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LEARNED
QUACKERY  EXPOSED
OR
THE DIFFERENCE SHOWN BETWEEN POI-
SONS AND MEDICINES.
'" Truth would you teach to save a sinking land I
Ail fear, none aid you, and few understand."

COMPILED BY DR. ALANSON MjgSHER,
          SCHOHARIE:
Printed at the Schoharie Republican Office, b\'
         Gallup and Lawyer.
1846. 
'MB I 
INTRODUCTION
   THE  author  asks  no  opology,  in placing  before
 the  public the  following pages.  A number of year's
 experience has tended to confirm  and strengthen him  in
 the belief that the System of Medicine discovered by the
 late Dr. Saji'l Thompson, the great Medical Reformer, will
 yet be almost universally adopted.   Indeed,  this system
 numbers among its friends, thousands and hundreds  of
 thousands of the most  respectable and enlightened citi-
 zens of the United States.   The rapidity of its spread is
 unparallelled  in the history of Medicine.   What  other
 systems have  been hundreds of years in accomplishing,
 this has accomplished in  less than forty; for it is already
 as fully established in the confidence of community, and
 has as many warm and ardent supporters as has the boas-
 ted system which dates its existence back three thousand
 years.   Many among  the regular Faculty  have so far
 overcome their prejudices as to give Dr. Thompson the
 credit of originating an entire  new system  of Medicine,
 and one that would be of incalculable benefit to the great
 human  family.  Dr. Waterhouse, Professor  for a long
 time of the Theory and  Practice  of  Medicine in  Cam-
 bridge University, Mass.,  is one of thft number.  His
 fame as a Medical Scholar and Medical Philosopher has
 extended  to  France, England and Germany, in which
 countries  he  was  deservedly appreciated and admired,
 and is  now regarded in this country as one of the bright-
 est ornaments of the Medical Profession.
  The study of  Medicine has, in all  ages of the world,
been considered as one of the most important subjects  in
which the mind of man can be employed.  Yet, notwith-
 standing thousands of years  have elapsed,  and millions
of volumes have been written on the subject, the  present
 fashionable Mineral Practice is in the highest degree im-
perfect and uncertain.  Dr. Rush compared it to " an un-
roofed temple—uncovered at  the  top and cracked at thf 
4
 foundation."  "What unaccountable perversity is in our
 frames," said Dr. Hervey, "that we set ourselves so much
•against every thing that is new."  Can any one behold
 without scorn such drones of physicians, that affer the
 space of so many hundred years' experience and  prac-
 tice of their predecessors, not a single medicine has been
 detected that has the least force, directly to prevent or
 expel a  continued fever ?   And  should any one by a
 more sedulous observation  make the least  step toward
 such a discovery, their hatred and envy would swell against
 him like a legion of, devils against virtue; and this has
 always been the case.
   Whenever an individual presumes to differ from the
 opinions of the Medical Faculty of the present day, he is
 sure to be  persecuted and ridiculed and misrepresented.
 All this ungentlemanly conduct has no  other  effect than
 to open the eyes of the people to their situation.   Truth
 is abroad in the world, and the spirit of inquiry has gone
 forth, and the people are beginning to awake and shake
 off the -chains  of Medical   aristocratical slavery,  with
 which they have been so long burdened, and  the day has
 arrived, when  men of learning  and  genius  are  neither
 afraid nor ashamed to avow themselves Thompsonians of
 the Thompsonian school—"a  school not in the decline and
 about to  perish, but  one beginning to  revive, to put on
 strength,"  and  which has extended its influence through
 every section of our country—from Maine to Georgia and
 from the Atlantic to the western wilds,  and will continue
 to spread " till the name of Thompson is resounded thro'-
 out the world, from the equator to the poles.
   The vegetable remedies which the  God of Nature has
 scattered with'a lavish hand over every hill and valley of
 our country, must and will eventually entirely supersede
 the use of  Mineral poisons.   It is a fact deeply to be la-
 mented, that for many years  the " learned Faculty" have
 employed the most deleterious  and poisonous substances
 as healthy  medicines.   Thousands have been hurried  to
 untimely graves by the use of these poisons, when sim-
 ple vegetable remedies would  have relieved, and cured
 them, without the injurious effect which always (more or
 less,) follow the use of Mineral poisons.
   The Thompsonian system of Medicine is before the
 people for  examination—it has stood the test  of a scruti-
 nizing Legislature of the Empire  state of this Union.__
 Thousands of  living witnesses are scattered ove* every 
part of our country, who can testify by their own expe-
rience to the value and efficacy  of this  medicine.   This
system has not been practiced on a few solitary individu-
als, but on thousands  of cases, and some of  the  most
malignant type, when given over by the regular physi-
cians and by them pronounced  incurable.  In  this sys-
tem is offered to an enlightened public,  a certain and  ef-
fectual cure for every disease within the reach  of medi-
cine to which the human family is liable.  This may
seem to many like the  ravings  of an empyric, but it  is
not so.  " Facts  are stubborn things."   Go  to a family,
some  members of which have been rescued  from the
grave by this medicine (and hundreds such may be found
in our  country,) go to  them and ask them what would
tempt them to  be  deprived of the use of it and they will
tell you  that all  the  wealth  of  the  United  States
would  be as dust in   the  balance,  compared  with the
knowledge they have obtained.   These answers have been
made and will continue to be made while a man loves his
wife and children better than perishing dross of gold and
silver.   The regular physician will laugh and sneer and
endeavor to  cry down this medicine, by the stale cry  r.f
Poison ! Poison !  And why ?  Simply because  they have
no medicine but poison, which will exert such  a power-
ful effect upon the system.  This medicine effects a spee-
dy and permanent cure without leaving the dregs and
sediment lurking  in the syste.m, producing loss of appe-
tite, pale and emaciated countenance  and diseased and
decayed teeth and bones, which mineral poisons inevita-
bly do.   This fact alone should  give the preference in  all
cases  to the Thompsonian system.  Many people when
they hear of a new medicine, are very apt to ask,  " has
there any case like mine been  cured?"   illf I could  be
sure of that, I  would try it."  Now if every case which
has been cured by  this medicine should be published,
they would make  a volume so unwieldy that, laying aside
the expense, nobody would take  the trouble to read*them.
The answer lies here:—According to this system, the stom-
ach is  the grand  reservoir  from which all parts of the
body are nourished, (and by proper food, well digested,)
warmed, enlivened and invigorated.   While the stomach
is in a well regulated state, the  whole man is in perfect
health, when through cold, carelessness in  diet, or what-
ever cause, the stomach becomes disordered, the food  is
not properly digested and  the whole  man becomes dis- 
u
eased.   Now a medicine is wanted to create an internal
heat, to remove obstructions, to expel the cold from the
system  and restore  the  digestive powers and then the
stomach resumes  its  office, the  food  nourishes  and
strengthens the body,  and the  man regains his health
and  strength.  This effect  the  Thompsonian  remedies
have had in all cases where they have  had a fair trial.—
These  malignant and  fatal diseases  which have defied
and baffled all the skill and science of the learned phy-
sicians have readily yielded to the powers of the Thomp-
sonian Medicines.
  Fellow-Citizens ! What shall  we say to these things ?
It is not a light matter for which we contend, but one
of the  utmost importance  to ourselves  and families.—
Shall the wealth of the country be expended for foreign
Poisons, when the  most salutary Vegetable  Remedies
lie in profusion at our  feet ?  Shall we sacrifice our time,
our substance and our lives to a system in the highest
degree  uncertain and deleterious ?  Shall man, when he
is acting for the  good of his fellow-man, be  persecuted
because the course  he  is pursuing in the practice of med-
icine is well calculated for therelief of suffering humanity ?
Shall all his exertions in investigating the  cause of dis-
ease and his  researches into the vegetable kingdom for
an antidote, be  trampled in the dust by the legalized des-
potism of  the Medical Faculty?   No ! forbid it Heaven !
 forbid  it justice!  Let man in this  enlightened age  of
the world  be the active agent in  examining cause and ef-
 fect rather than be the passive recipient of  the doctrines
 of the Medical Faculty.   Let the spirit that  is abroad
 in  the land, the elder brother of freedom, enkindle  in
kindred patriot bosoms  such a flame of philanthropy  as
will move all the sympathies and energies cf their souls
and urge them  forward  in  the magnificent  enterprise of
putting an end to the  reign of the  Medical Faculty, and
invest all their gloomy subjects with the sights and illu-
minations of the Thompsonian system of practice !   The
 improvements in Medicine since the revival of learning,
have by no means kept pace with those of the other arts.
 The reason  is obvious: Medicine has been studied  bv
 few except those who  intended to live by it a? a business,
who have  endeavored to disguise and conceal the art—-
Medical authors have generally written in a foreign lan-
guage, and those who are unequal to this task have even
valued themselves upon  couching, at least, their prescrip. 
7
tions in terms and characters unintelligible to the rest of
mankind.  The contentions of the clergy, which happen-
ed soon after the restoration of learning, engaged the at-
tention of mankind and paved the way for that freedom
of thought and inquiry which has since prevailed in Eu-
rope and America.  With regard to religious matters ev-
ery man took a side  in  these bloody disputes, and every
gentleman, that he might distinguish himself on one side
or the  other, was instructed in divinity.  This taught
people to think and reason for themselves in matters of
religion and at  last totally destroyed  that  complete and
absolute dominion which the clergy had  obtained over
the minds of men.  The study  of law has  likewise in
most civilized  nations been justly deemed  a necessary
part of the education of a gentleman.   Every man ought
certainly to know  at least  the laws of his own country.
The different  branches of philosophy  have  also of late
been very universally studied by all who pretend to a lib-
eral education.  The advantages of this are  manifest-^-
it frees the mind  from  prejudice and  superstition,  fits it
for the investigation of  truth and qualifies for acting with
propriety in  the most important stations of  life.   Natu-
ral history has likewise become an object of general at-
tion, and it well deserves to be  so.   It leads to discove-
ries of the greatest importance.  Indeed, agriculture, the
most useful of all arts,  is only a  branch of natural  histo-
ry, and can never arrive at a high degree of improvement
where the study of that science is  neglected.  Medicine
however, has not, as far as I know, in any country, been
reckoned a necessary part  of the education  of a gentle-
man, but surely, no sufficient reason can be  assigned for
this omission.   No science  lays open  a more extensive
field of useful knowledge, or affords a more  ample  enter-
tainment to   an inquisitive  mind.   Anatomy, Botany,
Chemistry and the Materia Medica, are all branches of
Natural History.  "If a gentleman has a turn for obser-
vation," says an excellent and sensible writer,' ''surely
the natural history of his own species  is a more interest-
ing subject and presents a more ample field  for the exer-
tion of genius  than the natural history of spiders  and
cuckle-shells."  We do not mean that  every man should
become a physician.  This would be an attempt as ridic-
ulous  as it is impossible.   All we plead for  is that men

   * i; Observations on the duties and office of a Physician.r'
                         w 
8
of learning, should be so far acquainted with the general
principles of medicine as  to  be competent to ascertain
the difference between medicines and poisons, and at the
same time to guard themselves  against the  destructive
influence of ignorance, superstition and quackery.   "As
matters stand at present,"  says Dr. Buchan, "it is easier
to cheat a man  out of his life than of a shilling, and al-
most impossible either to detect or punish  the offender."
  Notwithstanding this, people, when sick, still shut their1
eyes and swallow anything from the hand of a physician
without knowing  whether  it is poison or  medicine.  If
they get well it was the medicine (or poison) cured them.
If they die, nothing on earth could have  saved them.—
" It may  be alleged," says Buchan, " laying medicine
open to mankind would lessen their faith in it.  This in-
deed, would be the case with regard to some, but it would
have a quite contrary effect upon others.   I know many
people  who have the  utmost dread and  horror of every
thing prescribed by a physician, but  who will neverthe-
less, readily take a medicine which they know, and whose
qualities  they are  in  some measure acquainted with."—
The most effectual way to  dect'oy quackery in any art or
science, is to diffuse the  knowledge  of it among  man-
kind.  Did physicians write their prescriptions in  the
common  language of our  country, and explain their in-
tentions to their patients as far as they could  understand
them, it would  enable them to know  when the medicine
had the desired effect, would inspire  them with absolute
confidence in the  physician, and would make  them dread
and detest  every  man who pretended  to  cram a secret
medicine or poison down their throats.
 
9
PREFACE.
  The Author, in presenting this pamphlet  to the public,
does not intend it as a complete Manual of the Thomp-
sonian Theory and Practice of Medicine.   It is intended
more particularly to open the eyes, if possible, of a blin-
ded (medically so) community, and show the reader, not
only the absurdities, but the dangers of the present sys-
tem of Medical practice, as recognized by law and pat-
ronized by thousands to their own destruction and that of
their families and friends—a practice  of  which it  has
been justly said, " that it is so injurious in its nature and
so disgraceful to the science of medicine that paintiig
has no colors sufficient, and language fails either in poet-
ry or dreams to set it forth in its true light."   If  it shall
produce the effect to  open the eyes  of one man or wo-
man and start a  train of thoughts which shall lead him
or her  to flee from the lancet and  poison of the apothe-
cary shop, the author will feel himself amply  repaid for
the trouble and expense of presenting it to the public.
  This pamphlet will not only be found to contain a des-
cription of the poisons used as medicines by the medical
faculty, but ako to contain a synopsis of the composition of
the Author's medicines, which h? sends to  different par:s
of the  coun ry, and the diseases to which they are appli-
cable, and the directions for using them.
                            ALANSON  MOSHER,
  Hyndsville, Schoharie co., N. Y. 
10
REMARKS.
  In presenting this pamphlet  to the public, the Author
is aware that it will fall into the hands of some who will,
on account of prejudice against it because it does not ac-
cord with the writings of the medical Faculty of the pre-
sent day, laugh at its contents and use every means  their
ingenuity can invent to prejudice others against it.
        " Truth crush'd to earth will rise ogain,
        The foe of tyrants and the friend of man."
The question is often  asked,  " What made you undertake
to practice medicine  on a system so unpopular,  if you
wished to practice ? Why  did  you not  practice  the old
way—bleed, blister, &c. ?"  To this we answer—we were
once given up as incurable (by the learned mineral poi-
soners) of a disease which they called Pulmonary Con-
sumption,  and after being convinced that we must die
under such treatment we called on a steam Doctor as the
last resort, and by the judicious administration of nature's
remedies we were restored to health, and as  we consid-
ered that  we owed our life to that  system  of medical
practice called "The Thompsonian, or Botanic System,"
we  concluded to  become  acquainted  with it, and do all
our abilities would  allow us, in relieving the sufferings of
those who were so unfortunate as to be affected by dis-
ease, and  after pursuing  the  study  of medicine three
years we commenced practice.
  " What," says one, " does your Thompsonian doctor
have books and study like other  professional men ?"—
To  this we answer  we have a society called the " Thomp-
sonian,  Botanic  Medical  Society of the state  of  New
York," which holds its meetings annually, and its mem-
bers  are required  to  study the science of medicine at
least two years, and if they can pass an examination be-
fore the board of Censors, they then have a  license to
practice.   All our  students at  the present day come un-
der these restrictions.   We also have colleges in some of v
the states, for instructing students on the Thompsonian 
11
 system.  We mention this because people are generally
 ignorant of these things, and  suppose  that we do not
 understand the mechanism of man, or what is commonly
 called the constitution, but these things are not so.   It is
 true that many have but Thompson's book to cure some
 disease that was given over by the doctors, and have ef-
 fected cures in  their own families, and  others have been
 astonished at the effects of the medicine, and  called on
 them in similar cases and been cured likewise.  But Ave
 believe it requires a study to become a successful practi-
 tioner in the  Thompsonian  practice.   The prejudiced
 man will say, " I do not believe in the system"  because
 the Thompsonian doctor lost a patient, perhaps one out
 of one hundred that he attended, and many  of them too
 that had been  given up by the M. D. as incurable.  He
 never looks to  see under what circumstances he died, but
 condemns the practice at once.  Now if the M. D. loses
 one out of every  ten of their patients, all is well; they
 had  scientific  treatment, were  bled, blistered,  starved,
 poisoned, seatoned,  cupped and leached until nature gave
 way  to such a barbarous course of treatment, and death
 closed the scene.   All  is well-—nothing on earth could
 have saved him.  We do not pretend that our  medicine
 will save life at all times.  We know better; but we say
  they will cure when the patient  can  be  cured,  if they
 have  a fair trial.
    Some people say they do not believe in so much Mer*-
 cury.   They believe it kills more than it cures, and they
 also believe there are roots and  barks and herbs enough
 to cure all the  diseases  the human family are subject to ;
 but watch  them  when they are taken sick.   The first
* thing is to send for him who, they  know, will give them
 calomel and jalap the  first potion they receive.  If they
 do send for a Thompsonian, they will not, perhaps, take
 more  than one or two potions  of his medicine before
 some one will  tell them to send for the M. D., who will
 say that the Cayenne has inflamed the stomach so that he
  does not know as he can cure them.   What chance has
  the Thompsonian to give his medicine a fair trial here ?
    Fellow-citizens—watch the Thompsonian in his prac-
  tice and see if he has a fair trial with his medicines and
  cannot cure the patient and gives him up  to die, if the
 M. D. can  then cure him.  A case of this kind I have
 not known  to occur in 20 years' observation—but look on
  the other hand, where  the M. Ds. have given their pa- 
12
bents over as incurable, and the Thompsonian  has been
called and cured nine cases out of ten.  It is often the
case that the  Thompsonian is called after  the patient  i.s
in reality incurable, and if he pronounces him at once so,
and does not  give  him  a  potion of medicine  the cry  is
he has steamed  him to  death.   This is all done by the
M. Ds. and their zealous dupes to  frighten people,  so as
to prevent them from using their medicines.
                    MERCURY.
0?i the pernicious Effects of Mercury, by James  Hamilton,
  M. D., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and
  Professor in the  University of Edinburgh.
  " Among the numerous poisons which have  been used
for the cure or alleviation of  disease, there are few which
possess more  active, and of course, more dangerous pow-
ers than Mercury.   Even the simplest and  mildest forms
of that mineral exert a most extensive influence over the
human frame, and many of its chemical preparations are
so deleterious that  in the smallest dose they destroy life."
  This  is  the use  of calomel. The present medical prac-
tice might well dispense with every other drug beside it.
I own the Calomel practice is  most cheap and easy to
the physician ; for  the whole extent of both theory and
practice, is give calomel, if that will not help, give more
calomel, and if that again prove abortive, double, treble
the dose of calomel.   If the patient recovers, calomel has
cured him.  If he  dies, nothing on  eaith could  have
saved him.  The  reader   will  conclude   that Medical
Schools and Academies  with  the head-aching  studies of
Anatomy, Physiology, Botany, Pharmaceology and Chem-
istry have been  laid prostrate by  this  giant  calomel.—
Half a day's,  nay,  in a genius, half an hour's  study will
initiate any lady or gentleman in all the mysteries of the
JEsculapean  art, and  the duped  might  swell the ac-
count of a modern Galenus to one  dollar at the expense
of twelve and a half cents.   This is certainly, for the
Doctor a " consummation  devoutly  to be  wished.  But
there is  a heavy draw-back on our joy which the fable of
the " boys and the  frogs" so ingeniously portrays " what
is joy to you is death to ws," said the expiring frogs.
                  (Dr. Anthony Hunn)
  " Mercury.—The principal mineral now used internal-
ly to "heal all the  ills to which flesh  is heir," is Mercu-
ry.   It is called the Sampson of the Materia Medica, and 
Id
so it appears to be ; for if Sampson slayed his thousands,
this mineral poison has slayed its tens of thousands.   It
is a matter of profound astonishment to me that any ar-
ticle, productive of such deleterious effects, should be so
highly  extolled by the faculty,  and be  so  universally
used.   It seems that modern, not Botanical  Physicians,
are the  genuine descendants of that celebrated  empyrie
Paracelsus, who first discovered and made use of it.   For
many centuries previous, Galen taught and practiced the
Vegetable system of Medicine for Avhich Ave noAv contend.
Many  authors  of  distinguished reputation have raised
their warning voice against  the use and abuse of Mercu-
ry, Avhile others equally celebrated have proved by expe-
riments on thousands that it is a  very dangerous article,
yet it is still administered for nearly every complaint.
             MURIATE OF MERCURY.
   " Muriate of Mercury," says a Avriter, " is one of the
most violent poisons Avith which we are acquainted."
                    ANTIMONY.
   " Antimony," says Hooper, " is  a medicine of the great-
est poAver of any known substance.  A quantity too  min-
ute to be sensible in the most delicate balance is capable
of producing violent effects if taken dissolved or in  a so-
luble state.
                       IODINE.
   The same author says " it is a deadly poison, and when
it is administered, an  over  dose  must be avoided  as  it
acts Avith extreme and dangerous  effects on the constitu-
tion.                                         •
              METALS IN GENERAL.
   The same author says, " All the metalic preparations
are uncertain, as it depends  entirely on the state of the
stomach Avhether  they have no action  at all or operate
with dangerous violence."
   We cannot dismiss this subject Avithout  some remarks.
The M. D. says he gives minerals because they are found
in our bodies.  Noav if Minerals  are good medicines be-
cause they compose a part  of our systems, it follows of
course  that  they must be bad medicines if they do not
compose a part of  our systems.
   What, then, shall Ave do with Arsenic, Mercury, Anti-
mony, Lead, Copper,  &c, Avhich  are never found in our
bodies except when they are introduced there in  an  inor- 
14
ganic state, through mistake or under the pretence tha:
they are good medicine, Avhen it is proved by experiments
on thousands that they are deadly poisons ?  We do  not
pretend to say that minerals are not found in our bodies,
such as Sulphur, Lime, Potash, Soda,  Albumen, Magne-
sia, IRON, &c, &c.  But they exist in an organic state,
and are found also  to exist in plants, and they are no)
poison even in an inorganic  state, and  many times do
good Avhen properly administered.
           POISONS NOT MEDICINES.
  Hooper says, " That  substance  Avhich, Avhen  applied"
externally,  or  taken  into the  human body uniformly ef-
fects such a derangement in the animal  economy as to
produce disease may be defined a poison."
  Now, what  is medicine ?  Any  remedy administered
by a physician.  What is a remedy?  That which cures
any illness.   Noav if poison produces disease, hoAv can it
cure disease at the same  time ? and if it  does not  cure
disease or illness it is not a remedy; therefore, it is  not
medicine and can not be given even by a scientifie hand
to be made to  produce disease and  cure one at the same
time ; therefore it cannot be medicine, but poison.   Som«
people say  that every thing is poison.  Hoav  have they
found this  out ?  The doctor told them.  Noav, if  our
food is poison or produces disease,  hoAv do we exist—by
being poisoned  daily?  No—our  food is not poison.—
This  is said by the M. D. to make people believe it is ne-
cessary to. take their poisons when  sick to cure them.—
Hoav long will the people of this enlightened  country be
made to  believe these  absurdities ?  It is the food that
nourishes our bodies, and medicine that cleanses the sys-
tem Avhen sick, and  prepares it  for the reception of the
food.  BeAvare of him Avho calls everything poison.  He
is either ignorant or means to  deceive you.
 
15
                  STEAMING.

  Much has been said  about my practice because I be^<
lieve in steaming.  It is true I think it one of the great-
est  applications to eradicate  disease,  It is argued by
great men, as they call  themselves, that sweating is very
weakening.  If this be correct, how can a man sAveat
two or three gallons a day, in a harvest field, or by a fur-
nace, if it  is  so weakening ?  I can SAveat a man, I ac-
knoAvledge, and weaken him, or sweat him and strength-
en him and make him  active and  lively.  First, a man
that  is in health sweats  easy, but one that is sick sweats
hard.  Clear the stomach and bowels of all the cold, bad
matter and give  him plenty  of milk-porridge  or other
nourishing food that will digest  easy, then SAveat over
hemlock or any other  way, and as  the  impurities start
from the blood, the nourishment of the food follows and
fills its place and the patient grows strong and lively ; but
if you sweat him at first, you sweat off the glutinous mat-
ter from the  blood, and the blood  imbibes the  bilious
matter from the stomach  and bowels, the patient groAvs
worse, but few know the  cause.  When steaming  was
first  introduced  into  the  country by my father, every
possible expedient was resorted to to put it down, but they
found it would go in spite of all their operations, so they
had  to resort to  its use ; but instead of calling  it  quack
steam  or  Thompson's  steam, they  called it medicated
steam ;  this name rendered it the choicest of medicine,
and its fame rung far and  wide  throughout the  country,
They  would take those who were  unwell and bilious,
and steam Avithout giving any medicine until they could
not dress themselves without sitting  down—tb,e patients
would exclaim "I don't  Avonder Thompson kills so many,
the medicated steam almost killed me."  " This," they
Avould say, " is a sample of Thompson's practice.  I was
steamed twice Avith  scientific steam, done by  scientific
doctors and it almost killed me;" but they must bear it,
for it is done scientifically and according to rule, and held
up by law.
  Almost  every village  in  our country of any note, had a
medicated vapor bath, as they called  it and run  doAvn the
first year by those ignoramuses who  pretend to  possess
so much science; notAvithstanding, steaming  is one of
{he best applications \o free nature from disease. 
16
                STEAMING,  No. 1.
  I called in, Avhen at Albany, to see the regular doctor's
steaming machine.   My brother was with me, but I de-
clined having him let the steam  tender know who I was.
I said to him, I  suppose this is a great discovery and the
best way to  eradicate disease and  cleanse the blood.—
"Yes," said he, "very good,"  and Avas very  active in
showing me the whole works and  his rule of steaming.
He said a rogue had got the thermometer and before he
knew it the  steam Avas up to  105 degrees.  He said that
Avas very dangerous.  Then  I saw  he knew nothing a-
bout steaming.  I have had patients that could  not stand
90 degrees, and in three days they could stand  110 degs.
It depends wholly on the state  of  the  system.  I asked
him if his business increased rapidly.  He told me it was
very good last summer, but  Avas hardly  worth  attending
to  that season.  Said I, hoAv  can it  be that so valuable  a
discovery as this  should  decrease.  He said, turning to
iny brother,  "my employers Avant your medicine, but then
I think we should do better with the vapor bath."  Said  I,
what does medicine have to  do  Avith steam ?  I thought
when I came in, that steam would do it all, and now you
want some medicine  to do part.  He turned  off and said
he was hired by the doctor, and his orders were not to let
the steam run over 85 or 90-degrees, but they were often
faint before  it got so  high, and he did not know the cause.
The doctors did not tell him.  I told him I guessed they
themselves  did not  knoAV the  cause, and  thought  this
must be quack  steam or quack owners.  He turned and
looked at me very sharp and  asked my brother Avho I was.
He said, "he is a countryman."   "Well,"  said he, "I
wish he would mind  his business and not come here cal-
ling this quack steam and  quack  OAvners"  So  I found
his knoAvledge of steaming Avas like those in the country
and all ran  down except those who understood the first
principle.
                 STEAMING, No. 2.
   I will noAV mention two or three cases both for the  a-
 musement and instruction of the reader:—A man came
 to my house, a distance of 30 or 40 miles, who  had a bad
 inflamation  upon the lungs  and Avas  bled, blistered and
 physiced almost to death.  He was near consumption and
 drove  to another  course of  practice.  As soon as he got
 into the  house he laid down and  rested and then called 
                         17

for me a?nd told how he had been handled, and if I could
doctor him without steaming he wanted to have me.  I at
once saw his prejudice and fear.  I told him his  case did
not require steaming on which he  appeared much rejoic-
ed at his good luck, thinking he should not be steamed.
I took hold and attended on him, cleared his system, gave
restoring medicines  and plenty of  light food, and thus
continued  until night.   He heard  some  one speak  of
steaming,  as there were to be six or eight steamed.  He
asked me whether he might go in, I told him I had rath-
er  he  would  not, which made  him  very uneasy.—
He said he would keep out of the way, but he Avould like
to see one steamed if no more.. I told him it was like a
theatrical performance and worth a dollar.  He  said, " I
have no dollar to spare,  but I want to go and see one
steamed.  In a feAV minutes I told him he might go in  if
he would make no remarks about it Avhen he  went off.—
" O," said he, " take my Avord for it, I never will men-
tion it to any one," so he went in and I seated him on a
chair.   He looked very wild to see what was  done.  He
had heard, as I understood, that I fettered, cross-fettered
and tied them down  head and  foot, threAv  them in ami
set the steam going, and not one in ten lived through the
operation.   After he had seen tAVO or three  steamed he
asked  if that  Avas all.   I told him yes.   " 0,"  said lie,
" how you are belied."  He said the best  thing he  could
do. would be to be steamed, and so he Avas before he left
the room,  and was steamed every day,  using  other medi-
cine, and  in fourteen days he went home well,  with the
exception  of being somewhat weak, Avhich might  be ex-
pected, considering the  low  state he  was  in when he
came.
                 STEAMING, No. 3.
  A young woman came to my house a distance of about
fourteen miles, who had  been unAvell about  three years.
She took cold, as is common, the doctor attended her to
no purpose,  her mother sweated her over herbs, and gave
her tanzy  tea,  but it all did no good.  They told the doc«
tor  they intended to send her to  me.  "0," said he, "he
will at once steam her to death?"   Thus it passed on for
a feAV weeks, when they brought her, after giving her, as
I understood, the most peremptory  injunctions not to be
steamed !  The  doctor came to her house the third day
after and found she had gone, he told her parents that  I
would steam her, and it would at once  kill  her, as h<.*r 
18
case would not admit of it, and if they wanted to see her
alive they had better go immediately, but he thought prob-
able it Avas too late.  This doctor entertained the same
good will towards me as the rest of the faculty, and  if
she Avas cured it would hurt his credit, and my  system
was not medicated.   But his prediction Avith respect to
the steaming Avas  correct—she had been  steamed after
she had been at my  house two  days.  My student asked
if  she would be steamed.  She  said "no,"  and farther,
she "did not Avish  to be insulted—he might know  she
would  not be  steamed."  I soon  came  home  when he
told me  her feelings  about  steaming.  I went  into the
room and after conversing with her a few moments,  ask-
ed her  if  her mother had ever SAveat  her.  She  said
" Yes, a great many times !"  I told her she had got her
stomach clear and  if she Avould take  a light  sweat it
Avould  be  beneficial.    "Well," said she,  "I think  it
Avould."  I told her the woman would wait on her, and
the way Avas to have on nothing but  a  thin gown,  and
when she had done, to wipe off  the surface clean and put
on dry clothes and  go to  bed or sit up, as she chose.  In
the morning I asked her how  she  slept.   She said she
had rested well, and that Avas the best sweat she had ev-
er taken,  "When  my  mother SAveat  me," said  she,
" I laid in the sweat or sop all night, and your way to
throAv  off the wet clothes and  put on  dry, appears  like
living."   We had to be careful  not to let her know this
was steaming.  The next night I asked her if she would
take another sweat.  She said "yes, I would be SAveated
if  it did no more good than to  make  me  sleep."   Next
morning a woman who Avas at my house  attending her
husband asked her what she supposed was the difference
between sweating  and  steaming ?   She  appeared to be
astonished, and said,  " I have  been  steamed twice and
did not know it till this moment;  and take the stories as
they are told about steaming, one could not believe their own
eyes."  In about three hours her father came to repeat his
injunction not to have her steamed.   He met her at the
door—the  first thing, he  asked her  if she had been
steamed.   She said " yes, I have been steamed twice and
did not knoAV it."   She staid about tAvo weeks, was steam-
ed every day and went home nearly well.  If the patient
is exposed by an open house or very cold weather and
takes cold he is worse off than if  he had done nothing.
When  steaming is not advisable the patient may wash 
19
often in pearl-ash water, or  bathe in spirits, to good ad-
vantage.  In steaming I consider  it best  not to'let the
steam rise above 100 degrees  Fahrenheit.  Let the pa-
tient go in  the bath when  the  thermometer stands at
about 80 degrees and the steam gradually rise up to about
100 degrees.  The  patient should remain  in the  bath
from fifteen  to tAventy-five minutes, then wash clean with
warm water and Avipe dry Avith a coarse, rough towel; in
this way the patient soon becomes  dry and comfortable,
and the sweat abates.   I do not steam until the  stomach
is clear and  full of light food.             Thompson.
            A REMARKABLE  VISION.
BEEN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND PUBLISHED FOR THE
      BENEFIT  OF THOSE WHO BELIEVE IT A REALITY.
  When in silent repose upon my bed, my mindAvaa
greatly agitated by a voice, which, in my dream  I heard
saying, " Poor Avretched inhabitants of a free country !
Boasting of religion, medical knoAvledge and wisdom !"
And I  thought myself awake and said, What is the cause
of their wretchedness ?  As I spoke, turning  my eyes, I
saw by my bed-side  a man clothed in a long white gar-
ment.   I thought I said to  him, Who are you?  He re-
plied:  "I am deception."   I then said Avhy  do you give
yourself this odious name ?   He replied,  " White  denotes
purity,  innocence, and a promoter  of health."   I  then
asked him  Avhat  he Avas in reality, and his reply was, " I
am Death under  the name of Life, or evil under the name
of good."  I then asked him to appear to me without a-
ny cover or disguise—this  he did by throwing off his
white robe, and all Avas blackness and darkness.  I then
asked him  what he represented, he said, " Death, and ma-
ny of my victims you have  known, and  others you have
lately heard of and will continue to hear of them until
this mineral practice is changed.  Many have I destroy-
ed with my deadly Aveapons—some Avithin a few  days or
hours."  After hearing all  this, I asked him if he was
a reality or not ?   He replied, " I  am only the represen-
tative of many."  This led me to inquire what he repre-
sented, to  which he  replied, " I  shall call no names—-"
and then showed me two pill-bags or  a wallet, and said,
" these and what is inscribed  on them, will teach you 
20
why I am.Death under the name of Life, and why I kill
under the name of preserving life."  I then asked him
what he meant by that inscription ?  He replied " I mean
those deadly weapons contained in the bags or wallet, the
names  of which are, according to  the best of my recol-
lection, 'Arsenic, Mercury, Quinine, Opium, Nitre, Lan-
cet and Knife.'"  He then added " those instruments of
death are used'under pretence of curing diseases or pro-
moting life, and the  men who use them, you know, have
been the cause of the death of those  who were so sud-
denly taken from their friends and all they held dear on
earth.
   Having heard all this, I asked why he revealed this se-
cret to  me  and not  to another. He replied,  "because I
know you are able to write the particulars which are re-
lated to you."  He added, " do not fail to publish what I
have related,  not only to this towny.but in every direction,
for this  business of killing under  the  name of  healing,
has gone far  and is  going  farther, for many have great
wrath  because they think  their  time  is short.  Every
thing which has been done here and in other places, adap-
ted to relieve the sick  with the medicine of our country,
which  nature has so plentifully furnished—all these things
have been  despised,  and those who kill others cry Poison !
Poison!  Kill! Kill!"
   I asked him why they cried out in this manner, when
so few died, that used the medicine'of our own country,
and when so  many fell under their deadly weapons ?—
He replied, " you remember what I first stated—they will
talk of pity,  if one is likely  to be cured, that they may
kill him  themselves.   It is not strange for the  eagle  to
cry death to birds when the dove is among them, though
he would gladly devour the dove with the  other birds,
were it in his poAver.
   In my "dream I thought the one who  spoke to  me said,
" I enjoin it on you to direct the people of the country to
keep in  their libraries and reading rooms, three books,*
in use  among those who use those deadly weapons,  viz :
The New American Dispensatory, the Medical Dictiona-
ry, and the Medical  Pocket-Book.   Lest you or any oth-
er may not happen to find what is said in the Dispensa-
  • The first book shows how to prepare medicines ; the second ex-
plains the dead languages ; the third directs how much medicine or
poison to give. 
21
tory concerning these deadly Aveapons, I now repeat a few
words written there."  He then  handed  me the follow-
ing, page 285: Of Nitre it is  said, " This powerful salt,
when inadvertently taken in too  large quantities,  is  one
of the most fatal  poisons."  Page  188 : " Oxide  of Ar-
senic is one of the most sudden, violent  poisons we are
acquainted with."  The lancet we  knoAV the use of,  and
also Mercury, which is called Medicine though poisonous.
  As these are so, how  can  people  expect to be benefit-
ted by such articles as are acknoAvledged the most dead-
ly poisons, though used as a medicine in the most difficult
cases.   After quoting these  things  from  the  Dispensato-
ry and making the above remarks,  I thought  that he said
" Do not fail to put them in  mind of this important ques-
tion :  ' What will become  of your souls  another day ?
You must die as well as other men, and how can you an-
swer for the lives of those poor people vvho  have died  in
consequence of taking  poison at your  hands under the
name of healing  medicine,  while you have despised the
medicines which  might have relieved them, and especial-
ly when you did it for filthy lucre ?'  "  When he had said
these words  he vanished and  I awoke,  and behold !  it
was a dream !
   Fearing I might forget  these things, I  arose  immedi-
ately and wrote down the vision according to my recollec-
tion, and as soon as possible found  the  books mentioned
and to my great astonishment, found every  Avord in the
Dispensatory which had been related to me.
   The dream and what I found in the Dispensatory caus-
ed some serious  reflections in my  mind, I said thus  to
myself:  If Arsenic, Mercury,  and Nitre are in  their na-
ture poisonous, can they in  the hands of  a physician be
medicine?  If  Avhen  taken by accident these  kill, Avill
they cure when given designedly?  Does not Mercury go
to the same part  of a man when taken  by  accident  as
when given by the doctor ?   Surely, it does  of course ;
it will be poison  and be injurious  whenever it  is taken.
  These things are communicated to the public that they
may judge of them according  to the evidence  given  of
their being true or not.
                --------o:o--------
  Dr. Rush, in that emphatic style which is peculiar to himself call»
Mercury  the Sampson of medicine.  In his hands, and in  those of
his partizans, it may indeed be compared to Sampson, for I verily be-
lieve they have slain more Americans with it, than ever Sampson
•lew of the Philistines, they have slain their tens of thousands. 
22
 LOBELIA SPEAKS FOR ITSELF

My hearers of a gentle mind,
Look unto me, I'm pure and kind,
I help the poor in their distress,
When sickness does them much oppress
The great Creator form'd me so
That I on every land might grow.
My seed he streAved on hills and plains,
To ease mankind of gripes and pains.
Beneath the feet of learned men,
Who knew not hoAv to use me then,
I've long been trodden to the ground;
But now am rising to renown.
My roots are set in  every land,
My leaves are plucked by every hand
That owns a head of common  sense,
And stands upright  in life's defence.
Lobel first spoke to  me in Dutch,
But of my virtues knew not much,
Though complimented me by way
And called my name Lobelia,
Then  Linnaeus next took up my cause
And said  I kept some Avholesome laws a
But all Avere then too deaf and blind
My Avorth to know^—my powers to find.
The great, the learned and the wise
Have  clothed my name Avith countless lies ^
But after all they've said and done
My glorious reign has just begun.
Some  pull me up and throw me down :
Some  scoff and jeer and hand me round,
And some by chance my leaves do eat
And soon their pains do all retreat—
And soon they drive me here and there,
Some  full of hope, and some despair.
Some  say I'm good,  some say I'm bad—
While some are raging, some  are glad.
Some  say I'm poison, branch and root,
While others highly praise my fruit:
And by-the-bye, through hope  and fear,
They've found me out most ev'ry where.
When Samuel Thompson was a youth,
He spoke to me in simple truth.
My leaves he tasted  when I stood, 
2'6
Among the cattle's summer food,„
He also tasted many a weed,
But found that I did all exceed,
And Avhat he learned he never lost
Though for his zeal he paid the cost.
But I to him was ever true—■
In hopeless cases bore him through,
'Till he my real worth did find,
When sweet composure filled his mind.
Then to the world he gave my name,
And I am yet the very same—
Lobelia then—Lobelia now—
To me disease must gently bow,
My enemies  I'm well aware,
Are struck with panic far and near.
They fear that I will soon dispel
Their boasted hero Calomel ;
But to my friends I  still can say,
Heed not the clamors of the  day,
But use me just, on Avisdom's plan,
And health will reign throughout the land.
BOTANIC DIRECTIONS.—By S. Thompson.
      Disorders come by losing inward heat,
    That motion stops Avhich renders health complete,
    The system clogs, the juices  putrefy.
    For want of motion only, people die.
    The emetic proves  itself designed,
    A gen'ral medicine for mankind,
    Of every country, clime or place,
    Wide as the circle of our race.
    In every case and state and stage,
    Whatever malady may rage—
    For male or female, young or old,
    Nor can its A'alue half be told.
    To use this med'cine do not cease,
    Till you are helped of your disease,
    For nature's friend this sure will be
    When taken sick on land or sea.
    Let comp'sition be  used bold,
    To clear the stomach of a cold.
    Next take the compound strong and free,
    And keep as warm  as you can be. 
24
       A hot stone at the feet noAV keep
       As well as inAvard Avarmth repeat.
       The fountain 'bove, the  stream keep clear,
       And perspiration Avill appear.
       When sweat enough as you suppose,
       Iiv spirits Avash and change your clothes',
       And then sit up if you should choose,
       Or else to bed in calm repose.
       Should the  disorder reinforce,
       Then follow up the former course.     ,
       The second time I think will  do—
       The third to fail I  seldom knew.
       Now take your  bitters by the way—
       Two, three or four times in a day.
       And if your appetite be good,
       Then you may  eat most kinds of food. •
       Physic I'd seldom have you use—
       Injections in its stead would choose
       For if you  physic much in course
       It Avill disorder  reinforce.
       If any one  should be much bruised,
       Where bleeding frequently is used,
       A lively  SAveat upon that day,
       Will  start the blood a better Avay.
       Let names of all disorders be
       Like to the limbs joined on a tree :
       Work on the root and that subdue
       When all the limbs Avill bow  to you.
       So as the body is the  tree,
       The  limbs are  Cholic, Pleurisy,
       Worms and Gravel, Gout and Stone,
       Relieve  the fountain and they're gone.
       My system's founded on this  truth—
       Man's Air  and Water, Fire and Earth,
       And  death is Cold and life is Heat.
       These tempered well your health's complete.

  Note.—These directions apply more particularly  to
places Avhere  water is soft; but  when the  Avater is hard
and the patient is billious, a more thorough course is re-
quired. 
25
LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS  THYSELF

           WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR ?

     Thy neighbor! it is he whom thou
   Hast poAver to aid and bless,
   Whose aching  heart or burning brow
   Thy soothing hand  may press.
   Thy neighbor ! 'tis  the fainting poor,
   Whose eye with want is dim,
   Whom hunger sends from door to door.
   Go thou and succor him !
   Thy neighbor ! 'Tis that weary man
   Whose years are at their brim—
   Bent low with sickness cares and pain—
   Go thou  and comfort him.
   Thy neighbor ! 'Tis the heart bereft,
   Of every earthly gem.
   Widowed and orphaned, helpless left,
   Go thou  and shelter them.
   Thy neighbor ! yonder toiling slave,
   Fettered in thought and limb,
   Whose hopes are all beyond the grave—
   Go thou and ransom him.
   Whene'er thou meet'st a human form
   Less favored than thine OAvn,
   Remember there's a neighbor born,
   Thy brother or thy son.
   O pass not—pass not heedless by,
   Perhaps  thou canst redeem,
   The breaking heart from misery,
   Go share thy lot with him.
                A MISTAKEN M. D.
  A child was sick.   The M. D.  was called  and came
with pomp and splendor, dashed off his  coat, Avhip and
gloves, hauled out his little wallet  of tools  or  medicines
and placed them on the table.   Just at this moment the
Avoman passed out after a pail of  water  and was absent
a few minutes.   When she returned the doctor  had got
his calomel dealt out and observed that the  child's pulse
was very  quick—that  it Avas quite sick  and threatened 
26
with a fever.  The mother stared and said, " that is my
well babe—my sick boy is in the other room."
  Remarks.—When will M. D.s learn that a nursing child's
pulse beats 120 times in a minute—when Aveaned it beats
90 times, and so runs down  till at the age of 80 it beats
but 40  times in a minute.
  The folloAving poem  was written by Dr.  Thompson
while in Newburyport jail in 1809,  on a charge of mur-
der, from which he was honorably acquitted, without hav-
ing an opportunity to make any defence.   It was printed
and circulated in  a handbill—a  looking  glass in which
the doctors might see their OAvn  conduct, and the effects
of their medicine  on patients  in cases of Pleurisy and
Fevers Avhen treated according to art.
              MEDICAL CIRCULAR.
                   SECUNDUM ARTEM.
The poor man's lamentation in cases of sickness  and the
            advantage taken by  the doctors.
        My wife is sick and like to die,
        " Go for the doctor !" is  the cry,
        " Haste ! quick ! away !  return Avith speed !
        She ne'er did more a doctor need."

        The doctor comes with great perfume,
        Like summer's rose in height of bloom.
        His skill appears the outAvard side,
        And thus he gains on woman's pride.

        Near the bed-side where Madam lies,
        He seats himself,  "You're sick," he cries.
        " O yes!  so very sick am I
        If  you can't help me I shall die."

        " A dangerous fever troubles thee,
        And 'tis the raging Pleurisy,
        I knoAv it by your laboring breast,
        The load with which your stomach's prest."

        " Stagnation of the purple tide,
        The  tort'ring pain that  racks your side,
        And higher still, I fear 'twill rise,
        (" I find it by your pulse, your eyes.) 
27
" Lest the disorder I rebuke"—
So takes her blood and gives a puk?.
Thus make the foe his hat to doff,
Then takes his leave and pushes off. •

At length the doctor comes again,
" Oh! Avhat!" says he, " not free of pain V
No—you've destroyed for life all chance,
By physic, puking, and your lance.

The doctor feels her pulse again,
And says " the fever makes her pain,
And quickly that I must subdue—
I must kill that, or that will you."

To kill the heat, he Nitre deals,
Opium to quell the pain she feels,
And when their office work is o'er,
Death knocks  aloud at patient's door.

The spirits muster up their force
To oppose the destroyer's course,
But Avith one touch he ends the strife,
By putting out the fire of life.

The doctor says " I did my best—
I hope your wife has gone to rest.
Your part you now must soon fulfill—
That is,  to pay my  mod'rate  bill.

" My bill is rendered in this way :
Your wife's attendance, night and day,
To physic, bleeding, drops and stuff,
It's FIFTY DOLLARS—cheap  enoughs

Where is the pity they should feel ?
They charge the same to kill as  heal,
And crave withal the people's thanks
And seize the prize and leave the blanks.*

In case of fever see them come,
And the  whole system  down they run,
And lest the man should rise at last,
With doctor's  cords they bind him fast.
* T»kc the money and leave the body. 
28
The doctor says, " how still he lies,
Hoav fine the med'cine is," he cries :
His blood is took, the fever gone,
And thus the killing job is done.

The fever rises—nature gains,
The sick man  feels  again his pains,
And soon about this man AArould be,
Were he from such cold doctors free.

Should pain increase, the fever rise,
He nitre and the laud'num  plies,
Thus  to subdue and ease the pain,
He lowly lays his strength again.

This is Avhat makes the fever run—
They  nature fight till she's  most done ;
Then  her recovery to work out,
They  leave her, and the man's about.

They take their nature all away—
They bleed  and physic night and day,
And the more poison they can  give,
Conceive they've better chance to  live.

Ratsbane and zinc and  vitriol too,
And Mercury to physic through.
This,  at times  is what they give—
The patient must be tough to live.

Thus  I have shown  the death,  in part,
Of doctors practicing by art,
Two thousand years they boast of  light,
Yet deadly scales obstruct their sight.

Our blood and heat  does cause our breath.
In losing these we suffer Death,
And all the use in modern skill,
Of taking blood, but tends  to kill.

From these dark scenes let us Avithdraw,
And view unerring  nature's law,
And this remark, that through  our days,
Heat's life and health, in different  ways.

It animates our frame complete,
The sun of  life and full of Leat. 
29
 With the glad influence of his beams,
 He cheers the earth and warms the streams.

 Makes all creation joy and sing,
 To vegetation gives the spring ;
 Corn, wine and oil,  herb, fruit and flower,
 Are ripen'd by his kindly power.

 Fish, fowl and beast in different ways,
 Feel life and  health in  his blest rays,
 But man, Creation's noblest boast,
 Feels and should own his blessings most

 When fire 'bove water bears the SAvay,
 It through the pores wastes it away ;
 When this triumphant is, throughout,
 The man is healthy  firm and stout.

 But when  the water overpowers,
 The stomach's chill'd and closed the pores ;:
 The elements then temper well,
 And health Avith you shall ever dwell.

 Our Father Avhom all goodness fills,
 Provides the means to cure all ills;
 The simple herbs beneath our feet,
 Well used, relieve our pains  complete.

 While doctors rove in foreign parts,.
 And rack their powers and skill and arts;
 Health's medicines grow upon our land—
 They're ours by stretching forth our hand..

 This art I studied from my youth,
 And now assert it as a truth,
 I can them use in different ways,
 And turn a fever in two days.

 How oft we hear the doctors  say,
 " The fever it  must have its way."
 If that's the case, I question you,
 What good can all their doctors do ?

Man is perplex'd, and much to do,
 That has a talent forth to show.
 Much opposition he will  find,
 If 'tis against  the human kind. 
30
Must man be silent while he's breath,
And hide his talent in the earth?
When nature urges him to move
He should the gift of Heaven improve.

Like Absalom, I'd sooner  beav,
To be suspended by the hair,
Than silent lie, devoid of good*
And not  improve the gift of God,
       THE COMPONENT  PARTS OF MAN

  I find to be Earth, Water,  Fire and Air.  When  to
gether, bones, cords, muscles,  sinews, flesh,  nails  and
hair.   I find our bodies are kept in motion by heat,  that
the aliment received produces and  maintains that heat
on which life depends.  The stomach is  the  fountain or
deposit for  food  and drink ; the lungs for breath  or air.
When we survey the complicated machinery  that consti-
tutes the physical system of man, are we  not filled \vith
wonder and astonishment that it should  continue to  per-
form its various functions so regularly and harmoniously
as it does ?  Truly  may we exclaim Avith the immortal
poet:—
        Strange ! a harp of a thousand strings,
        Should keep  in tune so long !
The physiologist traces through this harmony and perfec-
tion, so intricate  a  connexion  between cause  and effect
that his surprise  is someAvhat abated in regard to the per-
fection of the animated machine, while at the same time
his admiration and gratitude are raised in contemplation
of the infinite wisdom and goodness which must have
planned it.  If there is the least derangement in any of
the circulating  organs : blood,  stomach, lungs, or  at the
surface, the veins with their subtle fluids, stand ready as
so many sentinels, stationed in every part of the animal
system to give the alarm to the great receiver or  reser-
voir of all  sention—the brain.  The heart  contracts or
beats about four thousand times an hour, and forms the
great reservoir of the blood, which passes through  it at
the rate of two hundred and fifty pounds an hour, and at
each pulsation there is a muscular force  employed equal
to a hundred thousand pounds.  There has never been a 
31
fire-engine constructed with sufficient  force to penetrate
and fill the ten thousand  small vessels which constitute
the circulating medium of the animal system.  What but
the energies of a mighty power could set in motion such
complicated  and powerful machinery and keep up a con-
cert and harmony of action for a series of years  without
waste or decay, and being once set in motion, it  requires
the presence of the same sustaining and propelling prin-
ciple to keep  up its action, Avhich  principle is animated
life by heat.
   Life, properly defined, may mean a certain modifica-
tion of  matter, which acts so as to produce vital properties
and the various phenomena, which constitutes the func-
tions of  the living  animal body,  which is obviously very
different from animate matter.  Life, the vital principle,
or coloring of our existence, is universally  diffused  thro'
the various organs producing a mode of action in the el-
ements of our physical composition, Avidely differing from
that which arises from the common laws  of chemical af-
finity.  By the  aid of this principle, matter produces all
the animal fluids, such as blood, bile, and other secretions
which never can be produced by the art of chemistry.-—
This life, or  animal heat, constitutes a  propelling power,
which is produced by a kind of friction, formed from the
multifarious  combined action of the  different organs ac-
ted upon by the air, or oxygen, and the fermentation  and
digestion of the aliment received  into the stomach  and
lungs.  Air,  the propelling power,  which gives motion to
the  lungs, loses its influence, or  vital properties while
 fiassing through them ; and here  the ebbs and  Aoavs of
 ife would cease, Avere it not for  the generated principle
of heat, which sends the blood around till  every part of
the body is nourished thereby.  The  blood  is that which
nourishes the Avhole man by being  sent by  the action of
the different  organs, to every part  of the system to sup-
ply the secreting and absorbent vessels with  their suitable
fluids, such   as the  bile,  the  gastric, the pancreas,
the tonstl, the nervous and the various other organs or
tissues of the animal body.
  This shows us the  impropriety of bloodletting  to  cure
the sick.  We  might as well  take from  the man his
breath or a portion of the oxygen  Avhich he inhales as
the blood, for when deprived of either, he loses the  heat
and must necessarily die.  We read in the Sacred Scrip-
tures  that the blood is the life of man; and  shall  we take 
3*
the life (or part of it) of man when he is diseased under
the pretence of making  more life and restoring  him to
health?  "No,"  reason, philosophy and common sense
says;  no—if the blood is diseased, shall Ave draw it out
and throw it away any more  than if the flesh or bones
were diseased, cut them off and throAV them away?  No.
The true principle would be to give medicines (not poi-
son) to stimulate nature to action to remove obstructions,
which is the cause direct or indirect of all the diseases to
which our flesh is heir.
 LEARNED QUACKERY  EXPOSED,

         OR, THEORY ACCORDING TO ART.


          A DISAPPOINTED  DOCTOR.

  A learned  M. D., who resided in---, not many years
ago,  held himself in such high  repute,  and  considered
himself of so much.consequence as to make him Lord of
the vicinity in which he moved, and possessed of an un-
doubted right to all its medical benefits to the exclusion
of even the  regular faculty.  Now, it happened that a
Thompsonian doctor, located near this  all-powerful doc-
tor and by the success attending his practice soon became
quite popular in that place, and as a natural consequence,
drew away much of the support  of the M. D.,  much to
his annoyance.  This was not  to be endured, and some
plan must be devised to put a stop to this infringement.
In the  course of eight  or ten months  the Botanic was
called to  see a child, which he at once pronounced past
cure, and as there was  indication of worms, he left the
child a small dose of the essence  of Tansey, as will be
seen in the sixth verse and left—the next day the child
died.   And no\v was a favorable time to put an end to this
man's practice, thought the M. D., and accordingly stor-
med about, as shoAvn in the 4th and 5th  verses, and had
the coroner  summon a  jury, and the body taken up for
examination.  But, through the dislike of the parents to
the Dr. he Avas obliged to abandon the examination and
the body was re-interred.  Not satisfied Avith  this, anoth-
er jury was  called_and the body sought, but it had  been 
33
removed, he knew not where, as the 7th verse will show,
and again he was foiled.

 1. I'm an object of pity, come hear me relate,
    My history is mournful, and so is my fate.
    I'm a dealer in Calomel, this you know well,
    But now I'm distracted like demons in hell,
    I had a large practice, and  that you all know,
    Was called in an instant to see friend or foe,
    Whate'er I prescribed they all cried it was skill,
    But now I'm rejected, my honor's to kill,

 2. To remedy this like a madman I Avent,
    To slay the Botanics, Avas  all my intent,
    But how I'm  afflicted no  pen  can describe—
    Whatever I aimed at was all  set aside.
    I called out my forces and on I did go—
    I appeared Avith the great, the high and the low.
    My aim Avas destruction—foiled til at once,
    The people concluded I was but a dunce,

 3. Disgraced in this manner, I could not be still,
    I must have been hurried by  my own self-Avill.
    An inquest I called, then Avithin a few miles,
    To see what had caused the sad death of a child.
    On commencing our business it went very brave,
    In spite of its parent Ave  tore  open the grave,
    The corpse bore to the house Avith knives in our hands
    At dissection to go Avithout leave or command.

 4. On the table Ave  laid it, a block neath its head,
    And said Ave had courage to cut up the dead ;
    But when we examined Ave found with surprise
    The body quite natural appeared  to our eyes.
    My sorrow increased, Ave were  all ordered doAVH,
    The jury decided 'tAvas best for the town.
    In spite of my efforts,  they sent it away
    To the place of interment in  Avhich it once lay.

 5. I was by afflictions  then quickly assailed ;
    In all my endeavors I found I had failed,
    But feAV Avould assist me and those far aAvay,
    I mounted my poney and southward did stray.
    I called a new jury—not those I had first,
    My madness and fury filled all  with disgust. 
34
    Determined I came, if it lay in my power
    To raise up the child that very same hour.

 6. The proof  we obtained was no more than the first—
    Each witness Avas sworn, and put to the test.
    The child it appeared, by the proof that was given,
    Died natural and there Avas rejoicing in Heaven.
    But this did not answer—I could not rest here,
    'Twas farther invested to make it appear,
    That the death of the child had been caused by him
    Whose dose Avas the size of the head of a pin.

 7. The coroner ordered the corpse to be brought,
    In a moment  before them,  to see what they thought.
    They Avent to the grave Avhere in peace it had laid,
    And moved back the earth Avith. the  help of a spade.
    The grave  was quite empty and nothing was found,
    Of the corse that once laid there all co ver'd with ground
    Some person had watched it and  borne it away,
    Although but an infant, and nothing but clay,

 8. For the sake  of its mother, grieved almost to death,
    Like Moses they hid it to save it from  theft.
    The court then consulted what course theysho'd take,
    To settle the business that happened of late,
    As nothing Avas proved but what 'twas all right,
    The jury retired although it was night,
    So I Avas not  easy but baffled again—
    It  was feared by many I'd crack my vveak brain.

 9. But still I resolved that I Avould have revenge,
    If  it cost me much money and time in the end.
    I saw the effect  my base conduct had made,
    Resolved on neAv measures while trembling with rage,
    I saw the Botanies in business all round,
    The people employ them in every town,
    And half my  afflictions I have not told here,
    I've entered a combat with millions, I fear.

10.  And if I'm defeated I'm sure I shall fall,
    Like a demon distracted—and that is not all.
    Let me think a  moment—it was a quick move.
    I watched all  their movements although not in lore.
    They well understood, let me do what I would,
    They saw my intentions that they were not good. 
35
    I called them quite ignorant, for I didn't then know,
    But I find my mistake now wherever I go.

11.  When  the cholera was raging last summer in town,
    The Botanies were call'd and obtain'd great renown.
    To physic and bleed I told them was right,
    To give calomel and opium to lull them at night.
    But O, how mistaken 1 found I had been
    When  I cut up a negro at Utica Inn.
    I closely examined and published all round,
    The disease must come up and  not driven down.

12.  So to steaming I went with my thoroughwort tea,
    By the help of that practice, I saved two or three !
    My patients had died in vast numbers before.
    In spite of my skill they fell dead on the floor,
    But when I insisted that  sweating was good,
    My rivals had spoken the truth as they should.
    The people believed me and chose whom they pleas'd
    And found the Botanies could cure the disease.

13.  But still I persisted in blinding their eyes,
    That the good min'ral medicine none should  despise
    It was  bro't from old England Avhere learning's great,
    You must take our good medicine if death is your fate
    The medicine of our country you never could know.
    As it groAvs on our hills and vallies beloAV.
    We had much better buy it imported so cheap,
    Than to use our own medicine, found at  our feet.

14.  But all I could say they Avould not believe
    That mineral medicine oft would relieve.
    The Botanies were called on by night and by day,
    Wherever I went they were found in my way.
    Now what shall I do, for my  business is  dull,
    To fight the Botanies, 'twill crack my old skull.
    I'm Avholly  discouraged,  'twill crush me at last—
    I see I am going and that very  fast.

15.  Can you,  my dear brother, my  folly forgive ?
    A wretch that has ruined you all, I believe.
    I have helped the Botanies in all I have done.
    I have  seen their prosperity.  O, hoAv I do groan !
    Our system is rotten, 'twill tumble at last,
    The petitions Ave sent were no  help to the craft* 
36
I've tried to be active in slandering their cause—
Resorted at last to our own civil laws.

Where'er I have  met them I found a repulse
Too dreadful to mention—I'm almost convulsed.
I thought I should conquer, the laurel  should wear,
But the thought of my fortune I hardly can bear.
I called on my neighbors to know what to do
With  all the Botanies, the old  elder too—
But I  fear I have  missed it as many do  say,
I'd better repent,  and be learning to pray.

But repenting and praying, O hoAv can I do ?
Let others repent now and pray for me too !
Young doctors take warning Avho sit by my side,
In spite of your learning botanies  will  ride.
If you meet Avith  Botanies, remember poor me,
And never oppose them but Avith them  agree.
If you can find friends and prosper awhile,
Treat Avell the Botanies ; and Heaven will smile.

But if you continue the truth to despise,
The devil will have you, although  in disguise.
The subject is serious—I feel it of late,
If I'm not relieved soon my heart will  surely break.
My medicine don't sell, I've much upon  hand,
And most people  think  it's no  better than bran ;
My bleeding  and  blistering I fear is quite done,
I have not  much practice, they  spoil all my run.

If I find no more  business, I'll hasten away,
And never will stop 'till I arrive at Green Bay.
And if the Steam doctors pursue me out there,
Pll hang up my pill bags—turn tanner by gar.
If that wont support me I'll again  take a walk
A little farther west, and unite with Black Hawk ;
There in the  wild desert, I'll ever remain,
I'm sure the steam doctors won't  trouble  me again
                                     Thompson, 
%i
  An M. D.  was once called to a sick child soon after it
had been eating bread and milk, the Dr. said it had Avorms
and  administered  a  dose of that " cure-all," or rather
"kill-all," of the Faculty,  Calomel; which  threw  the
child into violent fits, and the neighbors Avere called to
see  it die.   But after nature had struggled half an hour
against the violent poison, Calomel,  it caused vomiting,
and  the child threw up both the calomel and its breakfast.
A dog being present, ate what Avas vomited, and soon
died in consequence  of the poison.  The child got well
This was scientific treatment—So called.

                     CALOMEL.

         The M. D.s  of the highest rank—
         To pay  their fees we need a bank—
        Combine all wisdom, art and skill
         In the dire effects of  Calomel,

         Since Calomel's become their toast,
         Hoav many patients have they lost?
         How many thousands do they kill,
         Or poison with their Calomel ?

         When Mr. A. or B. is sick,
        Go  fetch the doctor and be quick ?
         The doctor comes Avith free good wi.l,
         But  ne'er forgets his Calomel.

         He takes his patient by the hand,
         And compliments him as a friend,
         He sits  awhile the pulse to feel,
         And then takes out his Calomel

         He then addresses patient's wife,
         " Have  you  clean paper, spoon and knife ?
         I think  your husband might  do well,
         To  take a dose of Calomel."

         lie then deals out the fatal  grains :
         " This,  ma'am, I'm sure will ease his pains.
         Once in three hours at sound of bell,
         Give him a  dose of Calomel."

         He leaves his patient in her  care,
         An^i bids good bye with graceful air, 
38
In hopes bad humors to expel,
She freely gives the Calomel.

The man grows worse quite fast indeed i
Go call for counsel! ride with speed !
The counsel comes like post with mail,
Doubling the dose of Calomel.

The man in death begins t6 groan—
The fatal job for him is done.
He dies, alas! but sure to tell,
A sacrifice  to Calomel.

Since Calomel has lost its name,
And Hydrara plays its deadly game,
And does the fatal work fulfill,
As faithfully as Calomel.

Physicians of my former choice,
Receive my counsel and advice.-
Be not offended though I tell,
The dire effects of Calomel.

And when  I must resign my breath,
Pray let me die a natural death,
And bid you all a long farewell,
Without one dose of Calomel.
  The late Earl of Chatham, Avho bore no good will to ft
cenain physician, was rallying him one day about the ef-
ficacy of his prescriptions, to which  the  doctor  replied,
" he defied any of  his patients to find  fault with him."
" I believe you," replied the Earl, " for they are all dead.
  Receipt to Kill Rats and" Mice.—Take  Calomel and
spread it on a  piece of buttered  bread or mix it with
flour and place it where it will be  eaten by rats and mice
and they will very soon die in all the agonies  Avhich this
scientific remedy is known to produce. 
39
            POISONS NOT MEDICINES.

  The laws of  the land punish with death any individu-
al who shall be convicted of introducing poison into food
or water, &c, unless it shall satisfactorily be made to ap-
 fiear to have been done accidentally or by mistake.   The
 aw takes it for granted, that poison will produce death, and
every man or woman under its jurisdiction,  is presumed
to be acquainted with the fact, and  therefore  it is only
necessary  that sufficient proof be  obtained in order to
convict any person guilty of  the offence.
  So great is the uncertainty of the effects of Mercury on
the system that no precise  rule for  its administration can
be given or regarded.— Dr. Thatcher.

  "Mercury, in some  instances, exhibits all the phenom-
ena  of a poisonous-action, productive of the most  mis-
chievous, and sometimes even fatal effects.--Dr. Chapman.

  "  The  most  active  poisons, in  small doses, form the
most valuable medicines.  Many doses of Mercury would
kill  the patient if the  medicine Avere  only given internal-
ly, because it proves hurtful to the stomach and intestines
when given  in any form, and joined  with the  greatest
correctors.  Occasionally Mercury acts on the system as
a poison, quite  unconnected with its agency as a remedy."
Dr.  Hooper.
  "The morbid effects of Mercury  have been sudden and
fatal.  It has been  knoA\n to lay dormant for years and
then display the most  fatal results."—Dr.  Falconer.
  "  When  great debility of  the  system is present, even
a small dose (of  Tartar Emetic) has been knoAvn  to prove
fatal.  It is capable  of acting as  a  violent poison."—Dr.
Hooper.
  "Mercury acts as a poison on man in whatever way it
is introduced into the  system ;  whether it is swallowed or
inhaled in the form of a vapor,  or applied  to a wound,
or  even  simply applied or rubbed on the  skin  that  is
sound."—Dr.  Christoson.
  >'  The evils attending the use of Mercury, are disturb-
ed sleep,  frightful  dreams, impaired vision,  adies and
pains in various parts of the  body,  sudden failure of
strength, as if  just dying,  violent palpitation of the heart,
difficult breathing, Avith a shocking depression of spirits, 
40
intolerable feelings, nervous  agitations, tremors, paraly-
sis, incurable mania, mental derangement, fatuity, suicide,
deformity, bones  of the  face destroyed  and  miserable
death.—Dr. Hamilton.
  " Mercury  is the common  cause of Liver complaints ;
many of the most  aggravated symptoms  of what  has
been called billious fever, are brought on by the action of
Mercury."—Dr. Chapman.
  " The danger of administering Mercury, Arsenic,  cor-
rosive Sublimate, Opium, Antimony, Nitre, Tartar Emet-
ic, Digitalis  and Hemlock  is : 1st.  They  are hostile to
life, and in  direct opposition  to all its laws and  all its
principles.  2d. The state  of the stomach  and habits of
the body on Avhich their action depends, cannot be known
jn relation to the medicine—death or life or chronic mis-
ery may be the result."—Dr. Finley.
  " It is my  opinion  that Mercury has made  far more
diseases than all  the epidemics of  our country."—Prof.
Powell.
  Reader! look at the above language of the Professors
or Medical  Colleges, and  ask yourselves  the question,
are we not in   danger  if we  trust our lives (when sick)
in the hands of him who deals out on every trifling oc-
casion   poisons which  produce such powerful  and fata}
effects. ?
                      ERRATA.

  On page  11, in the 5th line  from the top, for <• but"
read "bought."
  On page 12xin  the 19th line from the top, for " they
destroy life," read " they speedily  destroy  life."  Same
page, 20th line from top read, " this is the sera of Calomel."
The words  " Dr. Anthony Hunn,"  in the  4th line from
bottom, of the same page, should have been between the
19th and 20th lines  from  top, instead of the place they
now occupy.   In the 11th line from bottom of the same
page, for the Avord "duped," read " aurea praxis." 
                        41

         NATURE'S  REMEDIED.



No 1. ALTERATIVE POWDER OR COMPOSITION.
  Put a tea-spoon full of this powder into a  tea-cup half
full of hot water, sweeten and  add milk if you like.  It
should be taken when hot, the patient kept warm during
the operation.   This valuable medicine may be used by
both sexes, young or old, with perfect safety, in all cases
of cold, head-ache, pain in the limbs, stomach or boAvels,
cold hands or feet, and female  complaints, caused  by
cold.   Where the disease is seated this dose may be ta-
ken 3 or four times a day.

  No. 2.   VEGETABLE ELIXIR OR HOT-DROPS.
   These are good for pain  in the stomach,  Cholic, Dys^
entery and Faintness.  This medicine can be used in
any case of sickness with perfect safety.  Drop it on su-
gar or take it in any other Avay.  Dose, from a tea-spoon
full to a table-spoon full, and repeat until relief is obtained.

              No. 3. EMETIC  DROPS.
   These drops are designed for a common  Emetic to be
used in all cases Avhere an emitic is  indicated.  They
may be given Avithout regard to  age, sex or circumstan-
ces.  Directions—Before administering the emetic the
stomach should always be prepared by  giving  two or
three doses Alterative Powder, Vegetable Elixir, Cayenne
Pepper or Ginger, and if the stomach is very sour a lit-
tle solution of saleratus or soda, may be* given.  Dose,
for an adult, from half  to a table-spoon full  in warm
sweetened Avater once in twenty minutes, until it operates
sufficiently.  For a child one year old from  half to a tea-
spoon  full and repeat the dose once in twenty minutes as
above  directed.  Drink freely of pennyroyal, boneset, or
Catnip tea during the operation.

   No. 4.   ANTI BILLIOUS  CATHARTIC PILLS.
   These pills are very useful in  removing costiveness
and other complaints of the bowels.   They operate as a
gentle physic.  Take from three to six at a time  once in
six or  eight hours, until a sufficient operation is produced.
The  stomach and Anti-Bilious  Pills will cleanse  th^ 
42
stomach  in all  bilious attacks, Avhen  the  stomach  and
bowels should be cleansed.   The  stomach pills are used
to stir up the morbid matter, and the Anti-bilious to car-
ry it off.   These pills may be used in  all cases  where a
mild cathartic is  required,  with  perfect safety.  Omit
physics in all cases of Small-pox, Measles and all conta-
gious diseases, or bad humors, as it draAvs it in, and set-
tles on the lungs, when cough and  Consumption follows.
Debility, as in women after confinement. When  move-
ment of the bowels is necessary, they should take  three
or four doses of composition before  and  after the pills.—
If they  cannot take  pills, they may take  castor  oil or
rhubarb.

             No. 5.   TONIC POWDER.
   For nervous complaints generally—as pain & weakness
of the back  and sides, faintness, palpitation of the heart,
spinal and nervous affections, and debility.   Directions—
take a tea-spoon full three times a day in warm SAveeten--
ed water, and add milk if  it suits.

     No. 6.   VEGETABLE COUGH POWDER.

   For Coughs, Colds, Consumption,  Phthisic, Asthma
and pulmonary  affections  generally.   Directions—In
common coughs,  asthma,  &c, take from half to a tea-
spoon full of the powder mixed Avith honey  or molasses
night and morning.   In more  severe cases  repeat the a-
bove dose three or four times a day.

No. 7.  ANTI-DYSPEPTIC CATHARTIC  POWDER.
   These poAvders produce  surprising effects  in cleansing
the stomach and  bowels,  correcting the secretions from
the liver, spleen, kidneys and Avhole glandular system.—
Directions—take  from half to a  large  tea-spoon full in
cold sweetened Avater, taking at the same time Composi-
tion Stomach Bitters or Anti-dyspeptic PoAvders and re-
peat the dose of  physic once  in four or five  nights for
a short time.

No. 8. ANTI-ASTHMATIC OR ALTERATIVE PILLS.
   These Pills  produce  surprising effects   in  relieving
Asthma and other chronic  diseases of  the lungs and also
in chronic diseases  of the Liver  and  Spleen.   They are
very useful, used with other  alteratives.   Dose—from 
43
one to three as the stomach will bear, to be taken on go*
ing to bed.

         No. 9.   STIMULATING BITTERS.
  Used for dyspepsia, palpitation of the  heart, nervous
affections, pain in the side and  back, and weakness in
general.   Directions—take one ounce of the powder and
one lb. of loaf sugar to one quart of best brandy;  let it
stand 24 hours to be fit for use.  Dose, from one tea-spoon
full to a table-spoon full three times a day before eating.

    No. 10. ANTI-DYSPEPTIC WINE BITTERS
  For indigestion, loss of appetite,  costiveness  and the
general attendant symptoms  of dyspepsia.   Directions—
to one ounce of the powder  add one quart  of wine.—
Dose, from half to a wine glass 3 times a day.

          No. 11. DETERGENT POWDER.
   The strong  infusion of this powder, forms  a valuable
gargle for sore mouths and throat ; it is also highly bene-
ficial in Diarrhoea and Dysentery, when combined with
hot  drops, in proportion,  a  table-spoon  full of the hot
drops to a gill of  the infusion sweetened with  loaf sugar.
Dose from a tea to a table-spoon full.  The infusion with
the addition of Castile soap,  forms an excellent wash for
canker sores, foul ulcers, &c.

           No. 12. STOMACH  BITTERS.    v
   For promoting  dig*estion, causing an appetite and obvi*
ating costiveness, &c.  To one  ounce of the poAvder add
one quart of spirits  and one lb. sugar.  Dose, from a
table-spoon full to half a Avine glass, three times a day.

           No. 13.  DIURETIC  POWDERS.
   For dropsy, gravel, inflamation  of the  kidneys and
bladder, and for  promoting  a free discharge of urine.—
Directions—to one ounce of the poAvder  add  one pint
boiling  water, one  quart  gin and one lb.  sugar; let it
cool, then add the spirits and settle for use.   Dose, from
a table-spoon full to a wine glass, three times a day.

             No. 14. NERVE  POWDER.
   For cramp,  pain in the stomach, back  and  sides, for
 nervous and spinal affections and  female weakness,  to 
44
quiet the nerves and produce  sleep.  Directions—from
half to tea-spoon full of" the powder  in warm sweetened
water, three times a day and on going to bed.

            No. 15.  CEPHALIC  SNUFF.
  For head-ache, colds, catarrah, and all diseases of the
head.  Directions—take  a small pinch 4  or  5 times a
day.  Valuable  for children that have the snuffles  and
gatherings in the head.

           No. 16. MOTHER'S CORDIAL.
  This valuable remedy is worthy  tbe attention  of fe-
males, as it strengthens and invigorates the constitution
before confinement, so that the mother Avill pass the time
of labor  with little danger and aviII be less  liable to take
cold after delivery.  This article should be used by eve-
ry prospective mother.   Directions—take 2 table-spoons
full three or four times a day for  several  weeks before
confinement.

          No.  17.  PULMONARY CORDIAL.
  For Pulmonary Consumption and diseases of the Lungs
generally. This invaluable cordial is undoubtedly supe-
rior to any other preparation of the kind for curing Pul^
monary  Consumption and healing  the lungs.  Directions
—the dose to be regulated according to the strength of
the patient and state  of the case, from a tea-spoon full to
a table-spoon full once in six hours.

 No. 18.' IMPROVED WELCH MEDIC AMENTUM
  .Celebrated  for curing billious  diseases, as  jaundice/
dyspepsia, cholic, costiveness, and  pain and dizziness  of
the head, &c.   Directions—take  from  a  tea-spoon full
to a table-spoon full twice a day.  It may  be taken after
eating to assist digestion.

            No. 19.  CROUP TINCTURE.
  For coughs, colds and  croup or rattles.   This medicine
should be kept by every female, as children are so apt to
have the croup Avhen they take cold and often past  cure
before a physician  can  be  had.  Directions—keep  the
child warm and give, in case of croup, one tea-spoon full
to a child 2 years old, once in 15 minutes until it operates
as  emetic, and  repeat  it once in  two   hours  until it
breathes easy, then give  from 10 to 15 drops three or four 
45
times a day for a few days.  For colds of children, from
ten to tAventy drops three times a day.

        No. 20. RHEUMATIC OINTMENT.
  For Rheumatisms,  Sprains,  Bruises, pains in the side,
back and limbs.  Directions—apply the Ointment as hot
as can be borne.  Rub the parts thoroughly fifteen min-
utes, holding near the fire.

          No.  21. QUINSY OINTMENT.
  For curing acute and chronic affections of the Tonsil
glands of the throat.   Directions—bathe the throat three
or four times a day and apply warm  flannel  cloth, using
at the same time a gargle of Detergent powders.

       No.  22.  VEGETABLE EYE-WATER.
  For curing weak, sore and inflamed Eyes, to  be appli-.
ed at morning and evening or afternoon.

              No. 23. WORM SYRUP.
  To cleanse the stomach and carry off the worms, if too
many.   This is a safe remedy as it is vegetable and per-
fectly harmless in any case, and may be  given with per-
fect  safety.   Many  of the  Vermifuges  of our  country
contain  Mineral poisons and  often do more harm  than
good.  Directions—give from a teaspoon full to a table-
spoon full three times a day until it operates as physic,
then discontinue a few days, and then  do as before direc-
ted until the child is relieved.   It will do no  harm if the
child is  not troubled  with worms, as it will cleanse the
stomach and restore the health of the child.

         No. 24. CHILDREN'S  CORDIAL.
  For easing gripes, and cholic pains and regulating the
stomach and bowels  of children from green stools, and
quieting the system so that the child can rest.  Directions
—from 5 to 30 drops, as occasion may require.

 No. 25. ADHESIVE  SALVE OR  STRENGTHEN-
                  ING PLASTER.
  For curing pain in the side, back, joints, &c, rheuma-
tism, burns, wounds,  bruises, sprains  and common sores,
and drafts on the feet in case of sickness.  Warranted on
{rial  to be equal to anything of the kind now in use. 
46
     No. 26.  VEGETABLE HEALING SALVE.
  For ulcers, common sores, fever sores, scrofulous sores,
scurvy, cracked hands, burns, bruises and tetter.

             No. 27. COUGH  BALSAM.
  For coughs, colds, Consumption and inflamation of the
Chest and  Lungs.  Dose, from  one fourth to a teaspoon
full for  common  colds, night  and  morning.  For more
obstinate cases, the  dose may  be repeated  four  or  five
times a  day.

             No. 28. HONEY  BALSAM.
  For Bleeding at the Lungs, Asthma, Phthisic, Bronchi.
tis,  Colds,  Coughs,  Consumption and all diseases of the
Lungs, xohere an Expectorant and healing medicine is re-
quired.   Directions—one teaspoon full three  or four time*
a day.

                No. 29.  LINIMENT,
  This  surpasses  anything that I have  ever  discovered
for  the cure of seated or nervous rheumatism, pain in the
joints, back, side  or limbs, and for sprains, bruises, boils,
SAvellings or  any  eruptions on  the  surface, spinal affec-
tions and also for all sharp pains, scald  heads,  pimples
on  the face, &c.  When used,  shake it up and bathe the
parts affected freely three times a day and take composi-
tion and keep  Avarm.   This seldom fails to  cure if the
stomach is cleansed.

 No. 30. ANTI-SCORBUTIC  SYRUP for SCROFULA.
   This syrup is one of the greatest remedies  now in use
for all impurities of the blood.   It  is of great service to
children as well as  grown people Avhen the impurities  of
 the blood  have put out  sores, boils, scabs,  salt-rheum,
 scald head, leprosy, &c, &c.   It is almost sure  to  cure
 if taken perseveringly by that class  of  persons  who are
 troubled with scrofula  of any  species or in any  stage of
 the disease.   Take from half to a  wine glass three times
 a day or more if  necessary.

        No. 31. COMPOUND  FOR CANKER.
   This medicine is an  admirable  remedy for all com-
 plaints of  the  stomach  and bowels  in a cankered state.
 It is good in  dysentery,  relax,  &c.  Steep one  third of 
4?
this in a quart of water, strain and add sugar and mifki
tb render it more agreeable.  Dose, a wine glass 4 or 5
times a day.   Three poAvders  steeped in three quarts of
Water, strained  and sweetened  and add  a  little spirits
makes a good syrup to heal and  restore the stomach and
bowels of children Avhen cutting teeth, and is an invalu-
able remedy  for Calomel sore mouth.
   The above medicines are the growth of our own coun-
try and  are  the handmaids of nature ; are  collected
and prepared as Ave do our food, and are to be  used and
applied as the symptoms or location of the  disease may
indicate, and according to the case, young or old.  They
are suited to  every condition in life and every kind of
climate and disease, wherever the human system is ex-
posed " to the thousand ills that  flesh is heir to," wheth-
er on land or sea, and can not be rivalled by any nation
on earth. A number  of year's  experience  in  their use
enables me  to speak Avith the  utmost  confidence as to*
their virtue,
       ' They will not restore when  nature has fled,
       Nor raise the slumbers of the dead.'*
But will cure  all curable  diseases  if taken in time and
rightly applied, while  nature is  still struggling  and pos-
sesses sufficient power to  hold what the medicine gains.
The above medicines are kept  constantly  on  hand at
wholesala or retail.   They are  put up  in packages and
are the  cheapest used in the state.   He also  keeps most
kinds of Roots, Barks,  Herbs, &c,  without being  com-
fHounded, and all Avho wish may  be accommodated by cal-
 ing at my office at Hyndsville, Schoharie County, N. Y.
   A feAV hints to those Avho use the above medicines.  The
limits of this pamphlet will not permit the author to givr
a description  of the different  forms of disease, but a few
hints by Avay of advice and instruction  may  not come
amiss to those into whose hands this pamphlet may chance
to fall and who may be so  Unfortunate as to become afflic-
ted with disease and Avho wish to use  the above medicines.
            A  COURSE  OF MEDICINE.
   For equalizing the  circulation throunghout  the system,
which  must be done in all cases of disease to restore the
patient to health, in  the first place raise the  temprature
of the room to about  80 degrees ; then put  the feet of
the patient in Avarm Avater, as  hot  as can be  borne, giy-
jno- at the same  time composition, pennyroyal  or catnip 
4s
lea, or some stimulants to raise the  internal heat.  In*
crease the heat by putting water of a higher temperature
into the vessel Avith the feet  until a copious perspiration
takes  place.  This will afford some relief—then take the
emetic according to directions.  Should the  patient  be
afflicted with pain in the bowels, use enema or the Anti-
Billious Pill with composition or hot drops  or ginger tea.
Take  care to keep Avarm, which will sometimes have the
desired effect.  Let these  directions be strictly followed,
and by so doing three  fourths of the  attacks of disease,
such as cholic, dysentery; quinsy,  croup, pleurisy, head-
ache,  fevers, &c, might soon find relief.   Let every rea-
der of this, lay up these remarks as valuable truths to be
observed in all cases where there is disease or derange-
ment  in the system in  attempting to afford  relief or per-
form  a cure.
  Order must be brought  about in the body by an equal-
ization of the fluids, and it matters but little Iioav that i^
effected, whether by a course  of medicine, sweating  or
steaming,  bathing the feet in  hot water, emetic or using
mild  physic or any  other course that will effect this relief
without depleting or reducing the system.   To accom-
plish  this successfully,  in the great number  of cures, is
what  constitutes the eminent physician.

RULES TO  BE OBSERVED IN USING THE MED-
          ICINES TO REMOVE DISEASE.

  At  the commencement of an attack of disease, the first
thing to be brought to mind should be, what has  caused
the attack, and  hoAv  should it be treated and how re-
moved ?  The ways and means the patient should  be
alive  for their future welfare.
   Some of the fundamental principles in this practice is
that all diseases originate from the same  cause directly
or indirectly—that is,  from the deranged state of the flu-
ids of the  body, by the absence of  heat  or loss  of vitali-
ty, Avhich produces  an  over pressure in the circulation to
the location of disease.   This creates  derangement in
the organs or body in  proportion to the obstruction or dis-
ease.  Be careful to always keep the determining powers
to the surface by keeping the imvard heat above the out-
ward or the fountain  above the stream  and  all will  be
safe.— Thompson.
   It  must be recollected that heat  and a free  circulation; 
40
        of  the fluids of the body, is life; and  cold  and obstruct-
        ed circulation or loss of action of the  fluids is death; or
        in.  other Avords, disease;  that fever or heat  is a friend
        and cold the enemy.   It is therefore necessary to aid the
        friend  and oppose the enemy in order to restore health.
        That  the constitution  and organization of the  human
        frame is in all  men essentially the same, being  formed
        of the four elements.   Earth and water constitutes the
        solids of the body, which  is made  active by fire and air.
        Heat being kept up by the action of the digestive  and
        other organs on the  aliment  taken into the  body, givo
        life and  motion to  the Avhole, and Avhen  overpowered,
        from Avhatever cause, by the other elements, death ensues-.
           A perfect state of  health arises from  a due balance  of
        the temperature of the elements, and when this  is des-
        troyed the body is more or less  disordered.   When this
        is the case, there is always a diminution of heat or an in-
        crease  of cold.  All disorders are caused  by obstructed
        circulation, which may be produced by a great variety "f
|X       means; that medicine therefore, must be administered that
        is best  calculated to remove obstructions  and promote
        perspiration.    The food being taken into the stomach and
        being Avell digested, nourishes the system and keeps  up
        ihat heat on which life depends, but  Avhen the stomach
        becomes disordered  from  any cause, the food is not avc-11
        digested, the body loses its natural heat and  disease fol-
        lows :
           When disease is present, remember and give medicine
        on its first appearance, before it becomes  seated, it may
        then be easily thrown off and much sickness and expense
>        prevented.  In case  of fever, increase the  internal heat
        by giving composition or some other stimulating medi-
        cine so as to overpower the cold, when the natural heat
        Avill return imvardly and  the cold will pervade the whole
        surface of the body, as the heat  had done before.  This,
        is what is called the turn of the fever.  In giving medi-
        cine  to children, give about half as  much, a little more
        or less  according to age, as  directed for  an adult.   Be
        particular to offer them drink often, especially young chil-
        dren Avho cannot ask for  it.   In  nine cases out of ten  in
        the  commencement  of diseases  of all kinds or in all
        forms of disease, such as fevers of all kinds, pleurisy.
        cholic, rheumatism, inflamation of the lungs, liver, spleen,
        kidneys, bladder, stomach, boAvels, chest, head, &c, &x.,
        by giving a  thorough SAveat and  follow  up with these 
50
medicines,  composition  stomach bitters,  cough balsam,
or some other  expectorant to loosen the cough and heal
the lungs, and the anti-bilious pills may be used when
necessary, Avill break up the disease and effect  a cure.—
If once sweating or steaming  does not do,  try it again
and again until relief is obtained—be always  careful to
give Avarming  medicines when  you sweat  the patient,
such as pepper tea, composition, ginger or pennyroyal, or
some Avarming drink.   Some  people  say they tried  to
sweat the patient but could not, and have asked me how
I SAveat them when they Avere attacked with fever..  I will
here give directions: Make fire  in the room and get it
Avarm, strip the patient  as if he Avas going  to bed, place
him by the fire, put his feet in  water as warm  as he can
bear, shield him  with a blanket, all but  his head, put a
small pail or pan or some other vessel Avith hot water on
each side of him under the blanket, lay  in  hot brick or
stone  so that the  steam will rise  under the blanket.—
Change the brick as often as they  cool, until a  brisk per-
spiration takes place, giving at the same time composi-
tion, ginger or pepper tea, or some herb drink.  In this
way you can sweat any live  person that  has life enough
to have medicine operate on him.  Be careful  ahvays to
give Avarming drinks  when you  sweat the  patient.—•■
Let him remain here from 10 to  30 minutes, then put in
bed, cover  warm, when sweat enough, wash the surface
Avith spirits and salaeratus or weak ley ot warm water—
if the stomach  is foul,  give an  emetic—after  this  give
some mild  physic,  composition or bitters to keep up  the
neat and strengthen the digestive organs.   This will gen-
erally  prevent or throw off fevers,  which the doctors  say
must have their run from  7 to  40 days and half their pa-
tients  die then.. AAroid all minerals  used  as  medicine,
such as arsenic, antimony and  all the  preparations of
mercury, such as  Calomel, Blue Pill, Nitrate  of Silver,
red  Precipitate,. &c, &c, all the preparations  of copper,
lead, and also  Nitre and Opium, they are all poisons and
decidedly enemies to  health.   Beware of Bleeding  and
blistering,  as they can never do good and  may be pro-
ductive of  much harm.   They are contrary to  nature as
they weaken  the patient  and  leave him more liable to
take cold, which is the cause of  disease.  Setons and is-
sues  should never be  used as they only tend to  waste
away the strength of the patient, without doing any good.
It is a much better way to remove the cause by a proper 
ol
administration  of medicine which  will be more certain
and safe in its  effects.  Never  eat  meat that is tainted.
Eat salt provisions in hot Aveather and fresh in cold.  Be
careful about drinking cold water  in very hot weather
as it Avill tend to let doAvn the inward heat so suddenly as
to give full power to the cold.   If this should happen its
fatal effects may be prevented by giving hot medicine to
raise the inward heat above the  outward.   Be careful al-
so not to cool suddenly after being very Avarm, in  conse-
quence of uncommon exercise.   The loss of vital ener-
gy and  obstruction, is the  disease, by cleansing  and re-
moving the obstruction, health is soon restored.  An in-
genious and industrious  mechanic  is the  man Avho will
make a good physician.
 THE ORIGIN OF THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE,
   Much has  been said  about  the  Botanic practice of
Medicine, because it is,  as people suppose, a neAv prac-
tice and nothing  but humbug and empyricism, and not
worthy  the attention of an enlightened community.   Let
us examine the subject; perhaps we  are  mistaken in re-
gard to  the utility of our method of treating disease, and
being deluded ourselves, we  are  zealously engaged in
promulgating error among our fellow creatures and there-
by bestOAving a curse instead of  a blessing upon the  hu-
man family.   Perhaps the mineral practice is all that  its
zealous  advocates  represent it to be, and  that any devia-
tion from its  principles  and precepts is  imposition and
quackery.  If  so, it is the duty of every philanthropist to
use their influence to check the growing evil by convin-
cing the poor,  deluded followers of Thompson that  heat
is not the great  moving  principle, and  that blood is not*
a necessary ingredient to sustain animal life—that when
we get sick, the only rational  method of treating  disease
consists in reducing  the poAver of vitality by extracting
the  crimson  fluid and  administering the most  deadly
drug.  If the  mineral  system of depletion commenced
with the art of healing,  and its origin  can be traced to
the time of Hippocrates,  their  boasted father of medicine
and his system of  medication  is the foundation of theirs
and nothing but useful improvements have been added,
(Avhich many  of them assert to  be the fact) and the Bo-
tanic possesses no claims to antiquity,  and all Avho de- 
52
 pend on the  vegetable, instead of the  mineral kingdom
 for remedies, are either fools or imposters, then Ave should
 stop our mad career at once and  strive to  come to the
 knowledge of the truth, and do every thing in our power
 to atone for  the evils Ave have committed  and regain a
 standing rmong reasonable and civilized beings ; but hoAv
 shall we arrive  at a correct  knoAvledge of these things,
 provided curing our patients is no  criterion  whereby to
 judge.   Examine medical  history, says  the  M. D., and
 you Avill  chus find a remedy for  your folly.  We have
 done so, respond the Thompsonian fraternity,  and  Ave
 there learn that jEsculapius, who  flourished before the
 Trojan AA'ar, Avas the first physician  worthy of notice.—
 He possessed both talent and skill, disease and death fled
 before him,  his remedies Avere  gathered from  the  fields
 and forest, and the people  Avere so strongly attached to
 him that they dedicated a temple  to his worship.   Hyp-
 poerates, a descendant of JEsculapius, Avas born 460 years
 before Christ, and like his  predecessor, he prescribed ac-
 cording to the indications of nature, and his  labors Avere
 crowned with success.  Hyppocrates is often called  the
 father of  the healing art, and at the great plague of Ath-
 ens, he  immortalised his name by staying its progress1.—
 His remedies Avere also simple, and the object of all phy-
 sicians in  those days  Avas to assist nature  in performing
 a cure, and  do  nothing to  retard her salutary process.—
 Asclepiades  flourished 100 years before Christ, and at-
 tempted to overthrow the former- system by  establishing
 one of his OAvn, on the principle of reducing  the strength
 of his patients.  This caused  a  division in  the medical
 ranks, and the  parties Avere  called Dogmatists and Em-
 pyrics, out of Avhich sprung a third class, called Method-
 ists.  Galen Avas born in the year  131.  He was a dog-
• matist,  and  although celebrated for his literary acquire-
 ments,  his practical experience must have been very lim-
 ited, for history informs us that he Avrote 750 books.  Strife
 and contention  continued among the various classes of
 physicians,  but no important change took place until the
 time of Paracelsus,  who is admitted  to have  been the
 first to  introduce Mineral preparations, together Avith opi-
 um as remedial  agents.  He Avas born in  1493, and al-
  though he  filled the  Medical and  Surgical  chair  at the
  University  of  Basil for a short time, yet history  does not
  furnish a very favorable account of him.  It says that he
  was an imprudent quack, and that his writings swarmed 
53
  Avith absurdities.  History also states that he was a cele-
  brated Swiss Empyric and Alchymist.   Alchymy is the
  secret art of converting  the baser metals into gold .by a
  chemical process.  This art  for aught  Ave knoAv still re-
  mains a secret with the Mineral faculty, as it would appear
  that they are in the habit of making crucibles, or chemical
  melting pots of their patients, and by an invisible process
  convert common metals into gold.   This position is, how-
  ever, denied by some on the ground that he avho  uses
  the most Mercury, does not always manufacture the most
  gold.  Boerhaave Avas lorn in 1668, and broke  in upon
  the existing errors  of the chemical  schools, and became
  very popular.   Patients came to  consult him from all
  quarters, and his coffers were  filled to  overflowing.  It
  was but a short time previous to this that Dr. Harvey dis-
  covered that the blood circulated, notAvithstanding all the
  anatomical research for more than two thousand years,
  it was not even mistrusted before  that the blood  circula-
  ted.   It Avas supposed to  stand still, and although the fact
  was so easily demonstrated the truth  Avas not generallv
  admitted even by medical men for a long time.  C'ullen
  was  another noted physician, a native  of  Scotland, born
  in 171:2.  He taught  that spasms  and debility were the
  cause of disease, and that it Avas simply  a nervous affec-
 tion.  He was a teacher of chemistry at Glasgow and ob-
 tained the chemical chair at Edinburgh  in 1756.
   This sketch of medical history, brief as it may appear,
 is amply sufficient to convince every reasonable man that
 ancient  physicians,  ignorant as  they were  of anatomy
 and physiology,  actually  possessed more skill than that
 noted empyric Paracelsus and his whole clan of scientific
 followers, with  all  their  boasted knowledge of organic
 structure.  It  also proves  that the mineral practice origin-
 ated with a quack of the rankest dye, but little more than
 300 years ago.  Besides, we are informed that Paracelsus
 was a vile, profligate,  reckless character,  and at the age
 of 4S years, filled a drunkard's grave.  A pretty father
 this, for medical Professors to refer to in their lectures as
 the founder of their beautiful system of destruction.  It
 is likewise self-evident, besides being  confirmed by his-
 torv, that the  Botanic practice is  coeval Avith the art of
 healing, and although it Avas simple and salutary in tlm
commencement, it must be admitted, that it is rendered
still more simple and efficacious by Thompson's improve-
ments.   Suppose the Botanic practice no better than the 
M7
mineral—if such a thing could be possible, would that be
a sufficient reason to condemn the system  without inves-
tigation?  The M. Ds. are not willing,  (with  a feAv ex-
ceptions) to  investigate the botanic  practice to ascertain
whether it deserves merit or not.  Then Avho  should ?—
The people  will, and be  their OAvn judges  of  tke merits
of the tAvo systems.  We ask, Avhere is the improvement
in the healing art (aside  from the Botanic) for the  last
300 years.   The same  is said to-day by the M. Ds. that
Avas  said 300 years  ago, that a  fever must have  its run
from 7  to 14  and from  that to  forty days.   Under the
Paracelsus practice, we say so too, but not under  Botan-
ic treatment.  We say that  a fever  may be broke in 21
or 4S hours, as Avell as to run so many days.
             MESMERISM.

Physicians eyes are opened too,
And marvellous things are  borught to view,
Since rosy health is realized,          $
By simply being mesmerized.

The tailor's goose is laid aside,
He  steps around in conscious pride,
Declares the fact Avith some surprise,
That he himself can mesmerize.

The merchant too is on tip-tee.
Since mesmerism's all the  go.
From place to place he quickly flies,
Asserting he  can mesmerize.
In short you scarcely meet a man
But Avhat asserts and thinks he can,
And if  you'll let him,  quickly tries,
To  shoAv you he'ean mesmerize.
In fact you've but to look o'er town,
To  think the  world's turned upside down
Since every split and jar and  schism,
Is fully merged in mesmerism.
Some people  say Avhat shall Ave do,
For mesmerism's surely true.
This may be  so to some degree—
The clairvoyant state's too  much for me. 
? 
 
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