independencethe U. StatesI am boundto say that in all my practice as a physician of27 years, never have I seen in any part of Eu-rope such extravagance of blood-letting as I haveseen in this country. It is productive of the mostserious and fatal effectsa cruel practice ascourge to humanity. How many thousands ofour fellow creatures are sent by it to an untimelygrave 1 How many parents are deprived of theirlovely children ? How many husbands of theirAvives 7 How many wives of their husbands ?Without blood there is no heatno life in thesystem. In the blood is the life. He who takes


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 25blood from a patient, takes not only an organ oflife, but a part of life itself."This testimony of Prof. Lobstein, is deservingthe consideration of every individual, on accountof his high standing in the medical profession,and his opportunity of judging from experienceand observation of the effects of blood-letting.

Dr. Thatcher, a celebrated medical author,says, "We have no infallible index to direct us inthe use of the lancet. The state of the pulse isoften ambiguous and deceptive. A precipitatedecision is fraught with danger, and a mistakemay be certain DEATH." Here is a tacit acknowl-edgment that the most discriminating and cau-tious physician cannot decide when bleeding issafe, and he has no certain criterion by which todecide, whether bleeding will relieve his patientplace him beyond the reach of a cure or imme-diately destroy life. Well may such a science ofmedicine be called the science of guessing.Think of man within the short space of twen-ty-four hours being deprived of eighty or ninetyounces of blood, taking three portions of calomel,five or six grains of tartar emetic, and blistersapplied to the extremities and the throat. Suchwas the treatment of the illustrious Washington.Him who was first in war, first in peace, andfirst in the hearts of his countrymen. To haveresisted the fatal operation of such herculean rem-edies, one would imagine this venerable old manshould have retained the vigor of his earliestyouth. , .Says Magendie, an eminent French physiolo-gist, "I assert, then, loudly, and fear not to affirmft, that bloodletting induces, both in the blood it-self and in our tissues, certain modifications andpathological phenomena which resemble, to a

3


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26 THE GUIDE TO HEALTH.certain extent, those we have seen developed inanimals deprived ofatmospheric oxygen, of drink,and of solid food. Yon shall have the materialproof of the fact. Here are three glasses contain-ing blood drawn from a dog on three differentoccasions, at intervals of two days. The animalwas in good health, and I took care to supplyhim with abundance of nourishing food. In thefirst glass you see the serum and clot are in justproportion to each other. The latter, which isperfectly coagulated, forms about four fifths ofthe entire mass. This specimen of blood, conse-quently, appears to possess the desirable quali-ties. Now turn your attention to the secondglass. The animal was still well fed when itscontents were drawn, and yet you perceive anevident increase in the quantity of sernm. Theclot forms, at the most, only two thirds of thewhole. But here is the produce of the third ve-nesection. Although the animal's diet remainedunchanged, we find a still greater difference.Not only is the proportion of serum more consid-erable, but its color is changed. It has acquireda reddish yellow tinge, owing to the commenc-ing solution of the globular substance."

"It seems demonstrated by Magendie's experi-ments that the blood must be constituted in aparticular mannerthat the ingredients must bein just proportion to each other, in order that theblood properly circulate through all the tissuesand form healthy nourishment instead of disease.For instance, a certain degree of viscidity is re-quisite for the circulation of our blood throughthe various organs. If this is wanting, the bloodwill become infiltrated into the parenchyma ofthe lungs, &c. Now it is manifest that if he-morrhages increase the serosity of the blood, as


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 27Magendie has proved, the various tissues cannotbe properly nourished and maintained in healthwhere this state of serosity has been induced bythe abstraction of blood, in whatever manner theblood may have been removed.

Again, an undue viscidity of blood hinders thecirculation ; the molecules sticking by the way,and blocking up the vessels, as Magendie re-marks, like blocks of ice in the streams. Now isit not plain that the abstraction of the serum willproduce this undue viscidity and consequent dis-ease ? But are practitioners aware that the in-discreet use of drastic medicines and blisters op-erate to remove the serum in large quantities?Are they aware that in those individuals whohave induced disease by patent drastic medicines,one great cause of the disease is the viscidity ofthe blood? Physicians, I had almost said aboveall other men, ought to think. They should nev-er rest contented without investigating the causesof disease. I was pleased with an expression ofMagendie, that those medical men who blindlyfollow a regular routine of practice, have eyesthat they may not see.'"

If it was a fact, that the science of medicinethat teaches the doctrine, that the most powerfulpoisons are the best medicinesthat drawingfrom man his heart's blood is the best way to re-store him to health when sick, is based on theimmutable principles of truth, and proved itselftrue by the practice, then we should be bound toadmit its principles, however inconsistent theymight appear. But if there is a shade of doubtresting upon our minds, let us rather trust to theunassisted, and undisturbed powers of nature,than to remedies that require the banishment ofreason from her throne, before a thinking man


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28 THE GUIDE TO HEALTH.can consistently use them. Give a sick man poi-son, that we have positive evidence will destroythe life of a well man, to cure him ? Take froma feeble man his blood, on which his little remain-ing strength depends, to strengthen him 1 Does,t appear reasonable, or does it carry with it the

)vidence of its truth, by immediately curing theiick, or strengthening the weak ?There is not, in my opinion, and I am notalone in that opinion, to be found, in all the su-perstition and ignorance of this or any previousage, a more complete inadaptedness of means toends, than the old school system of medical prac-tice to cure disease. As consistently might we at-tempt to heat an oven with ice, put out a firewith alcohol, or fatten a horse with grindstonesor shingle nails.

It is now the wonder of the more enlightenedof the present generation, how the belief in witch-craft could have obtained among the most learn-ed of the 16th century. So it will be the wonderof future generations, that their forefathers of the16th century, should be so hoodwinked, as toswallow down deadly poisons, be bled, blistered,and physicked : sacrificing their own commonsense, for the pretensions of a class of men, whoseain depended on the ignorance of the people ofthe result of their remedies.Are there not, besides, a sufficient number ofinfluences brought to bear upon mankind to dragthem down to the grave. Is not alcohol slayingits thousands? war its millions? and the trans-gression of the physical laws of nature in food,exercise, and dress, its tens of millions? Why,then, should Pandora's box be opened for anotheroutlet for human life '.


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CHAPTER IV.THE HOMOEOPATHIC SYSTEM.

As this system of practice is different in manyparticulars from the Allopathic or old school sys-tem, and is gaining the attention of the Americanpeople, it may be expected that we should giveit a passing notice.

Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, of Germany, the au-thor of this system, was formerly a physician ofthe old school, and was said to be a man of tal-en,t and learning. Like many of his predeces-sors, after wandering in the shades of night formany years in search of truth, he deplored thehealing art as altogether "uncertain and incom-prehensible." He saw the danger of striking atrandom with such deadly weapons as mercury,-,antimony, opium & co., and therefore labored toprove that the ten millionth part of a grain ofcalomel was better than 250 grains. This onefact he has clearly proved, and we challenge theworld to refute it, that the patient who takes in-hnitessimal doses of poison will recover sooner,and be less injured, than the patient who takeslarge doses. Another fact can as easily be prov-ed, that the patient who takes no poison doesbetter than either.The views entertained by Hahnemann of dis-ease and the method of cure, are original, and re-main yet to be proved. The distinguishing fea-tures of his system appear to us visionary, andthe remedies inefficient, but generally harmless.The fundamental principle is, that in all diseaseswe are to use a medicine in small doses to cure a3*


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30 THE GUIDE TO" HEALTH.disease, that will produce the same symptoms as-are manifested by the disease we wish to cure,and that a medicine can be made to operate onthe particular portion of the system designed, bythe prescriber, without effecting any other portion.The position taken by the advocates of Hahne-mann's system cannot be successfully defended,there being too many well established facts incontrariety to it. But however much the oldschool physicians may ridicule this system, thelight of truth now dawning upon the world willshow, that the consequences of their system, (theAllopathic,) are too serious to be ridiculed. WhileHahnemann may divert the patient, with hisgrain of calomel, mixed with a barrel of sugar,and a grain of the compound divided into infini-tessimal doses, requiring him to regard the phys-ical laws of his nature in food, exercise, &c., al-lowing nature all her power to contend againstdisease ; the old school physician lifts his fatalclub and strikes at random, the force of whichoflener comes on the head of the only healingprinciple that exists in man, termed nature, thanon his enemy, disease. Much good thereforemay result from this system of practice, in thepresent benighted state of the world on all med-ical subjects, by diverting the patient while na-ture effects a cure.A large majority of the Homoeopathic physiciansire seceders from the old school, and condemn inunqualified terms the extravagant use of poisons,bleeding, blistering, and physicking; havingthemselves seen enough of their destructive ef-fects, to arouse their better feelings, and leadthem to adopt a system more in accordance withhumanity. Although we differ from them in the-ury and practice, we cannot but respect them for


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 31the uncompromising stand they have takenagainst the pernicious practice in Avhich theythemselves were once engaged, and to removewhich they have sacrificed their standing withthe medical faculty, been cast out from their so-ciety, and are now the objects of their ridicule.An enlightened community will do them justice,which is all we presume they ask.

CHAPTER VHYDROPATHY, OR THE COLD WATER CURE.

There is no individual who appreciates the val-ue of cold water, both as the most natural andhealthy drink for man and beast, and as a valu-able remedial agent, than we do ; but we are notprepared to admit that it will accomplish everyindication in the cure of disease.A hospital has been recently established atGraeffenberg, by Vincent Preissnitz, who makesno pretensions to book learning or a knowledgeof medicine. He treats all forms of disease withcold water alone, internally and externally, witha success that is perfectly astonishing. It hasbeen stated on good authority that out of 7600patients, the most of whom had applied to near-ly every other source for relief, he has lost butthirty-six.But little is known in this country of his me-thod of applying this valuable remedial agent.

Mr. Henry C. Wright, of Boston, a distinguish-ed anti-slavery and peace lecturer, is now receiv-


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ing the treatment, and writes thus to the editorof the Liberator

" I have been here under the water-cnrenine weeks. During that whole time, theweather has been extremely cold so coldthat ice has formed around my bath, into whichI plunge twice a day ; and ice, at this moment,hangs around the Douches, in masses from ten tofifteen feet in length, and larger than a man's bo-dy. During the whole of the nine weeks, wehave not had more than fifteen days of fair wea-ther, put it all together. Tempests that comehowling down from the Bohemian mountains,which lie to the South some fifteen or twentymiles, sweep over Graeffenberg with great furydriving the snow in clouds before them, tillthey are lost on the plains of Prussia, that areopen before us on the North. The people say thewinter has been uncommonly severe. It requiresthe constant exercise of a desperate resolution tocarry on the cure amid such snows and ice.With sueh a temperature, to have our bodiespacked up, twice a day, in a sheet wrung out ofwater, whose temperature is down to freezing(last evening, the sheet in which I was packed,three minutes before I saw spread out on thesnow before my window, frozen stiff as ice)tolie in that wet sheet till I get warm, and then godown into a bath-room, often full of snow andice, and there throw all off. and smoking, plungeinto that dreadful bath, and stay in it one or twominutesthen to be rubbed dry, and have a longwet bandage tied around the whole body thendress, and go out and face these fierce, howlingtempests, the snow all blowing into your eyes.ears, hair, neck, and bosom ; and then to have tosit down in cold water, and there sit 15 minutes


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 33at a timesure, such a fearful process must killor cure. Strange to say, not one here seems tohave the least fear of the former. It kills no oneit invigorates and strengthens all, and produ-ces a pretty thorough indignation in each at him-self, that he should ever have subjected his body-to the healing process generally pursued by themedical faculty. I am certain that the processthough so fearful that I almost catch my breathand shiver all over to think of ithas done megreat good.

"I told Preissnitz, at the outset, that my dis-ease was on my lungsthat my lungs were, ul-cerated someand that I had thrown putrid mat-ter from themand he at once subjected me tothis process. I was afraid, at first, how it wouldgo; but Preisnitz had confidence in his prescrip-tions, and so have I, now. He has not yet putme under the Douche, and will not till the wea-ther is milder. Sure I am, that all the morbidmatter secreted in my system, has been put inmotionnot indeed yet routed out of the system,but routed from any particular location in thesystem ; and sure I am that, by the time I havegone through the ordeal enough, these morbid se-cretions will be entirely expelled from the body.The settled cough that I had, seems to be brokenup entirely. I do indeed, now and then, get alittle cold, as do all the patients, but the colddon't seize upon my lungs as colds used to do.And. besides, no one here seems to nave the slight-est fear of a cold, for the simple reason every onefeels that there is here a certain and speedy rem-edy at hand. A few hours break it all up, andscatter it to the wind. So of feverno one hereseems to have the least fear of fever, because ev-ery one feels an entire confidence in cold water


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34 THE GUIDE TO HEALTH.as an antidote. From what I have seen here, Ican never again doubt that the fiercest of feversare harmless, being absolutely under human con-trol. Recently, we have had two cases of mostmalignant fever. One was a man, taken with anervous, raging fever. In three days, the feverwas entirely routed, and in a week, the man ap-peared again in the saloon, eating like a ravenouswolf whatever he liked ; and though he lookedthin and was weak, yet, you might have seenhim out breasting the storms, which, in his weak-ness, would near tip him over at times. Fourdays ago, a woman who had taken cold duringthe day, and was not aware of the enemy lurk-ing in her, was seized in the night with a mostviolent fever. I saw her in the morning, and shelooked exactly like a person in scarlet fever. Awet sheet was at once wrapped about her wholebody, and changed and wet again every twentyor thirty minutes. This was pursued about 20hours, and water was applied in other ways.The next day, I saw her up and dressed, andlooking as well and eating as hearty as usual.Not a particle of medicine was administered. Ido not believe that out of the 300 patients nowhere, or out of several thousands that have beenhere, there is one who has the least fear of feversor colds. Each seems to feel that, so far as feversand colds are concerned, a certain remedy is al-ways at hand. I do think it is the duty of allwho have young children, to learn to apply thisremedy. How many diseases in little childrenoriginate in colds !"You would be amused to look into our saloonit meal times, especially at our dinners. Re-nember this is a Hospital for all nations. Somefifteen nations are now represented in the saloon


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 35 come here to be cured of diseases that havegenerally been given over, or nearly so, by themedical faculty. To see them at the table withravenous appetites, eating food of the coarsestand plainest land food that many of themwould hardly have felt easy to set before theirservants at home ; to see their countenances tosee them rubbing their hands to keep them warm,(for but little artificial heat is allowed to enterthe saloon,) to see them racing up and downthe saloon between dishes, (for at dinner we gen-erally have three dishes,) you would not dreamthat these people were on the sick list of man-kind. Hope is the expression of every facedespair has no place in Graeffenberg. As for thecrisis every guest here longs for a crisis. Noone fears it no one pities you if you have one all would rather envy you, congratulate youon the success of your cure, and earnestly covetthe same blessing for themselves ! And themore severe the crisis, the more certain and ef-fectual the cure. Such is the feeling respectingthe crisis. It is considered the dying gasp orgroan of the disease. The disease is the enemyin the system to be rooted cold water is the de-fender of the system ; the disease the invadingenemy. The enemy obtains a lodgment in thecitadel the body. Cold water seeks to drivehim out pursues him round and round the sys-tem. The enemy, now in the head, now in thechest, lungs, heart, stomach, legs, feet, hands,here and there, every where, seeks a refuge fromhis terrible foe, cold water, till he can find norest for the sole of his foot in the body, and thenhe darts out through the skin, smashing rightthrough wherever it may chance to be, and awayhe goes in a crisis ! and the body is saved alive


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36 THE GUIDE TO HEALTH.and well. It is really accounted a blessing tohave a powerful crisis, by all the cure guests."Vincent Preissnitz is certainly an extraordina-ry man has a countenance on which one lovesto look a man of unpretending simplicity, ofquiet look and demeanor, but of dauntless reso-lution and unyielding firmness. If a patient putshimself under his control, and he assumes theresponsibility of the case, the patient must con-form. He is a man of very limited book learn-ing pretends to none, has none says but lit-tle to his patients has no theory at all andwould be probably incapable of giving a writtenaccount of his system. Cold air and cold waterare the only remedies with which he attempts tocombat disease, and he does not pretend that hecan cure all diseases with these. But he makeshis patients work for health. We can't sit downin an easy chair, or stretch out on a soft sofa, ina warm room, with a warm wrapper gown on,and take little nice things, and be petted andcomforted, and all that ! No we have to work,work, work no rest day or night have butlittle heat, and no comforts at all, (comfort is un-known here, in any thing.) Our food is plenti-ful, but of the coarsest kind no tea, no coffee,no condiments but salt milk and cold water fordrink ; dry, stale rye bread, butter, boiled beef,soup, &c, for food. To cut our rye bread is alabor of no small magnitude, and each must cutfor himself; and to see Barons, Counts. Princes,Cavaliers, Priests, Generals, Doctors, and whatnot, all mixed up together, cutting and gnawingaway at this coarse food, like hungry wolvesyou would suppose that the genius of famine hadcome forth from the desert of Sahara, and was atour table. Just at present, I have a perfect hy-


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 37drophobla. I have a horror of cold water. Ican't get warm. But I am told it is a goodsign ! Oh, dear me ! Weakness, low spirits,shiverings and shakings, fever, headache, tooth-ache, and every other ache, a good sign ! Well,1 know my lungs are getting well. Farewell !"

CHAPTER VITHE THOMSONIAN SYSTEM.

This system of Medical Practice, unlike allother systems, is the result of experience. Factswere first established, and then a theory basedon such facts. Without facts it is as impossibleto establish a correct theory as to commencebuilding a chimney at the top. There would beno difficulty if the first brick could be made tostick. So in Medical Science. Establish oneimportant fact and you have a foundation onwhich you may build with safety.

Dr. Thomson, the author of the system thatbears his name, was altogether unacquaintedwith the prevailing theories of medicine. Hismind was therefore untrammeled. If, as Dr.Rush has said, those physicians become most em-inent who soonest emancipate themselves fromthe tyranny of the schools of physic : was it goodreason why Dr. Thomson could not be a reform-er, because he had never been enslaved by thesetheories ? He took reason and common sense forhis guide, and established every principle by long

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38 THE GUIDE TO HEALTH.experience. It was the inefficiency of the regu-lar practice that induced him to turn his attentionto the subject of medicine. His children wereattacked by disease, a regular physician was call-ed, exhausted his skill, and abandoned them tothe cold embrace of death. At this critical peri-od, Dr. Thomson resolved to call into exercisehis own judgment in the use of such remedies ashe had become acquainted with in his earlierdays. Necessity is the mother of invention. Heapplied these remedies and succeeded beyond hismost sanguine expectations. All of them recov-ered under his treatment, besides his companionwho was given up by five physicians.

In this simple manner originated a system ofMedical Practice, based on the immutable prin-ciples of truth, that has saved thousands of suf-fering human beings from the jaws of death, whohad been abandoned by the medical faculty todie. It soon became a topic of conversation, inthe region around, that Mr. Thomson, an ill iter-ate farmer, had cured five of his family after thedoctors had given them up to die. Soon he wascalled to administer to his neighbors after all oth-er remedies failed, and such universal success at-tended his practice, that his name and unexam-pled success were soon known abroad : and sonumerous were his calls to attend the sick thaihe was tinder the necessity of relinquishing hisfarm and devoting himself exclusively to thepractice of medicine. We now find the illiteratefanner a doctora graduate of the school of na-ture, with almost universal success for his di-ploma.

Little did he think, when he yielded to thepressing requests of the suffering and dying, toadminister to their relief, that he should call


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 39down upon his head the curses and denuncia-tions of the whole medical faculty, whose craftthey now saw to be in danger. But he soon ful-ly realized that the sentiment of the celebratedDr. Harvey was true " that he who attempts areform in medicine, runs the risk of the sacrificeof his life, reputation, and estate." Such washis success in curing the incurables of the fac-ulty, that their indignation was aroused againsthim, and poured on his devoted head withoutmercy. Every means within their power wereused to destroy him and his followers. If one ina thousand of his patients died, although theymight have been incurable when he commencedupon them, he was charged with murder, and inone instance was prosecuted and put into prison.Notwithstanding the deep-rooted prejudice, andtime-honered usages of the people, and the hel-lish animosity and unprecedented persecution ofa profession whose influence was almost omnipo-tent, Thomsonism has flourished and pro-gressed until its remedial agents have found ad-mittance into nearly every hamlet and mansion inthe United States.


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CHAPTER VII.THE TESTIMONY OF OLD SCHOOL PHYSICIANS IN IT&

FAVOR.Notwithstanding the medical faculty as a body-

violently persecuted Dr. Thomson, and ridiculedhis system of practice, some of the most candidand humane had the magnanimity to expresstheir conviction, that his system was far morephilosophical than their own.Among the first and most unwavering of thefriends of Dr. Thomson, was Prof. Waterhouse,of Harvard University. He says in a letter tothe Editor of the Boston Courier, "I remain firmin the opinion that the system and practice of Dr.Thomson is superior to any now extant; for byhis remedies, as much can be accomplished inthree or four days, as can be done by the regu-lar system in as many weeks, and that too with-out injuring the patient."Dr. Thomas Hersey, too, of Columbus, Ohio, aneminent physician and surgeon, who was surgeonin the U.S. Army during the last war; afterthoroughly investigating Dr. Thomson's system,publicly renounced a system he had practicedforty years, and adopted the more philosophicalsystem of Thomson. He says, " More than for-ty years of life have been devoted to the ancientor regular practice. Ten years have been spentin ascertaining the claims of the Thomsoniansystem. A partial learning was the first step,and the result was a mixed practice, which Ifound could not succeed. I found I must be aThomsonian altogether, or abandon the cause.


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 41The result has been, that thus resolutely pursu-ing this course, I became astonished at its suc-cess. This outrivalled anything with which I hadever been acquainted in private practice or in myformer official capacity as Surgeon in the UnitedStates Army, or any public or private station Ihad ever been called to fill."

Dr. Samuel Robertson, of Cincinnati, Ohio,who pursued his studies in England, and after-wards under the celebrated Dr. Rush, of Phila-delphia, says: "I have renounced the depletingand poisoning system altogether; and hereafter,from this day, my life shall be spent in diffusinga knowledge of the superiority of the Thomso-nian system, however much I may be abused bymy former brethren."Dr. W. K. Griffin, of Clinton, N. Y. also embra-ced this system. He says : "After having attend-ed three courses of lectures at the college of phy-sicians and surgeons, at Fairfield, and obtainedthe Degree of Doctor of Medicine, I commencedusing calomel, opium, and the like, with themost unshaken confidence. Frequent failures Iwas wont to attribute to the inveteracy of thedisease. But experience soon taught me a dif-ferent lesson. I had frequent occasions to no-tice, that when circumstances prevented the ad-ministration of the popular remedies, nature per-formed a cure much sooner, and left the patientin a more favorable condition, than in cases wherethe scientific medical books were followed. Icommunicated this discovery to my confidentialfriends in the profession, and found to my nosmall surprise, that many of them were equallyconscious of the fact. ' But,' said they, ' thepeo-ple love to be deceived, and in this respect it pro-motes our interest to accommodate them. They

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42 THE GUIDE TO HEALTH,call on us to prescribe, and by crying down ourown medicines, we should at once throw our-selves out of business.' "" Though I had always possessed the strong-est prejudice against that class of men vulgarlycalled steam doctors, yet testimony in their favorhad at length become so abundant, that I wasforced to relinquish in some measure my precon-ceived opinions, so far at least as to give theirsystem a fair investigation. When I entered up-on the Thomsonian practice, I was convincedthat it possessed rare virtues, yet it was naturalfor me to suppose that those virtues had beenmuch exaggerated by the friends of the system.But in this respect I was happily disappointed,for I discovered, as my practical knowledge ofthe system increased, that half its virtues had notbeen told."Stephen Dean, M. D., of Hamburgh, N. Y.,who was seventeen years a "regular," in giving

his reasons for renouncing the old system and em-bracing Thomson's, says: "I tried the same re-medies upon myself that I used upon my pa-tients, and they nearly ruined me, and I accor-dingly threw away my lance, and all my poison-ous drugs, and adopted the safe, simple and effi-cacious system of Dr. Thomson."We could fill this volume with the encomiumsof those who have practiced many years on theold school system, who have renounced the sameand become tfrorough-going Thomsonians ; butenough have already been introduced, to showthat the advocates of Thomsonism are not allan illiterate, ignorant class of men. About threehundred more might be added, whose testimonywould be in accordance with those whose nameswe have inserted, who have spent the usual time


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 43in.studying the works of the FacultyattendedMedical Lectures, and practiced many years, poi-soning people well. After a thorough and candidexamination of the Thomsonian system, with alltheir prepossessions against it, and a trial of itsremedial agents, in all the different forms of dis-ease, they were compelled by the force of evi-dence, to abandon their poisoning system, andadopt one more in accordance with nature, rea-son, and common sense. Thousands of othershave adopted a mixed practice to secure the pat-ronage of all parties.


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r


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46 THE GUIDE TO HEALTH.in constant violation of the laws of nature, theresult of which is always to produce misery anddisease in proportion to the extent of those viola-tions. Thousands there are, who are this momentfoiling in wealth, who would give a quit-claimdeed of all creation, and place themselves in thecondition of the man who depends on his dailylabor for his daily bread, if they could enjoy per-fect health.

If health be thus valuable, that the miser willpour out his gold, the epicure give up his sump-tuous fare, and the young lady bid defiance tothe life-destroying fashions of the age, that theymay obtain it when lost, is it not worth preserv-ing?How then can we preserve our health ? Hereis a question of more importance than any otherof the great, questions that are now agitating theworld. Any question or enterprize, having forits object the accumulation or preservation ofwealth, would weigh as little in comparison withthis, as the bubble in the opposite scale with themountain. It may be argued that health is ablessing conferred upon us by divine Providence,and He continues or destroys it according to Hisown pleasure, without any agency of our own.This doctrine has prevailed to an alarming extent,and has been sanctioned by those who profess toknow more about the mysterious dealings of Pro-vidence than they do the physiological laws ofour nature. Is it not the height of injustice tocharge upon Him whose ''tender mercies are overall the works of his hands," our own folly? He,in infinite wisdom and goodness, has establishedcertain unchangable laws, by which all matter,animate and inanimate is governed. Obedience


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 47to these laws secures to us health and all its bles-sings with as much certainty as obedience to mor-al laws secures peace of mind. *The following remarks on health, are from the *pen of O. S. Fowler, who combines in his writ/ings sound reason and a firm and fearless advo-cacy of unpopular truths. He attacks the incon-sistencies and physiological errors of the age with

the spirit of a Luther :"Those who are always well, do not realize gjhow much pleasure they enjoy thereby, and those "who sell a life of happiness for a momentary grat-..,

ification, or a careless exposure, the folly of Esau 'bears no comparison with their folly, and notun-frequently, a life of bitter repentance is insuffi-cient to atone for a single act of indiscretion.

"In one light more, let us consider the value ofhealththat of its pecuniary advantages."How expensive is sickness, and how hand-some a property is health ? Let the man who iscomfortably off in this world, be sick, and haveto pay a doctor's bill of a hundred dollars, and anurse's bill of another hundred, meanwhile, hisfamily expenses are going on continually, per-haps rent, and those thousand items of expenseto which sickness subjects him, and a handsomeproperty, all he has been able to earn perhaps intwenty years, vanishes in a single year ; but letthat same man have health, and he can augmentthat property, besides enjoying himself as he goesalong through life, and making his family happy.Let a child, or a wife, be sick, and those onlywho have had extensive observation or else ex-perience, can count its expense in dollars andcents merely, to cay nothing of the anxiety,watchings, gloom, and a whole swarm of bad


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*

48 THE GUIDE TO HEALTH.feelings in which the whole family is thereby en-shrouded."As the best means of making money, then,preserve your health."As the best means of enjoying animal lifemerely, preserve your health."As the shortest, surest, and only road to great-ness, preserve your health."As the principal means of promoting the bestinterests of men and doing good, preserve your

health ; for what good can you do while prostrat-ed on a sick bed, and tortured with pain ?"As a means of acquiring knowledge, preserveyour health."To prevent the unnatural, and to secure thenatural, exercise of the mental faculties, that is,to be virtuous, and avoid occasions for sinning,preserve your health."As the most efficacious, if not the only meansof securing any of the legitimate ends of life,mental, moral, or physical, preserve your health.This is the alpha and the omega, the middle andboth ends, the warp, woof, and all of life,of hu-man beings,of man."

f? *tP Tp "fl? ^p sF 3P"Perfect health requires that the animal func-

tions should be proportionate each to all the oth-ersthat there should be as much exercise ofmuscle as there is of the brain and mind ; and asmuch respiration as there is action of either, andthen as equal proportion of respiration and circu-lation.^"The plain inference drawn from this princi-ple, that the principal temperaments and func-tions of our nature require to be equally balanced,is that mankind should exercise his muscularsystem by labor, or being on foot in the open air,


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 49about one third of the time ; should eat and sleep,(that is, lay in his re-supply of animal life,) aboutone-third of the time; and exercise his brain inthinking, studying, &c, about the other third ofhis time each, day." * *

"I fully concur with Jefferson's opinion thatmankind have probably lost more by subduingthe horse, than they have gained by his labor.Hiding in carriages, is so easy, so luxurious, tothe dainty belle, that all classes are, as it were,horse crazy, and by shifting all their burdens,and most of their locomotion, upon the horse,they stand in the light of their own muscular ac-tion, which bids fair soon to be obliged to employhorse-power, (or perhaps steam-power,) withwhich to breathe and eat." * *"Let us open our eyes upon what we see dailyand continually in our city. See that youngmerchant, or lawyer, or clerk, or broker, whosebusiness shuts him up all day in his store, or athis desk, till his circulation, digestion, cerebralaction, and all the powers of life are enfeebled;walk merely from his door on to the side-walk,possibly one or two blocks, and wait for an om-nibus to carry him a few blocks farther to hismeals or bed ! One would think that, starvedalmost to death as he is for want of exercise, hewould embrace every opportunity to take exer-cise, instead of which, he embraces every oppor-tunity to avoid it. As well avoid living, whichindeed it is. And then too, "see that delicate,fashionable lady, so very prim, nice, refined, del-icate, and all this besides much more, that shedoes not get out of doors once a week, order hercarriage just to take her and her pale-faced, sick-ly child, to church on Sunday, because it is twoor three blocks ofTtoo far for them to walk." *


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50 THE GUIDE TO HEALTH."And what shall we say of those who sit and

sew all day, or work at any of the confiningbranches of industry that preclude the exerciseexcept of a few muscles, and perhaps keep them-selves bent over forward on to their stomach,lungs, heart, bowels, and over eat at that ! Oh !when will man learn to livelearn by what con-stitutional laws he is governed, and how to obeythese laws ? When Physiology and Phrenologyare studied: never till then.

"Fly swifter round ye wheels of time,And bring that welcome day." Wattb.

CHAPTER IIDISEASE.

Medical theorists have arranged diseases intodifferent orders, classes, and kinds, according totheir symptoms, giving to each, a different name,and recommending for each a different mode oftreatment. This course has involved the prac-tice ofmedicine in darkness, perplexity and doubt.No physician can decide for a certainty, what or-gan is primarily affected, or what name to givethe disease. He must therefore do nothing untilthe symptoms are so far developed as to enablehim to give it a name, or lift his club and strikeat random.

Said Dr. Abercrombie, a distinguished physi-cian, "I am under the necessity of acknowledg-ing, that since medicine was first cultivated as a.


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 51science, a leading object of attention has everbeen to ascertain the characters and symptoms,by which particular internal diseases are indicat-ed, and by which they are distinguished fromother diseases, which resemble them. But, withthe accumulated experience of ages bearing uponthis important subject, our extended observationhas only served to convince us how deficient weare in this department, and how often, in the firststep of our progress we are left to conjecture. Awriter of high eminence, Morgagni, has even ha-zarded the assertion that persons are the mostconfident in regard to the characters of disease,whose knowledge is most limited, and that moreextended observation generally leads to doubt."

Disease is nothing more nor less than a devia-tion from a state of health : consisting in, or de-pending on, an obstruction or diminution of thevital energies; exhibiting different symptoms ac-cording to the extent of the deviation, the impor-tance of the organ affected, or peculiar state ofthe person coming under influences capable ofproducing a state of disease.He who does not enjoy perfect health is more

or less under the influence of disease ; the causeof which being continued, disease progresses, act-ing on different organs, deranging different func-tions, and exhibiting new symptoms, until thepowers of nature yield, and death is the result.A disease is either general or local, functionalor organic. It is general, when the whole systemis affected; and local, when it is confined to aparticular part. A disease is functional, whenan organ is laboring under some derangement;and organic, when there is an alteration in thestructure of the organ.


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CHAPTER III.THE CAUSES OF DISEASE.

We stated in the first chapter that health wassecured by obeying the physical laws of our na-ture; and in the second chapter that disease wasa deviation from a state of health, or an ob-struction or diminution of vital energy. Thecause of disease must therefore be a transgressionor violation of the laws of our nature. This vi-olation may be voluntary on our part, with orwithout a knowledge of the consequences ; it maybe produced by circumstances beyond our con-trol, as when we come in contact, inhale or takeinto our stomachs poisonous substances or gasses,or it may be, according to the proverb, "the fa-thers [or mothers] have eaten sour grapes andthe children's teeth are set on edge," or heredita-ry diseases, depending on the transgressions ofour forefathers.A fruitful cause of disease is the perniciousfashions of the age, while reason and experiencewould lead us to obey the laws of our nature ;fashion says, follow me. I will lead you into

the paths of pleasure. My laws require no self-denial; eat, drink, sleep, dress, just as the fancyof my directors may dictate, which you will findpleasing to the eye and gratifying to the taste, af-ter you have become accustomed to their use.Disease you need not fear, as my friends, theMedical Faculty, are always ready to administerto you relief; and although they may give youpoisons, calculated to produce incurable disease,you should submit patiently and kiss the rod thatinflicts the fatal blow. Who would not rathB>;


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 53live fashionably, though it produces constantheadache, debility, nervous disease, palsy, con-sumption, rheumatism, gout. &c, and employfashionable physicians, and take fashionable med-icines, though death is the result, than to becalled a Grahamite or a Thomsonian.To be sure, says fashion, the pleasures I offeryou are but for a season, but who would not ra-ther be respected by the rich, and flattered by all,though it lead to sorrow and death, than to liveconsistently and die in obscurity.

It is so refined to enjoy a social glass of wine,so beautiful to appear at church with waists ofthe size of a broom-handle, net-work stockingsand slippers in the month of Marchso deliciousto eat hogs and sheep swimming in grease, richcakes and pies, bread well buttered and washeddown with strong tea and coffeeso gentlemanand lady-like to lie in bed till nine o'clock, rideout at eleven, dine at three, and eat a hearty sup-per at tenso exquisitely beautiful to appearabroad in curls and ruffles, cane and spectacles,with feet and waists compressed into fashiona-ble shape, with delicate hands and unbrownedface, it is evidence that one does not have to la-bor for a living. "Labor !" says fashion, "the baremention of such a thing would shock the feeblenerves of any of my followers. Labor!! never;cheat, lie, steal, rob, anything, rather than sub-mit to work for a living. Let them do the laborwho have not wit enough to get a living without,or so much of that foolish conscientiousness, thatthey will not cheat when they have an opportu-nity, to obtain the means of following me."Thus the following pernicious and foolish fash-ions is one of the most common causes of disease.The evils of fashionable life are not confined to

5#


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54 THE GUIDE TO HEALTii.the rich, but the laboring portion of communityhave so mistaken their true interest, as to sacri-fice ther health and comfort, to obtain the meansof imitating the rich, and also by the using thosemeans when obtained.He noble is who noble does. The farmer, me-chanic, and manufacturer of that which is useful,are the true nobility. Let them, then, take theirproper station in the scale of beingsestablishtheir own customs in accordance with reason,and the laws of our nature, so that a properamount of labor would be made attractive to all,and all be under the necessity of doing their pro-portion of all the needful labornone exempt ex-cept from inability, and consequently none over-taxed or over-burdened. All would then havetime and opportunity to become acquainted withthe physiological laws of their nature, so as toavoid those customs and agents that bring uponthem so much disease.The cause of all disease can be clearly tracedto the violation of some one or more of the lawsof our nature :

1st. By our forefathers ; producing in us hered-itary taints, such as consumption, scrofula, livercomplaints, &c.

2d. Insufficient or too great an amount of ex-ercise. The former producing an inactive stateof the organsthe latter producing an exhaus-tion, in both of which states they do not performtheir proper offices. The stomach ceases to se-crete the necessary quantity of gastric juice tocarry on digestion, the bowels are costive, themorbific agents generated in the system retained,the wheels of life clogged until exhausted naturegives up the struggle to keep in motion its ma-chinery.


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THE GUIDE TO HEALTH. 553d. Sudden changes from heat to cold or cold

to heat.4th. Eating and drinking that which is inju-rious in itself, or if not injurious in itself, madeso by the quantity taken.5th. Poisons, coming in contact with the sur-face, taken into the stomach, inhaled into thelungs, or inoculated into the veins. Such as the

miasma of swamps and lakes, the bite of snakesor any poisonous reptile or animal, the inhalationor inoculation of a poison virus ; as

A Guide to Health Being an Exposition of the Principles of the Thomsonian System of Practice 1844

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