R664c
 1834
 
 
                  A COURSE OF

          FIFTEEN  LECTURES,

                        ON

     MEDICAL  BOTAJVF,

                  DENOMINATED

         THOMSON'S  NEW THEORY

                        OF

 MEDICAL.  PRACTICE;

IN WHICH THE VARIOUS THEORIES THAT HAVE PRE-
     CEDED IT ARE REVIEWED AND COMPARED.
    DELIVERED IN CIHCINH ATI. OHIO,
BY  SAMUEL  ROBINSON.
There are herbs  to cure all diseases, though not every
   where known.                         Dr.  Ray.

The Flora of our country will yet so enlarge  and establish
   her dominions,  as to supersede the necessity of all other
   remedies.                  Dr. Mitchell,

     Omnibus in  terris, quae sunt a Gadibus usque—
     Auroram et  Gangem, pauci dignoscere possunt
     Vera boua. atque illis multum diversa remota
     Krroris nebula.                     Jvr. Sat.
WITH INTRODUCTORY REMARKS  BY HH* PROPRIBTOR.
                iSoaton:   v                £
J. HOWE, PRINTER, No. 39, MERCHANTS ROW,  /ft^

                  1834. 

  " Entered according to Act of Congress, in the
year one  thousand eight hundred and  thirty,  by
Samuel Thomson, in the Clerk's Office of the Dis-
trict Court of Massachusetts."
,i.,J<!.,iS!_.                                       .,.
.*.-.?■......... 
TO THE READER.
  A combination of causes induced me to examine
the  system of  Medical  Botany, and  deliver this
course of Lectures.   Of the character of an author,
I am neither ambitious nor repugnant.   Were the
items summed together,  "of all that creep and all
that soar,"  in  this department of Literature, the
amount of remuneration might not be  very seduc-
tive.   I am but a pioneer in a path unknown, and
may have stumbled in my course, or failed to clear
the way; still I am persuaded  enough  has been
done, to  excite the  attention  of the  curious, and
rouse the penetration of  the profound.   Of all the
interests  of this mortal  life, the  preservation and
care of health, is one of  the most important and ab-
sorbing.  Without it, existence is a burden ; days
and nights, and times and seasons,  perform their
revolutions, spread  abroad their  beauties, and ex-
hibit their varieties in vain.  If, in any thing, there-
fore, I have contributed to  relieve the  maladies  of
the human race, by  directing them  to a mode of
practice safe and salutary, at once within the reach
of their attainments and pecuniary resources, I shall
feel the highest gratification.
  I know the subject on which I have discoursed, is
one highly unpopular; and may subject me to the
reproach of some of my best friends.    But the die
is cast, and the ordeal I  am willing  to encounter.
From the convictioh, that even though I  should have
failed, the cause itself,  if susceptible  of vast im- 
4
provement, and progressive elevation, I shall derive a
solace which cannot be taken away.   The prosper
of ultimate success, and the view of conferring iu-
ture benefits on society, will fortify the mind against
the danger of many evils, and the apprehension of
the bitterness of censure.   It will obtund the keen
edge of sarcasm, and defeat the purposes of malig-
nity, to  know that we are serving the cause of hu-
manity and truth.   For though the  lip of  scorn is
hard to bear; as we instinctively love fame, and de-
sire to stand high in public estimation; yet there is
a higher source of happiness  than the applauses  of
the world.  With a mind perhaps as  deeply imbued
with sensibility  as generally falls to the  lot of mor-
tals, I was never much afraid  of any thing  but the
reproaches of my own heart.   Let me have  but the
approbation  of  that invisible  tribunal, and  I feel as
secure from every pointed dart, as the Grecian war-
rior under the shield and armor of Achilles.
  The  physicians, of whom I was obliged to speak,
1 have spoken with kindness  and candor.   I have
treated them with much more deference than they
have accorded to each other.  To reflect on a whole
community and succession of learned and  eminent
men, might appear to the inconsiderate, as  the very
essence of madness and folly.   And so it was said,
when Galileo  attacked the Ptolemaic system of the
heavens, and Lord Bacon the dialectics of Aris-
totle.   Great names may give splendour to error,
but cannot transform it into truth.
  And  let it be  remembered, I have  not  made  an
attack  upon the Faculty;  they,  themselves, have
alternately made it on each other.   I  have merely
introduced passages from their own writings for the
sake of argument and  illustration.    They  have  all
admitted the uncertainty  of  medical practice, and
its great susceptibility of improvement and reduc-
tion.   To spurn the  humble efforts of a fellow  la- 
BOURSE OF LECTURES.
              LECTURE I.

          INTRODUCTORY REMAiiKS,

LADIES AND  GENTLEMEN,

       We have assembled on this evening, for the
purpose  of introducing  a course of  Lectures on
Medical Botany, generally denominated Thomson's
System of Medicine.
   I am  well aware that the prejudices  existing
against it are numerous  and strong;  and so they
have been against every new discovery, or inven-
tion, since the beginning  of the world.  Since the
day that Noah built the ark, and had to encounter
the mockery and  scorn of the antideluvian race, till
the present hour, obliquy and proscription have as-
Bailed every new  and untried experiment of man.
  This spirit forms one of the most  unseemly traits
in the  human character.   It indicates a  state of
mind, neither resting for success on the resources
of its own power, nor relying on the superintending
care of a  just, a  wise, and holy Providence.    Be-
cause we ourselves are  not first in the discovery, or
because it might  militate  against our  interests, we
would wish it buried ; yes! no matter how useful or
benevolent! we would wish it for ever buried  in the
cave of the Cyclopes. 
8
  Pride and presumption lie at the foundation of all
this hostility.   It presumes, either that  all which
can be known is already discovered; or that our own
fair fame must not be tarnished by the superior pen-
etration of exalted minds.   If we  had humility to
remember, that the progress of mind is endless as
duration; and the question of the inspired  Elihu,
" who hath searched out the works of the Almighty
to perfection ?"  we  might be willing to concede
to others, with  all complacency, the signal  honour
of having added one single item to the great sum of
human knowledge.
  Let us remember,  in the language of an eloquent
writer, that pride is  unstable and seldom the same.
That she feeds upon opinion, and  is fickle as her
food.    She builds her lofty structures on a sandy
foundation; the applause  of beings every moment
liable to change.   But virtue  is uniform and per-
manent ; and fixed upon a rock are the towers of
her habitation ; for she looks for approbation only to
Him, who  is the same, yesterday, to-day, and  for-
ever.
  The road to glory  would cease to be arduous if it
were trite and trodden.  Great  minds are not only
ready  to seize  upon opportunities, but they make
them themselves.  Alexander forced the Pythean
Priestess  on the Tripod,  on a forbidden day; the
Pythea exclaimed, " my son, thou art invincible."  It
was all the oracle the warrior desired.   On another
occasion, he cut the Gordian Knot, which others had
endeavoured to untie in vain ;  and thus accomplish-
ed the oracle which ascribed  to  him  the Empire of
Asia.   Nelson, when the statue  of Victory  was
holding her laurel wreaths in either hand, uncertain
where to bestow  them, Nelson seized upon both!
Those who start in the career of glory, must, like the
mettled steeds of Actseon, pursue the game not only
 where there are paths, but where there are none. 
5
bourer, willing to  toil in removing the rubbish and
re-edifying  the superstructure, would neither be
patriotic nor philosophical.  Let every ray of truth
shine upon a subject confessedly obscure ; let every
improvement and discovery be cast into the balance,
so long and  fatally found wanting; let all come for-
ward, from every corner of the  land, to  aid  in the
reduction of the great sum of human misery suffer-
ed by disease, and close  up by all  the  powers  of
human skill, the avenues of death.
  In this cause I have been  labouring, and to this
end I have directed my efforts;  with what success
let others testify.   I now  bid the reader farewell,
with this single  assurance, that if in any thing I
have erred, or have been mistaken or deceived,  or
have set down aught in  malice, let it be shown; let
any point it out with kindness and candour, and

    ■' Cuncta recnntabo maledicta, priora rependam
    Laudibus, et vestrum nomen in astra feram."

                               S. ROBINSON.
1* 
PROPRIETOR'S INTRODUCTION.
  The following course of Lectures was delivered
during the last year at Cincinnati, Ohio, voluntarily,
without the knowledge of the  author of the Thom-
sonian System, he  being at the time a thousand
miles distant, from that place.   The writer had no
other knowledge of the system  than  what he  ob-
tained from a few books that had fallen  into his
hands on the subject, and his  personal observation
of the success of the practice.  He has treated the
subjects with much  candour and impartiality, and
discovers himself to  be a man of learning, and well
acquainted with the  theories  and  practice of the
regular physicians.   He is entitled to the thanks of
the author of  the Botanic System, and all those who
take an interest in its success.   An edition of the
work it was thought would  be useful, and would be
read with pleasure and profit by  the friends of the
system, to whom it  is recommended,  aa also to the
perusal of the public generally.
  Boston, October 1830. 
9
  For it is given to man, and is the high distinction
of his mental powers, not only to explore the whole
circle of  human  science,  but  passing that awful
and venerable limit, bearing in his hand the torch of
intellect;  enter alone, the trackless wilderness, un-
trodden by mortal feet; to  travel on a  path which
the vulture's eye hath not seen, nor the  lion's whelps
trodden, nor hath the fierce lion passed thereon.   En-
closed on  every side by the magnificent scenery of
Jehovah's works: he may exclaim with the prophet,
the works of the Lord are great, and sought out by
all that take pleasure in them.
  It is sweet and dear to the mind, the acquirement
of knowledge.   But in  the acquisition of  a new
truth, gained  by the efforts of our own industry,
there is a sort of holy and  divine unction, which is
not to be obtained by wisdom derived from the la-
bour of others.
  From the very nature of our immaterial structure,
and every thing gleaned from its operations, we are
well assured that wisdom  is  progressive and eternal.
That our highest attainments are but as the percep-
tion of infants, crawling  on the very threshhold  of
being, in comparison of that knowledge of Jehovah,
his works and ways, that shall pour its radiance on
the unclouded intellect of man, as he rises from the
blow  of death, and wings his mighty  and  majestic
flight amidst the  boundless splendours  of eternal
worlds ; where he shall look on  that ineffible glory,
of which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath
it entered  into the heart of man to conceive the
magnificence of its uncreated beams!  The inspired
writer, from the  awful elevation of the  third heaven,
suddenly dropt his wing, and cut shert the history of
his visions, at the  awful  remembrance of that over-
whelming  sight of dazzling splendour, which filled
his soul with silence and adoration! 
10
  If the wise and learned only were to make dis-
coveries, it could be borne; a strong prejudice and
opposition would be rooted from the mind.  But that
the illiterate, the mere plough-boy, and  the peasant
—a man like Samuel Thomson, who had spent his
life among the  clods of the valley, and  himself but
little superior  to the dust he walked on—that he
should pretend to make discoveries in the science of
medicine ;  and  invent forms,  and medicines, and
rules, to enlighten its exclusive  and profound pro-
fessors—is not to be endured by men, proud of their
high attainments and fortified by all the tenacity of
system.
  If I might quote the poet Burns, in this serious
discourse, it might be of service to them who  think
more highly of themselves  than they ought to think.
In his address to the unco guid and the  rigid right-
eous, the poet was endeavouring to cast  the mantle
of his charity  over the  poor,  fallen daughters  of
misfortune, and thus  addresses the  proud matrons
of Scotland:

         " Ye high exalted virtuous dames,
           Ty'd up in godly laces,
         Before ye gie poor frailty names,
           Suppose a change of cases.
         A dear lov'd lad "------

But I desist; you may read for yourselves.
  Let the brightest son of medical science suppose
a change of cases with Dr. Thomson,  and but for
the care of that good and  holy Providence,  whose
existence and care we ought all  to  acknowledge,
he might have  been  consigned to  the  plough-tail,
and  Dr. Thomson to the wisdom of the  schools:
And ttius situated, would he have considered it a
crime in himself to have forced his way through uH
the asperities of nature, the obstructions of poverty,
the absence of education, and  the  iron and  heavy 
II
hand, the  combined phalanx of science, of wealth,
and power and popularity, arrayed against him, to
spurn, to trample him down,  and crush him  to the
earth, and plunge  hiin in oblivion forever!—would
he have thought it criminal in himself to resist this
terrible  array,  to  rise  superior  to  the blow  that
would have cloven his fortunes down; and by the
unaided innate vigor of his own intellect, have for-
ced his way, in despite of enemies to wealth, and
rank, and fame, and taken his station amongst the
benefactors of the human  race ?  No, I am persuad-
ed he  would not;  for it is the very  path in which
superior minds  do  most delight to travel—the un-
tried, stormy journey of  perilous adventure—accor-
ding to the saying of that modern sage, Dr. John-
son, "The  man that can submit to trudge behind,
was never made to walk before."
  Beyond all  this, we  are  presented with solemn
facts  from history, to show  us that,  perhaps, the
learned are  as  much indebted to the illiterate, for
their observations,  as the latter to the former for
their science.   They are equally necessary to each
other, in forming  the sum of human things—from

   " The poor Indian whose untutored mind,
   Sees God in clouds, and hears him in the wind,"

to the soaring  spirit of the philosopher, traversing
the starry sky.
  In vain do enlightened nations boast,  that they
have gathered within themselves all the arts and sci-
ences.  The earth is covered over with vegetables
and  animals, the simple  vocabulary  of which, no
scholar, no academy, no nation, whatever, will ever
be able perfectly  to acquire.  No, nor all the hu-
man race, in their  united wisdom, shall be ever able
to find out  the limits, the name and nature of her
innumerable millions ! 
12
  We, therefore, with all humility, in  consideration
of our profound  ignorance,  should  be willing  to
glean from every  source, which promises an acces-
sion to the stock of our materials.
  "And it is to savages,—to men utterly unknown,
—that we  are  indebted for  the  first  observations
which are the sources of all science.  It was nei-
ther  to the witty  and the polished Greeks, nor the
grave  and  stately Romans,—but to nations  which
we denominate barbarous, that we are indebted for
the use of simples, of bread, of wine, of domestic
animals, of cloths, of dyes for cloths, of metals, and
for every thing most useful and most agreeable  for
human life.  Modern Europe may glory in her dis-
coveries :  but the Art of Printing, which ought to
immortalize the inventor, has been ascribed to a
person so obscure, that the world could scarcely fix
upon his name, or ascertain his identity; so that seve-
ral cities of Holland, of Germany, and even  China,
laid claim to the discovery as their own !
   Galileo would have never weighed and calcula-
ted the gravity of the air, but for the casual  obser-
vation of a fountain-player,  who observed  in  his
presence, that water could only rise thirty-two feet
in a  forcing engine.  And the  sublime Newton
would have never read these heavens, but for  the
occurrence of some children, in the Isle of Zeland,
playing with the glasses of a spectacle-maker; which
first suggested to him the idea of the telescopic cyl-
inder. And perhaps the arms of Europe would have
never been able to have subdued America, had  not
an obscure monk made the discovery of gunpowder.
   And whatever glory Spain may attribute to her-
self for that  discovery,  the nation of the East, the
savages  of Asia,  had founded mighty Empires, of
splendor and renown, over that vast continent, which
Spain could never rival, notwithstanding her boasted
 wisdom  and erudition!  And the great discoverer 
13
himself, Christopher Columbus, whose name this
vast portion of the globe shall bear upon its bosom
to immortality, would have perished with  all his
followers, and his discoveries perished in the  ocean
with him, had not the kind hospitality of the simple
aborigines furnished him with  food.  "It was the
fortuitous observation of the Colonel of  a marching
regiment, which instructed the  great Sydenham in
the utility of bleeding in inflammatory fevers !"
  Let, then, academies and schools accumulate their
machines, and models,  and books, and systems and
eulogiums ; the chief praise of  all is due to the ig-
norant who furnished the first materials !
  And  let those who  have reached a boundary at
which  they have  designed to stop, not envy, nor
impede the progress of him, who is determind to
press forward till his journey shall end in the dark
valley of the shadow of death.
   Amidst all  the innumerable  branches of knowl-
edge,  which  solicit the attention of the  human
mind, there can be none of so much importance, re-
ligion only excepted, as that which shall constitute
the subject of the following Lectures, the  Healing
Art.   For the soul in a diseased body, like the mar-
tyr in his dungeon, may retain its value, but has
lost its usefulness !
   Such is the nature of man, under the strong pow-
er of sense and sympathy; influenced  by  all the
elements around him,  and the energies of thought
within him, wearing out his mortal covering, sapping
the foundations of his house of clay, while the pas-
sions pour  a continual storm  upon the wheels  of
life.  Thus circumstanced, and impelled forward by
the combined  action of so  many agents,  to that
"bourne from whence no traveller returns," it is not
astonishing if man, although the  soul is  so much su-
perior to the body, should bestow upon the care of the
latter, the principal portion of his labors and his life. 
14
  Medicine is therefore a study, not only of curious
inquiry, but of deep interest, to families and individ-
uals, who, after all that has been done by its profes-
sors, ought, in fact, to be their  own  physicians.
And this great desideratum Dr. Thomson professes
to aid and establish, by his own discoveries.
  To promote  health, of body and  tranquillity of
mind, the sages of antiquity labored with the most
severe and incessant toil.  They studied the consti-
tution of man, that they might find out the seat of
his maladies,  and the sources of his misery.
  To assuage the  sorrows of the heart, and lift the
load of melancholy from the desponding mind ; to
restore to the wounded spirit its elasticity and  vig-
our ; they exhausted all the powers of reason, and all
the arguments  and arts of their divine philosophy.
Sometimes they succeeded but they  often  failed.
It was from a deep sense of the inadequacy of their
feeble powers  to  eradicate the  disorders of the
mind, that led them to look for divine succor, to that
benevolent Being, who sits upon the circle of the
heavens, and showers his mercies  down  upon the
world.  And this  aid  was not implored  in vain.
The day arrived.   The veil of superstition was rent
in fragments.  The  Apostle,  from the hill of Mars,
led them to the knowledge of their  unknown God.
He conducted them to the infinite sources of wis-
dom and consolation, in  Him in whom there  is ful-
ness of joy, and  at  whose right hand are pleasures
forever more.
  In their application  to  the  diseases of the body,
the Greeks were more  successful than in their appli-
cations to the  mind.  And if we may believe the
current testimony  of ancient writers, they had more
power over their  patients, in  stemming the inroads
of dissolution, than the moderns have obtained after
all the improvements  of advancing science.   It is
certain,  they often arrested  the career of  death 
15
  when he  appeared in his most awful and terrific
  forms.   Athens was rescued from the plague by the
  skill of a single man!
     It was in the commencement of the second year
  of the Peloponesian war,  that the plague broke out
  in Athens;  and  never   before had this  dreadful
  scourge of the human  race, ravaged so many coun-
  tries  and climes.   Rising on the  burning brow of
  Africa, through Ethiopia,  Egypt, Lybia, and Persia,
  Syria, and Cyprus, and Lemnos, together with many
  other places of Asia and isles of the iEgean sea, it
  held its dreadful and  desolating course.  The na-
  tions stood  appalled in its presence, and thousands
  perished by its breath!  A merchant vessel landing
  in the Piraeus, brought the disease to Athens; and
* this fell destroyer raged with a fury before unknown,
  over  that celebrated city, Minerva.  Its fearful and
  rapid progress seemed to  bid defiance to all mortal
  skill.   From the first attack of the disease, the pow-
  ers of the mind seemed blotted out, while the  body
  acquired new  and additional strength ;  as if the
  enemy, on purpose had augmented the power to suf-
  fer.   The  torment was  terrible.  The sick  were
  seized with despair, and the sound confounded with
  madness.  All the laws of equity and social order
  were trampled down.   Scenes of riot and confusion
  and reckless tumult, surrounded the march of death!
  The  diseased were first smitten in the head ; from
  this  the malady  passed  down through the whole
  body,  leaving in  one  shapeless, ruined mass, that
   noble form divine.   But the sufferer seldom  wait-
  ed for this terrible catastrophe ; but, in the begin-
  ning, in the fury of distraction, plunged  into wells,
  rivers, and  the sea, to quench the cons uming fire
  that devoured within them !
     It was in this  awful crisis of her ruin, that one
  man, one single man, skilled in the use of those di-
  vine  remedies, which  the God of Nature has  lodg- 
16
ed in the herbs and flowers of the field, entered the
devoted city, and shook off with a giant's  strength,
the deadly grasp of the  destroyer.   The  sound of
his  very name poured hope and consolation through
the torn bosom, filled with the agonies of despair!
This man  was the  far famed Hippocrates.  He
dwelt in the island of Cos.  At the  breaking  out of
the plague  in Persia, Artaxerxes the great, king of
the empire, wrote to the  physician to hasten to the
relief of his dominions.   He  allured  him by  the
most magnificent promises;  the most splendid of-
fers of wealth  and honors.  But  the physician re-
plied to the great king,  that he had neither  wants
nor desires ; and he  owed his service, and his skill,
whatever they might be,  to his country, rather than
to her  enemies!   This  magnanimous reply so en-
raged the monarch, that he sent a squadron to bring
him by force of arms; but Hippocrates had  sailed
for  Athens. And the power of his  fame upon the
mind, and  his  skill  over the body, scattered  the
shadows of death, and shed around him a radiance
of joy  and  hope,  as  if an angel's visit had lighted
upon the city.
  To purify the air, he caused large fires to be kin-
dled in all  the  streets and lanes of Athens.   And
to relieve the suffering  from the  consuming heat
which  devoured their entrails,  he  placed them  in
warm baths, to expel the  infection by the surface of
the  skin ; and,  to support their weakness, caused
them to drink of the  rich  wines of Naxos.
  These great  examples of success and diligence
in the healing art, to discover and apply new modes
of cure, when we find all the  common and establish-
ed forms baffled and  confounded, should dispose us
to cherish,  as the martyr would his  faith, whatever
discovery may  be calculated  to deliver  us,  by  a
short and simple process, from the  long train of
diseases entailed upon our fallen race.   Before Hip- 
17
  pocrates arrived, all  the physicians of Athens had
  either fled or fallen with their  victims.  They had
  no success.  Their practice seemed rather to aggra-
  vate than  to  remedy the  miseries of the dying.
  Why had Hippocrates so much  control  over the pes-
  tilence ? Because he  applied a new method of  re-
  lief; one that seemed to strike down, at once,  the
  strong hold of the destroyer!
     From  all these considerations, and from the fact
  that the healing art is  yet in its infancy, by the con-
  fession of its most successful and celebrated practi-
  tioners ;  the great and venerable Dr. Rush compares
  it to  an unroofed  temple,  uncovered  at  the top,
  and cracked at the   foundation, unless  you admit
9 his own  theory of animal life,  as a sure and solid
  basis; for he scatters, like atoms in the sun beam, all
  the systems  of pathology,  that have  gone before
  him; from all these, we  ought to deeply ponder  the
  peradventures which  Providence may elicit by any
  means to diminish the sum of misery, before  we
  spurn from us, what has been discovered, tried, and
  found effectual.
     After bewailing the defects and disasters of  med-
  ical science, Dr.  Rush  consoled himself with the
  animating  prospects  of that hope, which he  often
  proclaimed from his desk, that the day would arrive,
  when medical  knowledge should have attained to
  that apex of perfection, that it would be able to  re-
  move all the diseases  of man; and leave not for life
  a single outlet, a single door of  retreat, but old age ;
  for such is my confidence, said he, in the benevolence
  of the Deity, that he  has placed on earth remedies
  for all the maladies of man.  I  remember still, with
  a thrill of love and gratitude to that  admired and
  venerable professor, with what enthusiam and trans-
  port, and prophetic vehemence, he used  to pronounce
  that  sentiment at the close of his  lectures.  His
  confidence in  the benevolence of that Deity was
               2* 
IS
boundless ; and his own soul largely partook of that;
divine character  of the  Almighty.  We shall not,
shortly, look upon  his like again.   Qjuam de inven-
ient parem ?
  The influence of this; Kopef so feelingly expressed
and deeply felt, by every noble mind, that all dis-
eases shall yet yield to the power of medicine, in its
perfect state, ought  to be abundantly" sufficient to
determine us to examine  with  candor;  every new
discovery, that is presented  by the  eare and expe-
rience of man, whatever may be his state or condi-
tion in life.   Great men  are not always wise; and
the very meanest is not beneath the care of a kind
Providence, nor the influence of his holy Spirit,

      "For thy kind heavenly father bends his eye.
      On the least Wing that flits across the sky."

  And  if perchance, the grand Panacea shall be at
last found, that Moly of the Egyptians, and  Eelixir
of the Greeks, who would not deem  himself more
honoured  by contributing  the smallest  item to the
great discovery for relieving the wretchedness of the
human race,  than if he had bestowed upon him the
Empire of the world ? I  saw one fever rage, and
prostrate its  victim, over which the physician's skill
had no influence.  To have saved that life, to me so
precious, I would have given  the  universe,  had- I
possessed it,  and would have considered it but dust
in the balance.  No doubt  others feel as I do.  And
if the period shall arrive, when the heartstrings shall
no more be torn, and lacerated, who would not exult
in  the  joyful  anticipations  of that  coming  day ?
And  this dream of  a universal medicine, which has
pervaded the nations of the earth, since the  days of
Isis and Osiris, is not all a dream, for the days shall
come, saith the Lord, when there shall be nothing to
hurt,  or annoy, in  my holy mountain.   No pain to
hurt,  nor sickness to annoy. 
19
   But whether diseases shall be banished from  the
globe, in that glorious period of the Millenium ; or
the grand catholicon be discovered, to remove them,
the  data do not determine.  But this we know, the
earth shall have health  and peace',  and Dr. Rush's
hope will be fulfilled, even beyond the limits of his
most sanguine expectations -K for the child shall  die
an hundred years old.
   It is the purpose of this course of Lectures, to Jay
before the people, a succinct account of Thomson's
system of Medicine, that they may judge from  the
mode and the  results of this new practice, of its fair
and  honest claims to the public  confidence and  ad-
miration.  There  is  no design to  gild over errors,
nor to mislead the minds of the unwary.  We shall
submit it, simply, in its own merits, to the grand cri-
terion of all new discoveries, the understanding and
reason of man.  Whatever is true  and valuable, let
it be retained; but if there be any thing false  or
pernicious, let it be given to  the winds;  or discard-
ed to that oblivion, where all have perished  that
could not brook the light!
   And in thus submitting the "New  Guide to Health,"
to the public  scrutiny of their fellow-citizens, the
friends and followers of Dr. Thomson, have pursu-
ed the path marked  out  to them by many of the
greatest men of antiquity ; who often turned aside
from  the forms and  dogmas of the schools, or sub-
mitted their cause to the tribunal of public opinion.
And  they were never deceived: For God has lodg-
ed the fund of common  sense in the mass of the as-
sembled multitude.   These assemblies were dear to
every land of  liberty; and it was  on the appeal  to
that  assembly, and its decisions, that  the ancients
established the maxim, so often in their mouth,  Vox
populi, vox Dei.  The  voice  of the people is the
voice of God. 
20
  Dr. Thomson says, "It has long been a subject in
which I have taken a deep interest, to publish some-
thing not only useful  to the  world,  but also, that
would  convey to them my  system of practice} in
order that they might reap the advantage of curing
disease by a safe and simple method of my own  ifl-=
vention."  "One other subject, also,  I have had in
view;  that is to lay before the public  a fair state-'
ment of facts; that they may have a correct knowl-
edge of the  trials  and persecutions which I had to
endure in bringing my system of medicine into use
among the people."
  Dr. Thomson was not brought up  in the schools
and colleges  of the learned.  But he was  trained
in one far superior, for eliciting the  powers of an
original mind, the  severe school  of  adversity, that
perilous ordeal where the feeble minded perish; but
the great of heart come out  of the  fires, purified
and resplendent in ten-fold brightness.   They re-
bound by the very impulse and pressure of the blow,
that was designed to  crush  them, and reach their
elevation  in the sky; to refute an objection made
against the goodness of Divine Providence, that the
virtuous were often not only destitute of the bless-
ings  of fortune, but of nature, and even the necessi-
ties of life.
  To this objection St.  Pierre returns the  follow-
ing beautiful and  profound  answer: To this, said
he, I reply, the misfortunes of the  virtuous often
turn to their advantage.  When the world persecutes
them,  they  are generally  driven into some illus-
trious  career.   Misfortunes are the  road to great
talents; or, at least to great virtues,  which are  far
preferable.
  It is not in your power, said Marcus Aurelius
to a  friend who was exhausting his breath upon the
unequal  distribution of the favours of the gods, it is 
21
not in your power to become a great natural philoso-
pher, a poet, a  mathematician, orator, or an histo-
rian ; but it is in your power to be  an  honest and a
virtuous  man, which is far superior  to them all!
Use well the gifts  the  gods  have given thee, and
leave off' repining  at  the  good they  have  denied.
For the very talents thou sighest after are far from
conferring happiness on their possessors.
  The splendor derived from successful studies, sel-
dom repays the  occupant for the lassitude and ex-
haustion of the mind ; the feverish debility and throb
of nervous excitement  which thrill through all  his
frame.
  The peasant in his cot, perhaps has more real en-
joyment, and certainly has more  peace,  and calm
contentedness, than the philosopher, crushed to an
untimely grave by the very magnitude of his studies.
  Inter silvas academi  qutercre verum, as the poet
says:  To search out truth through academic groves
may be a very pleasing, but is often a very unprofit-
able occupation.     You may  behold  the scholar,
pale, over  his midnight lamp,  and far distant the
golden dreams of honour and applause, which he is
never destined to realise.  How disconsolate is the
condition of an intellectual being, who thus suspends
his  happiness on the praise and glory of the  world ?
The good Aurelius gave an advice, worthy of being
inscribed in  letters of gold.  He  who  places  his
heart on material objects,  or  expects  to  draw the
streams of consolation from  the resources  of the
world,  must be exposed, in every vicissitude, to the
keen  pangs  of  anguish.  The  slightest calamities
will disquiet and trouble his soul.  In adversity he is
cast down,  and every stay, on which he leaned  for
succor, like the infidelity of Egypt, as a broken reed,
will pierce him  to  the  heart.  From  the gay and
lofty summit  of his pride, and presumptive dar-
ing, he sinks to the  deplorable level of  his own weak 
22
and  worthless presumption.  Quantum mutatus ab
Mo, is that sunken, hopeless condition.
  This  glory of the world, uncertain as it is, is not
within the grasp of many minds.   And even those
who are able to seize  the gay and gilded prize, it
stings in the very embrace, and perishes in the en-
joyment.  But the path of virtue, that leads to hap-
piness on high, lies  open to every traveller ;  and he
can neither be mistaken in his course, nor disappoint-
ed in his acquisition.   He has with him, and around
him  in the darkest hour, in the lone desert  or the
crowded city, a  Being  who knows his pain, and
hears every sigh of his complaints.  He made the
soul,  and is able to delight and ravish its inmost fac-
ulties, with the communications of joys unspeakable.
  How  noble  was the  sentiment expressed by Sir
Isaac Newton ; speaking of infinite space, he said
" it was the  sensorium of the  Deity;"  as if a fibre
touched, in the most minute, remote,  or worthless
of all his creatures, could move  the Spirit  of the
eternal  Godhead.   This view of his power and his
providence, inspires the heart with a holy hope, and
high dependence,  far   above  the  influence of a
troubled and a fleeting  world.
   Queen Elizabeth,  when her triumphant fleet
had swept from the ocean  the  invincible armada  of
Spain, had medals  struck, with this most beautiful
and appropriate motto :  Affiavit Deus, et dissipantur.
 " He blew with his wind, and they were scattered."
How exalted the thought!  The  belief of a divine
 and  superintending providence,  taking care of  us
 and our concerns, elevates and  ennobles the mind.
 It transports a mortal creature to the high and holy
 meditations of angelic beings, and fills the soul with
 the purity and peace of heaven. 
LECTURE  II.
 HISTORICAL VIEW OF ANCIEICT THEORIES.

   That divine philosopher, Plato,  said, light was
the shadow of the Deity, and truth, his soul.   That
the wise  and  good,  as  they approximated  to  the
source of glory and  intelligence, were clothed and
animated by that heavenly essence, which he poured
out from  the  fountain of" his eternal being: That
into the cup  mixed  for the formation of man he
poured a portion of his own divinity; that this divine
principle, rational and immortal, resides in the brain,
the seat of sublimity and great conceptions ;  but
another soul, which dwells in the breast, formed by
the inferior deities, was mortal and destitute of rea-
son ; which contracts evil, pain and sorrow, and in-
volves all the  woes of man, misery  and death, and
the dispair  of hades !   That the gods  not being
under the  influence of this mortal inferior soul, do
good  to man  without selfish  or interested views ;
and man,  as he aspires to the divine life, acts upon
the same principle.
  The admirable saying of Bias, one of the seven
Bages, was greatly esteemed by this -philosopher,
"Omnia mea mecum porto "—I carry with me all  my
possessions;  being wholly occupied in promoting
the public good, and laying up the treasures of the
mind, of which neither fate, nor foes, nor death
could rob him, he accounted every thing else as
nothing. 
24
   Those who devote themselves to a new theory;
who have to stand alone  in  the  defence  of an un-
known truth,  and to combat  alone  the  triumphant
pride  of an established science,  would require a
large portion of the self-denying spirit of the Gre-
cian sage.  And Dr. Thomson  seems to have been
admirably endued with that supreme devotion to his
object, which brings the martyr to the stake, and the
patriot to pour out his  blood on  the  field of battle.
The loss of five thousand dollars, to a poor man with
a large family, imprisonment and  chains, and the
tribunal of death, are trials  which might shake the
fortitude of the firmest nerve.  I cannot help uniting
in his  own sentiment,  that Providence  must have
presided over his labours, with an especial  care, for
the good of society, or he never would have brought
them to such a triumphant conclusion.
  In order to unfold and display the system of Dr.
Thomson, more thoroughly, I will  take  a review of
those  theories which have obtained in  the world,
and triumphed in the schools, until they met the fate
of all terrestrial things.
  For the origin of medical science, we are indebted
to Egypt, that profound and universal school of the
ancient world.   Their medical  knowledge was fa-
mous in the days of Moses, and her physicians cel-
ebrated in his history.   The  aliment and  ablutions
recorded in her  books, so  congenial to the health
of an Eastern clime, enforced on the observance of
Israel, have been ascribed to his knowledge of the
Egyptian science of medicine,  by  those who have
denied to him the high prerogative  of having acted
under  the inspiration of the Almighty.
   The invention of medicine is generally ascribed
to Toth, Taautus, or the  first  Hermes.   He was
regent or king of Egypt, of the second dynasty of
Manetho, and  the tutor  of Queen Isis.  Julius
Africanus and Sincellus  make him  the same as 
25
Sydic, brother to the Caberri.   He  published six
books on physic ; the first treated of anatomy.  The
name of Esculapius or Asclepeus was given him,
on account of his great skill in healing diseases, as
the terms import, being a compound of two Greek
words asclen and epeos—Merciful healer !   and this
name he richly merited, according to all the history
and tradition of these times.  He  taught the healing
art to queen Isis;  who, herself was the inventor of
several medicines, and is  therefore called by the
Egyptians,  the  Goddess of  Health.   She taught
medicine to her son Orus or Apollo, and communi-
cated her knowledge in the writings of the Caberri.
   The distribution of medicine into distinct depart-
ments, gave rise to a vast number of physicians in
Egypt, and would have been a source of great im-
provement in the science, had it not been for the re-
strictive laws of that ancient kingdom.  Every phy-
sician confined  himself to the cure of one disease
only.  One had the eyes, another the teeth,  the head,
the belly, the lungs, the reins, the viscera, surgery,
anatomy, enbalming.   Such undivided attention to
one object only, was defeated in all its beneficial re-
sults, by confining the  physicians to fixed rules and
recipes, set down  in their sacred registers,  collected
from experiments and  observations.  So long as the
physician practised according to those rules, he was
safe, let the effect of his medicine on the patient be
what it would ; but the moment he dared to depart,
and follow his own judgment, it  was  at the hazard
of his life  ; which he  most assuredly lost if the pa-
tient died.
   Physicians had a  provision  made  them by law,
which required them to  practise in the army, and on
 strangers  travelling in  the  country, without fee or
 reward.   Their medicines were very simple pre-
 scriptions, prepared from herbs ;  and were  generally
 evacuents, which they  effected  by injections, pota-
              3 
26
tions, emetics, fasting, and the waters of the  Nile.
These they repeated every day, or every third  day,
as the case might be, until ,the patient was relieved.
  The physicians, in addition to their science, join-
ed the studies of astronomy, magic and  ritual mys-
teries ; believing  that the influence of a god, a star,
or planet, or tutelar demon, gave powerful influence
and efficacy to their prescriptions, and  secured the
recovery of their patients.   Religion mingled  with
all their operations.  Their books were filled  with
recipes founded  on experiments  and observations.
But  their grand  discovery, their Moly, a chemical
preparation, made by  the  aid of the philosopher's
stone, or as others say, a vegetable remedy ; an im-
mortal catholicon, which not only cured all diseases,
but restored the aged to youth, and the dead to life ;
this  grand  elixir, their priests carefully concealed
from the Greeks.
  Their kings caused bodies to be dissected, for the
purpose of perfecting them in the art of physic.  In
anatomy, they have left us two curious observations.
1. A particular  nerve  proceeds  directly  from the
heart to the little finger of  the left hand.   On this
finger the Egyptians always  wore   rings ; and the
priests dipped that finger in the perfumed ointments,
to sprinkle the victim and the worshippers.  2. That
a man cannot live more than  an  hundred years, be-
cause they found by experiments, that the heart of
a child of one year old, weighed two drachms ; that
it increased by the ratio of two every second  year,
till fifty ; when it decreased in the same  proportion
till one hundred; when the aged actually died for
want of heart.
  Chiron.    Medicine  was brought from Egypt to
Greece, by the sage Chiron, the centaur, and son of   |
Saturn.  He accompanied the Argonautic expedi-   ,
tion, and was the most learned genius  of his  time.
He taught  Apollo music, Esculapius medicine, and 
27
Hercules  astronomy.   He  was also the tutor  of
Achilles, the instructer of Jason, Peleus and iEneas,
and  all the heroes of that celebrated  expedition.
His  knowledge  of simples,  reduction of fractures,
and luxations of the bones, prescribed by rule, after
the Egyptian fashion,  is all  we have  left us of his
theory of medicine.   He was shot in the heel by a
poisoned arrow, and prayed Jupiter to take away his
life.   The god heard his prayer, and  translated him
to the heavens, where  he shines in  the constellation
Sagatraius.
  Esculapius, the Greek, and scholar of Chiron, was
the son of Apollo and Coronis.   He flourished before
the Trojan war.   In  his infancy he  was exposed
on a mountain of Thessala,  and was  suckled by  a
goat, and defended by a dog. The shepherd, having
for some time missed his goat and dog, went to seek
them on the mountains, and found the child possess-
ed of extraordinary beauty.  The shepherd brought
it  up with  the  greatest care ;  and, when a boy, he
placed him  in  the hands of the sage  Chiron, by
whose instructions he so largely profited, that his
fame far suppassed that of his  master.   He  taught
his two sons his own  divine  art, Machaon and Po-
dalirious, who were afterwards celebrated  in the
war of Troy.  He dedicated his days to the  relief
of the unhappy,  and added his own experience and
observations  to  that of his master, Chiron.   The
most dangerous wounds, diseases and maladies yield-
ed to  his operations,  his remedies, his  harmonious
songs, and his  magical  words.   The gods would
have pardoned all his glory, and fame  of superior
skill, but his great success and daring mind, induced
him to recall the dead  to life.  Pluto was so enraged
at this inroad on his dominions, that he  struck him
dead with a thunderbolt !   He was deified by the
Greeks, who showed the most unbounded love to his
memory.   Forty  stadia  from Epidaurus, you will 
28
find his temple, his statue, and his sacred grove, to
which the sick  resort from every place, to seek a
cure from their various maladies.
  The inscription over the entrance of his temple,
is at once solemn and affecting;  " Procul  este pro-
phani, far hence, ye profane, none shall  enter  here
but the  pure in soul."   The secrets of his art he
communicated to his children, and they were retain-
ed in his family until they burst forth with  peculiar
splendour, and shone out to  the possesion of the
world, in the writings and the character of the di-
vine Hippocrates.
  Hippocrates.   He  was born in the Island of
Cos, 80th Olympiad, 461, A. C. of the family of the
Asclepiadse ; for his father was  the 17th  in lineal
descent from Esculapius, and  16th from  Podalirius,
who dressed the wounded before  the walls  of Troy,
and afterwards reigned  over a small city  in Thes-
saly.  He studied medicine  under his grandfather,
Nebrus, and his  father, Heraclides ; to which he
added the reading  of the tablets hung up in the
temples, describing the nature  of diseases,  and the
mode of their cure.   This was a custom among the
ancient Greeks, and is still practised in the East; a
custom of great utility and long standing.
  The family of the  Asclepiadas  had carefully pre-
served the doctrines of their progenitor, Esculapius,
and had established three Medical Schools, in  Cos,
Cnidus and Rhodes.   Their fame began to spread,
when this master spirit of the healing art, the Homer
of medicine, as he has been called, appeared to con-
tend for the prize of victory, on the  great  arena of
public effort and emulation.   His mighly mind soon
perceived the defects in the system of his  progeni-
tors, and he grappled with its difficulties,   and set
himself to find out and apply a remedy, equal to its
vast importance. 
2U
  As the grand sum of all medical skill consists in
reason and experience ;  and as the union of these
forms the accomplished and successful  practitioner,
he prepared himself to add reason  and  argument to
the rules of Greece and Egypt;  and at once exalt
medicine to the dignity of a science!  And this  he
accomplished, (notwithstanding he  has been  de-
nounced an empiric,) with a  perseverance and suc-
cess, which, perhaps, has never since been equalled ;
nor so  honoured and distinguished  the labours of
any single man.
  Practice and theory were so remarkably combined
and blendid in the character of this profound  origi-
nal sage, that his decisions  in medicine were  re-
ceived like  the  oracles of Apollo;  not only with
confidence, but with veneration.
  The improvement of medicine at this period  de-
pended on two classes of philosophers,  unknown to
each other;  the Sophoi, the students of natural phi-
losophy, who comprehended the human  body as a
part  of their science,  and  the  Asclepiadas, who
studied the  history and cure of diseases ; the  de-
scendants and disciples of Esculapius.  The former
examined the functions of the human body, accord-
ing to the  laws of their  own science ;  while  the
latter prescribed for disease according to fixed rules,
established and confirmed by numerous  cures and
experiments.  The philosophers reasoned; the As-
clepidadse acted.
  Hippocrates, educated  in the art of physic, found
at once, the vast advantage that would be gained by
obtaining the knowledge of philosophy, and thus
enrich medicine by a union of both sciences.   He
applied himself with the utmost vigour and industry
to philosophy, to penetrate the  essences of bodies,
and endeavoured to ascend to the  constituent prin-
ciples and powers of the universe.
             3* 
«5U
  He thus conceived one of those grand and original
ideas, which served as a new era, in the history  of
genius.  This  was to enlighten the experience by
reasoning, and to rectify theory by practice.  In his
theory, however, he only admitted principles which
may explain the phenomena observable in the human
body, considered with respect to sickness or health.
Improved and exalted by this new method, the sci-
ence of physic  made  a  more sure and certain pro-
gress in the  path opened before it  Hippocrates
silently effected a revolution, which has changed the
face of Medicine  and caused  it to rank  with the
sublimest parts of  human science.
  It would be equally useless and prolix, to enlarge
on the happy experiments he made, of the new  rem-
edies he discovered, or the prodigies he wrought,  in
all the places honoured with his presence; especially
in Thessaly, where after a long residence,  he  died,
at the  advanced age of ninety-nine.    From all that
has been related concerning him, you  can  pereeive
in his soul but one  sentiment, the love  of doing
good, and in his long life, but oiie single act, relieving
of the  sick.
 His remarks on the various stages  af disease, and
signs of their critical  events, are the foundation on
which physicians act and reason, to the present hour.
He also takes notice of the motion  and  circulation
of the blood.   This discovery has been attributed to
Dr. Harvey;  but we have the testimony of his own
works,  of his  disciples,  Galen, of  Riolan, Drelin-
court, Van Swieten, &c. that Hippocrates understood
the circulation  of the  blood, and the nature of the
sanguiferous system.
  His works  are contained  in  eight folio  volumes.
1. Journal of the maladies which he followed through
their different stages.   2. Observations on his own
experience, and the experience of preceeding ages. 
31
3. Reasonings on the causes, cures, and symptoms of
diseases.  4.  On airs, waters, and places.  5. The
four last treat of the  duties and  qualifications of a
physician, of  various parts of medicine, and natural
philosophy.   His rules for the education of a physi-
cian, are the most admirable that  were ever penned.
Perhaps we have no essay on education, to qualify
for any profession, equal to the rules of Hippocrates.
   " 1.  Because our life is short  and  our art very
long, a boy must be taken in early youth.   2.  Ex-
amine  whether his genius be adapted  to  the art.
3. Has he received from nature  an  exquisite  dis-
cernment, a sound judgment, a character in which
mildness and firmness are combined;  that he may
sympathise and suffer with the sufferings of  others ;
that he may naturally feel the  tenderest commisera-
tion  for the woes  incident to his fellow  mortals.
4. He must combine the love of labour, with the de-
sire  and emulation of all that is amiable and praise-
worthy,  5.  Let him practise the  manual operations
of surgery.   6. Let  him study the whole circle of
science.  7. Let him travel and extend his knowl-
edge through different countries and cities;  let him
observe the difference of airs, and waters  which
are drank.  8.  The eatables which are the principal
food of the inhabitants ; and in one  word,  all the
causes which may occasion disorders in the  animal
economy.   He must know by what preceding signs
maladies may be known, by what regimen they may
be avoided, by what remedies cured.
  " Experience alone, is less dangerous than theory
without experience ;  for it is not in the dust of the
schools, nor works of the  philosophers, that we can
learn the art of interrogating nature ; and the still
more difficult art, of awaiting her  answer.
  "You must conduct him to the abodes of pain, al-
ready veiled with the shades of death, when  nature,
exposed to the violent attacks  of  the enemy, falling 
32
and rising only to sink again, displays to the atten-
tive eye her wants and resources.   The disciple, as
he witnesses this terible combat, shall  observe you
watch and seize the  instant which  may decide  the
victory, and save the life of the patient."  In this de-
scription of a student's qualifications, he has drawn
a portrait of himself.
  His style  is  concise and  beautiful;  but requires
attentive study to comprehend his force ; as he scat-
ters the seeds of his doctrine with arapid hand over
the vast volume of his works, after the manner of
the ancients ;  who were  ever prone  to  disregard
trivial difficulties, while they hastened forward to
some  grand conclusion.   They were more  anxious
to strike out new, than to dwell on  trite and trivial
ideas.  And this fact will, no doubt, account for the
sublime and grand, in  the  style and compositions of
antiquity, so rare in modern works.   His death was
greatly deplored by the  Greeks, and  his memory
cherished ; and his name has been revered and ven-
erated by all nations.   The divine Hippocrates, the
father of medicine, are the common appellations by
which he is distinguished until this hour.    jt
  Celsus was born at Rome or Venice, and flourish-
ed under the  reigns of  Augustus, Tiberius, and
Claudius Cassar.   He was a profound admirer of
Hippocrates,  and leaves this strong testimony to hia
memory, and the fame of his works.   His doctrine,
said Celsus, has spread over  every land ;  and when
thousands of years shall have passed away, it shall
perform thousands  of cures, and  carry relief and
consolation to the afflicted race of man.  He seems
to have practised on the system of his  great prede-
cessor, and to have gained from his discoveries great
skill in inflammatory and malignant fevers, especially
the plague.   He wrote  eight books on medicine;
the four first on internal diseases, the fifth  and sixth
on external diseases, and the two last on cases which 
33
properly belong to surgery.  He was much belov-
ed at Rome, and held in high consideration  by the
Emperors.
  Galen was born  at Pergamos ; he  was  a most
diligent and laborious student,  He closely followed
his great leader, Hippocrates ; and wrote a commen-
tary on his  works.   He confesses, with gratitude,
the vast obligations he owed to  that father of medi-
cine ; mentions his  knowledge of the  motion  and
circulation of the blood, and great skill in anatomy.
Galen travelled through many countries to improve
his knowledge.   He visited the different schools of
Greece and Egypt, and the Islands of Crete, Cyprus,
and Rhodes; made  two voyages to Lemnos, to ex-
amine the Lemnean earth, at that time celebrated as
a medicine ; travelled to Palestine, and the lower
Tyrus, to examine  the properties  of the Opobal-
samum, or Balm of Gilead.   He at last arrived at
Rome, in the reign of Marcus Antonius, and  was at
first graciously received as a distinguished stranger.
But his great success and skill in practice, soon ex-
cited  the envy of the Roman physicians.  They
branded him with the name of Theorist, and  affirm-
ed that he used magical words in his practice.   He
retorted upon them  the  name  of Methodics.   His
situation  was  rendered unpleasant; he  found  the
opposition was too strong for him.   After a resi-
dence of five years, he returned to Pergamos.
  The dogmatists, says Dr. Ray, are  certainly so
far right, that a knowledge of the  animal structure
is  necessary, in  order  to know how  to repair it;
though this belongs more properly to surgical opera-
tions*  Yet the empirics, who rely on experience and
practice exclusively, and are therefore called quacks,
can retort, with equal justice, upon their opponents,
that there is no relation between the animal economy
and functions, in a living, sound, and healthy state,
and a diseased or dead body, destitute of these. 
34
  After Galen had remained  some time at Perga-
mos, the plague made its appearance at Aquilia and
Rome, during the joint reign  of Marcus Aurelius,
and Lucius Verres.   The  fame of Galen, and his
skill in curing that disease, induced the Emperors to
send for him.   He arrived ; and had the felicity to
cure the two sons of Aurelius,  Commodus and Sex-
tus, who had been smitten with the infection.  This
event so  established  his name, that all  hostility
against him ceased.   After the death of Aurelius,
he returned finally to  Pergamos, where he died  at
the  advanced  age  of  ninety years.   He was of a
delicate and sickly constitution of body ; yet from
his great skill  in medicine,  and the temperate mode
of his life, he reached a happy  and useful old  age,
when he  6lept with his fathers  in  his native  city,
A. D. 200.
  His fame was very great; and he ranks next  to
Hippocrates, on the roll of great and splendid men.
He wrote  five  hundred volumes  on philosophy and
medicine.   They were deposited in the  temple of
Peace, at  Rome ; and  destroyed when that city was
burned by the Goths.  The scattered volumes which
still remained in the hands  of his  friends and fol-
lowers, have been  collected and published  in five .
folio volumes  ; when  his works  and Hippocrates'
were published together, they amounted to thirteen
folio volumes; a monument of splendour to those
distinguished men, which covers the Egyptian pyra-
mids with contempt and shame.
  A pleasing melancholy pervades the soul, as  we
trace the memorials of those devoted and magnani-
mous  benefactors of the human race.   They seem
to redeem the very character  of man from all the
vile aspersions, that have been  cast upon it.   They
shine  as splendid beacons, on the solitudes of time,
to point the traveller the road to glory, and the haven
of immortality and peace.   If we were disposed to 
35
hesitate or linger in the pursuits of humanity, those
bright  examples would spur us on to industry and
exertion.
  For a long period  after the days of Hippocrates,
no eminent physician  of Greece, at least none of
known date, was found worthy  to bear the torch of
that distinguished mind into the temple of Hygeia.
The pursuits of the healing art  might languish, but
did not slumber.   We have sufficient testimony on
the historic page, to medical studies in the East,
in Egypt, and in Greece, through the  long period
that elapsed between Hippocrates and Galen.  In
Greece, the votive tablets suspended  in the  temple
of the gods, displayed to  the eyes of  the  student of
medicine, the disease, its history,  and the nature of
its cure.   In India, the sick were laid in beds by the
way side, that every passenger might be consulted
on the  means of their recovery.  These cures were
also registered on the pillars  and  monuments  of
Eastern magnificence, for the benefit of tire  public.
If any  discovered a poison, he was oblig-ed to con-
ceal it, till  he had  also found out its antidote, and
then they were published  together. This was a part
of the code  of wise maxims, which still  distinguish
the primitive regions of the human race.  In Egypt,
medical science  progressed according- to the pre-
scribed forms, until Nectanebus, the last of the race
of Misraim, was  expelled his  throne  and kingdom,
by Ochus, the  tyrant of Persia, a few years before
Alexander conquered the East.
  Erasistratus was  celebrated for his  skill and
wisdom in the mode of cure;  his medicines were
mild and simple, administered  with  judgment and
success.   He was opposed to mixed and complicated
medicines.
  Heraphilus, the anatomist, held a distinguished
rank amongst the physicians  of Greece.   He was
so much devoted to  the  discovery of specifics, that 
36
it gave occasion to his disciple  Philnius, of Cos, to
attach himself wholly to the practice of empiricism.
The honour of having founded the sect of empirics,
has been contended by their  followers,  between
Philnius and  Serapion, of Alexandria.  It is, how-
ever,  certain,  that it arose  immediately after  the
time of Heraphilus.   And  this period may be  re-
garded as one of the most remarkable  in the history
of general physic.
   Heralclides, of  Tarentum,  was one of  the
empiric sect; a  person  of  great skill  and judg-
ment in the  study  of medicine.  Very remarka-
ble cures are  recorded of him.  His writings being
lost, the world has not been much benefitted by his
discoveries.
   The establishment of medicine as a separate sci-
ence, at Rome, must be ascribed to the  Greeks.
For five hundred years, according to Cato, the cen-
Bor, it was in a very rude state, and confined entirely
to the women.   A luxation was reduced by incan-
tation,  and  the brassica accounted  an  universal
remedy.  Asclepiades was  the first of the Grecian
physicians who practised at Rome.   He was not
bred to physic, but was a professor of rhetoric.  Not
finding success  in  his  original profession, he com-
menced the practice of physic, and formed a sys-
tem for himself.   He  established a mild practice,
employed few medicines,  and strongly declaimed
against compound a.nd complicated medicine.
   Scribodius Largus  treats professedly  of the
composition of medicine ; but his medicine and mode
of practice, have been  charged with great uncer-
tainty and imperfection.
   Superstitious follies  seem to  have  distinguished
 many of these writers, as well as Pliny the elder,
 and Andromachus, senior;  though to  the present
 day, the Theriaca Andromachi, is retained  in  sys-
 tems of medicine. 
37
  Disdop.ides, who wrote professedly on Materia
Medica, is  regarded as one of the best and most
judicious of ancient times.   Many might be added
to these names, but jam satis.  These will  suffice
to show the turmoil and vicissitudes in the medical
science of  ancient times.
■.»e^e«-
            LECTURE  III.

  AN HISTORICAL, VIEW OP THE MODERN
           SYSTEMS OP MEDICINE.

  We  have already taken, on a former evenings a
short and rapid  view of the most celebrated  physi-
cians of  antiquity;  of Egypt,  Greece and Rome.
They were distinguished into Theorists and Metho-
dics; as at the  present day, we have the  different
sect;s of Empirics, Dogmatists, Nosologists and Bru-
nonians, as they may be  the followers of Brown or
Cullen, or their  predecessors.
  The Methodics still adherred to the original forms
of practising by rule ;  while the Theorists  united
argument and observation, after the example of Hip-
pocrates and Galen; having still in mind the profound
maxim of the former;  "to enlighten experience by
reason, and to rectify theory  by practice,  belonged
to men in the pursuit  of knowledge, endowed with
sense and dignified with soul."
  The  torch of Prometheus  was not all a fiction;
it expressed a  profound philosophical truth.  The
ancients were fond of  having their sentiments wrap-
ped up in metaphor and enigma.  That holy light so
feelingly apostrophised by Milton,
            4 
38
    •* Hail, holy licrht, offspring of heaven first born !
    Or of the eternal co-eternal beam !"

That light was indicated by the flaming  torch  of
Prometheus.   For the  ancients, however they had
obtained a knowledge of the fact,  knew well  that
light was the first born  of heaven.  Revelation  or
tradition might have  taught them this trnth; but it
was  held sacred in  their mysteries.   They con-
ceived light to be the grand  pabulum  of life,  and
the great agent which the Deity employed to spread
organization, sensation  and thought, over the  in-
animate  mass of rude and restive  matter.   It  was
also  applied to the superior  splendors  of  majestic
intellect.  " Cui mens dininior  atque os maga san-
atarum."*  Hippocrates  had the high privilege  and
distinguished honor  of  having  first introduced the
torch of Promotheus into the leaden temple of med-
ical knowledge—scientific investigation.
   After the days of Delsus and Galen,  medical sci-
ence became stationary.  In the agitation  and de-
cline of the Roman empire, all  learning was arrest-
ed in its progress; and when it fell, the  arts  and
sciences perished in the  shock.   The few fragments
that  remained, were  concealed amongst the frater-
nities of priests  and monks,  and  secular clergy.
But a dreary desolation  and dark decay  spread over
the universe of mind.  Pro dolor!   The knowledge
of a few simples answered  all the wants of the
common people.   The dressing  of wounds  was
committed to the ladies; the cure of fractures, lux-
ations, and broken bones, the knights took upon them-
selves.   All was simple and soon despatched.    In
those awful scenes of broil and battle, when nothing
was  to be heard or seen, but the alarm  of war,  and
garments rolled in blood; there was no time to die

  "Whose mind was endued with divne wisdom, and whosa
generous and open countenance imported health. 
39
of disease.   No! it was on  the  bloody field  of
martial strife, that Death reaped the harvest of  his
millions!   All  the finer sensibilities, and causes  of
disease,  were  absorbed and swallowed up in the
vortex of war !  Thus,  through the long and dreary
night  of  a thousand years,  a morbid  melancholy,
and  mortal death, sat brooding, like an incubus, on
the nations of Europe.
  At length, for  man cannot be enslaved forever,
at length, superstition  broke  her  chains, science
roused her giant form, and shook off the slumber of
ages!  The spirit of man  rebounded from the crush
of her long depression,  and took her place on the
sublime and awful elevation  of freedom, and range
of thought! For it is one of the most indelible char-
acteristics of her divine origin, which the Deity has
impressed upon the  human soul, that she caqnot be
trampled  down  forever.  In despite of  the  most
formidable opposition, of  the wrath and rage of en-
emies, she will  arise and reassert the dignity of her
own nature, and take her mighty and majestic course
along the great ocean of being. Religious liberty,
civil liberty, the  diffusion of science, the equity of
laws, and  the amelioration of the  condition of the
miserable, all, all, proclaim  her bright and  rapid
progress to the uncreated splendors of eternal day!
  After the revival  of  learning, the works of the
ancients  were  held  in  great repute.   They were
searched  out,  and  sought after,  with  an  avidity
which showed how earnestly men were  bent on the
culture and improvement of  the mind.   Sennertus
and Riverius collected  with the greatest  diligence,
the  opinions  and  writings of  the ancients;  espe-
cially of Hippocrates, Celsus  and  Galen.  Baglivi,
another faithful laborer in the same good cause,  is
said  to have committed  the whole  writings of Hip-
pocrates to memory !  Transiat in exemplum.   And
all who would  succeed in their professions, must 
40
 embue their very soul with the whole subject matter
 of their vocation.   None can ever rise to eminence,
 who  possesses not this enthusiastic  devotion to the
 object of his pursuits.
   Baglivi places the principle of animal life, in irri-
 tability and sympathy.' He  traces  the  doctrine of
 animal motions  from  Hippocrates  down  to his
 own time, the end of the seventeenth century.  His
 impetus faciens, or  to  arche  of Hippocrates, forms
 the principle  of  his  pathology; accounts  for the
 proximate  causes  and cures of disease.  This first,
 or  prime mover, he placed in the dura mater of the
 brain; which  propelled its energies along the  liga-
 ments and membranes  of the body, to produce mo-
 tion.   His cures like his great master Hippocrates,
 chiefly consisted in the cold  and hot bath, frictions,
 cauteries,  and epispasticks.   A few medicines he
 observes,  well directed, are  the best evidence and
 demonstration of the skill and abilities of the physi-
 cian.
  The whole of the sixteenth and part  of the  sev-
 enteenth centuries, were spent by  Sennertus and
 Riverius, together with their disciples and prede-
 cessors, in teaching, expounding and commenting
 on  the systems of  the  ancients.  They were called
 Galenists;  and their pathology  and practice  were
 conducted on the same principles and rules.
  Early in the sixteenth century, the far famed  Par-
 acelsus advanced his chemical system to the world.
 This  was highly opposed to the system  of the  Ga-
 lenists.   They,  however,  held possession  of the
 schools to the end  of the seventeenth century.  But
 the followers of Paracelsus acquired the  patronage,
 and were supported by the power and influence  of
 the learned.  The Galenists  were finally forced  to
yield; and  the  humoral and chemical  pathology,
which had agitated and divided the schools for  two
hundred years, began  to retire to the shades,  and 
41
sink under a  new  and splendid light, which  was
just dawning on the world.
  About the middle of the seventeenth century, the
circulation of the blood came to be generally known;
and this knowledge together with  that of the dis-
covery of the receptacle of the chyle, and of the tho-
racit  duct, combined finally to explode the Galenic
system.  A considerable  revolution had  now also
taken place in  the system of natural philosophy.
In  the  course of the seventeenth century, Gallileo
had introduced  the mathematical mode of reason-
ing ;  and lord Bacon had  proposed to the world his
new  mode of reasoning,  by  an induction of facts.
These  new modes of philosophizing,  as might be
supposed,  had soon a visible  influence on the sci-
ence of medicine.  A disposition to observe facts,
and  make  experiments,  began  to prevail in  the
schools, and to  fix the  attention of keen and accu-
rate inquirers.
   The  clear view of the organic system of animal
bodies, presented by the  knowledge of the circula-
tion of the blood, led not only to a  deeper acquaint-
ance with the internal structure, but also, to the ap-
plication  of mechanical  philosophy,  in explaining
the phenomena of animal life.  This became the
fashionable mode of reasoning until a  very late pe-
riod.  But it has been found very defective in ex-
plaining  the  animal  economy; and, although  it
is  still partially in use, and may still continue to be
used, it would  be easy to show, that its application
must be  very limited and partial.  Still, however,
down till this period, the physician, whether Gale-
nist  or Chemist, was so accustomed to consider the
 state and condition of the fluids, both as the cause
 of disease and  as the foundation" for explaining the
 operation  of medicine in its care, that they  were
 both termed the humoral pathology.
              4* 
42
  It now soon appeared that chemistry promised a
much better explanation of the system, than the Ga-
lenic  or Aristotelian phylosophy had done.  These
were  therefore, almost entirely laid aside, and chem-
ical reasoning every where prevailed.  Lord Ba-
con, with his  usual sagacity, had early discovered
that chimistry promised a great number  of facts;
and he therefore gave it credit, and covered it  with
the shadow of his mighty name.
  The Corpuscular  philosophy, restored by Gassen-
di,  readily united with the reasonings of the Chem-
ists ; and the philosophy of Des  Cartes, with great
facility, combined and commingled^with both. From
all  these combinations  and  affinities, an Humoral,
but chiefly a Chemical pathology prevailed down  to
the end of the seventeenth,  and even had  great in-
fluence on the science of medicine, down to the end
of the last  century.   The  history  of the  human
mind  is  to be traced in the  language,  the  science,
the arts, and the writings of the world.   The study is
curious, but it is of high and  holy estimation.
   About the  middle of the seventeenth century,
arose  the great Sydenham ; the first of the moderns,
the father of medical science, in its present robes
of modern fashion.  His writings will be esteemed
a standard, says  Dr. Cullen, as long as they shall
be known,  or  shall  endure.   He did not  entangle
himself  in the thorny paths which lead to the mys-
teries of animal life ; his pathology was simple and
comprehensive.  The oppressed and exhausted state
of the system, comprised his  rationale of disease
and mode of cure.   The simplicitywof  his views
seems to have laid the foundation for the theories  of
Rush and Brown.   The morbid  excitement of the
first,  and the direct  and  in direct debility of the lat-
ter, with the unity of disease, and classes of sthenic
and asthenic diathesis, and mode of cure, appear to
have their origin in the principles of Sydenham. 
43
  To add to the science of medicine, said  Syden-
ham, two facts must  be kept in view:  1st, to give
a full and complete description or history of disease;
and, 2d,  to discover a fixed and  perfect remedy, or
mode of cure.   And to these high objects  did Dr.
Sydenham  dedicate the labors of his long and use-
ful life ;  preferring their great  importance, to the
fruitless  and unprofitable speculations, on the prin-
ciple of life.  By  neglecting  these  desiderata,  he
observes, the Materia Medica has been swelled to
an unreasonable size, filled with great uncertainty !
To these obvious  and valuable facts, the doctor
would  add the knowledge of specifics;  and  in con-
sequence has been called a quack.   But  his  fame
stands  too high  and  bright, to be tainted  by the
breath of scandal! He says  the  only  specific we
have, is  the  Jesuit bark.  Calomel and sarsparilla,
are not specifics; unless it can  be shown that the
one does not produce  salivation, andthe other per-
spiration.  He  laments that the medical virtues of
plants  are  so little known, though the  most valua-
ble part of the materia medica.
  Organized substances are  the  food  of animals,
and as medicinal, must be more  congenial to  their
natures,  than the brute mass of inanimated matter,
Dr. Ray observes, we are  sprung from the earth,
we feed upon  her bounty, draw  our nourishment
from her bosom,  and our  healing  medicines  from
her breast.
  It must  be confessed, says Dr.  Sydenham, that
although mineral medicines meet the indications of
disease,  they are  not  to be relied on as  specifics,
with the sariie entire  confidence,  as  the vegetable
medicines.  Here is a strong testimony to the theory
of Thomson.
  Dr.  Glisson,  was the first of the moderns who
paid any attention to the  vital principle, and the
first who mentions irritability as a property of thia 
44
vis  insita.  He defines it to be a property,  which,
receding in all bodies, can be  excited to action by
irritation ; that it resides in a mucus, and is perfect-
ed  by heat and blood.   He had no idea of the dis-
tinction  between sensibility  and  irritability, and
therefore he uses the old distinctions of animal, vital
and natural functions.  Because a muscle was seen to
contract, when pricked, although separated from the
body, he believes the fibres and muscles  had per-
ception  in themselves.   Here again  he confounds
sensibility  and irritabiliy ; and atttempts to confirm
the hypothesis, by the remark, that there can noth-
ing be, in the intellect, but what we receive  by the
senses.   Dr. Cullen advanced the same maxim one
hundred years afterwards.    Baglivi  also pursued,
to a great extent, his observations on the phenome-
na of the vital principle.  Haller says, irritability is
indepedndent  of  sensibility,  and vice versa.   Glis-
son thought irritability depended on  volition : Bel-
loni, on the  accelerated motion of the blood: Bag-
livi on  the oscillatory motions of the  dura mater
along  the membranes; Stahl, and  his followers,
supposed irritation to  be innate and  influenced by
the soul. Dr. Winter traced all human motions to
fibrous   irritability and Btimuli; and  the younger
Boerhaave to the moving power of animals.  Dr.
Whytt  believed  irritability  essential  to motion, and
was produced by a  sentient principle  residing in
the medulla of the brain.    Dr.  Kirk!and thought
that this medullary substance was conveyed by the
nerves to the muscular fibres, which caused motion.
But Dr. Whytt  affirmed perception was necessary
in  connection with all or any material substance to
produce motion ;  While Zimmerman and CSderus
demonstrated by experiments, that  irritation was
as  general in the animal fibres, as attraction in the
universe;  and was   altogether separate  from the
mind and soul. 
45
  You see, my friends, how difficult it has been for
the professors of this art, to fix upon one scheme of
principles.  Well might Dr. Brown  say,  " the sci-
ence  was altogether uncertain and incomprehensi-
ble ;  and could yield no satisfaction to his  mind."
When the principles are so jarring and  incoherent,
the practice founded upon them must be defective,
and partake,  in a great measure, of the  uncertain-
ty of  its foundation.  This was perceived and con-
fessed by all the faculty.
  And the new systems introduced in the beginning
of the eighteenth century by  Sthal, Hoffman and
Boerhaave, were intended to supply a remedy. But
alas !  they were equally different as they were new;
and instead of removing the disorder, they only op-
erated to its augmentation;  and inflamed the wound
they were designed to heal.
  Dr.  Stahl.—His leading principle was, that the
rational soul of man governs the whole economy of
his body.   It was  observed at  all  times in the his-
tory of medicine, that  the animal economy  posses-
ses, in itself, a principle or  power of resisting inju-
ries, of correcting or removing diseases, arising in
it, or induced upon  it.  Sometimes this  has been
called nature's effort  to throw off  disease.  This
was ascribed by the ancients, to an agent in the
system, which  they called the to  arche; and from
Greece the language passed into  the west, of a vis
conservatrix et medicatrix natura,* and  has not only
continued in the schools, but has been retained in the
heart of the multitude, to the present,  and from the
most ancient times ;  and perhaps, after all, the doc-
trine  of dame nature is the tcuest part of medical
theory. Dr.  Stahl supposes, that this  power of na-
ture so much talked of, nothing else but the ration-
al soul; that when it  perceives  noxious  powers

  » That the force of nature is a preservative of health, and
a remedy against disease. 
46
 threaten the body,  it excites such emotions in the
 body as shall expel them.  This theory was great-
 ly opposed by Dr.  Nichols in his  Oratio de Anima
 Medica; and also by Cullen in his physiology.  Dr.
 Gaubius,  in  his pathology, says  it is  a capricious
 government  of the  animal economy, and not to be
 relied on.   Stahl and his followers, called this the
 Hippocratic method of curing diseases ; but the wits
 called it the Art of curing by expectation.
   Dr. Hoffman.—He was professor in the univer-
 sity  of Halle, when the doctrines of Stahl prevail-
 ed.   But rejecting  altogether the  Vires  natura
 medicatrices,  of his  predecessor, he introduced a
 new system, in  which he blended the  doctrines of
 nervous spasm, with the mechanical, cartesian, and
 chemical doctrines.   These, however,  he modified
 to suit his leading  principle  of disease, or spasm,
 evinced in his Pathologia medulla  cerebri  et nevo-
 rum.   In  these Hoffman placed  the primary mov-
 ing  powers; and by  considering their state  and
 affections, he thought he could explain  all the  phe-
 nomena of the animal economy,  in health and  in
 sickness.  Dr. Cullen says, we are indebted to Dr.
 Hoffman for putting us into a proper train of inves-
 tigation.   It  was this theory which induced Dr. K.
 Boerhaave to publish his works,  entitled  Impetum
Faciens, and Dr. Gaubius to give his pathology  of
 the Solidum Vivum.
  It  was objected to  Hoffman, that he  did not pro-
perly apply his own fundamental doctrine,  and that
he intermingled the  humoral pathology of the Galen-
ists,  and the plethora and  cacochymia of Stahl;  I
wish I had done with these intolerable names; De
morborum  generatione, ex  nimia sanguinis quanti-
tate et humorum imperritate.
  Dr. Boerhaave.—He was a man of general eru-
dition.   In forming  his system of physic, he seems
to have studied diligently, all the writings of both 
47
 ancient and modern physicians.  He intended to be
 a careful, a  candid, and genuine electic.  But alas!
 he too failed.   He possessed a genius  peculiarly
 systematic;  and at first  gained high reputation.
 His system was more  generally received than any
 former had been, since the time of Galen.
   Cullen objects  to this system; 1st, that in  the
 course of forty years, he made in it  neither addi-
 tions nor improvements, except in the 755th Apho-
 rism, where  the words forte et nervosi, turn cerebri
 quam cerebelli cordi destinati inertia; and these  did
 not appear until  the fourth edition;  2d, he objects
 to his doctrine of the  simple solids, and its errone-
 ous composition of earth and  gluten; 3d, his mis-
 take respecting the structure of the compound mem-
 branes ;  4th, his neglect of  the cellular  texture.
 From all these  reasons, Cullen thought his system
 very imperfect,  and  incapable of  explaining  the
 phenomena  of the  animal  economy  in health  or
 sickness. Cullen thinks  that on very few occasions,
 the simple solids are either changeable, or actually
 changed; and that out of ninety-nine  cases  in an
 hundred, the  phenomena attributed to the change of
 the simple solids depends altogether on the state of
 the solidum vivum.  To  all these, Dr. Cullen  adds,
 that Dr. Boerhaave's morbid acrimony, and lentor of
 the fluids ;  his hypothetical and humoral pathology,
 to the almost total  neglect of the state of the  mov-
 ing powers  of the animal body; are calculated  to
 mislead in the practice of physic.  In his aphorisms
 there are very few pages where error or defect does
 not occur; and  therefore,  Dr.  Cullen concludes it
 ought to  be set aside.
  Dr.  Lieutand, a French physician attempted a
system upon a new plan,  which he called the synop-
sis  universa medicinal.  It was  to consist of a  mere
collection of facts and observations from experience.
But this  also failed; and, according to  Dr.  Cullen, 
48
he has only increased the  confusion of medical sub-
jects.  These are painful premonitions to the ad-
venturer in this dark and doubtful journey of physi-
ology and medical science.
  Dr.  Cullen remarks; I have endeavored  to  form
a  system  of physic  that should  comprehend  the
whole of the facts relating to the science ;  and that
will, I hope, arrange them in better order than haa
been done heretofore.   The affections of the motions
and moving powers of the animal economy, must cer-
tainly be the leading inquiry, in considering the dis-
eases of the human body.  I have assumed, says
Cullen, the general principle of Hoffman, and I have
avoided introducing the  many hypothetical  specula-
tions of the humoral pathology, which have disfigur-
ed both his, and all the other systems which have
hitherto prevailed.  There is within  us, says the
doctor, a strange  mixture of the material  and im-
material part, evinced by their operations ; and these
are liable to  very great irregularities.   Hence, the
laws of the nervous systems are not even tolerably
ascertained.  We speak obscurely of it; and shelter
ourselves  under  the  general term  of sympathy,
spasm, &c. which  are used with  as little precision
now, as malignantly  and lentor  were employed  of
old.
  Van Helmont was the first who attended to the
nervous system, and advanced the doctrine of the
Archseus, as the proximate cause of disease.  Sev-
eral  had been advancing the science of the nerves,
but he says (Dr. Whytt,) had done more than all the
rest.  He considered  the  subject as still  far from
being exhausted, and of the highest consequence to
explain the  condition  of the body, in sickness  or
health.  We suppose, says the doctor, that in the
phenomena of the  nervous system, there is a series
of the three conditions; 1st, an impression made on
the organ of sense, or sentient part; 2d, in conse- 
49
quence of this, there is a perception created in the
common  origin of sense, sensorium commune; 3d,
there  is a motion or contraction excited in the  mo-
ving fibres, which depend  upon the  nerves.   We
call these from Gaubius,  impression, perception, ir-
ritation.  All  phenomena are comprehended  under
these  three.  Of these three conditions, the  inter-
mediate link is  perception,  and on it the other two
depend.   This   link, perception, is the foundation
of  all our  internal operations; being  derived  from
the immaterial power, within us, and connected with
our material part.
  This immaterial power may be left out in  medi-
cine ; for if contraction necessarily  follows percep-
tion, and  perception  as necessarily follows impres-
sion, we have no more occasion  to take  notice of it
as a sentient principle,  than if it were a mechanical
cause.  The doctor, however, shows that impression
may excite irritation, and often does without the in-
tervention of perception; and shows the absurdity
of Stahl and  his followers, by  asserting that the
soul is conscious of every  impression.   There  are,
says the doctor, a variety of impressions, which are
not^at all attended to by perception ; or if we per-
ceive, it is the effects, and not the impressions  them-
selves.  As to perception, it always depends on im-
pression :  so that the old  saying is very true ;  " nil
in intellectu quod non fecit prius in sensu."*  These
impressions are varied by the sensorium commune, or
origin  of the nerves.  Irritation depends constantly
on perception  or impression.
  This  system so carefully  arranged, and the  inves-
tigation of the nervous system conducted and  inves-
gated by him, with  a success which has no  paral-
lel,  has nevertheless  been denounced uncertain, in-

  * Nothing gains  entrance to the mind but through the
senses.
             5 
50
comprehensible, and disastrous.  He has been charg-
ed with overlooking, or but slightly  glancing at the
pathology of the blood vessels, in his concentrated
views of the nervous  system.   A nd  by adopting the
nosology of Sauvages, Linnseus and Vogel, he has,
unfortunately, led physicians, says Dr. Rush, to pre-
scribe for the names of diseases, instead of their prox-
imate cause.
  It is sufficient to jar the foundations, of the firm-
est confidence in medical skill, to find  the  profes-
sors  of that science, but rising, as it were, to over-
throw each other, to show that a false pathology,
or a corrupt practice, had  pervaded the system from
the origin of the science.   It is, indeed,  melancholy
to reflect, that the industry and labor of man, should
be thus buried and forgotten with his bones.
-►*•#•*••-
              LECTURE  IV.

 THE THEORIES  OF DRS. BROWN,  RUSH
                AND THOMSON.

   It was observed by the ancients, as an  argument
 for the duration of the soul, that  this state  did  not
 appear  to be the final residence of any portion of its
 inhabitants:  That all nature was in  progressive
 motion;  evidently  hastening forward to  some  far
 distant  centre, where it  should  attain  the  perfec-
 tion of its being, and the consummation of that excel-
 lence for which the Deity had designed it.
   If we apply this argument to  the  progress  and
 revolutions  of medicine,  we  may anticipate, with
joyful hearts, that  the perfection of its science is
 nigh  at hand.   In  tracing its history, we  find  that 
51
 almost every new professor comes  forward with his
 new  theory; and  his proscription of his predeces-
 sors.   Those incessant revolutions must ultimately
 terminate:   And we most ardently hope, that  end
 may  be perfect knowledge, in  the completion of the
 system ; that simplicity and success, a fixed and per-
 manent mode of practice, may be universally adopted;
 and the wavering and contending systems be banish-
 ed from the earth.
   I know it has been said, in defence of this perpet-
 ual change, that every  science, around  which new
facts  are daily accumulating, requires, from time to
 time,  an entire  reform and  renovation.  But that  this
 reform and renewal of the whole system of medicine,
 from age to age, should be accounted for, merely by
 the " accumulation of facts," and not the  perversity
 of principles, I apprehend, will not bear  the test of
sound argument.   Other sciences, as well as medicine,
have been changed often; but it was professedly be-
cause  their former principles  were false, and not  de-
rived  from facts, from  experience, and observation;
and not on  account of the  accumulation of facts,
which only serve to confirm right principles.
   The symptoms,  of malignant and inflammatory
fevers, appear to be the same now, that they  were in
the days of Hippocrates; and  yet how various  has
been the treatment since that time.
  There must be first principles in medicine as well as
in philosophy, which are invariable and incontestible ;
which, like the  stars of the firmament, in guiding  the
mariner, will conduct the physician, with assured aim,
through the deep ocean of human troubles.   When
learning revived, the physicians of Europe employed
themselves in reviving the system of Galen and Hip-
pocrates.  During the course of the sixteenth cen-
tury,  the study of the physicians  was almost solely
employed  in explaining  and confirming that system.
Early  in the same century, the noted Paracelsus had 
52
laid the foundation of a chemical system, which was
in direct opposition to that of Galen.1  This system
finally  prevailed over the  Galenists.'   But though
thus opposed and  contending, the explanations  of
both, of the phenomena of health and sickness, turn-
ed so entirely on the state of the fluids of the body,
that a  humoral and chemical pathology prevailed,
sometimes  together, and sometimes apart,  down  to
the end of the seventeenth century; and even to the
end of the eighteenth, had a great share and influence
on the practice  of medicine.
  In the beginning of the eighteenth century  Stahl;
Hoffman, and Boerhaave,  produced three new and
different systems of physic, and mixed up their doc-
trines of spasm, of morbid acrimonies, of vis naturae
conservatnx,  with  the humoral pathology  of Rive-
rius, and the chemical affinities  and  repulsions  of
Paracelsus.   But the Autocrateia, says Dr. Cullen,
obtained and admitted, in  some shape or other,  by
every sect, had corrupted  the practice of all  physi-
cians, from Hippocrates to Stahl.   This is a sweeping
sentence, pronounced upon the anima medica, by the
good  doctor of Edinburgh.  And his own Nosology
has received one more severe and decisive  from the
pen of Rush.
  " Sic  transit gloria mundi /"* is forced upon us, as
we pass along  this boisterous stream of conflicting
pathology.   And where, alas, shall we  find  rest!   on
what rock shall  our feet settle! where shall the lovely,
fleeting  form of happiness be found !   Some of the
latter philosophers of Greece, hardened and confound-
ed by the disputes of the schools, took refuge in a
universal scepticism.  But let us not, my friends, de-
spair  amidst the glooms of the thickening  tempest.
The day will dawn and brighten, the storm shall pass
away, and the bright sun of healing splendour, shine
upon the world.

  * Thus fades the systems and glory of the world. 
53
  From  the simple solids, in their 6tate of rigidity
or laxity, as a doctrine accounting for health or dis-
ease, by Dr.  Boerhaave, Dr. Cullen passes off to
the solidum vivum; and expresses his confidence, that
he had seized on a clue of investigation, in  laying
hold of the motions and moving powers of the animal
economy, more certain to detect the causes and phe-
nomena  of disease, than ever had been  before dis-
covered; for, although Hoffman had dipt  into this
fundamental  spring  of  the science, he  had  also
polluted  it with  his mixture of the humoral pathol-
ogy-
  The value of Dr.  Cullen's researches, we will soon
perceive, in the investigations of  Brown;  and Dr.
Thomson himself, was never more puzzled  and con-
founded, when he  had to  contend alone  with the
whole faculty, than Dr. Brown appears to have been,
in throwing off the entanglements  of Cullen's sys-
tem.  He studied under Cullen;  he lived  in  his
family; and he lectured on his system.   But I shall
give the history of his scientific progress, in his own
■words.  " The author, says Brown in the preface  to
his  works; the author of this work has spent more
than twenty years in learning, teaching, and scrutin-
izing every part  of medicine.  The first five  years
passed away in  hearing others, in studying what I
had  heard and implicitly believing. it, and  entering
upon the possession, as a rich and valuable inherit-
ance.  The next five years I was employed in ex-
plaining the several particulars, in refining them, and
bestowing  on them a nicer polish.   During the five
succeeding years, nothing  having prospered accord-
ing to my satisfaction, I grew indifferent to the sub-
ject; and, with  many eminent men,  and even the
very  vulgar,  began  to deplore the healing art,  as
altogether  uncertain  and incomprehensible."  You
have here, my friends, the decision of this original
mind, on the imperfection of a system that had been
             5* 
54
progressing for four thousand years.  "All'thistime
passed away, says Dr. Brown, without the acquisition
of any advantage, and without that, which of all
things, is the most agreeable to the mind, the light of
truth;  and so great and precious a portion of the short
and perishable life of man  was totally lost!   Here I
was, at this period, in the situation of a traveller in
an unknown country,  who, after losing  every  trace
of his way, wanders in the shades of night.  Nor was
it until between the fifteenth  and twentieth years of
my studies, that a faint gleam of light broke  in upon
my soul."
  Dr. Brown then proceeds to detail the cause of
this  new  beam of light which broke in upon him.
He had an attack of the gout, in the thirty-sixth year
of his age; his mode  of living had  been generous
until the six  months previous to his fit  of the  gout,
during which time he had used the most sparing diet
The  disease spent its  force in six weeks, and did not
return until after an interval of six  years, and an ab-
stemious diet of six months.
  The theory of  the  physicians  was, that the gout
was  caused by plethora and excessive vigor.  Veg-
etable  ailment was enjoined as the only mode of
cure.  The rationale from the  cure to the proxi-
mate cause, was  certain ; but Dr.  Brown discover-
ed that the error  lay in the proximate cause and of
course must defeat the remedy.   For during a whole
year of strict adherence to the prescribed regimen,
he suffered four  severe attacks.  In  short, he  says,
the whole year except fourteen days, was spent be-
tween limping and excrutiating pain.  Upon this ex-
perience,  and  these  facts, he constructed his  new
theory. Why, when he lived well  was he exempted
from the disease, and when  dieting  himself was he
attacked in a manner so formidable and unrelenting ?
The solution of these  questions opened his eyes, and
led him forward to  an inquiry more  comprehensive. 
55
What  is the effect of food, drink and  the  aliment
which support life ?  They produce strength.  What
is their effect afterwards?  Always less and less.
What is it towards the end of life ?  So far from giv-
ing strength,  they prove weakening.  And finally,
the very powers which support life at first, prove its
destruction  at last; but generally through the inter-
vention of disease.
  From this process of reasoning, he perceived that
his disease was occasioned by a deficiency, and not
a redundancy of blood;  that debility was the cause
of his disorder, and the remedy must be sought in a
sustaining and stimulating diet; this he  called direct
debility.   Such was the success of this new practice,
that for two years he had only a very slight attack ;
and this soon yielded to increased stimuli.  He com-
puted from these data, that the disease was alleviat-
ed in the proportion of forty-eight to one.  A young
gentleman  living with the doctor at the same time,
and  suffering under asthma, in consequence of the
same treatment, had only one fit in two years, in-
stead of one every day,  while he pursued the com-
mon practice.  This mode of practice he found suc-
cessful, in the putrid and gangrenous sore-throat,  in
rheumatalgia,  inflammation of the joints and all chro-
nic rheumatism, and the inflammation which attacks
the brain after typhus fevers; dyspepsia, convulsions
and the diseases of children.   All these, yielding  to
the stimulating medicine, he concluded they were as-
thenic.  For seven years he was able to repel the fits
of the gout by this mode of practice.
  Led  by the hand of nature, the doctor says, he
walked round the whole circle of asthenic diseases,
and found that they were all cured by the same rem-
edy, stimulants.
  With regard to the sthenic diseases, the cause and
cure of which he says, nobody understood, all their
symptoms were mistaken, and the practice  wrong. 
56
I will, once for all, explain these terms  of the Bru-
nonian system.
  Sthenic diathesis; diseased  habit of body, occa-
sioned by excess of stimuli, called indirect debility;
oppressed state of the system.
  Asthenic diathesis; diseased habit of body, occa-
sioned by a  deficiency of stimuli,  called  direct de-
bility ; exhausted state of the system.
  The former was to be reduced by depletion; the
latter by repletion.   The  Egyptians,  in the corn
country, purged and vomited themselves every month,
three days in succession, notwithstanding they were
the healthiest people in the  world.
  Dr. Brown reduced all  general  or  universal  dis-
eases to these two forms,  sthenic and asthenic; en-
larged his plan, accounted for the  symptoms  and re-
duced the whole to a certain principle.  An universal
disease, he says, proceeds  from an effection  of the
principle of life; but a local disease from  a local in-
jury.   These three states, health, disease and  predis-
position, constituted  the life, or living  state  of ani-
mals.  From thus ascribing all diseases to excess or
deficiency, he directed  his remedies to the reverse
states  of the body, and  showed  that  the noxious
powers which excited either, were the  remedies of
the other.   He laid down the same doctrine in re-
gard to plants; and finally  demanded,  whether the
medical  art, hitherto conjectural,  incoherent, and in
the great body of its doctrines false, was  not at last,
reduced to a science of demonstration, which might
be called the science of life?  A question which
has been answered in the affirmative, says his biog-
rapher, by every one who has been at  dus pains to
understand the doctrine.

              BROWN'S THEORY.
   1st.  To  every animate being is allotted a certain
portion of the principle on which the phenomena of life
depend.  This principle is denominated excitability. 
57
   2d.  The exciting powers are the external and in-
 ternal stimuli.   The former are heat, food, wine, poi-
 sons, contagions ; the latter, the functions of the body
 itself, contractibility, thought, emotion and passion.
   3d.   Excitement is  the effect produced by the
 action of the exciting powers on excitability.
   4th.   Life is & forced state; if the  exciting pow-
 ers are withdrawn, death ensues, as certainly  as  if
 the excitability was gone.
   5th.  By too great excitement, weakness is pro-
 duced, because the excitability becomes  defective.
 This is indirect debility.   When  the exciting  pow-
 ers are withheld, weakness is also induced, and this
 is direct debility.   Here the excitability is in excess.
 Ergo, when the excitability is defective,  it produces
 indirect debility;  but. when the excitability is in ex-
 cess, it then produces direct debility.
   6th.  Every power that acts on the  living frame is
 a stimulant.
   7th.  Excitability is seated in the medullery por-
 tion of the nerves, and in the muscles.
   Dr. Christie has illustrated  this theory of Dr.
 Brown, by a familiar similitude.   Suppose  a fire to
 be made up in a grate filled with fuel,  not very com-
 bustible, and a machine placed before it, containing
 several tubes pouring constant streams of fresh air
 upon it  Suppose another pipe, fixed at the back of
 the grate, through which a constant supply of fresh
 fuel was poured into it to supply the waste occasion-
 ed by the flame.
   The grate is the human frame; the  fuel in it, the
 matter  or principle of" life; the  excitability of Dr.
 Brown and the sensorial power of Dr. Darwin.   The
pipe behind the grate pouring in fuel, is the power of
the living system to regenerate itself,  or re-produce
excitability;  the  air macliine with several tubes, is
the various stimuli, acting on the body, and the flame
is the phenomenon of life. 
58
  Thus the curious and compresensive system of Dr.
Brown, is summed up briefly in this plain similitude;
to which is added this further illustration:  As life is
a forced state, according to the  doctor, it is  said,
where one tube  of the machine  pours in  pure air;
this signifies the highest degree of stimulants; when
common  atmospheric  air, the common stimulants  of
food, drink, &c.; and when  impure  air, it  indicates
the sedative powers, as poisons, putrefactions, marsh
miasmata, foul air, stagnant water, &c.  From these
few examples, it will be easy to comprehend Brown's
Theory.   The more a spark is blown, the brighter it
burns, and the sooner it is spent  This sage saying,
exemplifies what is remarked by Dr. Brown, when he
affirms, that the stimulating powers support life, and
at the same time consume it, because they waste the
excitability;  therefore, the necessity of sleep, when
all the exciting powers are  withdrawn, to  give the
living principle time to accumulate its excitability.
  In a very few years, notwithstanding the opposi-
tion made to Brown's theory, it spread with  rapidity
over England, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, and
America.  Even, those who rejected his  doctrine,
were nevertheless  influenced and benefitted by his
practice.   It has  been so with Dr. Thomson.   The
vapour bath was a poor attempt  to devise a substitute
for his method of steaming.
  When Lavoisier first announced his system, the
Chemists who were the most scandalized by it found
themselves obliged to revise their whole congeries of
facts and deductions.  The immediate consequence
was, an entire change in their opinions.  They were
forced to shift their foundations;  and though  they
disdained to  go over to Lavoisier, they could no lon-
ger adhere to Stahl.   They were obliged to abandon
half their errors, and no doubt a thorough lustration
in medicine  will be forced upon the faculty, by the
curious discoveries of these latter years. 
59
            DR. RUSH'S THEORY.

  With Brown, he affirmed, 1st. Life to be  a forced
state.
  2d. Life, as applied to the human body, included
motion, heat, sensation and thought; these four, when
united, compose  perfect life.
  3d. Every part of the human body, nails and hair
excepted, is endowed with  sensibility and excitabili-
ty.   Sensibility means, the power of having sensa-
tion excited by the action of impressions;  excitability,
the power of having motion excited by means of im-
pressions.
  4th. The human body is  so formed, that if impres-
sions be  made upon it, in its  healthy state, in one
part, it will excite  sensation, or motion,  or both, in
every other part; hence, the body  is a  unit;  ergo,
disease is a .unit
  5th. Life is the effect of stimuli acting on the ex-
citability and sensibility, which  are  extended in dif-
ferent degrees over every part of the body.
  Dr. Rush agress with Dr.  Brown, that  life  is a
forced state, and the effect of  stimuli.   He divides
these the same as Brown, into external and internal.
But for the matter or principle  of life itself, he adds
sensibility to Brown's excitability.    He will not ad-
mit with Brown, that debility is disease,  but only a
predisposing cause  of disease.
  Disease consists  in a morbid excitement and the
cure of diseases consists in restoring the equal dif-
fusion over the whole body.   He blames Cullen for
inducing  his students,-by his nosology, to prescribe
for the names of diseases, instead of their proximate
causes;  and Brown, he affirms to be equally faulty,
for reducing them nearly to one class, and accommo-
dating his prescriptions to the reverse states of the
body, or to that which constitutes  their proximate
cause. 
60
          Air, by exciting respiration, gave the first impulse
      - of life.   When man was formed, God breathed  into
        him the breath of life, that is, says the doctor, atmos-
        pheric air; dilating his nostrils, inflating his  lungs,
        and thus excited  in him the whole phenomena of
        animal,  intellectual and spiritual life.  And hence,
        life is the effect of stimuli acting on an organized
        body.

                 DR.  THOMSON'S THEORY.

          All bodies are  composed of  the  four  elements,
        earth, air, fire and water.    Earth and  water consti-
        tute the solids, and air and fire, the fluids, of the
        body.   The healthy state consists in the proper bal-
        ance  and distribution  of these four elements,  and
        disease  by their  disarrangement   All  disease  is
        caused  by obstruction; the mode of cure is  to re-
        move it by diffusing heat over the system, for  heat is
        life, and cold is death.   All disease is the effect of
        one general cause, and  therefore requires  a general
        remedy.  Whatever supports the internal heat and
        directs  the determining powers to the surface, will
        expel the disease, and save the patient.
           Through the long experience of thirty years, Dr.
        Thomson thinks he has discovered those  medicines
        and that mode of practice, which will accomplish this
        object    He has  tried them on the most hopeless
f}       cases, and still found them effectual.   Indeed,  such
        was the nature of his  trials and difficulties, that he
        was only called in to the aid of the  patient, when
        given over to death by the other physicians.   The
        progress of his skill was therefore tested by a suc-
        cession of the  most desperate and deadly maladies.
           If it be objected to his system, that the four ele-
         ments composing  the human body, are  not a correct
         enumeration of primary substances, I reply that it  is
         the most simple, obvious and  ancient distribution of 
                       61
            **
 the  primary, elements.   It was Aristotle's division,
 and that of many other celebrated philosophers.  In-
 deed, it is  not long since the physiologists and chem-
 ists began to add to the number of primary elements.
 From seven to nine, and forty-six, they have summed
 up the number at different times;  but  they are not
 now sure whether this last number should be enlarg-
 ed or diminished.  Indeed, they confess, that the real,
 simple, elementary principles of matter, will never be
 discovered.  The natural division of Thomson, made
 in times  of old, answers all the purpose of his sys-
 tem, and the operations of the healing skill.
   The assertion, that heat is life, is, at least, equally
 as philosophical as  the affirmation of Dr. Rush, that
 motion,  heat, sensation and thought, when united,
 compose perfect life.   His cause  of disease, being
 ascribed to obstruction, seems to amount to the same
 as Dr. Rush's morbid excitement; and  that  cold  is
 death, is about equal to the extinguished excitability
 of Dr. Brown.
   The conclusion of the whole matter, is, that Dr.
 Brown perceived, that the systems of medicine were
 too complicated, and therefore, uncertain and false  in
 many of their  principles.   He, by a close attention
■ to facts in his own case, discovered a method of cur-
 ing disease, at once simple and comprehensive, ex-
 tending to all cases.  Dr. Rush understood well, the
 value of his new mode  of reasoning, and though he
 has added sensibility to the system, he has not much
 improved it.  Brown is more philosophical than Rush,
 for he gives the principle of life merely a name, which
 serves his purpose, excitability, without pretending  to
 say what  it is, whether a  substance, or quality  of
 substance.  He says it is a somewhat which he can-
 not  pretend to explain.   And this is surely  better
 than to make life the mere effect of the united ac-
 tion of organization and stimuli.
              6 
6^
   Dr. Thomson might only intend, like  Dr.  Brown,
to express by the phrase, heat is  life, Liu.' unknown
someivhat, which he could not describe ;  and,  that
cold is death, he might only mean an effect of death.
Cold, is generally considered a negative  term, to ex-
press the  absence of heat.   Dr. Ray says, it is the
effect of a condensed or cold ether, from which heat
has been expelled.  Plato calls it a fluid of gross par-
ticles,  which presses upon  and stops the pores of
bodies, excluding heat.   Life is a metaphysical sub-
ject, and cannot be investigated by the laws of physics.
This preposterous mode of reasoning has led to all the
absurdities uttered on this sublime theme.
   Dr. Thomson in calling heat life, has more philoso-
phy  on his side than people imagine, or than even he
himself is aware of.   Light, heat  and fire, are only
the same substance, in different states or conditions,
and  acting in a different manner.   They are all sig-
nified by the same word in Hebrew and Greek,  also
in the Latin.  " Some of the ancients affirmed,  that
light gave an organization, sensation, and thought, to
the primitive chaos, and is the pabulum of all living
things.  It is the purest, brightest and most beautiful
of all that we behold, of the works of the Creator."
Plato, in Timseus, asserts that fire and heat beget and
govern all things.  He accounts for the animal func-
tions, from air  and fire joined,  acting through  the
whole  body ; fire expanding within,  and fire com-
pressing without  The Abbe le Pluche says, there
are but three fluids, which, by their continual activi-
ty, cauai\ all motion; these  are fire, light, air;  and
they are the breath of life.   These active agents the
heathen held to  be  intelligent, and  the gods that
govern the world.  Fire and air, they called the active
moving powers, and  earth  and water the passive
elements.
   These opinions correspond with Dr. Thomson, who
thinks with them, that the circulation of the blood is 
63
caused by the expanding power of heat within, and
the compression of air without.  The activity he has
assigned to them agrees with the most  reputed sys-
tems of ancient philosophy.   An  egg cannot hatch,
says Dr. Ray, without air and heat.   They have ab-
solute dominion over all things.   The circulation of
the blood is from internal heat an<i  the  external air
pressing into the lungs, they serve as a pump to draw
the blood from the heart, and the air keeps this pump
in motion.   The air is to the body, what the weight
is to a clock, and the heart with its valves, as a pen-
dulum to regulate its motions.
   We now perceive, from these few examples of an-
cient and modern opinions, and they might be great-
ly enlarged, that Dr. Thomson has not  given too
much importance to heat and air, in his theory; or if
he has erred, it is in great society, and with long es-
tablished maxims of profound reason,  and careful
observation.
   Dr. Thomson says, food and medicine are in har-
mony with each other; they grow in the same field,
and are gathered by the same people.    Dr. Ray re-
marks, we derive  our food  from the surface of the
earth, and it also contains our principal medicine.
  In accordance with the sentiments of the philoso-
pher, on the beneficial results of  misfortune, Dr.
Thomson was forced into his career of medicine, and
pressed forward till  triumph crowned his  struggles,
and wealth repaid his toil; from the  vale of obscuri-
ty he has risen  to take his rank among the benefac-
tors of the world. 
LECTUKE  V.
  MEDICINE, AS  IT IS  TAUGHT IN THE
                   SCHOOLS.

  We must survey the whole extent of a science, in
order to understand the value and relation of its in-
tegral parts.  When we know the extent of an evil,
we are more resigned to our lot, than while the sub-
ject remains doubtful.  The mind winds up her pow-
ers to the contest or the endurance, and  displays an
extent of energy and resolution, which the man, be-
fore, never even dreamt that he possessed.   And so
it is with science; when we  have surveyed  its out-
line and mighty range, we are then prepared to meet
its most threatening aspect a^d grapple  with its for-
midable strength.   There is a fortitude  of soul, dis-
tinct from that physical fortitude  which braced the
Nemean lion's nerve ; and I am persuaded that it is
from the lack of the former, that many men are de-
terred from encountering the difficulties  of science,
and facing  that imposing front, that would soften into
a placid smile before the energy of perseverance.   I
have known a boy to weep, and abandon school for-
ever,  because he  could not solve  a single problem,
though formerly he had been  considered one of the
smartest in his class.
  I shall now hasten to give you a brief view of the
several parts of medical  science, as it is  taught in
the schools, and embraced by the literati of that pro-
fession.
  The Institutes of Medicine  are divided into  phys-
iology, pathology and therapeutics. 
65
   1st. Physiology* comprehends the laws and func-
 tions of the human body, in its healthy state.
   2d. Pathologyfdescribes the remote, predisposing,
 exciting and proximate causes of disease.
   3d. Therapeutics} contain an account of the na-
 ture and operation of medicines, in the cure of dis-
 ease.  To these divisions we may add,
   4th. The  Clinical  Lectures; which comprehend
 the method of visiting  and examining sick people,
 and the knowledge to be derived from attending the
 bed of sickness.  A register kept of  the diseases and
 remedies of Clinical patients, forms  an  item in this
 part of the study.
   I.  Chemistry.  The analyzing of  substances, to
 discover their nature and composition.
   II. Materia Medica.   This  study  comprises the
 whole volume and extent of the number, name, na-
 ture  and  use of  medicines, mineral, vegetable  and
 animal.
   III. Pharmacy.   To know the aspect and admix-
 ture,  and chemical qualities of the various medicines,
 the student must  apply  to the Apothecary's art; or
 study under a practising physician, who prepares his
 own medicines.
  IV. Botany.  The science of the vegetable king-
dom ;  which is the foundation of one part of the ma-
teria medica.   To  know the class, and family, and
name of plants, and their medical virtues, is of high
importance.
  V.  Natural History,  is  another  part of the sci-
ence,  intimately connected with  the  former, and af-
fording so many facts and illustrations, that no  emi-
nent physician will neglect to acquire it.    It is de-

  * Derived from pliusis—nature, fyc. logos discourse.
  t Pathos, disease, and logos.
  J Tlieropcuo, to cure.
             a* 
66
lightful to the intellect, and useful in the department
of medicine.
  VI. Anatomy, which is the science of organization
as physiology, is the science of life; and is the foun-
dation of Surgery, and the  most important  item
in the pathological department must be carefully
studied.
  VII.  Surgery, which is the practical part of Anat-
omy, requires  great attention; a firm  hand, a fixed
eye, and determined  soul, are absolutely necessary
in the manual operations of surgery.   For want of
these, I saw a patient perish under the hands of one
of the most skilful surgeons.   His  nerves trembled,
his hand shook, and he  was forced to desist in the
midst of his operation.  The operation was upon the
windpipe, to extract a substance that had entered.
The patient expired.  And when we add to all these,
the science of
  VIII.  Obstetrics, you will perceive that the medi-
cal profession commands a most extensive and bound-
less field.  No idler can be, or ought to be, admitted
in this laborious vineyard.   For it is no matter, in the
language of Dr. Rush, whether acting under the cover
of a diploma, or the  pompous folly  of an advertise-
ment ; if they are idle, they are equally empirics, and
are only calculated for incomparable mischief.
  A few remarks on these  different parts of medi-
cine, shall close this lecture.
  The investigations  of physic are not only pecu-
liarly interesting to the physician, but  they are emi-
nently so to all mankind.  For an acquaintance witli
the nature of human life and health, and their various
states and affections, is  undoubtedly of greater mo-
ment and importance to us all, than any other natural
subject.  The religion of  the  Bible is supernatural.
For, although by this knowledge, men may not be-
come adepts in the art of healing, they may yet o-uard
and defend themselves from much misery and disease. 
67
  There is in all living animals, a principle, the ef-
fects  of which are very  visible and obvious  to all
men.    During its presence there  is life; in its ab-
sence, death.   This we denominate vitality,  or the
living principle.  It is infused by the Supreme Being,
and is the work of his hands.
             He is the Father of Spirits.
It is neither the dura mater  of Bagliva, nor the me-
dulla of Haller; nor the nervous fluid, of Hoffman;
nor the  censorium of Darwin; nor the excitability of
Brown; nor the excitability,  and sensibility, and stim-
uli of Rush; no! nor the heat of Thomson; but the
living spirit which is made and  implanted in the  breast
by the Almighty.  All these that I have enumerated,
and ten times as many more, that I might enumerate,
are the mere  effects of the  vital principle,  which
have been  so egregiously mistaken for the principle
itself.   It  is very easy to  distinguish a  living dog
from  a  dead lion.   The most stupid can  perceive
this.  And yet the most learned cannot explain the
intimate nature of that living principle,  which has
forsaken the one, and animates the other.
  But although we are equally ignorant of the prin-
ciple of life, as  we are of the principle  of gravity,
yet their effects are  abundantly obvious to reason
and experience.   And when  we have collected and
digested the various modes and operations and phe-
nomena, which life exhibits, under all the  aspects of
health and disease, by careful observation, experience
and reason, the sum total  may be called the philoso-
phy of life.
  Animal life, as it operates on  the human body in
health and  in disease, has been  considered the pri-
mary and grand object of the  attention of the phy-
sician.  And some of its most obvious properties are
sensibility,  irritability and excitability.   These are
the effects  of vitality, which have been mistaken for
vitality  itselfi 
68
   Some physicians have supposed that the vital prin-
 ciple may lie dormant in a quiescent state, like latent
 heat, and afterwards be  made  to  show  itself, like
 heat, by the application of stimuli.   But the reason-
 ing is fallacious ; it is merely analogical, drawn from
 a material subject heat, to prove the phenomena of
 an immaterial subject, the spirit of life.  It  would be
 better reason, to attempt to prove that the spirit is
 latent when the body is dead, because  we cannot
 perceive its effects, than to attempt to establish from
 latent heat, a latent state of  mind.    For if in faint-
 ing,  or catalepsy, it can be established that the spirit
 is  merely latent, it may as well be latent in the grave
 to the day of judgment;  for in the argument respect-
 ing  an immaterial substance, whose very essential
 quality is activity, and without which it could not be;
 the  latency of one hour, or  one hundred thousand
 millions, could  not  at all change the conditions of
 the question; nor relieve the disputant from the dire'-
 ful  consequences of making the  soul  a  material
 substance.
  I know some  physicians distinguish between the
 rational soul and the vital principle  of animal life.
 But the distinction is, perhaps, not clearly understood.
 There is in animals something far superior  to mere
 vitality.   A plant has  vitality, its life  and  death.
 And  Dr.  Brown's theory was applied, with great suc-
cess, to  plants, and  supported  them with  superior
 energy and vigour, in the high latitude of Scotland.
 But in animals, besides vitality, we perceive  thought,
reason, memory, design and perseverance, with a great
 number of the noble  passions which  animate man ;
love,  gratitude, affection, friendship, grief and bitter
wo, even to the destruction of life.
  A  very eminent and pious philosopher, considered
these phenomena, as the operation and  agency of
 God, moving and directing his own universe to the
final  issue and grand results of the eternal  judgment. 
69
 This, by the way, is a>ery old opinion, and has been
 beautifully embodied by the poet, in these celebrated
 lines:

    " All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
    Whose body, nature is and God the soul;
    That, chang'd through all, and yet in all the same,
    Great in the earth as in the etherial frame j
    Lives in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
    Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees ;
    Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
    Spreads undivided, operates unspent;
    Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,
    As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;
    As full as perfect, in vile man that mourns,
    As the rapt 6eraph that adores and burns,
    To him no high, no low, no great, no small;
    He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all!"

   This is  not the doctrine  of Spinoza who made
God the soul  of the world; but the pious doctrine
of a universal providence, and the  omnipresence  of
the Deity in the government  of the world.  Look at
the smallest plant or insect,  you behold him there,
in his matchless wisdom and  sustaining  power, for-
ming the mechanism  and moving  the vitality of a
creature so small and inconsiderable, and apparently
worthless in the great sum of things.   The Psalmist
took a most striking and comprehensive view of this
sublime and glorious theme.   "Whither shall I  go
from thy spirit ?   Or whither shall I flee  from thy
presence?  If I. ascend  up  into  heaven, thou  art
there!  If I make my bed in hell, behold thou  art
there! !  If I  take the wings of the morning,  and
dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,  even there
shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold
me.   If I say, surely the  darkness shall cover me,
even the night shall be light round about me !"
  This was the true sentiment and doctrine  of the
ancient philosophers, the presence  and superinten-
dence of the  Deity every where.   They were not 
70
 Atheists,  although  the  miserable  Spinoza wrested
 their  doctrine to his own malignant and deadly pur-
 pose.  But he might well do that, when  he turned
 the Jewish Scripture to the same account, for  he
 was a Jew, and deeply read in the Old Testament.
 But the wasp can  extract poison from the flower:
 So did his perverted soul draw death from the wells
 of salvation!
   As the doctrine of life and health cannot be known
 by reasoning  a priori,  but must be deducted from
 experience and observation, some very eminent men
 have  thought that its laws and principles  should  be
 divided in a different manner from that of the scho-
 lastic mode:  That so many divisions of the theory
 of life and disease,  which have  prevailed since the
 days of Galen, have not only embarrassed but be-
 wildered the subject; and that the laws and princi-
 ples, therefore, should be divided in a different man-
 ner, 1st, that the human blood is the recipient and
 vehicle of heat  and life to the several parts ; 2d,
 from many experiments pure air appears  to be the
 pabulum of irritability ;  for the absence of pure air
 destroys life  sooner than the defect  of  any  other
 natural substance;  3d,  the  next in importance  to
 the animal economy, seems to be the  nervous fluid,
 or the medulla of the brain and  spinal marrow; for
 they  have all the same nature and origin; 4th, sen-
 sibility, residing in  the  organ  of sense, connecting
 the mind with the external world.
  The term Physianthropy, has been  devised for
the purpose of expressing, in one word the  healthy,
 the morbid, and the curative nature of the vital ac-
 tions.
  Pathology has been also subdivided into Semiol-
 ogy, or the doctrine of symptoms; and Nosology for
 the names and division of diseases into their genera
 and species;  a most tedious and terrible  array, for
 the head  of the poor  disciple  of Esculapius.  Dr. 
71
Rush has here great merit in  banishing  nosology
from the walks of medicine.   You have only to  im-
agine  the  dilemma of the practitioner, looking, in
silence, on his suffering patient, until the disease
would develope itself, that he  might understand  its
nature ; for this was necessary before he could pre-
scribe.  Dr. Rush laid,  at once, his finger  on the
pulse,  and  directed,  without delay, deplention or
stimuli.  This short, and sudden process, gave oppor-
tunity of routing the enemy, (as the  doctor used to
say,) before he had time to entrench  himself  in the
human vitals!
  Therapexdics do very well to express the curative
indications. But it has been  often suggested, that
the above terms have been considered  too  much as
separate subjects of pursuit, and independent of
each other; and are used often without due consid-
eration, in  the antiquated and scholastic manner.
  All these, Pathology,  Semiology, Nosology, The-
rapeutics, depend  on Physiology, as  it depends on
Anatomy.   For no principle,  or mode  of  action of
the human body, in health or in  disease,  can  be  ei-
ther learned or understood without an accurate ac-
quaintance with physiology.
  Medicines,  says Dr.  Hoffman contain  no inco-
herent principles  of action in themselves.   They do
not act on the  dead body, said Hippocrates, and their
action on  the living body depends on  the state in
which they find it; whether torpid or irritable, strong
or weak, and it is the same with all parts of regimen,
food, drink, air, exercise or any other.
  This is sound philosophy, and has been illustrated
by Dr. Cullen, on sensibility  and irritability.  Sen-
sibility, when often excited, becomes dull and loses
its force, thus a dose of opium, if continued  a  few
days, must be increased, or it  will  have  no  effect.
On the contrary, irritability  augments  by  being
excited, if an emetic be  repeated for several days, 
72
the dose must be diminished; the irritation of the
stomach will not bear the original quantity.  It must
be diminished daily.
  Medicinal substances may be understood perfectly
in their chemical properties,  as they are by some
apothecaries, and yet we may be perfectly ignorant
of them in their physical operations  on the human
body.  This distinction will show that Dr. Thomson,
without a  knowledge of chemistry or botany,  may
know the physical operation of his medicines, better
than the most profound chemist.  For this knowledge
must be learned by experience, arid not in the  dust,
and toil, and retirement of the schools.  Hippocrates
has given us the clue ; medicines affect the body ac-
cording to the state in which they find it.  The  state
or condition of the  body, and the  operation of the
medicine on that state, we commonly learn, as Thom-
son learned it, by experience.
  Dr. Brown, by reducing all diseases into two  clas-
ses,  sthenic and  asthenic,  ascertained, at once, to
which class  the complaint belonged, on visiting his
patient, and proceeded accordingly to remove the
debility.
  Dr. Rush, by making disease a unit, caused by
morbid excitement,  and its state or condition to be
ascertained by  the pulse, would decide  with equal
facility, on the mode of cure ; equalize the excitement
  Dr. Thomson, by making  disease  the general effect
of  one  general  cause, obstruction,  has  fixed his
remedy, like the others.  Remove the  obstruction, is
his cure; Remove the debility, was Dr. Brown's cure •
Remove the morbid excitemeet, was Dr. Rush's cure'
and all by  different  stimulants.   The debility  was
removed by diffusive stimulants:  The Morbid ex-
citement, by diffusive stimulants: The obstruction bv
diffusive stimulants.                            '
  These gentlemen,  though they have travelled on
far diverging paths, yet, at the  end  of  their journey, 
73
 they have met almost in single point.  They began
 their  career together about the  end of  the  last
 century ; and before the middle of the  present, it is
 impossible to say what may be the estimation in which
 they shall be held by the world;  or the cures effected
 by their discoveries.
  I am not one of those who think wisdom  is to be
 obtained by idleness, or gained by chance ; and yet
 I know that some of the most valuable discoveries in
 the world, have been made in  obscurity, and  have
 sprung as it were, from fortuition, not that I  believe
 that there is any thing absolutely fortuitous, but to
 humble the pride  of man, who is too  apt to lean on
 the might of his own arm, and ascribe to himself the
 merit of great discoveries.  The Deity concedes
 them  to the humble and  illiterate, while they are
 withheld from the proud aspiring sciolist, or doctor of
 the schools.
  Let those who despise Dr. Thomson and  his dis-
 coveries, because he is, or was, poor  and unlearned,
 remember the words of him, who  knew the heart of
 man, and has left  us an admonition that should  sink
us into the  very  dust.  "I thank thee,  O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou has hidden
those things from  the wise and prudent, and  reveal-
ed them unto babes."
-^♦©®®-""
             LECTURE  VI.
   IMPROVED THEORY OF MEDICINE.
  If we wanted additional proofs  of the necessity
of Divine Revelation, to direct us  in the way  of
truth, we have them in abundance, in reviewing the
different theories of animal life, suggested by med-
             7 
74
ical writers.   Walking with them, we have to ex-
plore  aj wilderness, dark  and trackless, and  inter-
minable as  the  terra incognitia*  of ancient days.
But when we turn to revelation  for an account of
life, our minds  expatiate in  a boundless  field of
heavenly light;  survey  objects in the reality  and
spirit of their being ; behold prospects of truth, and
glory, and  magnificence,  where the  mere  light of
nature could never penetrate, nor the rays of human
wisdom  shed their radiance.
  I know the mind of man possesses  creative pow-
ers and  transcendant faculties, the limits of which
even he himself has never ascertained.   Yet his ut-
most art and  skill, exerted  with all  the  ardor  and
daring flight of genius,  will  never enable him to
penetrate the mysteries  which  God  has hidden in
himself; and life is  one of them.   But the rays of
revelation have beamed upon it, and showed us its
origin and end.  It  is  neither atmospheric  air, nor
any other material  thing, which man can analyze.
The inspired Elihu has described it in language lofty
as the theme.  It is the spirit  and breath of the Al-
mighty.   " For if he gather unto him his  spirit and
his breath, all flesh would perish  together, and  man
return to his dust."
  If men of science would  give more attention to
the study of the living oracles, they would discover
many truths, find out  many mysteries, whioh  are
unfolded and displayed on the awful pages of that
book,  sealed with the seven  seals, which'  they in
vain endeavored to discover in the volumes of hu-
man  wisdom.    Life and immortality are  brought
to light by the gospel.  The most  learned and wise
of the ancient  Greeks,  bewailed  their  ignorance
and their uncertainty of the nature and condition of
a future state of existence.  No light  of nature,
* Undiscovered continent. 
75
could pour its blaze through the dark impenetrable
glooms of the grave ; no light of life, for them, had
ever irradiated the  horrid mansions of the  dead.
From  the  cold repulsive embraces  of  the king of
terrors, nature had no refuge, and furnished no rem-
edy.   When we behold a Darwin  laboring to con-
found himself, and his followers, by a hopeless athe-
ism, and sink them to the rank of reptiles, we pause
to admire and to reverence the wisdom of those an-
cient sages, who sighed for immortality, although
their hopes were  doubtful, and their evidence fee-
ble and fluctuating.
  In reference to their anxiety, and their condition,
the Saviour said as reproof  to the Jews,  "many
prophets and righteous men, have  desired to see
those things which ye see, and have not  seen them."
What  a sad and solemn reproof, which applies with
equal force  to infidelity, to the  present  hour.  For
if the   investigations  of  mind, of physiology,  and
anatomy, were carried on with that spirit of  liberal
and subdued philosophy, which bows the soul  to the
behests of  Heaven, how  rapid  would  be the ad-
vancement  in  those pursuits;  and how different
would be the results, from the  current course  of the
present achievments and speculations, in which pro-
fessors  appear, like  the  Roman gladiators,  on the
arena of combat, only to hew each other down?
  Galen was converted from atheism, by the study
of anatomy, and wrote a hymn of praise to the Dei-
ty, to celebrate his wisdom and power, in the  admi-
rable structure of the human form.  Having observ-
ed the  exact distribution  of the  nerves  to the mus-
cles, the arrangements of the face  for  expression
and beauty, the structure of the bones for strength
and motion, he exclaims, " H<ec  enim fortunes sunt
operas! "* &c.  Galen  having substantially refuted
* These are the productions of divine wisdom. 
76
 the Epicurean principles  of Asclepiades,  by show-
 ing his ignorance in  anatomy  and philosophy; and
 by demonstrating all the  causes to be evidently  in
 the works of nature, viz : final, efficient, instrumental,
 material  and formal;  concludes thus, against his
 fortuitous atoms :  " Ex quibus intelligi potest, condi-
 torem  nostrum in formandis particulis  unam hunc
 sequi  scopum, nempe ut  quod melius est eligat.'"*
 The skill of that  ingenious and famed heathen, in
 his illustration of the mechanism of the  fingers  is
 most admirable.  The reason which he gives for the
 different  lengths  of the fingers, is, that the  tops
 may come to an equality in grasping round or spiral
 objects, which makes the  hold  firmer.  " Cum  mag-
 nas aliqua moles in circuita comprehendunt et cum m
 seipsis humidum vel parvum corpus coutinere, conan-
 ritr."t   Galen, 1. xi. c. 7. g. 1. i. 6. c. 13. 1. i. 14.
   It has been observed, that nature presented one
 continued series of composition and decomposition,
 still going forward within  us, and without  us :  That
 all material things are sinking in  decay, to  rise and
 reappear in new and renovated beauty ;  and having
 reached  their acme, descend again  into the  dust to
 spring once  more  upon the  face of day,  in varied
 and in. endless progression.  This  ceaseless muta-
tion has  been considered the  most formidable ob-
struction to a fixed  and permanent system of med-
ical science.   Dr. Barnwell remarks, it must be al-
lowed  that we are not yet in  possession  of scien-
 tific proofs or analytical demonstrations of medical
rules and observations, so  that  we  might reduce

  * From which we arrive at this conclusion, that our Crea-
tor even in the  formation of the least particles  of matter
had or followed but one design, that whatever was best he
chose.
  t When they grasp large objects, and when  they  seize
upon small and moist  bodies, the use of each finger  i«
equally exerted and felt. 
77
 them  to first and general  principles.  Our indica-
 tions  for  ascertaining their  reality, are not suffi-
 ciently established;  and,  consequently, have  had
 hitherto only a technical, not a scientific meaning.
   Medicine, he says, considered as an art, is  still
 in its  infancy,  an assertion  which no candid  and
 intelligent practitioner will attempt to contradict;
 even for the most valuable therapeutical  or diete-
 tic discoveries  and improvements.   We are more
 indebted, he continues, to  accidental  observations,
 and analogical conjectures, than to an established
 scientific  theory.   The modus operandi of  medi-
 cines,  as well as regimen,  are so far  obscure,  that
 the whole difference between the rational  prescrip-
 tions and those which are termed specifics, depends
 upon the application of rules,  by which the techni-
 cal application of the remedy  is, in  every  instance,
 determined.
  Notwithstanding these defects in medical science,
 there is a constant and strong desire in the human
 mind to reduce all the phenomena of animal bodies
 to general principles, and to explain from these, by
 scientific  deductions,  the  most  suitable technical
 methods ; not merely in an imperical, but a philso-
 sophic  manner, to  vindicate our medical treatment,
 says Dr. Barnwell, n priori, by the  general laws of
 nature  ; and thus to effect a gradual, though indisso-
 luble, connection between the scientific theory  and
 practice.  And to this object  every  scientific mind
 in the  pursuit of a correct theory, should be direct-
 ed.  If we had  evident and sensible marks, and ac-
curately defined, terms, for every degree of varia-
tion  of the  human body from the  state of perfect
health, the practice would become a far more easy
and more certain study.
  Dr. Sydenham first suggested something of this
 nature.  And an endeavor to attempt something in
this way, is the object of the present work, or new
             7* 
**o
 theory, proposed by Dr. Barnwell.  Thus, the theo-
 ry and practice  of medicine, from not only Syden-
 ham to Barnwell, but from Hippocrates to Stahl, in
 the language of Cullen, have  been defective  and
 corrupted ; and from Galen to Cullen himself, in the
 words of Brown, uncertain, unsatisfactory,  and in-
 comprehensible !
  All these defects and difficulties have  suggested
 a change in the plan of medical study, and  the  ne-
 cessity of a new theory.  In order  to this it is said,
 that as medicines possesses no inherent  medical  vir-
 tue in themselves, and are  of no  use,  but rather
 pernicious, except as they are  properly applied to
 the various states and conditions of the living body;
 therefore, a thorough acquaintance  with  the  body,
 in all its  varieties  and phenomena, in health and
 in sickness, constitutes the  beginning, the  middle
 and the end, of physical medical studies.  But as  the
 human  body is  continually  surrounded  and acted
 upon by other physical and mental causes, we must
 extend our researches to them; but always keep-
 ing in mind the cui bono, lest we wander  in useless
 speculation, and waste our days in idle labor.
  Physianthropy, or  the knowledge  of the nature
 of man, ought to be the basis  of all medical science;
 consequently it should comprise the natural philoso-
phy of the  human body, its principles,  laws  and
properties,  as anatomy  does  its structure and  or-
ganization.  It  should exhibit the immediate appli-
cation of the doctrines of organic animal  nature to
man in particular, and  to the relation  which  his
structure and economy bears to mind.  The relation
between animate and inanimate, must be diligently
attended to. 
79
             PHYSIANTHROPY,
 Considered  in its several parts and relations.
   To consider a man in a physical light, the philoso-
phy of the human body is the first and most neces-
sary  division  of  medical science;  second,  those
things which act upon him, or in any manner affect
his physical existence.
   To the first of these divisions, belongs the due
exercise of all the functions with  ease and regular-
ity ; and in this  consists health.
   To the second belongs the record of all the vari-
ations from due health to intricate and complicated
disease; and  these  diseases  must be investigated
in  their causes, remote, proximate, and  exciting.
The  variations  from health to disease,  in  all its
grades, we will find to be partly  owing to a variety
of conformations, and  combined  action of  habits,
states,  temperaments,  external causes  of various
kinds: as aliments, air, regimen, infections, or acci-
dents of several kinds.
   Third, we must consider the different remedies
for all these maladios,  whether externally applied,
or taken inwardly.  Fourth, the intention for which
we apply them ;  and  fifthly, their modes of opera-
tion.  These constitute  human physics, or what may
be  properly  denominated physianthropy.  In  this
physianthropy, or  improved  theory of medical sci-
ence, you are  presented, in the first place with,
   1st, The philosophy of the human  body ; embra-
cing the due exercise of all its functions  with ease
and regularity.
   2d, The stimuli;  or all things which act upon the
body, so as to produce the variations from health to
disease; either  as remote,  exciting,  or  proximate
causes, in producing disease.
  3d, All the  remedies  for those diseases, whether
internal or external, properly digested and arranged. 
80
  4th, The intention for  which they are  applied, or
end to be accomplished by them.
  5th, And finally, their modes of operation on the
system to be carefully marked and recorded.
  The philosophy of the body, then, is to know it
in its healthy state ; to know all things  which act
upon it to change that-state of health, and the reason
why they do change it. The remedies must be known,
external ■end internal; the intention for which they
are applied ; and the modus operandi recorded.
  This is certainly an improvement;  in so far as it
renders the objects  of study more condensed and
distinct and presents to the mind a more specific ob-
ject  of pursuit   In its  application,  this science
would assay to  begin, where  physicians have  com-
monly left off; and  to build its bulwarks  upon the
experiments and observations of health, of diseases,
and of their remedies upon the  whole practical phe-
nomena ; and from them,  draw the rules  or laws of
the human frame, as it is acted upon by other agents
in nature, as well as mental causes ; and again apply
these rules and laws to practice.
  It was a scheme  of study,  constructed  after this
manner, that Lord Bacon recommended in physics;
and the necessity will appear  to any  one, who will
duly consider  the subject, and contemplate its ex-
tent  and range over and above that conducted in the
schools.
  The history  of medicine, the best of all founda-
tions, together  with a strict attention to  medical
philosopy, would carry the mind forward to high ad-
vancements, and elevate  it to the  perfection of sci-
ence, if that is ever to be attained or hoped for  in
the world.  Dr. Barnwell thus sums up  his  argu-
ment for a change of medical studies:
  " It has been asked, what do  the common school
divisions of medical study, teach us ? The  study
and practice of anatomy can  only be useful in the 
SI
 manual operations of surgery.   Chemistry can only
 prepare us to be the preparers of medicine; or qual-
 ify us to learn the apothecary's art.  But hypothesis
 and speculations have too generally been substituted
 in  place  of science, or theory founded on facts and
 experience ;  and the facts themselves, have not been
 properly digested ; so that their very volume, so vast
 and appalling, accumulating for four thousand years,
 excites despair in the student at the very sight, and de-
 feats their own purpose, by consigning them, general-
 ly, to absolute neglect, like the laws of Draco, which,
 by their very  severity, were rendered a dead letter.
   " Humanity triumphed over law, and refused to ex-
 ecute the dicta of a tyrant.   All  these reasons, to-
 gether with  the assurance that  all the systems of
 medicine  are defective; and that the whole of them,
 though submitted to expurgation, could  not afford  a
 complete  system ;  announces the necessity of  a
 thorough  renovation in medical science.  For if the"
 principles of  the healing art can  be reduced to  sci-
 entific order, it is, undoubtedly, an object of sufficient
 importance to merit the attention  of  the student of
 nature, and the friends and admirers of truth."  And
 it is imagined that this new plan of conducting med-
 ical researches will accomplish this invaluable object.
 And upon this new plan the theorist says, when we
 leave out  the antiquated theories and  useless specu-
 lation, we shall find  the  indispensable and  useful
 parts of the  science  and  practice reduced  to  the
moderate  extent of one course, which, when complet-
ed, will amount to from ninety-six to one hundred
lectures.

        THE NEW PLAN OF STUDY.
                By Dr. Barnwell.
   1. Historical.   The progress and present state of
the principles and practice of the healing art, in va-
rious parts of the world, and at different periods of 
82
time; the doctrine  of the different sects, in medi-
cine ; the causes and consequences of their different
tenets and enthusiasms; the best method of study-
ing, of observing, and improving, and investigating
medical science.
  2. Physianthropy, or  the physical  nature of the
human body, and the manner in which it is effected
by external agents; the properties, principles, and
laws  of human life; the varieties of constitutions
and temperaments ; the  causes, phenomena, and mo-
dus agendi of morbid affections; the genera, spe-
cies, and variety of diseases.
  3.  The modern improved practice  of the various
departments of the healing art, by means of regi-
men, medicinal or surgical applications deduced from
observation, experience  and reason.  The genera of
the disease to be  arranged according to their physi-
cal natures, deduced from their phenomena, symp-
toms and remedies.  The species to be ascertained
by the causes, nature and treatment, appropriated to
them.  The varieties are learned from appearances.
  This is the new  plan, proposed to  be condensed
in one course, and one hundred lectures.  But if all
the objects here proposed could be attained in one
course of one hundred lectures, the human mind it-
self must sustain a revolution.   He  who professes
to be a reformer of the  art of physic, says Dr. Har-
vey, must resolve to run the hazard of  the  martyr-
dom of his reputation, life and estate.
  But in this reform, we can only perceive  distinc-
tions  without differences ; if we except the histori-
cal  introduction,  which is  certainly of the  highest
utility in the study, and  should never  be neglected.
A science must be very imperfectly known,  and un-
satisfactory to an ingenious mind, unless we are ac-
quainted with its rise and progress, and trials, and
variations.  " History, is philosophy teaching by ex-
ample."  And this philosophy, in medical science, is 
83
 not only the best foundation, but the most necessary
 part of the whole study ; for who are  they  that re-
quire examples, as  a light to their path, if medical
 practitioners do not ?
   Physianthropy is  a  very good and comprehensive
 term, derived from  vhusis and anthrops; the nature
 of man or philosophy of human  nature.   But, we
 apprehend, all this is contained under the  divisions
 already reigning in  the schools ; Physiology, Pathol-
 ogy, Therapeutics,  and Anatomy.   For I  am con-
 vinced, that no liberal mind  would be disposed to
 confine the study  of those  subject to the limited
 range, supposed by the writer of the  New Theory,
 but would extend them to the whole phenomena of
 the human economy.
   To push investigations to their utmost boundaries,
or, at least, as far  or rather farther, than  common
sense can follow them, is the predominant disposi-
tion of man.   To stop short in his career of inquiry,
does  not  belong to that aspiring  spirit which fell
from its supremacy  and its happiness, by desiring to
become as God.  And although we are often misled
by this reigning principle, into vain and visionary
speculations, it is, notwithstanding, an irrefragable
proof of the immortality of the soul, of its high ori-
gin and heavenly nature.
   If nothing can rise  above its own level, nor act be-
yond its own limits, why is the soul of man constant-
ly urging him forward beyond  the  limits of sense,
and all material things; impelling him on to the
abode of spirits, to contemplate the nature, the exer-
cise, and the felicity  of assembled millions, which
throng the  heavenly temple,  and  adore before the
throne, day without night, rejoicing.
   There is  no doubt  but medical studies  may be
greatly reduced and simplified, as they have  been,
in the examples and  success of Drs. Brown, Rush
and Thomson.   When nosology is completely ex- 
84
pelled from the science; When hypothesis and spec-
ulations are no more, when antiquated and  useless
theories are  rejected, and a proper digest of facts,
experiments and observations compiled, for the  use
of the students, and principles properly derived there-
from, arranged in scientific order, the number of
courses, and of lectures, may be greatly reduced, and
the time of the student devoted more successfully
to the radical  and important parts of the science;
which Dr. Barnwell comprehends under the healthy,
morbid and curative nature of the vital  actions and
medical history.
  From the whole matter, I presume it is a  just in-
ference,  that  unless disease  can be  reduced to a
unit, as Dr. Rush has  done, that as hunger is re-
moved by one remedy, food, so disease may be re-
moved by one  remedy,  diffusive stimuli; the  science
of medicine, as digested under its  present arrange-
ments, can be  very little improved.   The  highest
human skill and ingenuity have been lavished on it
for four  thousand  years.  The  acute and pene-
trating Greeks ; the studious and profound Romans;
the Europeans, with all the aid of their improved
and advancing science, have devoted the  labour of
ages to correct, to improve, and perfect the system
of medicine.
  But if they should have all failed, and come short
of the high  excellence which they  most ardently
sought to obtain, it  is no reason but  the Deity, in
love to man, may lead an  untutored mind to make
that discovery, which has been concealed from ages.
" By their fruits ye shall know  them;"  an infallible
criterion in medicine, as in morals or  theology.   I
cannot be deceived in the medicine  which removes
my disease.
  The fruits of Thomson's practice  have been  so
abundant, on the most  forbidding soil, and so  well
authenticated, that we are called upon to admit its 
85
 truth and respect its testimony; and it requires the
 aid of strong prejudice to resist its claims on public
 confidence and attention.  Great men are not always
 wise ;  the most simple means  are  often overlooked,
 for the most laboured and complicated; and it would
 be  well  to  give the agency of God a  place in the
 universe, as well as the agency of man.   The kine
pock, a mere accidental discovery, extremely simple,
 and yet  powerful to expel disease, on which all  the
 physicians of the world had spent their skill in vain,
 for twelve centuries ; while it was  carrying off an-
 nually, one in every twelve of the population of the
 globe, and leaving its rude impress  upon nearly one
 half of the survivors.  It  will be easy  for Divine
Providence  to discover a  specific to,  men, for con-
 sumption, for fever, for  plague, for every  pain, as
 for the small  pox; for a more loathsome and  terri-
ble disease could not be found among  all the mala-
dies of man.
  There are herbs, says Dr. Ray, to cure all diseases,
though not known every where.   The Celtic tribes
know the most of them.   They can take  the  pain
out of a  burning at once, and heal it  soon, though
burned to the bone ;  which baffles all the faculty in
large and learned cities.   The Celtic doctors are ap-
plied to by such as use the established practice, when
 given up by it.
  The same writer says, it is a mistake that the ani-
mal spirit resides in the nerves, and not in the blood.
It is self-evident, from the opifex rerum, or maker of
man, that life is the blood; for the  heart and blood
are first formed, and all the other parts, both solid and
 fluid, are nourished from it.   Death makes no alter-
ation on  the nerves, but it makes a  total change in
 the blood.  Though all the nerves are said to be de-
 rived from the brain and  produced by it, yet  the
 nerves are found to  be in proportion to the size of
 the body, and not of the brain ; and they are so  in
             8 
86
monsters where no brain can be discovered.   The
nerves and brain are themselves supplied, repaired,
and nourished by the  blood.   He,  therefore,  con-
siders the blood, and not the nerves, as  the principal
seat of disease, as it is the  vehicle of heat  and life
to the whole  system.    The morbid action of the
blood, the cause of disease, he says, is to be removed
by barley water, pure water, pure air, light food, and
gentle exercise.
             LECTURE VII.

THEORY OF FEVER, ACCORDING TO THE
     MODERN  SYSTEMS OF  MEDICINE.

  Dr. Cullen.  Fever, Pyrexia}, or Febrile diseases.
designate their approach by a general  debility and
languor over the body; cold shivering, increase oi
heat, frequency of pulse, diminution of strength  in
the animal functions.   These are the distinguishing
characteristics. Phenomena: languor, debility, slug-
gishness in motion, face pale and shrunk.   Stages,
three ; cold, hot and sweating.
  The hot stage of fever is so constantly preceded
by a cold stage, that  we  presume  the latter is the
cause of all that follows in the paroxysm of  the dis-
ease.  To discover  the cause of the cold stage oi
fever, we may observe, that it is preceded  by strong
marks of general debility prevailing  in  the  system.
The weakness of the pulse, paleness of the face.
shrinking  of  the whole body,  plainly indicate that
the action of the heart and arteries are extremely
weakened.  There is also a weakness of the energy
of the brain. 
87
   Debility, is the  proximate cause of fever.   The
remote causes  are, contagion, putrid  effluvia  from
sick persons, decayed vegetable or animal substan-
ces, marsh miasmata, state of the  atmosphere,  cold,
fear, grief, strong  passions, or whatever exhausts the
system and produces debility.   There is, therefore,
evidently,  three states, which take  place in fever;
state of debility, state  of cold, state  of heat; and
these follow in  a series  of cause and effect.
   The principle of action, by which the state of de-
bility produces  the cold state, has  not been explain-
ed ; but is referred to the general  law of the animal
economy, or philosophy ; which is, that when nox-
ious powers threaten to hurt or destroy the system,
it immediately  assumes  a repelling attitude to resist
the hostile powers.  This is called the vis medicatrix
nature, in the schools of physic.
   The increased  action of the heart and arteries,
which takes place  in the hot stage, says Dr. Cullen,
has long been considered as an effort of the vis med-
icatrix naturcE  to  repel  the  disease, by physicians ;
and  the  cold stage, also, as  an effort of the  same
power.   In this sedative state, nature is concentrat-
ing her powers to  that formidable resistance against
the enemy, which  she displays in the strong parox-
ysm of  fever; for it has been observed, that the
paroxysm  is always in  proportion to the force of
the  chill.
   This is precisely Thomson's principle ;  that  fever
is a friend, and not an  enemy, but rises  to subdue
the  enemy;  and should, therefore,  be  aided in its
efforts, instead of being broken and destroyed, which
in fact, is to destroy life ; to crush the very efforts of
that vis medicatrix natura, which God, in mercy, has
placed in the human form, to defend man from the
innumerable evils which assail him  in life.  Whether,
therefore, we agree with ancient or modern theories,
with the ancients, who  supposed fever, this unusual 
88
 motion in the blood, to arise from the to arche, to ex-
 pel  morbid matter from  the system, or the impetus
faciens, the anima medica, the vis medicatrix natural,
 or vis insita, of their  successors; all  these moving
 powers, healing powers, spirit of life,  principle of
 life, law of life, vital energy, amount precisely to the
 same thing; the vital action resisting  the encroach-
 ments of disease.  Life is  opposed to death, neces-
 sarily and eternally.    It is a necessity of nature.
 Light and  darkness could as soon unite, as life and
 death.  Whenever there is  life, therefore, there will
 be a resistance to whatever has a tendency to  pro-
 duce death.  It is an essential law of life;  where it
 is not found, life does not exist.
  The dispute  of physicians respecting the proxi-
 mate cause of fever, ought to be  reduced to a single
 point viz. in what part of the material  system  has
 the Deity lodged this  vital  principle, or law of life,
 which causes the fevered action to repel disease ?
 For  wherever life eminently resides,  the action of
 resistance  will first begin.    One  will  answer, the
 blood vessels; another, the nerves; another, the sen-
sorium ; another, the  medulla  of  the  brain,  and
nerves, and spinal  marrow; another, the stomach ;
another, the absorbents; and, finally, some in all
these taken together;  and some in the nerves, blood
vessels, and the  absorbents.  D.  Brown's excitabili-
ty, and Dr. Thomson's heat.
  But where does the vital principle reside ? In the
blood.  In  the blood, we would certainly affirm, if it
can be at all located, or fixed to any part of  the sys-
tem.   But if it is seated in  the blood, its vital ener-
gies  are diffused over the whole system.   Now, that
it is seated in the blood, we  shall assign  the follow-
ing reasons.   1st. The experiments of Dr. Hunter
on the blood.  He found it to resist cold and corrup-
tion by its innate vitality.  2d.  From the phenome-
na of the system.   The blood is recipient  and the 
89
vehicle of light and heat to the whole system; the
nervous  fluid, the censorium, the medulla  of  the
brain, and the nerves, and spinal marrow,  are  all
formed and  supplied  by the  blood; the absorbents
are formed and supplied by the  blood; the stomach
is supplied and formed by the blood in the incipient
stage of existence; for  in the foetus,  the heart and
arteries are first formed ; and from these, the vital
current of the blood supplies  and forms all the other
parts of the  system.   Muscle,  ligament, cartilage,
and bone, are formed  out of the vitality of  this all
pervading fluid.   Now, if the vital  principle be lo-
cated at all, common sense would undoubtedly place
it in  the blood;  in that fluid and its  organs, which
give formation and vitality to  the rest of the system.
   It has  been often  remarked, that the poets are
truer to nature, than the philosophers; yes, than the
sceptical  philosophers and their votaries.    Scepti-
cism generally springs from a cold, insensible heart,
never warmed by a single ray from the eternal sour-
ces of the splendour  of the  Divine  Majesty.  But
the poets have warm  and feeling  hearts; they are
truer to the voice of  nature, and their figures, and
metaphors, and sublime language, are  predicated on
nature, on revelation, and tradition,  derived from
original discoveries of the Divine will.  We there-
fore find in them, animal life  ascribed to the heart
and blood.    "The living current  of the blood;"
"The vital stream;"  "Pouring his life's  blood on
the  yellow sand," said Homer, of his hero;  and
Burns, in his " epistle  to Davy, a brother poet," says,

      " The l\fe blood, streaming through my heart,
      Or my more dear, immortal part,
        Is not more fondly dear."

3d, and finally, in confirmations of philosophers, and
poets, and anatomists,  the most acute, profound  and
penetrating, in confirmation  of  experiments  and of
              8* 
90
facts, in the living process of the animated being,
from the first germ to the finished system ; we shall
add the high authority of the living oracles.  " For
the life is the blood thereof."
  In the law given to Israel, respecting the use of
animal food, they were prohibited from the  use  of
the blood, because it was the life of the animal.  It
has been said, in order to  repel  this application of
the text, that it was on account of the sacred typical
allusion it had  to the Messiah's  sacrifice, that the
Hebrews were forbidden to eat blood.  But this very
exposition  corroborates the argument, that the life
is in  the  blood; for it was a type of the Lamb of
God, slain for the sins of the world.   His life, laid
down, was the atonement for  the soul.   And life,
and  blood,  in Scripture language, are convertible
terms; the  latter  is,  therefore, called the blood of
atonement.   From the first sprinkling of the blood
of the Paschal Lamb, on that awful night of Egypt's
sorrow and despair, through all the sprinkling of the
altar,  the mercy  seat, the cherubim, the books of the
law, and the congregation of the Lord, until£the Son
of God himself,  sprinkled with  his own  blood, the
rocks of Calvary ;  the blood was a standing emblem
of the price of the  soul, and that price was life ; the
life given for its salvation.  Man, by rebellion, had
forfeited his life;  life was  given for his  ransom.
This life was in the blood ; and hence, the high and
hallowed designations, the blood of atonement, the
blood of Jesus  Christ, his Son, cleanseth from all
sin.  The blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better
things than the blood of Abel.
  The inference is  now indubitable, that the anima]
life being in the  blood, the resistance to disease and
death will  be in the blood.   The fever,  therefore,
which is a battle in the blood to resist and repel the
enemy, should be  aided, by every principle  of rea-
son, and argument,  and humanity.  If it be debility. 
91
 remove the debility; if it be morbid excitement re-
 move the morbid  excitement; if it be obstruction
 from cold, remove the obstruction.  The fever which
 is the effect of all  these, or the effort of the vital ac-
 tions to subdue all these, amounts to the same thing,
 when we examine  the principles.  Let the cause be
 removed, and the effect will cease.
   The house, at midnight, reposes in perfect peace.
 The robbers enter; in an instant all is turmoil and
 distraction;  the  clashing of swords, and guns, and
 pistols, and screams, and groans, intermingled.  This
 is an  effect produced in the  quiet mansion, by the
 robbers entering the house ; it is  also an effort and
 a violent effort, of  the inhabitants, to  expel  the  in-
 truders.  Now, what would be thought of the wis-
 dom of a passer-by, on hearing all this hubbub, who
 should enter the house, and utterly regardless of the
 robbers, would employ all  his efforts to arrest the
 master's arm,  and still the cries of his wife and chil-
 dren.   He  certainly would be regarded as insane;
 and  his aid, although he did  not intend it,  was in
 help of the robbers, and against the family.
  The case is clear, the fever begins  in the  blood;
the vital principle is there; it rouses the blood ves-
sels  to extraordinary action.  In the very preceding
chill, it is mustering the clans, rousing all the forces
of vitality, from the sensorium, to the spasms of the
toes and fingers, till every moving power, and  the
whole  system, are  finally  engaged in  the struggle.
This has been  called the spreading  of the disease,
by many physicians ; but it is the united struggle of
nature to resist death.  And you  may  observe  the
melancholy  events of the combat, as she yields  to
the   destroyer ;  the extremities  become  cold and
torpid ; the  eye glazed  and  dim; the pulse low,
stops ;  the struggle gains upon the heart; the breast
heaves with violent respiration; the last throb bursts
on the appalled ear; the battle ends! Life is forever 
92
fled;  and over the hollow  and pale cheek of death,
the king of terrors waves his triumphant banner!
Alas !  alas! that ever this king of terrors should be
aided in his efforts to destroy the  human race, under
the idea of affording them relief!  This is no sug-
gestion of mine, to the prejudice  of the Faculty;
they themselves have accused each other with aiding
the destroyer.  Their books, their lectures, and their
quarrels, all testify to this solemn and serious truth
of the fact of pernicious practice.
  Dr.  Rush accuses Cullen's  nosology, with direc-
ting physicians to prescribe for the names of disea-
ses, instead of their proximate cause ; he accuses
them all, from the archsus  of  Van Helmont  to  the
putrefaction of Cullen.  He himself was condemned,
in turn, for letting out life with his lancet!  In Eng-
land, where people enjoy  very robust health, they
bleed little; sweating is generally  practised to re-
move   disease.   It was here  that  Brown's system
made the most rapid progress,  because it fell in with
the common  sense  of the people ;  of what they
themselves had felt and practised.  And all medical
prescriptions should be at  once submitted, in their
composition, intention, and  operation, as far as these
are known, to the common sense of the people.  Of
all  professions, Medicine  and Religion should be
disrobed of the very shadow of disguise.   Those
systems, which have for their objects the health and
life of the  body and the soul, should  be above all
mystery and finesse; they  should stand open, and
naked, and bare, before the judgment of the people,
resting on their own evidence, and merits, and benefi-
cent results.   The lawyer may invent his writs and
briefs,  not to  enlighten, but to darken and conceal
his  profession from vulgar eyes; but it is the course
and glory of truth, to lie open to the day.  There is
a face  of dishonesty and  suspicion stamped  on the
very front of concealment from which the  ingenu- 
93
ous spirit turns away with loathing and disgust  And
whenever the earth shall have been purged from the
folly and her heathenism, the science, and the doc-
trines, and the deeds of darkness, from the mysteries
of Eleusis, to the abduction of Morgan, shall be swept
from the page of the book of nature.   Light, heav-
enly light, shall beam on  all the professions,  and
principles, and institutions of men; for there shall
be nothing wrong; nothing that shall  seek to hide
deformity  in  darkness, nor to borrow  consequence
from the garb of concealment.
   It is really piteous, in the advancement of science,
and improvements  of mind, to behold professors of
medicine sticking to scholastic forms and disguises,
in issuing their prescriptions.  Why not adhere to
the Hebrew, or the Coptic, or the Greek languages,
in writing prescriptions, the languages in which med-
icine was  first written, as well as still  cleave to the
Latin; it is a language as  dead to the mass of the
people,  and the boys of the apothecaries, as  any of
the others.  And to wrap up any part of knowledge
in a  dead  or foreign language, to excite admiration
or gain  consequence, is  worse  than vain, it is  per-
nicious.  I know a knowledge of language enlarges
critical acumen,  and expands the power of thought;
it opens the sources of ideas, and unfolds, as it were,
the operations and  springs  of intellect.  The study
is, therefore, by  no  means  to be  despised nor neg-
lected ; but as the  great sum of the people cannot
be linguists, why should those things which concern
their life and happiness, be concealed from  them by
a dead language ?
  It  was but very lately, that the lecturer on The-
ology, in Cambridge College, England, gave his in-
structions in  English;  and  the reasons which he
assigns, for deviating from the accustomed mode of
giving them in  Latin, are,  that the common people
may be benefitted by  their perusal; aa well as the 
94
Clergy! for he  wished all to be acquainted with a
system, which  concerns their everlasting hope.—
And why should  not a patient be  benefitted by  the
perusal of the nature and operation of the medicine
which  he is about to swallow—which concerns  his
own life, and the happiness of his friends and fam-
ily ?
  In the  treatment  of fever, Dr.  Rush endeavored
to equalize the system by drawing the blood from
the interior, to relieve the engorged vessels, and ex-
cite  action on the surface.  This  is to be done, ac-
cording to the  principles of Dr.  Brown,  by redu-
cing, or  increasing, excitement,  according to  the
high or low state of the body.  Dr.  Chapman's ob-
ject, in the cure  of  fever, is directed to the state of
the stomach, as that, he says, is the great medium
for acting on  the  whole body.   Dr.  Ewell  says,
"candor  induces me to state  the  fact that it is  ve-
ry doubtful whether the mode of  treating fever he
at all improved since the days of Hippocrates.  Not-
withstanding the great  varieties  of theory on  the
subject, the practice has been pretty much the same
in all  ages."   "If inflammatory, evacuate ;  if low,
stimulate;" this seems  to be a reigning feature of
medical  science.   Almost all  the  labors of  the
schools, and  ingenuity  and industry of professors,
have been expended on the inventions and discus-
sions of theories ; thus, theory succeeded to theory;
invention  to  invention; systems rose, and flourish-
ed, and fell; but the condition of the sick was  per-
manent.   The cures that ought  to have relieved,
but  did  not  relieve them,  remained the same  for
three thousand years ;  they were  as  fixed and  per-
manent as the  foundations of the  everlasting hills.
Although they discovered their medicines to be in-
effectual, or pernicious, they were  still neglected,
for the delightful labor of building new theories.—
The  wrankle  for  distinction, in  hypothetical  in- 
                      95

genuity,  absorbed the efforts of humanity, in  revis-
ing the Materia Medica, or relieving the sick.  To
find a safe and simple method of curing the patient,
has been left to the direction of chance.  " If there
be, says  Dr. Ewell, an improvement  in the  treat-
ment of common fever, I think  it is  in the  use of
antimonial  medicines."    "Their operation  is not
understood, he says, but they tend to lessen diseased
action in the blood vessels."
   " What unaccountable perversity is in our frames,
says Dr. Harvey, that we set ourselves so much
against every thing new?   Can any one behold,
without scorn, such drones of physicians, that after
the space  of so  many hundred years experience
and  practice of their  predecessors, not one single
medicine has been detected that has the least force,
directly,  to prevent, to oppose, and^expel a contin-
ued  fever!  And should any one, by a more sedul-
ous observation, make the least step towards the
discovery of such remedies,  their  hatred and  envy
would swell against him like a legion of devils."
  Systems  may be labored ad infinitum, and practice
diminished  in  the same  proportion.    The schools
were  never busier, than in  the days of Thomas
Aquinus ; and perhaps, practical piety was never at a
lower ebb.   To seek distinction by splendid writing,
is  one thing; and to  become famous  by practical
utility, is quite another.
  It was the defects of medical practice in his own
family, which led Thomson to infer that their treat-
ment  of  fever was wrong.   Their  theories he did
not understand; but he saw the effects of their med-
icines ; and affection,  necessity, and hope, led  him
to the discoveries, and forced him into that illustrious
career, which Providence seems  to  have  smiled
upon, with great and peculiar favor.  And if the re-
sults of this new practice, proceed as they have be-
gun, there  is no doubt but they will t produce a com- 
96
plete revolution in the entire policy and practice of
the medical world.
  Dr. Rush divides fevers into two kinds; original
and symptomatic.  The latter arises from local affec-
tion, as wounds, bruises, inflammation of particular
parts, as the lungs, bowels, kidneys, &c.
  Original fevers, he divides into three states:  1st,
high inflammatory; 2d, intermediate ; and, 3d,  low
malignant states.  He also  enumerates  thirty-five
causes of fever;  they all occasionally change their
type, from the highest to the  lowest  grade.   One
fever will  assume all the varieties, from the highest
inflammatory to the lowest typhus;  and it is some-
times doubtful how to fix upon the true symptoms, as
they are often fallacious!
  So extravagant  are the sentiments of the  physi-
cians respecting fever, the Dr. Cullen,  one  of the
most respectable, says, every time we feed, or take
nourishment, we have fever more or less! because
we  expectorate, or raise  mucus  from the  lungs?
Food communicates heat to the system; and  there-
fore, because it, like all the aliment of life, will act
with more force on the organs, which may chance to
be debilitated or diseased; it is therefore, presumed
it must be fever,  or disease !
  The  very superior mind of Rush becomes often
entangled  with the complex theories of former days.
In enumerating the symptoms of disease, how strong
is the power of habit! Notwithstanding the improved
simplicity in theory and practice, so strongly recom-
mended by Dr.  Rush, one cannot but observe him,
at times, plunging and floundering in the clouds and
darkness of nosology !  But  from the open, ingen-
uous, and discriminating cast of his mind, it is very
certain,  had he lived, that  he would have advanced
and improved Thomson's system, by all the energies
of an intrepid and disciplined intellect.  The little
time he had to converse with Thomson, or review his 
97
system, seeni3 to have made a very favorable impres-
sion on his mind.   He intended a complete examin-
ation ;  but death defeated his  purpose, and robbed
society of one of the brightest ornaments of charity
and humanity, that ever adorned this region of the
globe.  His fame, as a professor, was great;  but that
fame which shall shine on the imperishable pages of
the book  of life—his efforts in the cause of humanity
—shall shine  when the heavens are no more.
  Dr.  Rush directed S. Thomson to  Dr. Barton  as
he  was the professor of Botany, and observed, that
whatever Dr. Barton would agree to, he would give
his  consent.  Dr.  Barton advised Thomson to place
his  medicines in the hands of some celebrated doc-
tors, and  let them  try the medicine, and give  to the   *
public  such statements as they should deem correct.
He left some with Dr. Barton for an experiment;
but the sudden deaths of both these eminent men,
(Drs. Rush and Barton,) defeated his purpose  in his
trial.   But it is still to be hoped, that some conspicu-
ous leader in the medical ranks, may give Thomson's
system a  fair  trial,  and oblige the world with results.
And humanity, science, and common sense, are all
united  in one  interest, to promote this object, to sat-
isfy society, and silence clamorous tongues.
  The  high moral character of  New England has
not saved her from the crime  of persecution,  from
the history of the Salem witchcraft, to the trials and
persecution of Samuel Thomson. A scene of per-
secution  and infamy, combined in his imprisonment
and trial, and the perjury  of witnesses, which would
have disgraced the Inquisition of Spain.   What then,
must belhe stigma, the indelible brand,  left on the
face of a  free  and independent nation ?
  God  has  made the poor of this world rich in faith.
And if he has made some of the poor rich in mak-
ing discoveries which the wise have not made, shall
the courts of justice, and the forms of law, he screwed
             9 
98
up to the stern aspect, and bloody purpose of tyrants
and persecutors, to overwhelm them with darkness,
and sink them in oblivion ?  There is a spirit abroad
among the people, that will defeat all the efforts  of
petty tyranny, and the rancour of malicious slander!
Who  would not rather be Samuel Thomson, in his
vile and loathsome dungeon, than Dr. French, fly-
ing from town  to town,  after his deeds of sin, with
eternal infamy in his  wings ?
           LECTURE  VIII.

            FEVER, CONTINUED.

  In tracing the progress of fever in its direful and
disastrous course,  we are  compelled to regard a
remedy, at once safe and powerful to still its raging,
as one of the most signal benefits which the Deity
has conferred on man.  When we cast our eye over
the map of human misery, and  mark the monuments
of the destroyer—the scenes of battle and devasta-
tion, spread out  over all the nations of the world,
where he has marched with death and fever inscrib-
ed on his  bloody banners ; and behold the same de-
fence to resist his power, and to baffle his malignity;
we  may exclaim with the poet—

       " For thou, ten thousand, thousand years,
        Hast seen the gush of human tears,
           Which shall no longer flow."

  The tears that have bedewed the earth, were we
to calculate  their sum, poured  out for the dead that
have fallen  by this one disease  called fever,  they
would  form an ocean that  might swim the  living! 
99
Were  the  cold  and ghastly forms  of the victims
that have sunk into the silence of everlasting sleep,
by  this one disease, since the history of the son of
the Shumamite to the present  time, collected  into
one monument, they would form  a mountain  that
would astonish heaven, and terrify the earth!  What
heart has not bled over a beloved friend ? over chil-
dren dearer than their own soul ? over the wife or
husband of their youth ?  And how many have seen
all their earthly comforts wither under the sweep-
ing siroc  of this pervading and desolating storm ?
Yes!  from the first thrill of the agitated  nerve,
the stinging pain,  the  hot and heaving breast, to
" the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and the
destruction that wasteth openly at noon day;" the
human race, smitten in all its members, consumed
in  every limb,  has sunk to the  house of silence,  in
multitudes innumerable, under  the single  pressure
of this destructive power.  Look  at the East and
West, the silent cities, the untrodden streets, the
dismal, dark array of travellers on the path of death
—and  ask, who hath done all this ?  what  enemy
hath been  here ?  Echo, from  her thousand  caves,
would  ring out her response, fever! fever 1 fever!
This  is the  disease which, to  break, to baffle,  to
conquer, or subdue, the learned Colleges of  Physi-
cians  have tried  all their  efforts, and spent their
skill in vain.   It must run its course, is the common
sentiment; if one mode of treatment fails, we must
try another, and another, till the exhausted imagin-
ation,  the  worn out sources of the materia medica,
and the dying patient arrest the hand of the  experi-
menter, (and I might have  said, tormentor,) or nature
triumphs equally over medicine  and disease.
   "The practice of medicine is, perhaps, the only in-
stance in  which a man can profit by his blunders and
mistakes.  The very medicines which aggravate and
protract  the malady, bind a laurel  on the professor's 
100
 brow; when, at last, the sick is saved by the living
 powers of nature struggling against death and the
 physician.   He receives all the credit of a miraculous
 cure ; he is lauded to  the skies, for delivering the
 sick from a detail of the most deadly symptoms of
 misery, into which  he himself had plunged them;
 and out of which they never would have arisen, but
 by  the recuberating efforts  of that living power,
 which, at once, triumphed  over poison, and disease,
 and death."
  The causes which have conspired to cover with
 uncertainty the treatment  of fever,  and to arm the
 members  of the  faculty often against each other,
 are numerous  and  important.   A  brief detail  will
 unfold the many  causes of error, and the fatal  con-
 sequences  which often result from  the  established
 practice.
  1st   Fevers are said to be of two kinds; genera]
 and local.   Local, from partial injuries or diseased
 parts ; general, from an affection of the whole system,
 or morbid action of all the vital powers.
  2d. There are three stages of fever ; the cold, the
 hot and the sweating stages.
  3d.  There are three states of fever; the state of
 debility, the state of cold and the state of heat.
  4th. Causes of fevers are enumerated at thirty-nine
 and upwards.
  5th. The forms of fever  are, 1st, plague or pesti-
lence ; 2d,  malignant or yellow bilious fever ; 3d, in-
flammatory bilious, or remittant fever ; 4th, intermit-
tent fever.
  6th. The intermittent fevers, or agues,  are, divided
into, 1st, the quotidian, or daily fever—having an in-
 termission  of twenty-four hours; 2d, the tertian, or
third day fever—having an intermission of forty-eight
hours ; 3d,  the quartan, or fourth day fever—having
an intermission of seventy-two hours.
  Now, when  to all these  we  add  the following
sources of mistake and uncertainty, it is not wonder" 
101
 ful  that more patients  are killed  than cured by  the
 established  modes of practice ; and that the incom-
  rehensible  theories, and pernicious  consequences,
  ave  been felt,  confessed, and lamented, by every
 candid mind, from Hippocrates to Stahl.  These we
 shall now enumerate.
   1st.  The  symptoms  of fever are  mistaken; and
 one disease, or stage,  or state, or  class, is treated
 for  another; and the physician declare, the  symp-
 toms,  are often so  blended, complex,  and Protei
 formed and  fashioned,  that it is impossible to com-
 prehend them.  This is one source of uncertainty in
 practice.
   2d.  Nosology,  or the mournful and dreary list of
 the  names of thirteen hundred and eighty-seven dis-
 eases, besides the new diseases, so difficult to be un-
 derstood, to  be remembered, or distinguished, is an-
 other source of uncertainty in practice.
   3d.  Theories constructed on false principles mis-
 lead the  physician,  and  direct him  to  the. use of
 wrong medicines ; for false theories will  make false
 practice.  These  are the causes of the  uncertainty
 of practice.
  4th.  Error in judgment, from misapprehending the
 remote, the exciting, or the proximate cause of dis-
 ease, destroys the certainty of practice,  and brings
 death to the patient.
  5th.  Medicines  used  in the cure of fever, of the
most dangerous  nature—poisons of the rankest dye
and  most fatal tendency—are often the causes  of
sudden death, and destroy, or ought to  destroy, all
confidence in the established practice.   It is, in truth,
like running the gauntlet amongst "armed  Indians, or
red hot plough shares, to escape from the poisons of
medical practice.
  From all these causes, and many more  that rxtight
be assigned; such as the recipes  being  concealed
in a dead  language ;  the mifltalcen in filling them up ;
 
102
one substance mistaken for another; attendance of
boye,  and persons  unskilled in the apothecaries'
shops, when rankest poisons are distributed as med-
icines ;  all these causes have filled the whole  his-
tory of medical  practice with dismay, uncertainty
and death.
  " Mr. Barry, a  respectable citizen of Boston, dur-
ing the course  of the last summer, applied to an
apothecary for a  dose of cream of tartar; in place of
which  he received tartar emetic; he had no sooner
taken a small portion of it, then he was thrown  into
the most violent puking and  spasms.  A  physician
was immediately sent  for, who administered  fifteen
grains of white vitriol.   Death soon followed.  Query
—Which  killed the man—the tartar emetic  or the
white vitriol ?"
  Now, the great superiority and certainty of Thom-
son's system, consist in the simplicity of his practice,
and the safe and  certain operation of his remedy.
And, although Thomson seems to have been utterly
unconscious of the hazards and difficulties  of the es-
tablished practice—yet, when these  were brought to
light, they served to confirm him in the value  and
universality of his discoveries, because, if all the wis-
dom of the schools, and genius, and ingenuity, of prac-
titioners, had been baffled and confounded, through
the lapse of four thousand years, it was evident that
the discovery of a universal remedy for fever, must be
found in another department than that of the establish-
ed science!  And in that department Thomson rose
to eminence, and received " his degree from the hand
of nature."  In that great  laboratory of medical sci-
ence, where nature makes our food and fashions our
medicines, Thomson spent thirty years of his  life.
A quack is one, who, in unblushing ignorance, palms'
his  detestable and deadly nostrums  upon the public
of which he  knows nothing!  Thompson laid  before
the puhlic, without a shadow of concealment}  reme- 
                      103

dies,  the healing virtues of which he had tested by
a  practice of thirty years; and with invariable and
indisputable  success, a success, which, had I not
seen, I should have deemed impossible.  But some
of the most  learned  of the faculty, who  have at-
tended to the effects of this new practice, have given
their  decided testimony to its power and its efficacy.
   Prejudices, rank and strong, as might have been
expected,  have prevented the popularity of a " safe
and simple method of cure," which  bids fair, were
it universally introduced, to banish diseases and un-
timely death  from the nations of the world ; to intro-
duce  the dawn of that redeeming day, when sickness
shall  not be  seated in the constitution to emaciate
the body and prostrate the  mind; but shall be  met
and expelled at its very entrance, by a remedy, that
shall  neither entail debility, nor chronic maladies,
on the patient.
   A ray of this new  light seems to  have broken in
on the  mind  of Cullen ; for Dr. Rush ascribes to
him, the first principle of his own theory, and that of
Dr. Brown—that " Life is a forced state."  This
principle was detailed by Dr. Cullen, in his lectures,
in the year 1766—" that man was not an automaton,
or self-moving machine ; but is kept alive and in mo-
tion, by the action of stimuli."
   This seems to be the principle on which they all
three  acted,  to restore  the  nervous  energy, to re-
move  the debility, to equalize the system ; and Thom-
son, to raise  the fountain and diminish the  stream.
The principle was simple and unique—but the med-
icine  was very different.   Dr. Rush says, there is
one disease;  and morbid excitement  in the blood, is
its proximate cause.  Dr.  Thomson says,  there is
one disease, and one  general remedy ; and obstruc-
tion is the  disease, and cold is the proximate cause.
   1st.  Now  this seems  to be  the advantage in
Thomson's practice.  He  directs his attention, not 
104
 to  eradicate the fever, but to remove the cause of
 obstruction,  and restore the action of the digestive
 organs.   The fever  is regarded  as a  friend,  and
 treated as a friend, by raising the internal heat to re-
 move  the obstruction,  which caused the fever—or
 disturbed action of heat.
   2d.  The medicine and mode of practice of Thom-
 son, is far superior to that  in use among the physi-
 cians ; as has been demonstrated,  by its effects in
 curing disease, when all their art had failed ; not in
 one, or a few cases, but in many of the most protract-
 ed and complicated distempers, given over as incur-
 able by the faculty.
  3d.  To enumerate its pre-eminence in restoring
 health to  the system, we might, 1st, name its pow-
 er in removing  obstructions ;  2d, in expelling virus
 from the blood; 3d, in throwing off morbific matter
 from the surface of the body ; so  that the perspira-
 tion has deeply dyed and stained a clean towel, with
 its taint;  4th, and in restoring and  renovating all
 the vital actions  and powers of the body; so as to
 give tone to the stomach and digestive organs; 5th,
 and finally, in removing  pain, promoting calm sleep,
 in raising the animal spirits, spreading hilarity and
 cheerfulness  over the mind, without leaving a taint
 in the constitution, or the sting  of slow disease  be-
 hind.   It by  far surpasses, in innumerable trials all
 other  medicines or modes  of  practice, which have
 buen heretofore  discovered, or brought into opera-
tion ; and promises fair  to  reduce  the  mysteries of
the healing art to a very simple process ; conducted
 in every family,  and prepared and administered by
 the same hands  which prepare  and administer our
 food!   They  grow in the same field, may be pluck-
ed by the same  hand, and  medicated by the same
skill, which furnishes our daily  bread.  I have the
authority of the celebrated Rush, to support this
sentiment 
105
   " The  essential principles of medicine are, very
 few ; they are moreover plain.  All the morbid  ef-
 fects of heat and cold, of eating and drinking, and
 the exercises of the body and mind, may be taught
 with as much ease as  the multiplication table.  In
 support of this truth, let us look at the effects of the
 simplicity of the art of war, introduced into Europe ;
 a few obvious principles have  supplied the place of
 volumes  on tactics. Private  citizens have become
 great  generals;  peasants, irresistible soldiers, in a
 few  weeks,  even   superior  to their  predecessors,
 after  the instructions  and  exercise  of  fifteen  or
 twenty years.
   Let us strip our profession of every thing that looks
 like mystery and  imposition,  and  clothe  medical
 knowledge in a dross so simple and intelligible, that
 it may become a part of academical education in  all
 our seminaries of learning."  " Truth is simple upon
 all subjects; and upon those essential to the general
 happiness of mankind,  it is obvious  to the  meanest
 capacities.  There is no man so  simple that cannot
 be taught to cultivate grain; and there is no woman,
 who cannot be taught to make it into bread.  And
 shall the means of preserving our health, by the cul-
 ture and preparation of aliment, be so intelligible,
 and yet, the means  of restoring it when lost, so ab-
 struse, that we must take years to study, to discover
 and apply them ? to suppose  this, is to call in ques-
 tion the goodness of the Deity ;  and to believe that
 he acts  without system and unity  in his works."
 "In thus recommending the general diffusion of med-
 ical knowledge," by an  academical  education, let
 it not be supposed, that I wish to see the exercise
 of medicine abolished, as a regular profession.  Sur-
 gical operations, and diseases which  rarely occur,
 may require professional aid; but the knowledge ne-
 cessary for those purposes,  is soon  acquired; and
two or three persons, separated from  other pursuits, 
106
would  be sufficient to meet the demands of a city
consisting of forty thousand people."
  If this seems astonishing to any, let them remem-
ber the effects and  discovery  of vaccination, and
cease to wonder if the Deity by means the most in-
considerable, should accomplish what had baffled the
skill and research of all the philosophers of the world.
  Thomson was born  for the fame he has acquired ;
and necessary, dire  necessity, forced him into  the
niche of the Temple of Nature, where he  now stands.
His narrative is not to be forgotten, nor passed with-
out the painful feeling of this additional evidence of
the perversity of our nature, and selfishness  of  our
lives.   If this were to be  our everlasting home, we
could not display a more  determined disposition to
establish our claims, right or wrong, and defeat those
of our neighbors, be they ever so well founded.
  Dr.  Thomson reasons, if disease be an enemy to
life, in every form , and  medicine  a friend in all—it
must then, be  an universal remedy ; for the sum  is
but the amount of the particulars; and the particulars,
the items  of the sum ;  as  genuine food removes
hunger of every degree, so  genuine medicine, dis-
ease of every type.  It  is not  necessary, therefore,
to be changing the dose any more than  it is neces-
sary to be changing the  food, to remove  the  malady
in the one case, or hunger in the other.
  Now as the healing power of nature  in resisting
disease, confessed by  all physicians, seems to be ef-
fectually aided by Thomson's practice, he must have
discovered the right practice—the true mode of cur-
ing disease.   And that  he has so discovered it, we
thus judge—his practice suddenly expels the  disease
—has  an effect  the most salutary on the whole sys-
tem—invigorates and  renews the powers of nature ;
and leaves—" not a wreck behind."
  Dr.  Hillary in his secret of curing diseases by
adopting a better system of medicine, says, " that by 
107
accurately observing all the motions, endeavors, and
indications of nature, to carry off and cure diseases ;
and by observing by what critical evacuation she does
at last cast off the morbid matter which caused them,
and so restores health ; we may, by the same method
of reasoning know both the methods and the means
we  should use  to assist nature in producing those
salutary effects ; if we  avoid all hypothetical reason-
ing,  and by thus observing,  following and assisting
nature, agreeably  to her indications, our practice
will always be more satisfactory, and successful.
  For the human body is so wisely and wonderfully
formed that whenever any noxious matter is got into
it that would  be injurious or destructive, we may ob-
serve, it always so irritates, stimulates and offends
nature, that she always exerts  her power, or the vis
vital, to throw it off.  And she acts with great regu-
larity, order, and uniformity, in her endeavors to ex-
pel  the offending  matter out  of the body; and  by
carrying off the disease, restore health and preserve
life.
  And thus,  by  observing, investigating, and  truly
knowing the  diseases  and their causes, and justly
reasoning  therefrom, we shall know  when to assist
nature according to her indications ; and in this is
contained  the chief part of medical knowledge, and
the  true scientific principles  of the medical  art.
And  when we shall thus have learned of nature, by
observing  her laws and indications, we may reason-
ably hope  to render the theory and practice of physic
beneficial  to mankind."
  How just is this mode of reasoning; and how much
does  it resemble  the process and  workings  of Dr.
Thomson's mind in that straining effort,  without the
aid of book or friend, to penetrate  the secret work-
ings of nature ; to observe how she moved in health,
and  in disease; what  were the reasons  and  results
of her diseased action ; how could she be aided, or 
108
befriended; could a hand be lent her in the struggle,
or must she triumph or sink alone !   These, and ten
thousand  other  questions, such as these, must he
have  asked himself, while he looked mournfully on
the approaching tremors of the final hour! I think I
see him in the deep solitudes  of the  trackless de-
sert, interrogating nature thus:  " Is there no remedy,
po healing balm, in all thy boundless stores, to  save
thy dying children ?  No powerful antidote to defend
the human race from untimely death, or  protracted
misery ?"  He was  answered yes, for " there is  a
voice in stones, speech in trees, and sense in every
thing."   He received his answer, and  his science,
and his diploma, and his medicine ;  Heaven sent him
forth  to work; fortified his mind,  girt up his loins,
and cleared his way !  And it is but just to add, that
the smile of approving Heaven has most evidently
blessed and accompanied his  practice.  A revolution
in medical practice is nigh at hand.  His plan is sim-
ple, as Nature herself is simple in her operations.
There is no time spent in looking after names, symp-
toms, theories, causes and indications ; the name is
out, the cause out, the indication out, and the remedy
out; and  in a few hours, with  the  help of Heaven,
the patient is relieved, restored, requires food, re-
covers strength, sleeps, and rises, and returns to the
business  of  life.  These remarks  may offend  the
prejudiced or stumble  the incredulous ;  but facts,
plain  and evident, will support the mind in its  ad-
herence  and its testimony, notwithstanding the  op-
position of the world.  The thrill of joy, on behold-
ing a single  friend saved, will more than repay us
for  all the  ridicule  of this fleeting world.  Lord
Bacon declares that the only cause of death, which is
natural to man, is that from old age. And he com-
plains of the imperfection of physic, in not being able
to guard the principle of life,  until  the whole  of the
oil that feeds it be consumed. 
109
   Dr.  Rush  remarks—" I am here insensibly led to
make  an  apology, for the instability of the theories
and practice of physic:   And those physicians gen-
erally  become the most eminent, who have the soon-
est emancipated themselves from the tyranny of the
schools of physic."
   " Our want of success, continues the same writer,
is occasioned by the following causes ; 1st, our igno-
rance of the disease ;  2d, our ignorance of a suitable
remedy;  3d,  want of efficacy in the remedy."—
[See his works, page  79.]
   " Dissections daily convince us of our ignorance
of the  seats of disease, and cause us to blush at our
prescriptions."  "What mischief have  we  done,
under  the belief  of false facts and false  theories !
We have  assisted in  multiplying diseases; we have
done more—we have  increased their mortality."
   " I will pause to beg pardon of the faculty, for ac-
knowledging in this public  manner, the weakness of
our profession. I am  pursuing truth, and am indiffer-
ent whither I am led,  if she only is my leader."
   How noble was the sentiment! but it was congen-
ial to the magnanimous soul of the great and vener-
able professor:  And how well was he qualified, by
sentiment as  well  as education, to  appreciate the
labors  and discoveries of Dr. Thomson, to seize on
his unity of disease as kindred to his own ; another
testimony  to the practical application of his own doc-
trine,  and the guidance of that truth  which  he so
ardently admired.  That two such men, the one the
pupil of nature, and  the other the disciple  of the
schools, should be both led, by reasonings from very
different data, to  the  same  conclusion, is both curi-
ous and important.   It shows us that they were both
close observers of nature ; that they had penetrated
far beyond the surface and appearances of things;
that they  had regarded the complicated maze of
names  and symptoms of disease, as the chief founda-
tion of all  the  error and uncertainty in practice.
             10 
LECTURE  IX.
           ON  MEDICAU  POISONS.

   It would seem a solecism in language, the bare
 combination  of these  terms; but such  is the fact,
 poisons, the most violent and destructive, have been
 denominated and accounted, the most powerful and
 valuable medicines!
   It is said to be a power of the living principle, to
 assimilate, all foreign  substance to its own  nature.
 One might suppose, that the physicians  have strong
 reliance on this principle, when they make so liberal
 a use of poison for the cure of disease.  The assim-
 ilation, however, often fails; the hostility is too potent
 to be  overcome, and  life  expires in  the  struggle ;
 the process, notwithstanding, goes on ; and  poisons
 are still  exhibited in the cure  of disease, and are
 likely  to continue,  unless  some men, conspicuous
 for their wealth and influence,  shall  unite for their
 proscription; for so inveterate is the passion  for the
 use of mercury in medica] practice, that it has passed
 into a  proverb, " deprive a physician of his mercury
 and his lancet, and he is like a lion without  claws."
  It has been remarked by many acute writers, that
 as the  science of medicine  became technical,  theo-
 retic, and complex, simple remedies  were rejected,
 and combined and complicated medicines supplied
 their place; and these  were so compounded and dis-
 guised, to render the practice  mysterious, that the
 patient could never  tell  which article of the com-
 pound relieved him;  or what it was that relieved him
 at all.  If the medicine failed in its effects,  or was
injurious, the whole was ascribed to the disease, not 
Ill
to the remedy.  A bad habit of body ;  virulent state
of the blood; obstinate case;  Protei symptomatic
developments ; unknown type ;  unusual  symptoms ;
have all been assigned as  the cause of  failure; in-
stead of ascribing it to the poison which was exas-
perating the system  and arousing every power of
life against the outrage.
  " There is," says  Dr. Thomson, for  even he is
sometimes sublime, " there is a power beyond  the
reach of art, and there are gifts which study  and
learning  can never rival."   He seems to have  pos-
sessed those gifts and power, and to have employed
them with great and  uncommon success.  His mode
of theorising leads to this conclusion:  He perceived
that in food  and drink, nothing was good but what
was congenial to  nature, and in harmony  with  the
laws of life  and health.  From  these  principles, so
obvious and  well established, he  drew the inference,
that medicine, designed to restore health and remove
disease, must be in harmony with the laws of health
and animal life ;  and  opposed to disease, hostile to
every thing  noxious to the living powers of nature.
In this mode of reasoning  he was confirmed, by a
painful experience of medical practice  in  his own
family.   He found the physicians had not success;
and he discovered  their medicines to be poisonous,
and  the  reverse of  nature;  an aggression of  her
power, and violation  of her laws.  He had carefully
observed  nature's mode of curing disease, or  the
practice of the vis medicatrix natures, as  the school-
men would say, and he conceived, the  whole secret
of  curing  diseases  consisted in aiding the efforts
and operations of nature, by administering medicine
which was in conformity with her laws.
  For so curiously and wonderfully  are we made,
that whenever we are assailed by any noxious pow-
er ; the  system  immediately assumes a new,  and
generally a violent, form of action  to resist, and to 
112
overcome  it  Her operations  in  supplying flesh,
ligament, and bone, when these have been injured,
or removed from the body, have been the admiration
and  astonishment  of the students  and  lovers  of
nature in every period of the world.
  The skill and  power of nature to  prevent defor-
mity, or injury, in filling up and supplying the  de-
fects of any part of the system, is, indeed, so  mi-
raculous, that both in ancient and  modern days, it
has been ascribed to  the agency of  a  percipient, a
conscious, and intelligent power.
  Thomson pursued his system; which was to  ob-
serve nature in her efforts to  cure disease; to aid
her, by remedies in harmony with her laws ; to sup-
port her when ready to perish ; and to allay her fury,
when roused to excessive action.   For the latter,
his nervine is incomparable, and for the former, Nos.
2, 3 and 6, or 4, 5 and 6, will be found a  safe and
salutary remedy
  The mineral poisons, used as  remedies  so exces-
sively and  universally, seem  still to advance, until
they have become as common at the bed side of the
patient, as food on the table of the healthy.  This
state of things has long progressed with accumula-
ting power, and the most disastrous  and ruinous
consequences.  The  time, however, is nigh at hand,
when poisonous remedies shall be hunted from med-
ical  practice.   Great and wise and  noble men, in
every quarter of the globe, are opening their eyes
to this wide  spreading  havoc  and  devastation,  and
raising their voices like  a trumpet, to withstand  and
overwhelm it.
  The Medical Colleges of Paris, and London,  and
Edinburgh, are taking the lead in the great work of
regenerating the medical world;  in arresting  the
practice of poisoning the human system, and send-
ing millions  unwept, unpitied, unannealed, to peo-
ple the realms  of the King of Terrors.   Our own 
113
country has raised her warning voice ;  the great and
good Dr. Rush opened the cry, and it now resounds
from the  University of Massachusetts, to the wilds
of the West.  " I am sick," says the celebrated Dr.
Waterhouse, Professor of Materia Medica in the
University  of Cambridge; "I  am  sick of learned
quackery!" And he adds, "The flora of North Amer-
ica is  astonishingly rich in remedies.  There is no
doubt  in my mind, that in more  diseases than is
generally acknowledged, vegetable simples are the
preferable remedies.  Who knows but in time, these
native  productions  of the field and forest, will so
enlarge and confirm their dominion, as to supersede
the employment  of other medicines."  The dawn
has broke upon us, and bright day shall go forth and
shine; when  we may hope to live with the dear
objects of our love, until ripe and full of years,  we
shall be gathered to our fathers.
   Dr. James Hamilton, Fellow of the Royal College
of Physicians,  and Professor  of Midwifery  in the
University of Edinburgh, says; "Among the  nume-
rous poisons which have been used for the cure or
alleviation of diseases ; there are few which possess
more active, and of course more dangerous, powers,
than mercury.  Practitioners prescribe,  on every
trifling occasion, calomel or the blue pill:  thus, calo-
omel is now almost the universal opening  medicine,
recommended for infants and children; and a course
of the blue pill, is advised, without any discrimina-
tion, for the cure of trifling irregularities of diges-
tion in grown persons."
   Dr.  Falconer, of Bath, in a paper inserted  in the
Transactions  of the  Medical  Society  of London,
May, 1809,  has reprobated the  dangerous practice
of giving mercury on  every trifling occasion; and
his warning voice has been re-echoed from the Med-
ical College of Paris.
             10* 
114
   "Preparations of Mercury, exhibited for any length
 of time," says Dr. Falconer, " whether internally or
 externally, increase  the general action  of the  heart
 and arteries, produce salivation, followed by emacia-
 tion and debiity, with an extremely irritable state of
 the whole system."
   " The effects of mercury are expressly mentioned.
 or virtually admitted, by every  author, ancient and
 modern, who has directed its  use ; and  it must  ap-
 pear extraordinary that their  full influence should
 have been misunderstood, or, at least, not sufficiently
 regarded."
   "Blood drawn from the arm of the most delicate and
 debilitated individual, subjected to a course of mercu-
 rial medicines, exhibits the same buffy crust with blood
 drawn from a person labouring under pleurisy.  The
 secretions of the skin are greatly increased."  " Rea-
 soning upon this subject, it may be concluded, that
 inordinate action of the heart and arteries, attended
 with an altered state of the blood, and with  debility,
 while the increased secretions attending  this violent
 action  have  no  tendency to allay  it,  health must
 be  raidly undermined.   If there  be ulcerations in
 any part  of  the body,  they must degenerate into
 malignant sores; as  blistered surfaces  mortify,  in
 cases where the  living powers  are  much exhaust-
 ed !"   Dr. Reece's  observations  on the mercurial
disease, have  confirmed and  established these re-
marks.   Dentists have traced the progress of mer-
cury, in medical  practice, by the progressive  accu.
munition of decayed teeth, and other diseases  of
the gums.  But these are the  smallest  evils result-
ing from this practice ; the morbid effects of mercu-
rial medicine are almost innumerable ;  retchings  in
the morning,  disturbed sleep,  frightful dreams, im-
paired  vision, aches  and pains  in different  parts
of the  body,  sudden  failure of strength, as if just
dying,  violent palpitations  at  the heart,   difficult 
115
breathing, with shocking depression of spirits, intol-
erable feelings, nervous  agitations,  tremors, para-
lysis, incurable mania, mental derangement, fatuity,
suicide, deformity, bones  of the face destroyed, and
miserable death."
  "These maladies," continues  the doctor,  "have
embittered life in such a degree,  and rendered exis-
tence so intolerable,  that it is more than probable
that many of the suicides, which  disgrace our coun-
try, have resulted from this state of the nervous sys-
tem, produced by mercurial  practice."
  In the  medical  school of Paris, Bishat has estab-
lished a new theory of medicine, from his discover-
ies in anatomy.   Broussias, practising upon this
new system, gives  the  patient almost no  medicine
and very little food.   His object is to starve the dis-
ease ; when, he says, it will burn out of itself.
  Therefore, to cleanse,  and open,  and purify, the
stomach and  bowels, he makes the  patient drink
freely of mucilaginous drinks, with very little or  no
food, and  if any, of the very lightest kind, and wine
to prevent debility.  All his practice  is said to  be
accompanied with  remarkable success.
  These beginnings of opposition  to this fatal rem-
edy  or  deleterious poison,  although not accompa-
nied with all the success which  we might expect,
must yet,  infallibly gain influence, and finally over-
whelm the practice with abhorrence and detestation.
  The poispns used  for medicine  are, mercury,  in
various  states of preparation, arsenic, or  ratsbane,
corrosive  sublimate,  white  vitriol,  antimony,  a me-
tal so powerful and  deleterious, that a quantity so
minute that it cannot  be  sensible in the finest bal-
ance, is capable of producing the  most violent ef-
fects,  nitre, tartar emetic, iron,  opium,  foxglove,
which causes  vomiting, syncope,  coma and convul-
sions, hemlock,  the substance used  of old,  to  put
malefactors to death, deadly night shade, &c.  This 
116
is the terrible array mustered by  the masters of the
healing art, against the  life  and peace of the dis-
tressed and  wretched.   The  apology of Paul can
only avail them.  "I did it through ignorance," said
that sublime Apostle,  when  recording the  time in
which he had persecuted Christ.  And the time will
arrive, when  future generations shall look back on
the  theories and  practice of  medicine  which now
prevail, with as much  astonishment  and  abhor-
rence  as did  Paul upon  his former life.   "They did
it through ignorance," will  be  the  kind  apology,
which children yet unborn  will make  for their pre-
decessors, while they shall heave a sigh for the mis-
erable victims which  had been  sacrificed on the
altars  of mineral poison, and the reigning  Moloch
of  Mercury.   The deplorable  effects of adminis-
tering these poisonous medicines, can never be fore-
seen,  nor defeated, with certainty ;  because their
operations depend upon causes beyond the reach of
the physician's  skill.   The morbid effects of mer-
cury, when given in very small quantities, have been
sudden and fatal ?  It has lain latent  for years, be-
fore the effects appeared, and then displayed the
most dangerous results.
  There are  certain constitutions, says Dr. Falcon-
er, in which  the most dangerous consequences ap-
pear from the exhibition of mercury ;  and yet they
have no marks by which we can distinguish this pe-
culiar tendency; and there is no method of arrest-
ing the dangerous  progress of  the medicine, when
once in active operation.
  The administration of mercury, to be safe de-
pends on the  peculiar state of the stomach, the habit
and temperament of the body; for what will pro-
duce death in one  patient w^ scarcely seem to
have  any  sensible effect upon another.  One  will
take thirty grains and  not be salivated ; another
will  be salivated  by  five.   One it  will violently 
117
purge, and  another vomit;  another,  ulcerate the
mouth and destroy the bones of the face.  All me-
talic preparations are uncertain, because it depends
entirely on the state of the stomach whether they
have  any action at all, or act with violence and ter-
rible consequences ;  nor can this state of the stom-
ach be previously known.   The  danger of admin-
istering them is,
  1st. They are hostile to life, and  in direct opposi-
tion to all its laws and principles.
  2d. The state of the stomach and habit of body,
on which their action depends, cannot be known,
in relation to the medicine ; death or life, or chronic
misery, may be the result.
  3d. If given at all, the proper quantity  cannot be
ascertained.
  4th. The exhibition  of the dose, by ignorant  or
careless hands, renders the danger  still greater, and
the condition of the patient  more  insecure, and
sometimes fatal.
  5th. Their exhibition multiplies disease, aggra-
vates  misery, entails the  long line  of chronic  com-
plaints on millions,  poisons the  system,  embitters
life, and accelerates  death.
  And what else can we expect ?   Can we believe
that man is such an anomaly, that life and death can
spring from the same cause ?   That the poison
which destroys health, can restore  it ?  This  looks
very much like putting darkness for light, and light
for  darkness ; calling  bitter sweet, and  sweet bit-
ter.   If poison be both or bane and  antidote, we
are strangely made !  If the mineral poisons do ap-
pear to remove disease, in  some  cases, how can it
be known that they  do not leave a taint in the sys-
tem, a virus in the blood, and entail a wretchedness
which hangs  upon  the  miserable victim forever;
drinking  all the springs  of life, until he sinks a
martyr to his remedy, into the cold  embraces of the 
118
 tomb.  Now that they do so engender  disease, Mr.
 Mathias has incontestably shown;  and the experi-
 ence of others has confirmed it; "That certain dan-
 gerous changes upon  ulcerations  originally  syph-
 ilitic,  and certain derangements of health occur,
 wherever mercury has been administered in too ac-
 rid a form, or in too large a quantity."  Dr. Falconer
 once saw mercury applied for redness in the  face,
 which it speedily removed; but also produced death,
 by causing dropsy in the  breast.
   "A boy about  eleven years  old, had a  sore on
 one cheek,  occasioned  by a  dentist extracting a
 tooth ; a physician was  consulted, who immediately
 prescribed a course  of mercury.  In  a  short  time,
 ulcerations  in  the throat appeared, the nose  sunk,
 and one eye was nearly  destroyed ; while the gene-
 ral health was  so injured, that  death followed  in a
 few months.
   "A  lady, whom the same writer  attended, had
 such small doses of the blue pill, combined with opi-
 um, for three nights in succession, that the whole
 quantity amounted to no more than five grains of the
 mass.  Salivation began  on the fifth day; and not-
 withstanding every attention, the  tongue and gums
 became swelled to an enormous degree, bleeding
 ulcers  of the  mouth and fauces took place, and
 such excessive  irritability and debility followed, that,
 for nearly a whole month, her life was in the utmost
jeopardy.   Every practitioner must have met with
 similar cases."
  Dr. Ally saw a boy about  seven  years  old, cov-
 ered with a violent eruption, in consequence  of  tak-
 ing three grains of mercury as  a purge; which did
 not operate as intended, but threw  its virus on the
 skin.
  Another instance will serve to show how mercury
 may lie inert in the body  for years, and then become
 active, from some incomprehensible  cause. 
119
   "A lady,  the mother of four children, in  the
 twenty-eighth year of her age, had a bad  miscar-
 riage at the end of the fourth month.  When the
 author was called, she  was very much  reduced by
 the loss  of blood, and  required the ordinary  pallia-
 tive remedies.   Three days after the first visit, she
 complained of a bad taste in her mouth, with sore-
 ness in her gums ; and on the following day, saliva-
 tion took place.  On inquiring into the  circumstan-
 ces of her previous history, it was learned that four
 years before, she had for a fortnight,  a course of
 the  blue pill, which had only slightly touched  her
 gums, and it was solemnly asserted, that she had
 never again taken any  preparation  of the mercury,
 and had  been in general  good health."
   "The  salivation  was,  therefore,  at first  attribu-
 ted  to  some accidental  cause; but when it was
 found to be proceeding with great violence,  the
 medicines which the lady had been taking for the
 abortion  were  carefully analyzed;  but they con-
 tained no mercury. The most  anxious  care, and
 unremitting attention proved unavailing, as did all
 the remedies used in  similar cases.  The saliva-
 tion, with the usual  consequences of excessive ema-
 ciation, debility and irritability, continued for above
 twelve months ; occasionally, for a day or two, it
 was checked;  but alarming symptoms,  vomiting,
 with threatened sinking  of the living powers super-
 vened."
   These are but very few of  the distresses and  ca-
lamities caused by the  use of mineral poisons in the
eure  of  disease.  It has been conjectured, that if
we were able to trace their operations on the  sys-
tem, it   would  be  found, that perhaps, all  chronic
and hereditary diseases were  derived from poisons,
taken into the body in the form  of remedies; that
for a while, they might lie concealed, yet they were
working  in secret, and preparing  for that display of 
120
morbid action, which fills life with misery and leads
to an untimely grave !
  " Can a man take fire into his bosom, and not be
burned ? "  Said the wise man.  And we  may say,
can a man take poison into his stomach and not  be
poisoned ?  He may not immediately  die ; but may
not a disease be generated  in  the system, that will
render the remainder  of his  days  deplorable and
wretched ?  When firm health and refreshing sleep,
shall be strangers to his history !  " We know not,
says Dr. Reece, whether we should hail the discove-
ry of mercury, as a blessing, or regard it as a curse;
since  the diseases  it entails  are  as numerous  as
those which it cures."   " There are serious objec-
tions also, to other  articles of the metalic  world;
antimony, iron, and arsenic, are dangerous remedies
in the hands of the ignorant; and mankind, perhaps,
in the aggregate, would be benefitted by their expul-
sion from medical practice."
  Dr. Reece  is a member of the  Royal College  of
Surgeons,  London;  and he thus remarks on  the
charter  of that institution.   " The  charter of the
Royal College  of Physicians,  is found to contain
this singular license ; which is, ' a permission to any
one, and every one  to practice the  healing  art  by
herbs only."1  Now we do consider this is as ample a
commission as any  man would require ;  for  poor
must be the resources of that physician's mind, and
narrow his knowledge of medical botany, who could
not, from the  vegetable kingdom alone, cure most of
the  diseases of the human frame.  Even the specific
of mercury, were  we driven to  the  necessity of a
substitute, mighfprobably be rivalled in some of the
productions of nature."
  These confessions and remarks, from a man  high
in his profession, and eminent in the literary  world,
speak volumes on this important subject.  It is cer-
tainly time to draw upon  these resources  of the 
12!
 vegetable kingdom, and  abandon forever the min-
 eral poisons.  The argument is copious, and clear,
 and strong, from Dr. Reece's own statement, to ex-
 pel them forever.  Why should the use of dangerous
 medicines  then, be still  adhered to, while it is con-
 fessed the medicines of the  vegetable  kingdom are
 so abundant, so safe, and so superior.   There must
 be a strong  perversity in our nature, as Dr. Harvey
 says, to resist the  force  of facts, and evidence so
 abundant, and accumulating, and irresistible.
  In 1816 and .'17, the spotted fever raged at East-
 ham, Cape  Cod; of those who used the system of
 Dr.  Thomson, thirty-three out of thirty-four  lived;
 and eleven out of twelve died, of those who used
 the old practice.  Dr. Cyrus Thomson, a son  of Dr.
 Samuel Thomson,  in a  practice of four years  and
 six months, during which time he attended 1,250
 patients, lost out of that number only six  ; and most
 of those cases, were of the  most dangerous type;
 or of such as had been  surrendered to death by the
Tegular physicians.
  To the list of dangerous remedies, Dr. Reece
 might have  added the  lancet, the  blister  and many
 others.  An eminent physician has said, " that after
 the practice of blood-letting  was introduced by Syd-
 enham, during the course of  one  hundred  years,
 more died with the lancet alone, than all who, in the
 same period, perished by war! "
  We all know how long and painful was the strug-
 gle, before liberty  of conscience,  and  civil liberty,
 could be established in  the  world;  or before even
the  liberty of thought was permitted in the schools.
 And even to this day,  they  have  only  partially ob-
 tained in the world.  " Like  angels' visits, few and
far  between," have been the  periods of their tri-
umphs, and the bounds of their establishment.   The
tyranny of  medicine is running the same career,
and usurping the same authority over the rights, and
             11 
122
privileges, and understandings of men;  or why go
much mystery and disguise  in the composition of
pills, and medicines, and forms of practice ? ' Why
has the strong arm of the law been called in to aid
the faculty, as if they were a  privileged  order, be-
fore whom the discoveries, the experience, the com-
mon sense,  and the understanding of the  people
must bow, as to a Dagon.
  I know a case that will be certified by  a gentle-
man of this city.  He was attacked' with rheuma-
tism so severely  as to be  confined to his bed, and
helpless,  for five or six months.   The  physician
gave him no relief, but rather aggravated his com-
plaint.  A poor woman, from the country, said she
could cure it by certain  herb tea: in twenty-four
hours after the use of the tea,  he was able to walk
his room; the doctor called, was astonished at the
change, and was informed what produced it; psha!
said he, I knew that  remedy  long  ago.   And why
said the patient  in a rage, which  almost induced
him to take  the  doctor's  life  on the spot, why did
you not then relieve me from such excruciating suf-
ferings ?  Because, said  the  doctor very coolly, the
remedy was  not set down in our books! The author-
ity of books, has often set at defiance the  authority
of God, and  trampled down the peace, and  sense,
and independence of man. 
LECTURE  X.
HEPATITIS, AND PHTHISIS PULMAX-
    ALIS; OR DISEASES  OF THE LIVER
    AND  LUNGS.

   1st. Inflammation in general. — When any part of
the body, says Dr. Cullen, is affected with an  un-
usual degree of redness, heat, pain and tremor, we
name the disease an inflammation, or phlegmasia.
   2d.  As the external, so also the internal  parts,
may be affected with inflammation; and we  judge
them to be so, from pyrexiae, fixed pain, attended
with interruption of the exercise of any of their
functions.
   3d. We  also judge" of the presence of inflamma-
tion, by blood drawn from the arm ; when the  blood,
after  cooling, shows a portion of the gluten, sepa-
rated from  the rest of the mass,  and lying on the
surface of the crassamentum ; and as such separa-
tion happens in all cases of more  evident phlegma-
sia, so in ambiguous cases, we, from this appearance,
joined to other symptoms, conclude the presence of
inflammation.
   1. In the  phenomena of  inflammation, all agree
that there is an increased impetus  of the blood in
the vessels of the part affected ; and as, at the same
time, the action of the heart is not considerably in-
creased ; we infer that the increased impetus of the
blood in the particular part,  owing to the increased
action of the vessels of the part itself.  The  cause
of this  increased action of the vessels, we are to
inquire after, and consider, as the  probable cause of 
124
inflammation.  The application of a stimulant will, in
many cases, enable us to ascertain the part affected
by the inflammation; as a stimulant will increase a
pain in the side or breast,  in the  head,  or in the
stomach.  When this occurs as a proximate cause,
the stimulants are disused, and sedatives prescribed
as the mode of cure.  But when the application  of
stimulants does not indicate the  part  affected, phy-
sicians suppose an obstruction in the  extreme ves-
sels, by some  cause  unknown; perhaps cold, to  be
the cause proximate of inflammation.   But many
difficulties  attend  this doctrine  ;  an error in the
proximate cause, will infallibly lead to error in the
mode of treatment.   Dr. Cullen supposes, that some
cases of inequality in the distribution of the blood,
may throw an unusual quantity of it upon particular
vessels, to which it must necessarily prove a stimu-
lus.  But further, it is probable,  that, to relieve the
congestion,  the vis medicatrix natural, increases still
more the action of these vessels, which it effects  by
the formation of a spasm on their extremities, as in
all  other febrile diseases.  A spasm, therefore  of
the extreme arteries, supporting  an  increased action
in the  course of them,  may be  considered as the
proximate cause of inflammation, in  all  cases not
arising from direct stimuli.
  II. The inflammation  of the liver seems  to be of
two kinds; the one  acute,  and  the other chronic.
The acute,  is attended with pungent pain, consid-
erable pyrexiae, a frequent,  6trong  and  hard pulse,
and high colored urine.   The  chronic hepatitis,
very often exhibits none  of those symptoms  ; and is
only discovered by the formation of large  abscesses
in the liver.  The acute  hepatitis  is known  by a
pain in  the  right hypochondrium,  dry  cough, pain
in the clavicle and top of the shoulder, and in  lying
on the diseased  side.
  The disease may be seated either on th& concave
or convex side of the liver ; in the  latter ease, the 
125
pain is more  pungent  and the respiration is  more
considerably affected.  The inflammation is  often
communicated to the gall-bladder and biliary ducts ;
and this is perhaps, the only case of idiopathic he-
patitis attended with jaundice.
   The general plan of cure, is by the application  of
blisters, fomentations, bleeding, purges, salivation,
mercury   in  various exhibitions,  or  the blue pill
in  small  doses  with  nitre, salts,  magnesia, and
other medicines.  Now it is well known from long
and mournful experience,  and fatal examples, that
this mode  of practice, if it does relieve  the  liver,
remove obstructions, or abate inflammation ; it will,
at the same time reduce and exhaust all the  ener-
gies of the living powers.   According  to Dr. Cul-
len's own theory, which  if it  be not  the  theory  of
all others, the mode of practice is  the same,  how
can the vis medicatrix  natural support its  energy,
attacked at once, by the loss  of blood, by the poi-
son of mercury, and the direful effects of blisters
and salivation ?  How many are cured by this mode
of practice ?  How many die ?  How many do we
not know  in this city, progressing from  year  to
year, in   their painful  and rapid  journey to the
grave, without receiving any relief?  Some are re-
lieved, but it is partial relief; the complaint returns,
and re-returns, until the system is consumed and
wasted, all the vital powers exhausted, and then the
patient is declared incurable! not that the disease is
incurable ; but the medicine and mode of treatment
have made it so, by destroying the powers of life!
   Dr. J. Smith confessed of a lady  in  this city, la-
boring under hepatitis, that she was reduced so low,
he could not prescribe for her, without  aggravating
some one  of her combined diseases ; and  that she
could not endure any more medicine, so dangerous
were the symptoms.  Mrs. Sullivan,  whom, I pre-
sume, you mostly all know, is the lady I  speak of.
             11* 
126
   She had suffered under the disease, and thejeffects
   of medical practice, for eleven years, or upwards;
   and from a simple bilious cholic, it spread to the
   extent of nosology itself, by the help of medicine.
/  Bleeding, tartar emetic, and mercury, were  admin-
   istered by physicians in the state of New York and
   here; until Dr. Smith  said he could give no more
   medicine, she could not bear it.   To die, was now
   her only  hope.   Thomson's  medicine was  recom-
   mended,  and immediate relief obtained; the com-
   plication  of disease yielded altogether; and if firm
   health and vigor were  not obtained, the vital pow-
   ers were restored, so  as to  make life comfortable,
   food  nourishing,  sleep refreshing, strength to at-
   tend to the duties of her family;  and now, to under-
   take a journey of fourteen hundred miles to see her
   friends!   Whoever had seen the sufferings,  and
   sinking of strength, and spasms, of this  lady, pre-
   viously to the use of this new remedy;  and should
   see her now, would think her recovery little less than
   a resurrection from the dead !
     The very severity of the  mode of practice for
   hepatitis, as it has been heretofore pursued, has so
   debilitated the system, that,  perhaps, more have
   been  killed  than   cured;  and more  said to have
   been cured than ever enjoyed any kind of tolerable
   health through the remainder  of their days; every
   change of air, or exercise, causing pain, depression,
   irritation, fainting, languor, and all the symptoms of
   dejection and debility, which result from an exhaust-
   ed  state  of the vital powers!  For  it is axiomatic
   in the economy of life, that,  whenever the  system
   has been so far  reduced by  severe medicines, or
   otherwise, as to  lose in a great measure, its pow-
   er of reaction, good health can  never be enjoyed.
   Every irregularity, affects the whole body, while  it
   has not power to repel, or reduce the morbid action. 
127
   Dr. Thomson's system has never yet failed, where
 it has been fairly tried, in  removing  this disease;
 without leaving any, of all the nameless train  of
 miseries, which tartar  emetic,  mercury,  purging,
 and bleeding,  and  antimonial  powders,  entail on
 the  system.   But,  on  the  contrary,  this  botanic
 medicine purifies the blood, restores the tonic pow-
 er of the fibres, and  the stomach, and digestive  or-
 gans, re-animates the whole frame,  rouses the ani-
 mal spirits, and acts, as  it has been said to act,  in
 harmony with life, in support of health, and  in op-
 position to disease.   A medicine thus acting, is not
 to be overlooked nor rejected for the feeble prejudi-
 ces of man.
   There is one cause of the frequency of inflamma-
 tion of the liver, which ought not to  escape observa-
 tion.   The circulation of the  blood is remarkably
 slow through  this organ: being computed at only
 one twenty-fifth part of the  rapidity of other  veins
 of the same diameters ; the vena porta?, which dis-
 tributes the blood through the liver  without the aid
 of arterial action, is the  cause of this slow circula-
 tion.   There is a small artery which  goes to the
 liver for the purpose of supplying its nutrition ; but
 it affords no aid to the secretion of  bile,  nor  to the
 circulation through the  glandular  parts.  Now, this
 is one of the singular parts of the animal economy ;
 nutritions and secretions of the  various organs, are
 always supplied from the arterial blood, this of the
bile  alone excepted ; it is  sui generis.   The  vena
 porta? collects the blood from the stomach, intestines,
 and lower belly, and from thence conducts  it to the
liver; through every part of which it is distributed, for
the secretion of bile from it, by  its grandular parts ;
and this blood is  again returned to the heart by  a
branch  of the great  vein.  Now, to force the blood
forward through the circulation in other parts, there
is requisite, a considerable degree of arterial force; 
128
but  here  there is none, as it is all  expended, per-
haps, more completely than in any other part of the
body, by the length and minuteness of the ramifica-
tions of the blood vessels in the lower belly, which
are not equalled in any other part of the whole sys-
tem ; hence, the slowness of the  circulation of the
blood in the liver and the danger of engorging the
vessels by the  increase  of arterial action.   The
melancholy, the  languor, the  despondency, the dull
and heavy eye, which accompany this  complaint al-
ways indicate its peculiar  force.   A rapid flow of
blood, is always  necessary to strong health and high
spirits.   In the   liver, at best, the motion of the
blood is  so slow that it is  only  the  twenty-fifth
part of the common time, in order to give it time
for the secretions of bile ; but if any  thing  impede
this motion, deep grief, moping melancholy, or im-
aginary troubles, brood upon the mind.
  The Empress  Josephine attributed the melancho-
ly dulness of Lucien Bonaparte, and his dislike to
activity, to the deficiency of his digestive  powers.
She had learned  this from the physicians ; for none
can surpass the faculty of Paris. There can be no
proper digestion, without a sufficiency of bile ; now
the circulation in the  liver  becoming languid from
grief or depressing passions,  or any  other  cause,
and the vena porta? not being aided  by the  impell-
ing power of arterial force, to perform its'  laborious
functions;  and  its energy depressed  by  the pas-
sions themselves; the  blood  accumulating in the
branches of the porto, causes a  painful  and  obtuse
sense of oppressions, anxiety and despair;  and very
often complete mental derangement  And although
it be  not  often  suspected, the  fact is certain, that
the liver is far more  frequently the seat of mania
and melancholy,  than the brain.
  How invaluable then must be  that cure,  which
can safely remove a disease pregnant  with so much 
129
misery, and replete with such innumerable  disas-
ters, and terrifying results to the human race.   Ter-
rible must be that influence, which can chain down
the freeborn mind to systems incompetent and dele-
terious, and render it regardless of a  discovery, as
potent to expel the complaint, as kine-pock to con-
sume that virus of the blood, which had  been de-
vouring the one-twelfth of the human race for 1,200
years.
  Dr. Barnwell, in describing the treatment for dis-
ease in  the  liver, says:  " It  may be thought by
some of  our readers, that we  are not acquainted
with the use of mercurials in diseases of this organ ;
but it has happened, that we are but  too well ac-
quainted with their effects in acute  hepatitis.   Mer-
curials  for about twenty years past, have been in
their meridian fame in India! but we hope from our
acquaintance with their pernicious effects, that some
of the physicians have minds formed so  as to profit
by experience."   " The abuses  of mercury in cases
of acute hepatitis, or  in  any stage of it when at-
tended with acute pain,  we know  to  be the most
pernicious mode of treatment which it is possible to
invent   The efficacy of  mercury was  discovered in
India about -fifty  years ago, in chronic diseases of
the liver ; and being indiscriminately recommended,
it got soon into  general  use ; and when  the patient
died by  the  application,  as they generally did by
this treatment, the acute were set down as incurable.
But the mischief did not end here ; for its  application
was transferred to other inflammations, until mercu-
ry was at length considered a specific, in all the
stages and varieties of disease.
   " But we  can  safely pronounce mercury to be
highly pernicious in  the  first stages of disease,
whilst the pain,  or true inflammation, is present.
For tubercles or impostumes  are  so apt to  follow,
that it is scarcely  possible to avoid  them; a cir- 
130
 cumstance to be dreaded above all others.   These
 are the effects, which we have  seen invariably take
 place, from the abuse of mercury, in the early stages
 of disease; so that we are not  more certainly con-
 vinced of the poisonous effects  of arsenic, than  we
 are of those of mercurials, given in the acute stages
 of this disease.
  " It may be thought our criticism on the abuse of
 mercury are too severe ; but let it  be remembered,
 that when applied to those, who either through igno-
 rance or irrational  proceedings, sport with the lives
 and health of mankind, there should be something still
 more  severe than words, applied to such offences."
  Dr. Barnwell had practised medicine both  in In-
 dia and America, and declares the destructive  ef-
 fects  of mercury he has often witnessed on both
 sides of the Atlantic.  And who has not witnessed
 such horrible consequences ;  the destruction  of the
 face, the emaciated and miserable  form ; the living
 death, moving in place  of a human being ?   Who
 has not witnessed all these, and  many  more, who
 has at all attended to the diseases and the manage-
 ment of the human  family ?
  III.  Phthisis pulmonalis,  or  consumption  of the
 lungs,  is defined to  be. an expectoration of pus, or
 purulent matter, from the  lungs, attended with a
 hectic fever.  In every instance of phthisis  pulmo-
nalis, there is, as we suppose, an ulceration  of the
lungs.   Dr. Haven  has  supposed, that pus may  be
formed in the blood vessels, and be from thence pass-
 ed into the bronchia?.  A catarrh is attended with
 an expectoration of matter so much resembling pus,
that physicians have been often uncertain whether it
 was mucus or pus.    It is of consequence  to  deter-
mine this point: and it may be  done with sufficient
certainty for all the  purposes of practice.
  1st.  From the'appearances of the matter; mucus
is  naturally transparent, and pus  always opaque • 
131
when mucus becomes opaque, it is white, yellow, or
greenish; which latter colour, is not so considerable
as in pus.
  2d. From the consistence ; mucus  is more viscid
and adherent; pus less so.
  3d. From the specific gravity compared  with  wa-
ter ;  it is usual for tlie mucus of the  lungs to swim
on water, and pus to sink.
  4th.  Expectorations of pus are connected  with a
hectic fever; but expectorations of mucus,  though
with fever,  yet not with hectic fever.  There are
many of these distinctions  recorded  by physicians,
but these are sufficient  to satisfy a  person's own
mind.   For disease is aggravated, if  the mind des-
pairs or becomes gloomy.
  This  disease is remarkably different, in many of
its phenomena, from those  of the liver ; for  though
great debility and emaciation take place, the mind,
for the most part, is  confident and full of hope; the
senses and  judgment  commonly remain  entire to
the very end.  In some cases delirium takes place
a little before death, but this happens seldom.
  The phthisis pulmonalis,  says Dr. Cullen,  " is ex-
ceedingly difficult  of  cure.   It may be doubted
whether this failure is to be imputed  to the  imper-
fection  of our art,  or to  the absolutely  incurable
nature of the disease.  I  am extremely averse, in
any  case, to  admit of the latter supposition ;  and
can always admit readily of the former."   Dr. Rush
always firmly maintained the  same opinion; that no
disease  was in itself incurable ;  the failure constant-
ly arose from mismanagement, or imperfection in the
practice.
  The remedies  prescribed  are, blood-letting,  low
diet, a total  abstinence from animal  food,  milk  and
vegetable diet.  The asses milk in  this complaint
has long been found the  best remedy ; Dr. Buchan
says, he knew a man who was cured by  sucking his 
132
wife,  who happened to lose his  child; he  sucked"
her breast to give her relief, and finding  the bene-
fit great, he  continued until  perfectly cured!  be-
came  a sound  healthy man, and was living when
the doctor wrote his family medicine.   In this com-
plaint blisters, bleeding, mercury, and the blue pill,
are prescribed ; of the evil effects of mercury, we
have already  spoken; of bleeding, the reasons are
strongly against it.  The blood is  the great vehi-
cle of life, and health, and heat, to the whole sys-
tem.  And how can draining the fountain of life,
add to its  duration ?   The pernicious consequences
of blisters have been often remarked by practition-
ers.   Dr. Hillary remarks, " cantharides contain a
great  quantity of alkaline  semi-volatile salts, which
pass into the blood by   absorption,  and  increase
both the stimulus and the momentum of the blood.
and attenuate, dissolve and hasten its putrefaction ^
and produce heat and stranguary in the  urinary
passage."
  Now  the medicine and mode of treatment recom-
mended by Thomson, have removed both these dis-
eases, in cases almost innumerable and in their most
desperate and  hopeless stages.  It is the purpose
of these lectures to declare a remedy, safe, certain
and successful, which has  never been known to fail,
when  properly applied ; a  remedy which has remov-
ed, with powerful  and salutary effects, the  most
fatal diseases  of our country; fever, hepatitis  and
pulmonalis ;  a remedy which restores and invigor-
ates the system; leaves no taint, no debility, no lurk-
ing death behind it!
  The cases to support this fact can  be  easily ex-
amined  and  certainly known.  No one need be de-
ceived, if they only take the trouble to institute the
inquiry; and surely the   life  and  health  of  our
friends and families demand the trial. 
133
  It is not a light thing for which we contend; but
a matter which regards the  precious life.  Without
health, no state nor prosperity can be enjoyed ; and
when sickness comes, to have to encounter reme-
dies, at best, uncertain,  and often  direful in their
consequences, adds  an immense  load of anxiety
and grief, to the  already suffering patient, together
with all that the friends and relations  must suffer.
But it is the cause  of humanity at large, and the
business of every man, who has  a common interest
in the  welfare of the human race ; of all who would
lay claim to benevolence of heart; to endeavor  to
reduce the  sum  of  human calamities.  What joy
would  it not yield, to see  our neighbors arriving at
a good old  age ?  their days  spent in firm  health ;
their  diseases few  and  soon removed; their time,
and peace,  and  money, saved?   These considera-
tions,  when contrasted  with the present state  of
things ; when men do not live half their days ; would
be  as  a  new birth  to the renovated  and redeemed
world!
  And I  am persuaded  that if ever the  arrow of
death has pierced the happiness or entered the abode
of those who hear me, they will not lightly hear the
proclamation of that  hope, that their diseases may
be safely relieved and healed; and the heart thrill-
ing anguish of losing a beloved object, dearer than
our own souls, on every trivial complaint, be forever
extracted from the breast!
  Dr.  Thomson very shrewdly remarks, " a number
of the doctors  discovered  that  the  effects  of my
medicine were astonishing;  and therefore conclud-
ed  it  was  poison.   This can be easily accounted
for; because they have no remedy in their  medical
science capable  of producing a  powerful effect  on
the system, except what is poisonous."
   And it is  astonishing and will remain as an as-
tonishment  to future ages, that the very rankest
             12 
134
poisons are the  principal  remedies now  in  use in
the world; and  have been for at least fifty years
past.   It would  be  a melancholy tale, could it be
told, the millions who have  perished through  this
practice.
  The stream of popular feeling is, however, on the
turn ; and we have no  doubt, but the hue and cry
against it will be louder and longer  continued, than
it has been against Thomson and his practice.  It is
a promise of God to  the world, that men shall  be
brought to a knowledge of the truth; that the earth
shall  rejoice, because of. the out pourings of the
benificence of Him, who dwells amidst the dazzling
light of vast eternity.
-"■St®**"-
             LECTURE  XI.

 A GENERAL REVIEW OF  THE  NATURE
    AND OPERATION OF THOMSON'S REM-
    EDIES.

  The  great and general  advantages ascribed  to
mercury, by the physicians, were to pierce and pen-
etrate the system ; to remove  obstructions ; to re-
store action to the parts  affected, and equalize the
excitement. The liver was said to be impervious to
every other medicine ; and  hence its universal ap-
plication in diseases of that organ.  From this, it ex-
tended its empire  over all: and reigned  triumphant
over  every other remedy.   In the  more  simple
cases, worms, colds, indigestion, costiveness, cough,
sore throat, or whatever else you could name, mer-
cury was the cure for all. 
135
    1st. Lobelia,  discovered  and used by Thomson,
 will penetrate the system, equalize the excitement,
 remove the obtructions, cleanse the stomach and
 bowels, purify the blood, remove  diseases from the
 lungs and  liver,  in a manner far superior to  what
 ever was accomplished by mercury.   While it pos-
 sesses this  advantage, which mercury never had, it *
 acts in harmony with all the principles of life ; leaves
 no taint, no disease, no racked and decaying bones,
 and deformed countenances behind.
   This simple fact, whatever may be said to the con-
 trary, will set it at an immense distance, above all
 the fame that mercury  ever can acquire.   I think,
 as I am writing these words, of that awful and terri-
 ble day  of decision and  despair, when all the forma
 and faces which mercury has  mutilated,  shall be ar-
 rayed against  the system of practice; but against
 lobelia,  not one  in all  that  countless multitude to
 show  a  decayed  bone, or deformed feature.   The
 members of the  faculty, now so  busy  in  abusing
 Thomson, could they behold this; could they antici-
 pate this scene; would employ themselves  in devis-
 ing methods, if it  were  possible, to remunerate the
 world for the evils they have  done it, and the mise-
 ries they have inflicted on its inhabitants.
   There are men  of mind, said Dr. Barnwell,  who
 will. I  am convinced, profit by the experience of past
 practice.   If it were not for that idol,  self-interest,
 which  so many worship, there would  be little diffi-
 culty in profiting by past experience.
  The mind  that  is open to conviction, and deter-
 mined  to pursue truth wherever she may  guide,  will
 derive  lessons, even from its  own mistakes, which
may prove salutary to itself and to  the  world.   O !
how grand is that  character, that can rise  superior
to  sense and selfishness, and cling to the radiant
glory of immutable truth. 
136
   Lobelia is a most active  and powerful medicine ;
 its effects are to cleanse the stomach, remove ob-
 structions and promote perspiration.  It is, perhaps,
 one of the most valuable remedies of the vegetable
 kingdom.  It is the Lobelia Inflata of Linna?us ; but
 it does not appear, that its  medical qualities  were
 ever perceived, or regarded, by the physicians.  It
 is a specific in asthmatic complaints.   A lady who
 had not been able to lie in bed for six months, with
 an ashmatic  complaint, by the use  of this vegeta-
 ble tincture, slept in bed the first  night of using it;
 and has enjoyed a comfortable state of health since,
 upwards of twelve years.
   Dr. Thomsons says of this herb, "it is most pow-
 erful in removing disease, and safe in its  operation.
 I have given it to infants of a day old, and men of
 eighty  years; it  is innocent  in its nature, moving
 with the  general current of the  animal  spirits.—
 There are two cases where  the medicine will not
 operate ; when the patient is dying, and when there
 is no disease.   Where there is no  enemy, there can
 be no war; in the healthy system,  it will be  silent
 and harmless."   "It is  calculated to remove  the
 cause  of disease and  no more, as food to remove
 hunger."   " It clears all^obstructions to the extremi-
 ties, not regarding the  name of the disease, until it
 produces an equilibrium in the system; and will be
 felt in  the fingers and toes,  producing  a prickling
 feeling like that caused by a blow on the elbow."
 It is also, he says, of great value in preventing, as
 well as in curing disease  ; a  little  of it taken into
 the stomach, when a person feels unwell, will imme-
 diately throw off the  obstructions,  or cause of sick-
ness, and save the person from a long attack of pain
 and fever.
  2d. Capsicum.   It  has long been a subject of
deep importance to physicians, to find a stimulant at
once powerful and not narcotic ; bark and spirits 
137
both fail in this respect; and laudanum destroys sen-
sibility and deadens the vital powers ; the system is
partially destroyed by its action ; for it  is hostile to
life, subverts the  natural functions, and is  itself an
obstruction of the offices of life.   Capsicum supplies
this grand desideratum.  It is a stimulus,  powerful
and permanent; not narcotic, nor destructive of the
vital functions.   It is said to have been found ef-
fectual in  curing diseases which have resisted all
other medicines.  It supports the natural heat of the
vicera and interior action, beyond any thing hereto-
fore known, and has  been used  with great success
in the cure of spotted fever.  Like the former med-
icine, it seems to be safe and salutary, perfectly in
harmony with nature and the most active stimulant
to support and re-animate  her feeble or exhausted
powers.
   3d. In the mode of expelling the virus  or  mor-
bific matter from the blood, the physicians have  been
most divided ; some have recommended  perspiration,
others, salivation, friction, bleeding and purging, and
the use of  mineral waters.   Dr. Thomson's compo-
sition medicine, to remove this morbid purulent  mat-
ter from the system, has been  found extremely ef-
fectual.  It is a compound of four or five different
herbal productions; and in purifying the blood and
cleansing the whole internal man, stands  without a
rival.  A variety of  herb teas have been used in the
spring of the year  to  purify the circulation ; but
they have  not-been  found  sufficiently  powerful  to
expel the dregs  of disease from the system.   This
composition of Dr. Thomson, in that respect, stands
pre-eminent, in all the cases in  which  it has  been
properly applied, according to  the established di-
rections.
   4th. Bitters, to correct the bile and promote di-
gestion, consists of another composition  of herbal
medicine, and are of great importance to the health
              12* 
138
 of our country ; they ought to be  known and used
 in every family.   From the nature of our  climate,
 subject to great and sudden changes and irregulari-
 ties ; from the abundance of fruit, used in a crude
 and improper state ; and the vast use of  flesh meat;
 frequent  and great irregularities  will, and  do, take
 place in the  digestive organs, and gall-bladder, and
 biliary ducts.  Diseases of this complexion are, per-
 haps, by far the most numerous in this country; and
 to guard against them, is the imperious  duty  of
 every individual.   It is  impossible to retain good
 health  without due  attention to the state  of the
 stomach.   Many men have made fortunes by the in-
 vention of bitters, for the use of  the stomach; but
 on trial none have been found equal to those pre-
 pared by  Dr. Thomson.
   5th.  Another composition, for dysentery and the
 summer complaints of children, and all complaints of
 the bowels, has been found, on trial, to be highly
 beneficial.   This disease of children has long baf-
 fled the physician's skill;  it has been confessed by
 the most  eminent of the faculty, to be very little
 under the control of medical skill.  This medicine
 has been found to afford instant relief.
   6th. Rheumatism,  a severe and most painful dis-
 ease, which has been often given up  as incurable, by
 the application of Dr. Thomson's Rheumatic Drops,
 and other medicine to relieve the system, and equal-
 ize the excitement, have established  a perfect cure,
 when every other application failed.   A  man  at
 Columbus, had suffered by  this disease  for  years;
 and like her in the Gospel, had spent all his living
 on physicians, and grew  nothing  better, but rather
 worse, until he was  drawn together,  quite  bowed
 down by the severity of the pain, and unable to walk.
 He had for some months been given up by the facul-
 ty, and resigned to his fate.   The medical botany
^doctors took .him in hands, after this new practice be- 
139
gan to be known in that town, and restored him in a
few weeks.   The faculty would not believe  it until
the man was produced, walking straight as a line, to
their utter amazement.
  7th. Opium has been almost exclusively for years
used to quiet the nerves, and still restless children.
Many a poor infant  has suffered death, by the ad-
ministration of this deadly drug ;  and many a stupid
head and stupified person, has it sent into the world;
never to  speak of the multitudes it has sent out be-
fore their time.  It is a most deadly drug, and seems
to destroy the vital actions of the whole system.  But,
say the  physicians, it relieves pain ; yes, it relieves
pain by deadening sensibility;  a bullet or a dagger
will relieve pain in the same  way.  But the impor-
tant question is, will it remove pain by removing the
cause of pain, disease ?  Will it not, on the contrary,
give force to the disease, by weakening the vital func-
tions ?  Does  it not establish disorder in the  system,
by rendering all its powers torpid ?
   Dr. Thomson's nervine has a more powerful effect,
by ten fold, in quieting the nerves, promoting sleep,
soothing and  stilling the tumult of the  whole sys-
tem ; is perfectly safe and harmless in its applica-
tion ; has none of the narcotic qualities,  nor deadly
stupifying effect of laudanum.  It promotes ease and
comfort and leaves  no  dregs of wretchedness, nor
dream of insanity behind.  Now, nothing can so re-
commend a medicine, as to be certain it will produce
the end  designed; and none of  all the evil conse-
quences not designed, but deprecated by the faculty;
but which they have no means of preventing.
   Dr. Thatcher says, arsenic, in  cancer powder, has
been absorbed by the patient, so as to cause death
bv consumption, in the course of one year.
   Beware, says Dr. Thomson, of all  minerals  used
as medicine; such as mercury, arsenic, calomel, an-
timony ; all preparations of copper, lead, iron, vitriol; 
140
 also nitre and opium ; they are all poisons, and dead-
 ly enemies to health.  Beware of bleeding and blis-
 tering ; they are destructive of health; avoid seatons
 and issues; they  are hateful, nauseous, and drain
 the very sources  of life ;  they never did, and  never
 can do good.   Shun them all, as opposed to life and
 its vital functions.
  Now, it may be said in  justification of the faculty,
 that using the medicines they  do, the fatal conse-
 quences they  are not able to prevent.   If it be re-
 plied,  then  let them not use such medicines, the
 answer is, they have none else  to use.  What are
 their active remedies, which  are  not poisonous, and
 destructive to life ?  " Mercury, says Dr. Rush, is the
 Goliah of medicine;" it is certainly a Goliah to  de-
 stroy ; it is the uncircumcised Philistine of medical
 science, who defies the living armies of the  living
 God.  The numbers slain by his arm, let India,  and
 America,  and  the world witness.  The multitude of
 the valley of Hammon Gog, would  not equal their
 countless  hosts, if mustered on the field of the slain,
 or arrayed before the eyes of the world.
  The " heroic medicines," as they are emphatically
 called, deserve indeed, a  considerable share of the
 praise  of the  Ca?sars and  Alexanders of the world  ;
 powerful t« destroy, heroic in blood  and havoc,  and
 devastation.   It  was the boast of Alexander, "I
 have made Asia a desert, I have  trampled down its
 inhabitants and prostrated its ancient renown."
  8th.  It  is a  point conceded by medical  writers,
 that the operation of medicine does  not depend on
 any of the common laws of matter, but on the prin-
 ciple of vitality alone.   Now, from this concession,
 the theory of Dr. Thomson  is  established; for he
 affirms the great value  and success of his medicine
 depends on this principle,  that it  is in harmony with
the vital powers.   As the  operation of medicine  de-
pends on the principle of vitality alone,  it must har- 
141
   monize with the vital principle ; or, otherwise, so far
   from being a remedy, it would be a poison; because,
   depending for its action on the principle of life, if
   its action be in opposition to that principle, it cannot
   restore health, but destroy it.   And this very con-
   elusion of Thomson's theory,  is in perfect  accord-
   ance with the physician's doctrine, but in opposition
   with their practice.
     Every animated being is endowed with a  primor-
   dial principle of life.  This principle, resident in the
   eggs of animals, and the seeds of plants, constitutes
   the power by which, in  the first place, the  various
   organs are moulded, developed, and perfected ; and
   by which, afterwards, the animal economy  is main-
   tained and defended against the action of mechani-
   cal and  chemical laws.   Now, it is  evident, that
   medicine  thrown into the system,  directly hostile to
   this active and repulsive power, must have  the most
   pernicious effects on life and health.   The princi-
   ple of life may struggle  for a time, but must sink at
   last  I know, in reply to this, it will be said,  that this
   principle of life, by the  power of the digestive and
   assimilating organs, will change or destroy the quali-
   ties of substances exposed to their operations, if re-
   pugnant to its nature, without sustaining any injury
   itself.  This is truth only in  part,  for this power of
   assimilating is often  overcome, and life destroyed.
   If it were otherwise, it  would matter  not  what we
   might eat or drink; what medicine we received.
   But  we  know the contrary to  be  a  fact; why so
   much direction and  caution  to patients, respecting
   the qualities of their food and drink ? why the terms
'   harsh medicines, severe medicines, dangerous medi-
   cines ?  They all establish  the  same  conclusions,
   the necessity of guarding the principle of life ; and'
   the value  of Dr. Thomson's remtirks, that proper
   medicine  must be  in harmony with the  principle
   of life. 
142
   There is a unity and beauty in truth;  it is  not
 like error, multifarious and infinite.  It was remark-
 ed by an ancient sage, that there was  but  one road
 to truth, and  that difficult to  find ; but  the ways to
 error were innumerable, and every fool could walk
 in them.  It requires no meditation, no thought, to
 establish or deliver systems of error.   The greater
 the madness and less the  discretion, the  better is
 the publisher qualified  to propagate falsehood and
 detail lies.
   Between the physician who theorizes in his study,
 and the one who establishes his theory  on  facts and
 experience, the difference is as  wide as between a
 novelist and a writer of true history.  The  historian
 gives us human  nature  as it is ; the novelist, as it
 is not.
   Dr. Thomson  gives his  pharmaceutical  prepara-
 tions from his own trials, observation and experience.
 Many others write theories,  and  then  found  their
 practice on what thsy have written.   Thus  medi-
 cines repugnant  to life are given to the  patient; he
 has to struggle with the morbid excitement, and  ad-
 ditional  hostility of the  medicine,  until the whole
 system, languid  and decayed, sinks under the  at-
 tack, which it  is no  longer able  to repel.  Now,
 from the very nature of  the  operation of  medi-
 cines, as  they are designated by the faculty, " that
 their operation is  either local  on the stomach, and
 diffused over the system by sympathy ;  or  genera!,
 being thrown into the circulation, and conveyed
 through the whole body ;" it would seem  to be  of
 the  highest moment, that  they should be   safe  and
 salutary in their  nature, to  commingle with all the
 streams  of life,  and  pervade the  extent  of vital
• action.
   It is a fact, admitted by physicians, that  between
 medicine and certain  portions  of the body, an inti-
 mate and specific relation  exists.    Now, if this  be 
143
notorious as it is, will not a general specific become
an universal remedy ? For these consequences must
necessarily follow ;  that while an action is going on
in a diseased organ, if the remedy be only a partial
specific, though it may be  salutary to that particular
organ, it may disturb the  order of health in every
other organ  in the  system, and  create morbid  de-
rangements throughout every other part of the body.
And this very consequence we perceive in mercurial
medicines; while they relieve  the  liver,  or subdue
fever, they  are  creating ulcerations in the mouth
and glands of the throat,  diseasing the bones,  and
exciting deadly tumours in other parts of the body.
The medicines, therefore, which are  partially spe-
cific, are dangerous medicines ; though on this well
known fact, the whole  Materia  Medica is based in
its order and classification.
  Now, a safe medicine must be  a universal specific,
possessing an intimate relation to the  whole body ;
that while removing obstruction from, a particular
organ, it may not  excite  morbid action  in  others.
And such has Dr. Thomson's  medicine urovea -jh
trial.  He has affirmed it to be of that nature ; and
the whole of the experience confirms the fact, that
while removing disease, it produces  no morbid  de-
rangements.
  Arsenic and tartar emetic, as has been found after
death, produces the  most deleterious effects  on  the
stomach;  and yet  they are given  to  remove dis-
ease, and  called excellent remedies; but are now
denounced  by those who are  disposed to purge
the Materia Medica ; as may be seen in the trans-
actions  of the  Royal Society, for  1811  and 1812.
Corrosive sublimate kills, by acting chemically on
the mucus coat of the  stomach ; but arsenic, tartar
emetic,  and  the muriate  of barytes, by entering
the blood. 
144
  The general course of nature,  in accomplishing
its results, is known  to  employ means, which are
proverbially distinguished  by great simplicity  and
uniformity of action.  The mode of curing her com-
plaints, we might suppose, should  be distinguished
by the same uniformity and simplicity.   Dr. Chap-
man, in hi3 Therapeutics, has this  beautiful remark:
" It is more than probable that on some Alpine height,
or along the margin of some mighty stream, which
pervades our wide  spread  continent, there blooms
many a plant,  wasting its virtues ' on the desert air,'
which, were they known, may be peculiarly adapted
to the gigantic form of disease, and capable of re-  ;
ducing the  lengthened catalogue of tlie  opprobria  j
medicarum."   At this period of the progress of these  |
lectures, I cannot help expressing a hope that Dr.
Thomson, from his extensive acquaintance with the
medical  virtues of plants  and herbs, would  make
out, for the sake of neatness and precision  in his
pharmaceutical preparations, a complete  system of
medical botany ;  or a digest of all the  plants, in
classification,  with a particular detail of their effica-
cy and application in removing disease, the mode of
operation and practical results.
   If the immense riches ol medical virtue, inherent
in the plants and flowers of the field, were collect-
ed in one volume, it would realise the aspiring hope
of the great and good Dr. Rush, tlie perfect cure of
all the maladies of the human race.   And the rays
of human thought are converging on this sublime,
and grand, and  awful elevation,  the  perfection of
the  healing art; and  will continue to concentrate
their  energies until the full blaze  of glorious tri-
umph shall burst upon the world.
   From all the instinctive  propensities, and rational
principles of  action, man  is induced to  shun  pain
and misery ; and remove it from himself if attacked,
by the easiest and speediest method possible.   Thia 
145
established  law of our nature would  dispose us, if
left to  our  unbiassed reason, to  examine  and ap-
prove, if found valuable, whatever might  conduce
to our ease  and comfort  in the world.   Whatever
promises to  restore or establish the health of our fel-
low men, excites a glow of general feeling of grati-
tude and thankfulness, in  every benevolent heart;
for we do not live for ourselves alone; we  live and
rejoice in the happiness and joy of our neighbours;
and we pine and die in their misery and destruction.
Homer stated  it  as  a general unqualified maxim.
that " good  men are prone  to shed tears."  The si-
lent streams that  bedew the earth are supplied from
tlie sources  of human benevolence, wept over the
woes of others. The tear  and the smile are char-
acteristic of man ;  they distinguish the  dignity of
human feeling  and that divine sympathy  which  ani-
mates the bosom, and prove-that the glandula? lach-
rymals were not made in vain.
 '  There is  one  part of the new practice, which I
wish to recommend  to general notice ;  Dr. Thom-
son's  method of reducing  the contracted muscles,
in the occurrence of broken bones and luxations.
It is very simple and effectual; and of such power
and influence over the contracted muscles,  that the
patient can  have the bone set, or the luxation re-
duced, almost without any pain.   The great impor-
lance of this simple  practice need not be impressed
on those who have witnessed the agony of setting
bones and reducing luxations in the usual and estab-
lished practice. I have known a  piece of the bone
sawed off, in order to its being set, such  was the
contraction  of  the muscles.  This state  of terrible
suffering to  the patient, and moreover  being render-
ed by it lame for life, was so dreadful to behold, that
Dr. Thomson's simple mode of reducing the mus-
cles, is of itself, sufficient to  immortalize his name,
if he had never made another discovery.
              13 
146
  To the attention of families I would mention and
recommend another  fact in Dr. Thomson's discove-
ries, of great advantage to their comfort and  happi-
ness ; and I appeal now, not only to the feelings and
sensibility of parents, but also to their understand-
ing and experience ; is not the mother the most af-
fectionate and careful nurse of her child ?  Can any
stranger know the disposition, the temperament, the
peculiar idiosyncrasy of that child, equal  to its own
mother?  None.   It is, therefore,impossible for any
physician, upon their own principles, to know either
the quantity or the nature  of the dose  of medicine
to be administered to that child, equal to the mother;
for  they,  not knowing its  peculiar temperament
cannot tell nor foresee  by their  utmost skill, what
will be the operation of that medicine.   It may act
right or wrong, kill or cure.  The mother is the best
qualified to administer, but for one circumstance ; she
is the most tender, watchful, and most perfectly ac-
quainted with the  disposition of her  child, but she
knows not medicine.  Add but this knowledge to all
her other qualifications,  and the mother, for the dis-
eases of infants, would be the best physician  in the
world ; and the best  in the most prevalent diseases
of her whole family.  I  have the  authority of Dr.
Rush for  the  assertion, that a sensible mother, or
nurse, in most of the diseases of children, is supe-
rior to the most of physicians.
  The practice of Dr. Thomson is expressly adapt-
ed  to confer on the mother that only qualification
which she needs, to render her the best  physician,
as she is the best nurse, in her family ; or to bestow
the same skill on  every other member of  it.  For it
is emphatically the realization of  the fact, or the at-
tainment so long sought  after, " let  every man be
his  own physician."   Philosophers and sages, phy-
sicians and patriots, have all subscribed  to the same
maxim. 
147
  Now, Dr. Thomson's system is designed for this
very purpose ; that every family should practice for
itself;  that a knowledge of the' medicine and its ad-
ministration should be as familiar to every family, as
the knowledge and use of their daily bread.
  Dr. Thomson has very  particularly described the
nature and use, and preparation of his medicines, so
that any one possessed of common  sense, can pre-
pare and administer it, with perfect safety and con-
venience.  How great then must be this addition to
the security and happiness of families.  I  will not
even suppose that any can be so hardened, as to be
indifferent to the health and safety of their children.
Now, when the father and mother can administer to
them, and to each other, a medicine safe and effect-
ual  for their  complaints, I ask what must be the
amount of pleasure, the thrill of gratitude to Heaven,
to have in charge the lives of their dear ones, rather
than  be obliged to entrust them to the care of a
stranger ?
  Reflect on this, my dear audience, and ask those
families who possess the right to practise, what they
would take to be bereft of this knowledge, and this
medicine;  make the trial, and  I am convinced you
will meet with answers that will astonish you!  A
gentleman told me  he would not take all the State
of Ohio, to be deprived of the use of this  medicine
in his family ! !  No, because he loved his wife and
children far beyond all the riches of the  world.   I
was deeply impressed by the observation, because it
came unasked, and  with  a sincerity and  solemness
of manner, which I could not mistake. Those who
have tried for years in their families the efficacy of
this medicine, cannot surely be deceived.   Men of
sense and science have made the experiment, and I
have not yet met with one who expressed the least
disappointment; but  on the contrary, declared the
fullest confidence. 
148
   I  hopo ray fellow-citizens  will  weigh  well  the
weight of testimony on the side of this new discove-
ry.   Give it a fair trial, implore the direction of the
God of mercies to direct their decisions and  crown
them with success, and precious lives may  be saved
to adorn society, and be a blessing to  their friends,
and ornaments to their country.
-«®@9««"
             LECTURE XII.

REVIEW OF DR.  THOMSON'S REMEDIES.

  "Fever, of every description, says Dr. Chapman,
has its origin in local irritation, which is spread more
or less, according to circumstances."  " The stomach,
however, from "its central position, and extraordinary
sympathies, seems to be tlie organ  most commonly
at first affected ; and when the morbid action is not
at once arrested, diffuses itself by multiplying trains
of associations, till the disease becomes general, in-
volving in a greater  or less  degree, every part  of
the animal economy."   In this way, he remarks, dis-
eased impressions made on the stomach, are impart-
ed,  generally, in the first place, to the chylopoietic
viscera, to the heart, to the arteries, to the brain,
lungs, skin, capillaries, and other important organs,
until they embrace within their scope the whole ani-
mal machine.
  Now, from this very theory, the  great utility  of
Thomson's medicine is clearly established.  Accord-
ing to this system, the beginning of fever  is irrita-
tion in the stomach, affecting  the organs of chyle, 
149
the heart, and arteries, and ending in -the capillary
vessels.  The two first parts  of Thomson's practice^
are directed particularly, to the first and last of these
troubled organs ;  lobelia, to remove the disease and
irritation from the stomach, and steaming, to remove
the obstruction of the  capillary  vessels, and force
the disease from the interior organs.   Of the power
of lobelia to  cleanse and relieve the  stomach, and
purify the internal  organs, I  have spoken already.
Of the value of steam, nature  herself will teach
man; it being one of the most important channels,
perspiration, by which she throws off the morbific
matter, which weighs down  to the  grave the  op-
pressed and exhausted system. .
   It has been long  since remarked  by  physicians,
that a profuse sweat and calm sleep  were  the  har-
bingers of returning health to their patients; they
indicated the crisis of the disease.   Dr. Thomson's
medicines produce these signs  of gentle health re-
turning immediately; as soon as the operation of
the lobelia and steam has ceased, the  patient sinks
into a quiet slumber, and rouses only to demand food,
to the  great astonishment of  all, who  have not wit-
nessed the fact before;  but have been only acquaint-
ed with the vomits of tartar emetic, and their results.
The source of the disease being thus removed, the
heart  and arteries  are  at once restored to their
healthy action;  the fever ceases, and strength  and
activity are restored.   The man himself is amazed
at the  sudden change.
   " In  treatment of fever, says Dr. Chapman, vene-
section, puking and  purging, are resorted to, to re-
lieve the general circulation.   But the capillaries be-
ing affected, we must resort to medicines acting more
immediately on this  set of vessels; as blisters, dia-
phoretics and mercury; which last, is of universal
operation, pervadinsr every part, and entering every
recess of the body."
              13* 
150
   Now,- the  first of Dr. Thomson's remedies will
accomplish  more than  this all powerful  mercury;
and steaming will act on the capillaries enumerated
by Dr. Chapman, to remove fever ; three for the in-
ternal structure, and three for the external; but one
of the  latter,  mercury, acts universally on  both.
Now, of all  the  six remedies, four, tartar  emetic,
mercury, purges and blisters, increase the cause  of
fever, which Dr. Chapman says, is irritation; the
fifth, venesection, diminishes  the  power of life, and
weakens the force of vital action ; the sixth and last,
diaphoretics, may be considered as the  only one  of
the six which does not exasperate  the cause of feve*,
irritation.   And  this  is, no doubt, the reason why
fevers are so long in  continuance before they are
broken, in the common language  of practitioners.
You may perceive the fever at the beginning, small;
no particular excitement to be regarded as danger-
ous ; but after a few doses of the above  remedies,
the irritation is so increased as to  threaten life ; you
are then told, the disease is  hastening  to a crisis.
But it is strange that the remedy  should  not arrest
the disease, instead of awaiting the crisis.  It is  at
once conceding that the remedies have no power
over the disease;  they cannot  stay its  progress.
Then they am not proper remedies, nor fit to be re-
lied on, by those who have in charge the protection
of human life.
  The remedies of the new practice can be relied
on with  a confidence derived from an experience  of
forty years, in which they have never been known to
fail in removing fever.  This gives confidence to the
practitioner,  and  warrants the assertion, that  they
are superior  to any thing now in practice among the
physicians;  that the citizens  have only to make  a
fair trial to determine for themselves.  To relax the
excretories, in removing disease, Dr. Cullen consid-
ered of the  greatest moment  Steaming, and tha 
151
medicines received into the stomach in Thomson's
practice, relaxes these organs by  producing  a solu-*
tion of all the external and internal obstructions, and
have a power of expelling fever, which  was never
before known.  The vitiated humours and putrefac-
tions caused by morbid action,  are  at  once  purged
out of the system ; a tone of health, and animation,
and serenity of mind ensue, of which a person can
hardly conceive the  amount wno has not witnessed
the operation, and  its consequences.
  The more we examine Thomson's system,  we find
its  principal features agree with the most  popular
and received opinions  of ancient or modern times,
" An opinion universally received, says Dr.  Cullen,
is that noxious matter introduced into, or generated
in tlie body, is the  proximate cause of disease ; and
that the increased  action of the heart  and arteries,
which makes so great a part of fever, is an effort of
the vis medicatrix natural, to expel this morbific mat-
ter, and particularly to change or concoct it,  so as to
render it either altogether innocent, or at least, fit
for being more easily thrown out of the body."  This
doctrine, of as  great antiquity as the first records of
medicine, has been received by almost every school
of physic, down to the present day; and even those
who have  rejected  it  are  obliged  to  speak of the
vitiated humours expelled by the capillary  vessels.
Now, the very essence  of the  botanic  system is to
expel those morbific  humours, together with the cor-
ruption and putrefaction of the  internal diseased  or-
gans ; and  in accomplishing this it has  no parallel.
The coagulated and congealed  pus, and purulent
matter, thrown  off by this medicine from the  system,
would perfectly astonish a stranger to its operation
and its efficacy.
   Whether, therefore,  we consider diseases to  be
occasioned by the  diminished  energy of thftifflfrain ;
by general debility,  direct or indirect; byapasm in 
152
the.extreme  arteries; by lentor, viscidity,  tenuity,
acid, or alkaline acrimony in the mass of the blood;
or morbific matter taken  into,  or generated in, the
system; or impressions on the nerves adverse to life;
it is no matter which of all these be the  cause of
the disease, the remedy here recommended is equals
ly powerful  to  expel it;  because its  operation is
universal over all the organs, healthy and diseased,
to strengthen the one, and purify and restore  the
other.   I know it may look, to those  who  do  not
think deeply, like quack  boasting, to say so much in
praise of this  safe  and  simple  remedy.   But let
those who are  capable of thinking, and who will
take the trouble to think, revolve over the follow-
ing facts:                         ,
   1st.   The  medicine has been  tried by an expe-
rience of upwards of forty years; not on a few dis-
eases,  nor  a few  mild cases, but on every form of
disease incident to  our  country, and on cases  the
most  dangerous and desperate;  on diseases abso-
lutely  incurable by the faculty, and  given up  as
such, by them !  And  yet by the application of this
medicine, they  have  been perfectly cured, or so far
mitigated as to render life,useful and a blessing,
both to the patient  himself, and to his friends and
family.
  2d. This new practice has extended over most of
the Eastern, and many of the Western and  middle
States ; and is still advancing  in power and reputa-
tion.   Even in childbed delivery, a matter never to
be forgotten, their practice has very nearly remov-
ed the pain and punishment from the  daughters of
Eve, threatened to our first progenitor, and entailed
upon her offspring.    A lady of great good sense,
and without the least colouring of imagination, said
it was easier to have five children under the opera-
tion and influence of this new practice, than one,
by the*ether  management and medicine ;  and she 
153
had experience in both cases, and has been support-
ed in the evidence by every one who has  followed
her example.
  3d. The  efficacy of this  medicine has become a
part of the public history of cur country.   The re-
cords of the Legislature of the State of New York,
have  stamped upon  it their high approbation.  It
will  form  an epoch in the  medical  science of the
great republic of the  Western world.   Dr. Thom-
son's system had heen very extensively introduced
into the State of New York, and had met with un-
rivalled success ; which excited the fears  and jeal-
ousies of the  regular physicians.   They,  in order
to protect themselves, prpcured the passing of a law,
the most unjust and  unconstitutional  that could be
imagined, to arrest and extirpate this new  practice,
by  preventing the practitioner from collecting his
fees.  This measure resulted, as might have  been
foreseen, in a country of  equal rights and privileges,
in great excitement, and  numerous petitions to the
Legislature to abolish the  invidious law.  The Legis-
lature appointed a committee  of five of their mem-
bers to examine into the  merits  of the case.   The
official report of this "committee is now on the re-
cords of the House  of Assembly, and becomes  a
part of the public history of the United States.  The
report is too long to be  here quoted, but ends with
this  important particular;  " The practice of Dr.
Thomson  has,  in a great  many instances, proved
beneficial, and in no  case deleterious."  The peti-
tions were sent  in from at least one  half of the
counties of the  State of New York, and were sup-
ported by the evidence of the most respectable and
intelligent men.   Now,  when all these particulars
are  carefully weighed and considered, it will  be
found, they bear with them a testimony as  fully en-
titled to credence, as any thing that ever issued from
the schools; an evidence, such as quackery never 
154
could establish  nor exhibit.  Here are  medicines,
known, tried and described,  in  their  efficacy and
operation.   The legislative wisdom of the first State
of  the  Union, has, by  their committee, after the
strictest scrutiny and investigation, stamped upon
them the seal of  their testimony.   The practice as-
sumes a character altogether distinct from the arts
and devises of deception; with the gravity of phi-
losophy, and the attitude of truth and  benevolence,
it stands before the world.  The scrutiny of friends
and enemies have searched it  through, and there  is
yet no  decisive  testimony where it  has absolutely
failed, unless where death had laid his stern arrest
on  all the doors and passages  of life.
  Physicians rely much on the re-action of the sys-
tem, in the cure of disease.   But in order to secure
this re-action, it is necessary  to preserve the vital
powers of the system;  for  how can  re-action take
place in an exhausted, prostrated condition of the
living powers ?  The conservation of the vital  pow-
ers, or  as  some have termed it the  conservative
power of the animal life, ought to be cherished by
every means, in the treatment of the sick ; and that
practice  will ever be found best  which best pre-
serves the  conservative  power of nature; a  power
that will, of itself, prevail over disease, if not over-
whelmed by a too potent enemy.   I know the advo-
cates of the heroic medicines, have called the timid
and the cautious practice, " a meditation on death !"
But the facts speak for  themselves ;  the  " heroic
medicines" have  left behind them, if not a medita-
tation on death,  " a history  of graves," sufficient to
blast their  reputation, exterminate their  existence,
and alarm every benevolent heart for the welfare of
society.
  Dr. Cullen, in  recounting the remote  causes of
fever, supposes cold to act  in  conjunction with the
unsearchable qualities of the air, in promoting dis- 
155
ease.   In all its operations, he remarks, cold seems
to act more  powerfully  in  proportion as the body,
and particularly the circulation, lose their vigour, or
are debilitated.   The second number  of the new
practice, and No. 6, have more powerful effect, in
counteracting this cold, and supporting the vital heat
of the system, than any thing used in the old prac-
tice.   There is a  kind of, what may be called,  the
tyranny of fashion, in medicine, as in all other things.
The "heroic medicines," have become so fashiona-
ble, that though  they should kill and deface, it is of
no  account; still  they are heroic medicines! and
the patient,  if he dies, dies heroically.
  Were I to recouut the invaluable  advantages of
this new system, it might astonish the ignorant, and
admonish the wise ; while both would be drawn into
an extensive field of remark and meditation.
   1st. It abolishes the intolerable lumber of Nosolo-
gy, and  symptoms, habits,  temperaments, diathesis,
prognostics, and critical days, about which  volumes
have  been written, and millions of lives sacrificed.
  2d.  It purges from the Materia  Medica, all  the
useless,  and what is of infinitely more importance,
the poisonous and pernicious remedies.
   3d.  It reduces  the idle and endless  details of
pathological ingenuity, respecting the remote, excit-
ing, predisposing, and  proximate causes of disease,
to one simple cause, morbid action, or obstruction.
   4th. It has abolished the uncertainty of practice ;
which has  always been evinced by the change of
medicines,  adopted by the regular practitioners;  a
tacit  confession that they knew not what remedy
 would remove the disease.   And when they thought
 they  had discovered the proper remedy, that remedy
 was but too often the messenger of death.   The
 cold  hand  of the  destroyer  was  upon the patient,
 which was  mistaken for the departure of the fever.
 I will instance the example of Dr. Rush, in tlie  yel- 
156
 low fever;  he thought he  had discovered, in blood-
 letting, an infallible specific,  and proclaimed to the
 citizens of Philadelphia, that he had  the  fever re-
 duced, under the practice, as  completely as  a com-
 mon cold;  that they might  safely return to their
 homes.   But, alas!  look  at the results! bleeding
 was certain death to the poor, suffering patient; life
 sunk in proportion as the vital stream was exhaust-
 ed.    They might have had a  more easy bed, but
 they had  certainly a more speedy death.  Everyone
 is now convinced of the fatal consequences of bleed-
 ing in that  stage of fever;  and yet, that venerable
 physician, so eminent for  his  skill and success in
 practice,  believed it to be  a  sovereign  remedy; at
 least, he never contradicted his former assertions.
   There is one criterion which physicians seem to
 have overlooked; that when their  practice  aggra-
 vates the  disease, or hastens death, they may  be sure
 it is wrong.   And yet, this they seem never  to have
 considered with due attention ; ascribing to the dis-
 ease, what they ought to  attribute  to the remedy.
 They appear  to have  lulled their consciences, and
 pursued their course,  although it led  down  to the
 chambers of death.   Far be  it from me, to  impute
 the want of humanity, or a disposition to destroy, to
 a class of learned and respectable men.   But cer-
 tainly, we may affirm, in the spirit  of charity, that
 when they find a remedy not only failing to produce
 the desired effects, but absolutely producing deform-
 ity and death, it ought to be discarded.   A remedy
 worse  than the disease, is  no remedy ; it may hold
 the rank by prescription, but it is an authority as un-
 hallowed as  the tyranny of Eastern depots.
  The rich are able to afford  to  nurse  their com-
 plaints and  pay their  physicians; the poor can do
neither.   This is the true reason, and not credulity,
why  they  are prone to employ quacks ; they are
promised a safe and speedy cure, at  small expense. 
                      157

Their  necessities,  and  not  their want of sense,
force them to run the risk;  and dearly do they of-
ten  pay  for their confidence.  Still, the principle
which  urges them on to the adventure is a good
principle ; and the feeling,  one of the most noble in
human nature,  the  love of independence. In  the
trial they are  moreover  influenced by a  principle,
which has in all ages operated equally on the learn-
ed  and unlearned;  that  the  Deity  has placed  the
remedies  for disease within the reach Of man;  not
far from any of us, had we  but the skill or the good
fortune to discover them.  When a new remedy is,
therefore, published, there  is a  natural impulse in
every mind to  try its efficacy; and  if the rich  and
the learned are more cautious than the poor, it is be-
cause they are  not urged on by the same necessity;
;&nd not because they have  not the very same incli-
nation.   The pride  of learning, and the pride of
wealth, may stand in the way ; but God has formed
our hearts alike.  And this universal sentiment, im-
pressed upon the hearts of  mankind, is like the ar-
gument for the  immortality of the soul, a proof that
the remedy exists, and shall  be  discovered in  due
time.  And the  very  existence of  quackery,  like
false bills, is a proof of the true, that the genuine
remedy exists, and  shall come  forth, not from the
schools and colleges, but from the casual discoveries
of the people;  the  result  of chance or necessity.
Quackery never could  have existed  but for this in-
nate sentiment of man.  Every deception practised
on the human family, in  the  healing  art,  has been
predicated on  this  principle  of  the  human breast.
If it were a fact tnat we believed the cure of  dis-
ease could only issue from the wisdom of the schools,
quackery might proclaim his skill in vain; not a soul
would lend him a single moment's regard.  But the
very contrary is the  fact; we feel it as a part of our
nature, that remedies the most powerful and effica-
             14 
158
cious, are scattered round the paths of our feet; and
in an instant may be  discovered, like  the Tyrian
dye, without labor or  learning.   A  discovery  that
will not, indeed, clothe kings and courts in purple;
but will clothe them in health and peace, and banish
disease from the inhabitants of the earth.
  Dr. Rush was deceived by one of his former pu-
pils, Dr. Brown, of  Pittsburg; who  returned  to
Philadelphia and informed  his former  tutor and
friend, that he had discovered a vegetable remedy
for cancers, which was an affectual and  safe cure.
The good and benevolent Dr. Rush was transported
with the idea that this terrible  disease at last had
found an antidote, well knowing the deleterious ef-
fects  of arsenic, and  its inefficacy  to  remove the
complaint.   But, alas, he was  sadly  disappointed.
Dr. Brown died; Dr.  Rush bought up  the remedy,
and as his former pupil refused  to inform him of its
nature or composition,  he resorted to an analyzation
of the substance, and found, to his  great mortifica-
tion, it was but the arsenic disguised by some  sim-
ple, useless, brown bark  of a tree!
  This is a  proof, fqpm  no common man, that the
cure for cancer,  might be the result of chance ra-
ther than study.  Nor  did the deception, in this
instance, remove that  confidence; he still believed
to his dying hour, that discoveries  in a very simple
manner, would be made, to cure cancer and all oth-
er diseases.  Let not the poor then  be charged
with credulity.   They  exercise a principle on which
the faith and hope of the great and  learned have
revolved, in every  age  of the  world.  But decep-
tion, like false gold, is  capable  of certain detection
and infallible exposure.  It only requires  us to be-
ware, and not to be too hasty in our conclusions; to
6ever the deceiver from  the man of integrity and
virtue. 
159
  The people are not  to be blamed for  their great
caution in admitting the Thomsonian practice ; the
only blame  attaches to that  kind  of hostility and
vengeance by which it has been pursued ; the de-
ception practised upon society, under the  name  of
remedies, require caution in the people, and warn
the multitude to  beware.  But so far from showing
hostility, the course which nature and common sense
prescribe, is to carefully listen to the narrative  of
the discoverer; examine his medicine and his cures.
Let every case be stated with candor and impartial-
ity ; the state of  the patient, the duration of his dis-
ease, the remedies he has used, and their effects up-
on him ; his  state when the new practice commenced
with him, and its  operation and consequences.  This
is but a fair specimen of trial, and the way in which
all the regular physicians proceed;  when called  to
difficult and doubtful cases they write out an exact
history of the patient and his disease, the course of
treatment he has  pursued, the state in which they
find him, the plan of their own remedies, their fail-
ure or success ; as an admonition or encouragement
for future practice!
  Now, I am thoroughly  convinced from all the in-
formation which I have been  able  to obtain  on this
subject that, were Thomson's practice submitted to
the same fair and impartial trial, it would be found,
I will not say a remedy for all diseases, but it would
be found to alleviate the most inveterate, to cure the
most doubtful  and dangerous, to injure  none; and
where it  failed,  it failed  from the   obvious reason,
that death  had already laid his cold and icy hand
upon the life of the patient
  There is  nothing in the history of quackery, to  be
at all compared  to Thomson's discoveries;  every
thing in his Narrative carries with it the face and air
of an honest man, acting  for the good of his coun-
try, and desirous, like other men, to live by the hon- 
160
 est industry or profession of a new systewof curing"
 disease, a profession which,  if it shall be found on
 a universal trial to be  as beneficial asr  its high
 and early promise  has inspired, his country never
 can repay, nor the  world calculate  the price.  It is
 not supposed that this system has arrived at perfec-
 tion ; or at  all attained to that state of pre-eminent
 elevation, which it  shall yet assume ; but  we believe
 the foundation is laid of a system of cure, suscepti-
 ble of advancing, until it shall comprehend the wants
 and miseries of the human race, in the  extent and
 compass of their diseases.
   Dr. Thomson had this opinion from  the effects he
 himself had seen;  and his  Narrative is convincing
 from its very form and features.  He tells us he was
 illiterate, and he was poor;  oppressed by a young,
 helpless,  and sickly  family; the  practice pursued
 did not agree with  their constitutions, nor diseases;
 he was, from nature, inclined, to try the virtue  and
 operation of plants ; the gift of healing,, it  was im-
 pressed upon his mind, God had given to him ; ne-
 cessity, when his family was dying, forced him  to
 try; he was successful; success encouraged him to
 go on;  his neighbors applied  to him in the hour of
 calamity; he relieved their complaints, his time was
 consumed, his  reward nothing ; he consulted with
 his wife and friends, whether he should abandon the
 practice, or  abandon his farm and: yield to these pur-
 suits ; he  was counselled to follow his own  inclina-
 tion.  Still believing he had a caH from Providence,
 and a degree from the God of nature, he commenc-
 ed, in form, the healing art   His cause and claims
 are before the  world;  laid before the Government
of his country ; his  remedies submitted to the expe-
rience  of scientific  men, and eminent physicians,
tried by a jury of his country for his cure?, and even
perjury  could not substantiate a plea against him I 
161
This is something very  different from  all the pre-
tensions to the heahng  art ever yet set up in the
world.
""•**©^P®4*]*"
            LECTURE  XIII.

"aTIIE  POWER  OF  THE  THOMSONIAN
                 REMEDIES.
  Dr. Brown,  in recommending his system, said,
\he theories of disease  were so tedious, uncertain
 and incomprehensible, that he  despaired of success,
 and sunk into apathy.   There is  certainly great
 truth,  and much matter for meditation, in the re-
 mark.   It must be distressing to  a  feeling mind to
 perceive, after many years  spent  in study,  the poor
 success of all his efforts in the healing  art.   In Dr.
 Rush's remarks on Dr. Sydenham, I was much struck
 with the great uncertainty  of  medical knowledge,
 and the little progress of medical science.   Dr.
 Rush  says  of that  eminent physician, Sydenham,
 " he first took the cure of disease out of the hands
 of nature;  his remedies were either altogether new,
 or they were used in a manner before  unknown to
 other physicians!"  Remedies altogether  new, or
 used in a manner before  unknown, would certainly,
 at least in  the judgment of Dr. Rush, go to estab^
 lish the  fact, that the  medical practice  had been
 wrong from the beginning of the world, and  only put
 on the garb of truth in England in the  seventeenth
 century, under the highly favored Sydenham.
  These observations on the treatment of disease
 by medical writers, and the sad  -failure so often ob-
 vious in critical cases, and what are called new dis-
             14* 
162
eases, will more than justify all that has been utter1-*
ed by Dr. Thomson in praise  of his remedies.  He
was drawn before the public eye at a period when a
new disease threatened to desolate the country; the
physicians were not  successful in their treatment;
great alarm and excitement prevailed ; he exhibited
his remedies, and was every where successful I  The
mortal rage of  a wide spreading epidemic was ar-
rested in its course, and health re-visited the land.
  The alarming disease referred  to  above, at Al-
stead and.Walpole, was called the yellow fever J it
continued for  forty days, and was very fatal; the"
physicians losing half their patients.   Dr. Thomson
lost not one!  In cold, plague  and dysentery, he had
the same success.  Now, the  practice which so ev-
idently surpassed the whole professional art,  must
have been not only above all  praise, but a general
blessing to the human race.   The time  will come,
said the incomparable  Hooker,  when three words
spoken in  charity and meekness, will receive far
more blessed reward than 3,000 words  with disdain-
ful  wit and bitterness of spirit.   With charity and
meekness then, let us examine the causes why cer-
tainty and perfection have not attended the progress
of medical practice.
  1st.  Man is naturally prone  to theories, for to
think, is to theorize, says Dr.  Cullen, and pursuing
the bent of his inclination,  he is more disposed to
reason than to act; to speculate than to experiment;
to found a system  rather on argument than obser-
vation ; and hence his real  knowledge of the cure
of disease bears no proportion to  the  extent of his
science; formed in the  schools, rather  than the sick
chamber, he is much  more of  a philosopher than a
physician, and could  measure the distance of a star
better than the depth of a disease.
  2d. The systems  of philosophy to which  they
were attached, influenced the practice and theory 
163
of the physicians ; one intermixed the philosophy of
Plato, another of Epicurus, and a third of Aristotle.
The classification of plants and animals, led to the
classification of  disease ;  and the atoms  of  De-
mocritus, and transmigrations of Pythagoras, found
their way into the pathology of the medical schools.
It is equally curious and  admonitory, to  trace  the
history of medicine, and observe  how curiously the
ancient phylosophy  is interwoven with the curative
art, and mingled Up with  the  human system.   All
this, certainly, has not only the  appearance of learn-
ing, but is  learning itself; it evinces great refine-
ment and  cultivation of mind, progress  in knowl-
edge  and  the  wisdom of science.  But is  all this
calculated  to aid  in the  cure of disease ?  may  not
a long life  be spent in obtaining knowledge,  and yet
the  particular knowledge, necessary  to a skillful
practitioner be far distant ?
  Conversing with one of the most candid and  kind
physicians  whom I have ever known,  on  this very
subject he  at last replied, " well you must confess,
that if we  have not advanced the certainty of med-
ical practice, we  have  advanced science."  That  I
readily granted;  and  I  now add with  much pleas-
ure, that some of the most able and scientific  men
I have ever known, were physicians ; but they were
more devoted to philosophy than to their patients ;
and could  converse much better on Newton's Prin-
cipia, than on the cure of disease.  A taste for learn-
ing, and a  disposition for watching  the  painful pro-
gress of  disease, through all the slow and lingering
stages of  diathesis  and death, are very different
qualities  of mind.
  Man from the very activity of his nature, is prone
to overlook the most simple  and obvious truths, in
order to rush to some  far distant and unknown dis-
covery.   Animals, when  they have  satisfied  the
wants of nature, and the calls  of appetite, lie down 
164
and sleep; but man continues awake to contemplate
the universe,  and survey the busy  scenes around
him.  Himself, the first of all objects of contempla-
tion, he generally knows least and last of all.  How
slow in its progress was the philosophy of mind, in
comparison  of other  systems  of science; almost
within our own age, it  first assumed the garb or
semblance of truth.  The soul, that thinking thing
within us, the  most valuable and important, it^might
have been supposed  would have been better under-
stood than any other object of thought; but the re-
verse was the  fact   Will not this account for the
fact in the, language of Lord Bacon, that  medicine
was labored but  not improved;  that its  advance-
ment was in a circle, and not in progression ?
  The new school of France seems to be well aware
of this truth, and  have retired back to the  simplici-
ty of nature ;  to  those days of primitive  manners,
when the dietetic schools spread its doctrines abroad
for the relief of man.  If you ask the French pro-
fessors  what is the  best  mode of curing  disease !
they will answer  you  like the  Greek orator,  when
it was inquired what was the first  essential in elo-
quence ? he answered action : and what the second ?
action:  and what the third ?  action: So would the
physician of Paris, if it  were  inquired  what was
the first requisite in curing disease, they  would an-
swer  diet; and the  second ?  diet; and the third?
diet!
  These important truths directly disprove the utili-
ty of  the present mode of medical practice, that the
system of man never intended to  be  drenched with
medicine to relieve its complaints.  That the heroic
medicines, and all the 20,000 articles  of the Materia
Medica, are a mere  artificial system of cure, as hos-
tile to nature  and life, as cramming the   stomach
with an hundred kinds of food, is  to tlje  health and
growth of the  infant  How  simple is the  nourish- 
165
 tnent provided for that dear little infant  that drops
 into the world;  and should not its sickness be re-
 moved  by a medicine equally  simple and conve-
 nient ?   We might reason from the benevolence of
 the Deity, a priori, that as food  and medicine were
 the essentials of life, the one to  support health, and
 the other to  restore it when lost,  that the Divine
 Goodness  would equally  provide  for  both, in the
 most ample and accessible manner.  The  first we
 know he has supplied in great abundance and profu-
 sion ; and  can we doubt Him on the last ?  No !  it
 would evince hostility against all his plans,  and con-
 tradict  our own experience.   We can never be
 brought to submit to the mortifying  conclusion,  that
 Deity, who has spread out  this  vast continent.; es-
 tablished it as an empire of freedom for  the rights
 and the liberty of man; that he has filled it  with
 the exuberance  of his goodness, in the vast, abun-
 dance provided  to  supply  the need of every thing
 that lives, so that we may say in the language of the
Toyal Hebrew poet "to any nation  never, He  such
goodness did  afford ; " that  He has after all  this,
left our country destitute of the one essential of life,
 medicine, to cure our diseases!  Must we go to Eu-
 rope to  import mineral poisons?  Must the. wealth
 of the country be sent abroad to  bring  among us
 the instruments of death ?  Must we pay, with  our
 substance and our lives, for aching  bones, deformed
 countenances, emanciated  bodies, and ruined  con-
 stitutions ?  And has the Deity  reduced  us to  this
 dilemma ?  He, whose goodness  is pre-eminent over
all His other works  ?  He who  has done so  much
for us, crowning the years with his  bounty  and  fill-
 ing the  heart with  gladness?  Has He  neglected
this only one good thing, a safe and  simple  cure for
our,own diseases, placed in our own country?  No]
he  has  not, we  never can  believe  it!  no never!
jueyerJ  aever!  The remedies are  here ; they  are 
166
spread over the plains and mountains in abundance ;
they surround every cottage, and bloom round every
cabin, over this vast and trackless wilderness.  The
cities and the navigable streams have them crowd-
ing on their verge and their vicinity,  inviting the
eye  and the hand to  gather  them!   Blessed pro-
vision !   Shall we neglect  our own mercies,  and
from the mere force  of habit, or strength of preju-
dice, adhere to the mad remedies of Paracelsus, and
the dogmas of Hoffman and Cullen?
  Dr. Thomson has led the way to an  examination
and reliance on the plants of otrr own  country, the
part of philosophy and  patriotism, the course of
wisdom and prudence, all must understand.  It can-
not lessen the dignity nor detract from the merit
of the most exalted, to examine  with care and can-
dor, the  discoveries of this student of nature, who
had the wilderness for  his academy, and the flowers
of the field for his instructers.  It has been said, and
perhaps with more truth than is  generally conceded
to the remark, that the reason why the  first poets so
far  excelled in their pictures of nature; in sublimity
and flights of imaginations, was, bee&nse they had
little else to study but the book  of Nature; they
were not led aside from the  splendid  scenery and
magnificence of the creation  of God,  to  cull the
feeble  flowers of man's  production.  The  school
that forms a poet may form  a physician.   If the
poet sees and feels, the physician may taste and un-
derstand.  Search all  the records  of  all the innu-
merable and nameless  nations which overturned the
Roman Empire; they  were hardy,  healthy, power-
ful  tribes ; their  doctors  were of the  Thomsonian
school.   If it is replied, that their health depended
on their mode of life,  and not the  power  of their
medicines, the answer  is at hand ; this is partly true
and partly not!  They were liable to severe diseas-
es, to wounds, and accidents, and casualities  of va- 
167
rious kinds; and their physicians were more expert
in the cure of wounds, of burns, of sores,  ulcers
and fevers, than any thing now known in medical
practice.  They could  extract  the pain from a burn
almost in an instant; and heal it though burned to the
bone, in a very short time, with certainty and safety.
  There could be no good reason assigned, but the
same   powerful  remedies  which can  quickly  heal
burns, and wounds, and ulcers, and gangrenous sores,
may also heal the diseased  viscera of the afflicted
patient.  In the botanic remedies this is a real fact;
the same medicines applied to  the wound, or ulcer,
or bruise, is also taken into the  stomach at tlfe same
time,  and greatly facilitates the external cure.  An
application is made at once to the local disease and
the whole system.  The finger  or the toe  is wound-
ed, the remedy is applied to the place, and adminis-
tered to the patient at the same time,  though  other-
wise in perfect health.  That is entirely new in the
history  of medicine,  a  discovery as exclusively
Thomsonian, as his lobelia, or his bitter herb.   Phy-
sicians never  once dreamt of this mode of practice,
rf a person had a wounded toe, to administer a dose
of medicine when  there  was  no fever.  But Dr.
Thomson, acting on the true philosophic principle  of
the unity of man and of disease, whatever might be
the external injury, fever or no fever, administered
his medicine also to the stomach; and thus found by
administering to  the functions, and supporting the
vital actions that he performed  a cure  of the injured
part with vast rapidity beyond the slow progress  of
the usual practice.  He  also, by this mode of cure,
prevented  gangrene  and  grievous  suppuration,
which otherwise  might  have  taken  place, to  the
great danger of the patient and the lengthening out
of his calamity.
  It was very  common in the established practice if
the injury was serious, to let blood as a preventive  of 
168
fever.   Now, I appeal to the commori sense of matt-
kind, whether in point of rationality, this practice is
to be compared to Thomson's.  A man receives an
injury in perfect health ; the physician in order to
cure him, begins by inflicting on him a second injury,
drawing off his blood ;  and perhaps  a  third} by dos-
ing him with calomel.   Now, to thus disorder  and
destroy the vital powers, is it any wonder that the
patient sickens, the wound  gangrenes, and life is in
the utmost jeopardy.  If tlie patient  escapes, it is
with an amputated  limb, or a broken constitution.
Dr. Thomson, in similar circumstances, draws  no
blood, gives no mercury, sickens not his patients by
hostile remedies, but administers a remedy congeni-
al to nature, and all the  vital functions.  The vis vi-
tal is strengthened  and invigorated  to  save  the
wounded limb, and support the patient above the dii-
athesis of death.  If* this be not true philosophy and!
wisdom, we may exclaim with the patriot,  "O  vir-
tue, thou art but an empty name ! "
   Dr. Donaldson who  practised many years in the*
East  says  he was  well  assured  by a gentleman
who had travelled extensively through the  empire
of Hindostan, that he  never met  with  a  person
maimed or bereft of a limb ; for such was their mode:
of cure, that  they  could  save the most severely
wounded or shattered bone, without being forced to
resort to amputation.   Thomson's  practice  in  the
West,  promises to establish the same results, and
proceeds on the  same principles.  The remedy in
both instances, is a Vegetable medicine poured upon
the wound and administered to the stomach.  In-
flammation  and gangrene,  and even  pain, are ex-
cluded by the power of  the remedy.  In this city, a
child had his leg shattered by a cart  running over
him;  the neighbors assembled, as usual on such
occasions, and called for a surgeon  immediately to
amputate the limb^  One of the botanic doctors hap- 
169
pened to be passing by; he proposed to save the
limb ; but was laughed to scorn.   The parents, how-
ever, distressed at the thoughts of the pain and mu-
tilation  of the child, agreed to let him make the
trial.  He first gave the child some medicine ; fixed
and tied up the shattered bone as well as he  could;
poured the liquid on it; gave the  child more  med-
icine ;  left directions to pour at  intervals on the
wound and give to tlie child till he fell asleep ; in a
short time the agony abated, and the child fell into
a sweet refreshing sleep; slept ten hours, awoke in
fine health, never complained of pain more, and in
a very  short  time  was  perfectly  well.  The limb
straight and as strong as the other.
  And this is not the only instance ; there are very
many which might  have been enumerated. And  it
Ls firmly believed by the most judicious and upright
men, conversant with the practice, that were  it uni-
versally to prevail,  the  use of the knife would be
banished from America as well as  India, in cases of
wounds and broken limbs !  Of what immense val-
ue would this practice be in tlie  army  and navy of
our country, should we  have another warp  which
Heaven forbid !  How many valuable men would be
saved to their country, by this medicine, which the
knife now sends to an untimely grave ?  The sword
devours but few beyond the numbers of the surgeon.
The campaign  of  Napoleon in Russia, will  show
that the work of death  was but half done, when the
roar of the cannon and  the musket had passed away
from the field of battle  ; the surgeons came to am-
putate, and how few survived of that mighty multi-
tude who passed beneath the knife ! I blame not the
physicians of the West; they had no better practice
among  them.  And I  appeal to  India, land  to the
known  fact of  Dr. Thomson's  practice,  to  show
that the evil may be avoided; and should  pride and
             15 
170
 prejudice stand for a  moment in the way of a bless-
 ing so great and beneficial to our country ?
   Dr. Donaldson  mentions  two other facts of the
 Eastern practice, which  go to  illustrate and estab-
 lish the claims of Thomson.  The first is, he says
 the Indian doctors can cure fever in one day, with
 mathematical  certainty:  and  the  most obstinate
 cases in two days at most.  Vegetable remedies are
 the only ones in use ; and such is their power, that
 they fairly astonish the European  physicians.  The
 second remark is, that mercury has obtained in the
 Indian practice of the English  physicians for about
 fifty years, and with  the most fatal and terrible ef-
 fects.   Some physicians  discovered, or thought they
 had discovered, that mercury was good in acute dis-
 eases ; notwithstanding they still persevered in their
 prescriptions, with death staring them in  the face ;
 and exhibit their mercury as if it was as innocent as
 breast milk.
   Dr. Donaldson regards it with a kind  of horror,
 and  hopes by  way of  consolation  to  his afflicted
 mind, " that there are still left in India, men  of suf-
 ficient humanity and independence of mind, to break
 through the established rules and modes of practice,
 and commence a new era iu the history of medical
 science."
   Dr. Thomson never decried the  use of mercury
 so vehemently as  Dr. Donaldson; for he had not
 witnessed  its  horrible effects in the burning, sultry
 soil of India, as  Donaldson had done.  The  action
 of the mercury on  the  heart and  arteries, in  that
 climate so adverse to life, was such that it seemed
 to turn the whole system of the blood into  a mass
 of putrefaction in a few  hours.  Yet such  is the
 force of habit, or the delusion of prejudice, that the
majority of practitioners still persevere in adminis-
tering this deadly poison.
  What shall we  say to these things ?  Alas!  we
must leave them amongst those inscrutiblo  myste- 
171
ries  of the human mind, which led the pious pil-
grims of New  England  to  imprison  the  Quakers,
and burn the witches !  There are many anomalies
in man; and the  history  of religion and medicine,
furnish us with some  sad and mournful examples.
In this respect,  however, the  human mind is fast
advancing in the march of wisdom, and holding her
proud and princely course to reach the blaze of sci-
ence.  It is very usual to declaim against the age
as deteriorating from the  standard of ages past; but
in this respect, at least,  it  is surely  advancing in
reputation and profound judgment.
  The action of all medicine depends on the  state
of the living powers, and  the  stomach which re-
ceives it!   The remark  is  as old as Hippocrates.
" Medicine, said that  venerable  sage, has no power
in itself; it will not act on the dead, but on the liv-
ing ; and its action will be in proportion to the  state
and  condition of the living subject."   Hence, the
danger always in the use of dangerous remedies.
The state of the stomach can never be thoroughly
known; it  cannot be ascertained what will be the
operation of the medicine, until it is too late to pre-
vent it  Mercury, or tartar emetic, is given to one
patient and do very well; administered  to another,
and they produce the most  dangerous or fatal re-
sults.  For it cannot be   foreseen what will be the
operation until the trial be made. Is there no  safe-
ty then, you will ask, in administering the heroic
medicine ?   None !  There  never  can be certain
safety in administering  poisons  to the human sys-
tem ; they  may act right  and they may  act wrong.
If they have not the desired effect, they are absorb-
ed  by the system; and then  farewell to health!
farewell forever to  the tranquil  mind, the peaceful
slumbers, and the rejoicing heart!   The feeble and
emaciated  frame, the  sinking pulse, the trembling
and fluttering heart, and shattered nerves, all testify 
172
that firm health has fled forever!   It  is a maxim
founded on truth and experience that  there  can be
nothing  safe in medical practice, but  that which
is not poisonous ; and then  no matter what  may be
the state of the system, or the condition of the  sto-
mach ; no evil can possibly ensue.  The patient is
safe in every event.  If his case  is not made better
it is not rendered  worse.   He has  not  to strive
against the physician and the  disease.
   In this very city, but yesterday, a  physician ad-
ministered  to his  own daughter a dose  of tartar
emetic; it did not operate  according  to tlie inten-
tion of the prescriber; the  father  then gave  her
twenty grains of calomel; it  threw her  into dread-
ful spasms, and her life  was  despaired of.   In  this
deplorable dilemma the wretched father, who thought
he had killed his own  child, sent immediately for a
botanic doctor, and his remedies.  The  young lady
was instantly relieved; was  out of danger  in four
hours, and  next day  was  able  to leave her bed!
She then declared  that  no  other medicine  but the
Thomsonian, should ever again  be  given to her;
she seemed to be convinced  it had saved  her life.
The new remedies have more in their favor than is
generally supposed.  Those who are  not hostile to
them, say they  are good in some cases, or they are
good for nothing, and this last seems to be the most
general  belief.  Some  indeed, affirm them to  be
rank poisons.  The accusation, however, is fast dy-
ing away ;  and a physician is  now ashamed to com-
mit his understanding, by affirming that  lobelia  is a
rank poison.  But none believe, but those who have
seen the  trial, that  these Thomsonian remedies are
more powerful  and rapid in  their  operation  than
those of  the  established practice.  In convulsions,
in spasms, in cramp of the stomach, in bleeding of
the lungs and stomach, in  fainting, and various dis-
eases, which  require rapid  relief, the  medicine  haa 
173
been tried often in this city, and with the most spee
dy and happy results.  A  gentleman, taken with a
bleeding of the stomach, sent for a  physician ; but
his family being afraid he  would die before the phy-
sician could arrive, sent for a steam doctor, who was
his neighbor.  He stopped the bleeding immediate-
ly; two  physicians arrived, and  confessed his life
had been saved by the application.
  There is not any  thing, perhaps, in use, which
will as soon relieve the system as this medicine ; and
to penetrate a diseased organ or purify the internal
structure, it has not yet been  equalled.
  Facts are the true and faithful witnesses to decide
controversy.  The cause  of Thomson is on trial at
the bar of public opinion and public  scrutiny.  His
friends try, of course, to defend it, and his enemies,
to impugn it.  But the public may easily decide for
themselves.  The  examination  and the testimony is
within their grasp ;  and certainly the subject cannot
be of indifference to  any  who regard the  health of
their families and friends.
■•»9@d<«-
            LECTURE  XIV.

 THE  EXTENT  OF THE THOMSONIAN
                 REMEDIES.

  Aw objection to the Thomsonian practice, con-
sidered  unanswerable  by its impugners is, that he
has only one remedy for  every disease ; this they
conceive to be the very essence of quackery.  This
objection  is, however, susceptible  of  two  distinct
solutions^ which, if.they do not satisfy, will at least
             15* 
174
weigh deep in the balance, with every dispassionate
mind.   The  first is  derived from  Dr.  Sydenham
himself, who says the Materia  Medica  is swelled
beyond all reasonable bounds;  and that two-thirds
of its articles are worse than useless.  Indeed, the
eternal multiplication of remedies, till the under-
standing is lost and confounded in the mass, reminds
one of Sir.  Anthony's devils.   Twenty thousand
tormented the good  saint  Dut  they were  so small
and intangible that the whole legion could dance a
saraband  on the finest point of a lady's needle, with-
out involving or jostling each other!  Of what avail
can a vast innumerable  class of articles  be to a
practitioner, who must either relieve his  patient im-
mediately, or see him sink into the  grave.   There
is no time to try experiments,  when life is ebbing
with the  rapidity of  the  flowing  minutes.   No!
the remedy must be  sure, and speedy, and safe, or
death is only hastened in  his course.   The  second
answer to this objection, I shall  take  from an au-
thority no less than Dr.  Rush himself; when lectur-
ing on the infallible certainty of medical science, yet
to be attained, he remarked, nature was simple in all
her operations!  He  had no doubt but the most sim-
ple remedies were to be  discovered ;  some  lonely
weed trampled in the earth, might furnish  a cure,
which had baffled all the wisdom of the  schools.
Bread and water were the  simple  aliment  of food,
not to this man nor that man; but to the  whole in-
habitants of the earth; could not the God of nature,
who placed the food  and drink of man  in low sim-
ple  elements, also plaee  his medicine in some of the
most untried plants or flowers of the field ?   These
answers are as  full of wisdom  as they are replete
with experience. They were made by two of the
most celebrated  physicians  of the age in  which
they  lived, and have still common sense and  ex-
perience upon their  side.  Another answer  might 
175
he  here added, from the fact of medical practice.
It is well known to all practitioners that out of all
the articles of the Materia Medica, very few are in
general use ; six or seven remedies are about the
extent of the general  range of the physician's ap-
plications. The heroic medicines are the chief and
general  resort in all  diseases.  What  advantage
then, in point of fact, have the volumes of the Ma-
teria Medica over the  simple numbers  of Thomson.
  There is something  very imposing in the classic
names, and learned disquisitions  of the recorded
remedies of the schools ; and so there  is something
very imposing in the splendor of an Eastern despot,
compared with the plain and simple manners of the
President of these United  States; but whether of
these is the better man, the world will judge, and
history on her true and faithful page, will leave her
infallible testimony.  So shall the Thomsonian rem-
edies.  It is useless to be angry, to decry  or rail
against them; if the  people find them  useful and
effectual in healing their diseases, science may fight
against them in vain.  If they are found not effica-
cious, it will not require art nor learning to put them
down ; they will sink, like all other  folly and impo-
sition, by their own worthlessness.  It is admitted
on all hands, that medicine needs improvement; let
it not then be rejected, though furnished  by a hum-
ble  instrument, and coming unadorned by the drape-
ry of science.
  Dr.  Reynolds says, "we suspect every  theory
which p»poses to conduct the cure  of disease on a
few general principles."  A  few general principles
conduct  the  whole  nourishment of the  body, and
why not the cure  of  its diseases?  In  the body,
there are many classes of organs and functions, sol-
ids and fluids ; a strange and eurious whole, compos-
ed  of many parts.  And  yet a simple food taken
into the stomacK, will nourish all these, supply  eve- 
176
 ry ligament, cartilage, and bone, and th° whole vis-
 cera, with  its appropriate nutriment.  Why not a
 unity in the mode of cure, in the remedy provided,
 as well as a unity in the body itself, a unity in dis-
 ease, a unity in nourishment, a  unity in  feeling, in
 sympathy, and in every thing connected with man.
 Take the strongest man, expose him to cold, and he
 takes a fever, not in this  or that part, but fever all
 over, throughout the whole system ; and yet the sys-
 tem was only partially exposed to cold.  When the
 proximate cause of disease affects the  whole sys-
 tem, why may not a single remedy affect the whole
 system in removing disease ? The  parity of argu-
 ment is on the side of the unity  of cure.  It is, sup-
 ported by the same facts which demonstrate the uni-
 ty of disease.
   The wise man has  beautifully observed, "that a
 few words  fitly  spoken,  are like apples of gold in
 pictures of silver!"  A few general principles well
 established, are  of  infinitely more  importance in
 the business of life, than ten thousand compilations
 and collections  destitute of practical utility.   Of
 what avail  to the practice  of  medicine has been
 the  intolerable load of nosology, of pathology, of
 signs and symptoms, and types and stages ?  Worse
 than  nothing!   They  have only  bewildered  the
 practitioner,  parajized  his efforts, and confounded
 his reason.   The two  thousand names  of  disease,
 carry  absurdity  and  contradiction  in their very
 front.  Disease is but the departure  of the  system
 from its healthy state; and it would  be as  wise to
 talk of two hundred thousand departures, as  of two
 thousand.  The causes  of disease  are equally un-
 reasonable and unknown.   Have  any  two  physi-
 cians ever yet agreed upon the  remote, the excit-
 ing, predisposing, and proximate causes of disease ?
 Never!  for they do not know them, and how then
can they agree!   Men may reason about uncertain- 
177
ties, and  crowd  volumes  full of speculation, but
when the  simple  matter of fact is wanting; when
there is no obvious  and specific principle ; it is a
mere sail through oceans of vapor.  To classify dis-
ease after the manner of natural history, led to all
the absurdities of nosology ;  and to explain what
was never understood, to the speculations and  vain
jangling of pathologists.  Dr.  Brown congratulates
himself, that he had  not looked into  a medical book
for five years before he published his system ; as
the  delusive reasoning of the theoretical  writers
would only  entangle his  understanding and  cast
darkness  over  the light of nature and obscure the
splendor of truth.  These  confessions  are not the
solitary sentiments  of an  irritable or  disappointed
mind.  No, they have been confessed,  in substance,
by the most eminent leaders of the schools of medr
icine.
   Some bold and daring spirit thinks he has made
a new discovery; and that all  his predecessors have
been wrong.   He starts in the career of fame  with
his new theory; abuses or  ridicules those who have
gone before  him ; is followed by a crowd of pu1
pils and admirers; triumphs his brief and troubled
day; sinks into his  grave ; and his  system is,  per-
haps, overturned before his ashes are cold in the
tomb !  Every student of medicine knows this to be
a fact since the beginning ; but especially from the
days of Paracelsus to the present time.   And  that
is  not all; it will never cease to be otherwise until a
perfect, safe, and speedy  mode of cure, shall have
been discovered.  Revolution  will succeed to revo-
lution, school to school, theory to theory, until time,
or accident or  necessity shall have  crowned their
system with perfection.   For finding themselves
wrong, disappointed,  mistaken in their exhibitions
of medicine, the active, ingenuous  and  conscien-
tious, physician, will  not rest;  he w^ll  make every 
178
 effort for the perfection of his system.  And  if ha
 cannot discover a new medicine, he will  form old
 ones into new combinations.  He will  revise  theo-
 ries, and new model  systems, and forever continue
 restless, until the great  object of his  search  shall
 have been" attained.
   From the above remarks, the  reply may be made,
 the Thomsonian remedies ought uPon that princi-
 ple, to be readily adopted, or at least examined.—
 And so they would, were it not  for a  reason, per-
 haps too invidious to mention; had a member of
 the faculty  made  the discovery which  Thomson
 made, they  would have, to no  man, at least made
 trial of the  remedies.  We see  how anxiously Dr.
 Rush seizes  upon the specific  for cancer, though a
 deception; but had it been genuine, by this time it
 would have not only overspread  the  United  States,
 but all the nations of Europe.  Dr. Rush seized with
 the  same avidity on Dr. Brown's  doctrine of the
 unity of disease, and  life  being  a forced state.  So
 sanguine was he upon this topic, that some of his
 friends thought  he  uttered  sacrilege  on  the  sub-
 ject.
  " Upon this subject, said Dr.  Rush, the unity of
 disease and life being a forced  state, Reason and
 Revelation  embraces each other; Moses  and the
 Prophets shake hands with Dr. Brown."  Whatever
 mistake  may be  in his views, we perceive in them
 this  important truth.   That to arrive  at any certain-
 ty in medical practice, the theories of life  and  dis-
 ease must be simplified  and reduced  within the
 grasp of knowledge and common sense.  For there
 was never yet a  physician on the face of the  globe,
 that understood all the names in  Cullen's Nosology,
 with their characteristic differences and distinctions;
state of the pulse; signs, and symptoms, and as-  '
pects of disease ; no certain practice could ever be
founded on such  a system, because it is as absolute- 
179
ly  beyond the  reach of the understanding,  as to
count the number of the stars.  These matters aro
very easily arranged on paper, and put on the grav-
ity and appearance of wisdom, but at the bedside of
the sick they are as useless  as a mountain of dust!
They have often betrayed the practitioner  to  slay,
instead of cure ; and made him lament when too
late.   Had he pursued another course  he could have
saved  his  patient;  but he, was  deceived by his
names  and signs.  While studying this lecture, a
gentleman called in my  room; conversing on the
subject I mentioned Dr. Cullen's  system as filling
the practice of medicine with the blackness  of dark-
ness, and confounding common sense by classifying
disease like the plants of Linna?us.  He retorted,
that Dr. Thomson had the same remedy for  every
disease.  I replied that  was not exactly the  fact; he
had more than one remedy;  but if that were, he had
the authority  of Dr. Chapman upon  his side,  one
remedy would cure divers diseases, opposite both in
their cause, symptoms  and  localities; and showed
him the doctor's recommendation of Swaim's  pana-
cea ; in which he affirms, that although he could ac-
count for it, yet such was the fact,  that Swaim's pa-
nacea did cure diseases  altogether  different, accord-
ing to the theories and  reasonings  of the schools!
He was silent, for there was Dr. Chapman's recom-
mendation.  Now, said I, the most formidable objec-
tion against the  Thomsonian remedy is answered by
one of your own faculty;  and why  may  not Dr.
Thomson discover a remedy to cure  different dis-
eases as well as Dr. Swaim ?  The truth is, the absur-
dity so often urged in this objection, is not the thing
itself,  but in  the mode of comparison.  In itself,
it is perfectly  philosophical;  the  unity of medi-
cine agrees with the unity of man, his sympathies^
his feelings, his health,  and his disease.  But  when
you  compare  the one  remedy, with the artificial 
180
 classifiations and theories of the schools, the absur-
 dity is very palpable indeed ; it is like comparing a
 man with a centaur.  But compare  man  with man;
 medicine with disease;  and  you  find the perfect
 Concinity established by the hand of nature, the un-
 erring guide, from which  proud science has often
 led men to stray  into the deep  darkness of strong
 delusion.  For what is  disease ?   The  obstruction
 or  morbid  excitement^ of  some organ, which in
 health moved with  ease  and facility.  Man is  not
 changed in disease, nor his constitution much chang-
 ed in the incipient stages.  A very simple remedy
 of the proper kind, like the kine pock, would at once
 restore him and establish health.   Why then does
 he  linger?  Because either  the medicine has no
 power over the disease, or because it aggravates the
 disease.   To say a disease must run its course, is to
 say we have no  remedy  for it  There  is no such
 thing in nature as a law establishing a course of dis-
 ease.  The Deity has  established laws of order, of
 harmony, and benevolence but he established no law
 of disorder and necessary pain.
  We know the wages of sin is death ; but there is
a remedy for that  death, and for  all tlie diseases
which are its harbingers.  The greater includes the
less.  That Goodness which provided a relief from
thp woes of the second death, could not fail to make
provision for the pangs which  presage the first; for
the promise of a good old  age, is  included in  the
comprehensive assurance, that the saint shall inherit
all things.  The  experience of the world,.and  the
promise of the latter day  glory, establish the fact.
A single instance will be  sufficient to display this
principle.  The small  pox must run their course:
this was the common language, because they had
no remedy for them ; they did run their course with
a fierce and fatal certainty for twelve hundred years.
Had any one then said the day would come  when 
                      181

 that loathsome  disease  would be extirpated from
 among men, he would have been  scouted as a mad-
 man or a fool.  But the day came, the  remedy was
 found ; and it is now found also, the  small pox had
 no  course  to run; and so shall  every disease be
 stopped and eradicated whenever the proper remedy
 shall have been discovered.  The  hope  that the dis-
 coveries  of  Dr.  Thomson had contributed to this
 great object, induced me to deliver this  course of
 Lectures ; and from all I have yet seen  or known on
 the subject, I am  persuaded, that however humble
 my efforts may be found, I  am contributing to tlie
 cause of humanity and the relief of the miseries of
 man.   If I thought these remedies dangerous to a
 single individual, or useless in removing complaints,
 there  is no wealth which could have induced me to
 have spent one breath'upon them.   I know the con-
 dition of the poor, I have a deep sympathy for  their
 wants and their woes; they can neither spare time
 nor money.  On reading the Narrative of Thomson,
 I said to myself, if this be a fact, and  this discovery
 and mode  of practice real, it will lift  a  vast load
 from off the poor and the oppressed.  It was a high
 and holy commendation of the Gospel, on  its first
 exhibition, that it was preached to the poor.   This
 new system of medicine seemed to be  medicine to
 the poor;  and in this respect, like the equalizing
 spirit of the Gospel, it sets them on an equality with
 the rich! Now, if both were established with equal
 certainty, O!  how great would be  the  blessing! If
the means for procuring the health of the body were
 equally within the reach of the poor as those of the
 soul, who would not  rejoice; for  these  two impor-
 tant objects comprehend the whole sum of human
 happiness, health of body and health of mind. That
man cannot be miserable who has a soul at peace
with God, and a  body on which the storms of life
mav beat in vain.
             16 
182
  The Thomsonian remedies seem peculiarly adapt-
ed to the diseases of the labouring classes of socie-
ty.   Exposed  as  they are to  greater hardships,  '
severer  toils, less  nourishing  food, they are more
subject  to  rheumatisms, low fevers, putrid fevers,
dysenteries, cholics and chronic complaints, than the
other members of the community.
  These new remedies  are, in a  high degree, pow-
erful and safe  to remove all these complaints, at a
very small expense.  They possess an energy which
seems to communicate new life to the  system, and
renovate the feeble, fainting powers of nature.   1
have witnessed a few cases beyond the power of the
established practice, relieved by this medicine in a
manner so short and new to me, that I would forfeit
my own convictions did I not  speak  of  it as I  do;
and recommend it with the zeal of one who believes
he is  promoting the good of his fellow men, and con-
tributing to the welfare of society.
  Dr. Rush says, " in no part of the world is animal
life, among  the human species, in a more perfect
state  than in the inhabitants of Great  Britain, and
the United  States of America.   For in addition to
all the natural  stimuli which have been named, they
are constantly  under the invigorating influence of
liberty."  "There is, he says, an indissoluble con-
nexion between political freedom  and physical hap-
piness.   And  if it be  true, that electic and repre-
sentative governments have a greater influence on
human happiness and national  prosperity, they must
also be more favourable to  human life."" Now, the
idea of liberty  here inculcated as  conducive to life
and happiness,  is precious and  dear to man in every
department  of life and  practice.   I have known
patients refuse  medicine, merely  because they did
not know what it  was ; the mystery and technical
name seemed an infringement  on  the very freedom
of thought, and disgusted the sick with the prescrip- 
183
lion.   It is certainly gratifying in a high degree, to
understand the medicine  you are taking, the nature
of its operation, and safe and salutary results.   Small
things  will influence the condition of the sick.  All
who have  attended sick beds, must have  observed,
that the least shadow of concealment or deception,
whispering, or doubtful looks, or the colour of mys-
tery, will  distress the patient.  If he loses  confi-
dence  in his physician, it will aggravate his disease.
But what must  be his condition  when the  grand
principle of freedom is destroyed in the mode of ad-
ministering ; when he is reduced to the condition of
the slave of an^ Eastern  despot; when he must in
profound ignorance receive, with implicit faith, what-
ever is offered to him.  How deadening must be the
effects on a weak and worn out constitution.  If it
be  objected, what confidence can the patient place
in a botanic physician, who is not a man of science ?
the answer is plain; the trust of the patient is not
in the  skill of the physician, but 'in the nature and
power of  the remedies, that they are  safe and cer-
tain, congenial to life, and productive of health.  To
relieve our hunger, we do not rely on the  skill of
the cook,  but on the nature of the  food ; so in medi-
cine, our  dependence should be on  the remedy and
not on the  administrator.  Short and sudden has
been the  journey to the tomb to thousands,  who by
a proper remedy, timously applied, might have spent
a long and useful life in  the world.
  This new practice  possesses this great and decid-
ed  advantage ; it places the knowledge and the rem-
edy in every family;  the physician and the cure are
always at hand.  You  have not to wander in  the
night  to a distance, and the patient dying, to  seek a
doctor, with the agony pressing on  your spirits, that
your wife, or child, or friend, may be dead on your
return.   No,  you can apply  at once to  your own re-
 sources, and at least  keep the sick in safety till  ad- 
184
ditional aid be called, if necessary.  I knew a lady
in this  city,  who cured her  husband of a cholera
morbus, in an attack so  severe that if  he had been
left unaided till a physician could have been called
from his bed, his case would have been very doubt-
ful, if not entirely fatal, as many have in the same
disease.   Now, the whole amount of family medi-
cine for one  year, will not much exceed  three dol-
lars ;  for this sum you can procure a portion of all
the numbers, and directions how to take  them; any
one in the family can administer to another in per-
fect safety.   There is  a kind of peace  and confi-
dence established in the family, when they know re-
lief is at hand.
  This is a part of practical  wisdom,  which every
good mind must appreciate, to be provided, especially
in the warm seasons, for sudden and severe sickness.
The benevolent Dr. Rush was exceedingly careful to
inculcate upon his students, to instruct the families
where they might practise, how to act in cases cf
emergency.   In sudden cramp or spasm of the stom-
ach, pour water on hot ashes and drink it off; in croup,
or strangling, run  a shovel  into the fire, pour on it
water  or  vinegar, and inhale the  steam; in a dis-
tressing cough, take salt and water, or  stand with
your back against the wall.  These were all intend-
ed for immediate relief, until  a physician could be
called.
  Now, the system of Dr. Thomson is not only for
temporary, but permanent relief.   It is  the begin-
ning and end of the patient's cure.  You  are  pre-
pared to attack disease in its forming state, and pur-
sue it without remission, until  a  cure be finally es-
tablished.   Surely,  to those who love health, the
remedies are  worthy of a fair trial; of  a candid and
patient  investigation.   The  study of medicine I
dearly loved,  and the practice I would ere now have
pursued, had I known a remedy of certain and infal- 
185
lible efficacy.  But I knew of none such; and  I
cared not to encounter  the  pang of that dreadful
disappointment which I have but too often witness-
ed, to see your remedies taking a course altogether
the reverse of that which you  intended, and your
patient sinking by the very hand employed to raise
him up!   Others may sooth their conscience, and
justify themselves in a manner of which I am igno-
rant ; but I could never find but one answer which
satisfied  me, the uncertainty  of medical practice,
and the impossibility of ascertaining when you ad-
ministered a dose, whether you were not hastening
the patient to the grave.   On consultation, you may
see a practice entirely changed, when the sick is
already dying; a plain confession they have died by
the hands of the physician.
            LECTURE  XV.

  A GENERAL VIEW OP THE WHOLE
                  SUBJECT.
                       a
  Since the first records  of medical science,  the
profession has either slumbered under the shadow of
a mighty name, or gone forth  to war with the con-
flicting elements  of passion, prejudice, and perver-
sity of soul.  The pride of interest and the pride of
science, the maxims  of philosophy and the cunning
of designing knaves, have all, at different times,  ob-
structed the plain and simple progress  of medical
knowledge.  A profession at first simple and retired,
became at length involved in all the bustle, and busi-
ness, and learning of the world.
             16* 
186
   Hippocrates was celebrated as the first who sepa-
rated the profession of medicine  from philosophy.
But the separation did not long exist.   Philosophy
was soon drawn within the  magic  circle, and lent
her splendour, and bowed her pride, to adorn the
mysteries of the  healing  art.   For mysterious it
must needs become, when the philosophy of life, of
matter, and of mind, were all brought into the illus-
tration of pathology and the theories of disease.
Medicine now put on her purple robes, and began
to assert her infallibility; but like all infallible pre-
tenders, she quickly  furnished by  her  own example,
decisive proof that her power was a dream and her
pretensions  a delusion.   She  changed her aspect
with the  changing times, and at every new  remove
still thought she had attained perfection.  She was
never idle, but full of life and activity ; pushed her
conquests, on every side, and her researches through
every new and untried region of discovery and spec-
ulation.  If she. did not succeed, it was  not because
her efforts were not multiplied and  vigorous; but
because the road in which she chose to travel, was
not that which led to the secrets of the  healing art.
There  was much truth, and much science, and  great
industry ; but the facts of perpetual change,  confess
that she was never long satisfied by some of her at-
tainments, nor convinced that her labours had reach-
ed a close.
  Some of the physicians have confessed, that the
practice  itself did not change with  the changing
theories of medicine.  That after  all  the disputes
and differences  of medical professors, the  practice
remained nearly  the same.   The assertion certainly
requires some limitation.   There must have been a
great variety in practice as well as in theory, though
not so much as would appear to follow from the as-
sertions of medical writers.   Dr. Rush decried the
nosology of Dr. Cullen, with great vehemence.  To 
187
hear him lecture, one would  imagine his practice
would have been diametrically opposite ; but it was
not. The opposition to  Cullen was  in his theory,
not in his practice.   Dr. Reynolds, in taking a  re-
view of the jaring theories of medical professors,
says, " the consequence is, that the people believe,
from the fact of so much opposition, that there is no
truth in medicine at all."   And he says, it is boldly
asked whether the profession be not rather in a
worse  condition now  than it was three thousand
years ago ?  This question  the doctor does not  di-
rectly answer.   He does not  say they now perform
more cures than in former  times.   But he  asserts,
they possess more knowledge  in Anatomy, Surgery,
Chemistry, Botany and Physiology; he affirms, and
affirms truly,  they are superior to the ancients.  But
it  is a fact not to be forgotten nor disguised, that
the most learned physicians are generally the worst
practitioners, or at least, they  are  not accounted so
good as others, nor so much to be trusted.  When
a physician gets a professor's chair, his practice from
that moment  declines.   Dr. Waterhouse, I am told
by good authority, one of the  most  learned physi-
cians of. our country, has almost no practice.  The
learned and  eloquent  Dr.  Barton, of Philadelphia,
had very little ;  and  Dr. Rush observes in one of
his lectures,  that his practice was very small, and
that little generally among the strangers who visited
the city.  Dr.  Darwin  was  afraid  to publish  his
Botanic Garden, for fear of destroying his practice ;
and  Dr. Rush affirmed, that  Drs. Armstrong and
Akenside, on publishing their  respective poems, lost
all their practice.
  Now  the  fact exists, whether true or false, that
the people consider  the pursuits of literature ad-
verse to the  medical  practitioner, and  detracting
from his abilities to cure;  that so far from being a
qualification,  it incapacitates him ftjom the responei- 
188
bility of restoring health and preserving life.   And
this opinion is not confined to the people, but has
crept in  among the physicians themselves.   And
there must be  some truth in the sentiment or it
never could have obtained such an universal sway
over the human mind.   But the truth is indubitable,
the study of patients  and  not  the  study of  books;
experience and not reading, make the most complete
and successful  practitioner, and inspire the highest
confidence in the patient.   Dr. Thomson is called
ignorant; but it is the ignorance of books, and  not
of experience.   He had, and still has, a vast meas-
ure of the learning above described, as giving pop-
ularity to the physician, and reliance  to  the  sick, in
the skill of one who has battled death in a thousand
forms, and disease under every aggravation.
  Dr.  Rush, on  the  causes of failure  in medical
practice, makes the inquiry, why ninety-nine cases
out of the hundred are lost, of those which are call-
ed the curable diseases ?   He first  mentions igno-
rance in the physician; one not qualified  either by
reading or observation, for the practice of  medicine.
Dr.  Thomson  does not fall  under this charge; by
 observation he was well qualified.    2d.  Dr. Rush
says, incapacity in  the physician.    Dr. Thomson is
clear of  this charge also ; for he had a natural apti-
tude and love to medical study.  Had it not been for
this, he never could have risen against the pressure
which weighed him down, and pressed him to the
earth.   3d. Dr. Rush says, want of instruction in
the  physician ; with  good capacity, his instruction
had been erroneous,  and hence  his practice  per-
nicious and ineffectual.  Dr. Thomson had the very
wisest of all instructers, necessity and experience ;
instructers which never deceived  man ;  but taught
him to plough, to find out the use of corn bread, of
potatoes, the use of wbol  and furs for clothing,  and
the  simples used in medicine, and every thing valu- 
189
able yet in use among the human family.  4th.  Dr.
Rush mentions obliquity of mind; there are some,
says he, of such perversity of mind, that nothing
will teach them propriety,  nor enforce  upon them
the majesty of truth.  If ever nature formed a plas-
tic mind for the "impressions of medical wisdom, that
mind  was Dr.  Samuel  Thomson's.   The medical
profession was the very niche  in  the temple of na-
ture, for which the Deity designed  him.   5th.  Dr.
Rush mentions as a fifth reason, or cause of failure
in physicians, attachments to other  pursuits, and
neglect of ther own profession.    Through  all  the
vicissitudes, Dr. Thomson  has been  attached and
devoted to his profession; in prosperity and in  ad-
versity, in sickness and  in  health, in prison  and at
the bar of judgment he had but one single object in
his eye, and one exclusive sentiment in his  heart,
the healing of the sick, the discoveries of effectual
cures, the perfection  of his system, and the relief
of the wretched.   Of all the causes of failure, in
losing ninety-nine cases out of the hundred, of cura-
ble diseases, enumerated by Dr. Rush,  Dr.  Thom-
son stands clear before the tribunal*fof the whole
world.  He is the very reverse in his whole charac-
ter, from all  those condemned by Dr. Rush.   Dr.
Thomson had very much of Dr. Rush's own qualifi-
cation for the office of a physician; all  indeed, but
his book learning.   He had  the  same enthusiasm,
the same perseverance, the same  determination, to
succeed and to excel, the same activity and taste  for
observation, and in one word, the  devotion of mind
to the healing art, which  eminently  distinguished
that kind and celebrated professor.   Now, Dr. Rush
being judge, Dr. Thomson  would save the ninety-
nine patients out of the  hundred  of the curable
cases; and,  in  fact his success  has  been always
even beyond this proportion.   He has not, no, nor
his followers, lost one  out  of the hundred of their 
190
patients.   I  do firmly believe this  fact cannot be
contradicted.   O, what  a gain is here!  What a
waste  of  lives prevented, and destruction of the
human race !
  Dr.  Chaptal, speaking of the heroic medicines,
says, " should their constant and invariable effects
through all Europe be found good and salutary, they
ought to be exhibited. * But government should im-
pose an interdict upon their  use,  until  the most
rigid inspection should have ascertained their safe-
ty, and established their success.   And not to suffer
proud and  pompous  practitioners to sport with the
lives and  happiness of  the assembled millions of
Europe."
  Now, the remarks of Chaptal have been reiterat-
ed by Dr. Rush.   While pouring the highest en-
comiums on the heroic medicines,  he adds,  "but in
the hands  of ignorant pretenders, or proud and care-
less physicians, they are  most  fatal and destructive
medicines."   This will  readily account for the fact
of the  ninety-nine out  of the hundred of  curable
cases being lost.   It was nearly one hundred years
after the physicians of Europe introduced the anti-
monial medicines in their practice, before the college
of Paris would suffer their introduction.   And that
most eminent college of physicians is  now  the first
to banish the mineral poisons from their  practice.
They have the  distinguished  honour of being the
last to  receive those dangerous remedies, and the
first  to expel them from  their community.  And
there is no people  in the  world, perhaps, who enjoy
as great flow of animal spirits as the French.   We
cannot attribute the whole effect to climate alone;
it will  not account  for  the fact.   Other  climates
equally good and salubrious, do not produce such
happy  results.   We must look to a higher source,
and causes more efficient and philosophical.  A very
eminent physician of Great Britain says, "he has no 
191
doubt but the instances of self-murder, which so fre-
quently disgrace our country, may be attributed to
the use of mercury and other severe mineral medi-
cines so profusely and  constantly  administered."
For such was  the deplorable state  of feeling  pro-
duced, the sinking of the heart, the tremblings  and
prostrations of the whole  system, the loss of appe-
tite and animal hilarity, that life became an intolera-
ble burthen, and  the  miserable patient preferred
death by his own  hand, to such  a miserable  exis-
tence !   And the  physician ascribes the abuse of
opium and spirituous liquors, principally to the same
cause; the  awful and  terrible prostration produced
by severe  medicines renders life such  a burthen,
that the sufferer will resort to any means rather than
bow before  his misery.
   Now, this is the true reason of the flow of spirits
in France.  Their light wine  and light  food; their
simple medicine and cautious  and reluctant  use of
severe medicines.   Their spirits are neither crush-
ed under a load of strong food, nor poisoned by de-
structive medicines.    Dr. Rush  says, " in the free
and happy  republic of Connecticut, animal life for
upwards of an hundred and fifty  years, has existed
in a higher  degree and to a greater  amount, than in
any other portion  of the  world  of the magnitude."
This fact he ascribes to their free government and
happy institutions.   The amount and force of ani-
mal life may be greater, and even  more robust; but
I  much  doubt whether  the flow of animal spirits
even in Connecticut, will equal  the  vivacity of
France.  Our object is truth, and not speculation;
we have all witnessed  the sinking soul, and loss of
appetite, after a course of severe medicine.  This is
never  witnessed  in the exhibition of the botanic
remedies;  but, on the  contrary, a degree of anima-
tion and a  desire for food, which,  to myself, was
perfectly astonishing; and I  presume  must be to 
192
every one who perceived it for the first time.   The
conclusion of my own mind was at the time, there
must be something in this medicine extremely con-
genial to life, and in harmony  with all its  laws.  Its
effects upon the patient are like those  of sound and
refreshing sleep to  the  husbandman; he rises re-
stored and strengthened  like  a giant  refreshed by
wine.  It was so contrary to what I had ever before
witnessed, and especially in the  same patient, who
had  taken medicine  for years before, and always
with the loss of  appetite,  that I  could not, without
sinning against my own soul, withhold my testimony
and  approbation.   We are sometimes forced into
opposition  with  our  best friends;  it  is  extremely
painful.   I was often, since  the commencement of
these Lectures, on  the  very  point of abandoning
them forever, and wished I had never  begun the
subject; but as I progressed, and witnessed the
salutary  result  of this  new  practice, I  did verily
believe that I was serving God and my country, in
striving to  diffuse a knowledge of its  doctrines.
Nor do I think I can be mistaken ; for a practice
of forty years, over  perhaps a million of people, in
all varieties of cases and diseases, must be surely
calculated to give  certainty to the  practice, if cer-
tainty can ever be attained in the medical profession.
  There are  three  very  important results"of this
medicine, which I would  wish to  impress on my
hearers.   It removes  obstructions,  restores the ap-
petite, and  invigorates  the powers of life.   Now
these are the three essential points in  the recovery
of man to perfect health.   When all the obstruc-
tions are  removed, the vital  functions have  a fair
and easy play, acting in harmony and vigour, and
the glow of health is  diffused over the  whole frame.
As we live by food and not medicine, the tone of
the stomach  being restored, and the action of the
digestive organs, we are enabled  to  receive  food 
193
sufficient for the sustenance of health, and the cheer-
ful glow of the animal spirits renders life indeed a
blessing.  For I presume there are particular times
when the best regulated constitutions  feel that de-
jection of mind which made the poet exclaim,

           " O! life thou art a galling load,
           A long, a rough, a weary road,
             To wretches such as I."

Now, a medicine which has the tendency to exhila-
rate the  mind, and rouse the animal spirits, announ-
ces by this single fact,  its vast superiority and im-
portance ; that it is the  medicine of life and health;
and  no matter when found, nor by whom discovered,
the people should cleave to it, as a sacred shield and
refuge from their woes.  It is  a solemn thing to take
charge of the sick and cure diseases.  There should
be no enthusiasm nor fancy on the subject;  but deep
and  solemn gravity, and sober thought.   And yet
the effect witnessed  by the operation  of this new
medicine, are sufficient to rouse the mind  to some-
thing bordering on the romantic.   A regular physi-
cian of this city,  on beholding the astonishing con-
sequences on a patient extremely reduced and ema-
ciated, of lobelia and  the other accompanying medi-
cine, confessed that it was extraordinary ; "but, said
he, it will not last the effect  is only temporary re-
lief."  But it was not temporary but permanent help,
which the patient received.   If all the sick, reliev-
ed and cured by this  practice, could be assembled
together, a fair statement of their cases and contin-
uance of their diseases made out, I am convinced
the world would  be amazed  at the multitudes and
the results; and at  the victory obtained over  sick-
ness and death, so signal and triumphant  For I am
well aware, that  nothing, but  something extremely
powerful and striking will overcome  the prejudices
of the physicians.  I need but mention an  instance
             17 
194
of their obstinacy, to show what may be expeqjed from
them by the botanic doctors.  "Miner and Tully on
fever," reasoning against the fatal practice of bleed-
ing in putrid malignant fevers, observe, " oceans of
falsehood have teemed from the faculty on this sub-
ject ; for when they discover their error, they have
not the magnanimity to confess it."  And they men-
tion one practitioner who had sixty patients, and
saved  them all but one ;  by bleeding ?  No !  but by
not bleeding.  The only one he bled, died,;  and yet
he held forth the idea that he had saved them all by
this practice.   And what  could be his motive  for
this ?  A very pitiful  one indeed ; the sake of con-
sistency.   He had in an  evil  hour, advocated the
propriety of bleeding  in all cases  of fever.  He
soon found his mistake ; changed his  practice, but
stuck to his theory, at  the  great expense of truth,
and the danger of  misleading other practitioners.
  We need not, therefore, much marvel at the accu-
sations and abuse heaped on the Thomsonian prac-
tice, when grave and  learned physicians are forced
to  bring  such accusations against the faculty to
which  they belong ; and I know policy often keeps
them silent when  they are boiling with rage against
the mal-practice of their brethren in the healing art;
when,  if they would speak out  their sentiments, as
they privately express them, they would plainly say,
"the physician had killed his patient his course was
entirely wrong."    This  new  practice has this vast
and high prerogative, it cannot be wrong, and will
not kill;  no mistakes are fatal here; no unexpected
and sudden death, when you  think the patient is
just about to do well.   I know a physician who  put
his  patient  through a course  of mercury; in  the
evening he said he was doing well, he  called in the
morning, and  inquired for his  patient,  and was ^in-
formed he was dead!  He was struck dumb!  looked
on the lifeless corpse and departed without uttering 
195
a single Word, with a load of wo upon his heart that
I would not have  suffered for a mountain  of gold!
Yet he could not be blamed; he practised according
to his  education, and was utterly deceived in the
operation of his medicines.  He  thought they were
curing the patient; but alas! they were digging his
grave!
  The power of prejudice and the empire  of pride,
may prevail for a season ;  but the soul will at last
arise and re-assert the majesty of her own  nature,
and  show unto the world, that "there are  gifts, be-
yond the power of education and knowledge, which
learning cannot  bestow."   Learning will  neither
make a great mun, nor a great physician, but it will
highly  advance the usefulness  of those   who are
great by nature ; who have received the  patent of
their dignity from God Almighty.  Dr. Waterhousa
said of Dr. Thomson, he had taken a degree  from
the school  of nature; a diploma from her  unerring
hands.  The very course of that education to which
Dr.  Waterhouse has so  handsomely  alluded,  was
calculated to instruct the author  of the new system
in useful remedies, and deliver his mind from every
bias but the  force of experience and  truth.  With
 a mind entirely  uninfluenced by all  authority, un-
 moved and  unobstructed by any thing which had
 gone before him, he possessed an advantage which,
 I am persuaded,  none ever possessed who  were edu-
 cated in the schools, where we are introduced to the
 fellowship of wisdom by the authority of  books and
 professors.   It is impossible for the most independent
 mind to perfectly retain its freedom; it will insensi-
 bly  bow  to the opinions of some  celebrated or
 splendid authority.   In  after life, indeed, and by
 much experience, some superior souls are  enabled
 to cast off the  shackles of education;  but they are
 the  fewest number of that mighty host, which walk
 forth from the schools of  the world, to propagate the 
196
 errors of their  predecessors.   Dr. Thomson had
 nothing of all this to encounter ; he was led by tlie
 hand of nature; and  without being  aware  of the
 fact, he was travelling in the  path of the Indian, the
 German and Celtic, doctor; the doctors of antiquity,
 who, without complaint or failure, practised on the
 unnumbered millions, who overturned the empire of
 the Romans; and still practise on  all the  nations of
 the Gentile world.  He is, therefore, now a profes-
 sor in the most ancient and extensive medical school
 of the world.    A  school, not on the decline and
 about to perish, but one beginning to revive, to put
 on strength, to extend her conquests, until  the learn-
 ed and the unlearned  shall be  gathered under the
 shadow of her wings, and triumph in the  splendour
 of her acquisitions.  And we see the dawn of this
 glorious era, which shall  transform the face of the
 world.
  In Edinburgh  and London, in France and  Italy,
 in the dark regions of Hindostan, and the  empire of
 the Chinese, we  find this new light, on the  subject
 of medical science, breaking forth; or rather it is
 the old light returning  to those long forgotten re-
 gions of the world.   And when nature  takes her
 proper course, only chastened and controled by sci-
 ence, how great  and glorious  must be the amount of
 her operations.
  In the United  States, the example of Dr.  Thom-
 son will stimulate thousands to  press forward in the
 same career, and press to the  same object.   A train
 is laid, like the philosophy of  Bacon, in the mode of
 argument, and the  investigation of truth,  that will
kindle a blaze which will astonish and amaze the na-
 tions of the world.
  The first rays  of science scattered on  the  earth
 were never totally  absorbed  and lost.   From the
first dawn of Divine Wisdom  vouchsafed to man,
till the last star  of heaven's holy light shall perish 
197
from the firmament, there has been and shall be  in
every age, advocates and adherents of truth.  They
could not, indeed, always  prevail; but they served
to keep  alive the flame of purity  and  truth,  and
transmit it from generation to generation.   The dis-
tance may seem immense  between the origin and
perfection of  a  system; but the  slow  and silent
progress of indestructible wisdom must finally flow
on the horizon and cover the heavens with  light.
  There is a growth  and grandeur in all the works
of the Almighty.  The labours of man may perish ;
for, like himself, they are often vanity and  lies ; but
the doings of His hand, who walks  upon  the  sky,
can never come to nought   At first, He instructed
man in the simple method of curing disease by diet
and the plants of the field; while he continued  in
this practice, his diseases  were light and  soon re-
moved.   In the  pride of his heart, he loaded the
simple elements of medical knowledge with the re-
sults of his own speculations.  In this course he has
pursued  his way for three thousand years,  to his
own  sad  disappointment  and bitter sorrow.   He
seems now willing to return; and after the waste  of
ages, and the complete exhaustion of the resources
of science, he takes up anew the book of wisdom,
which in scorn and  presumption he  had cast from
his hands!  The high disdain of human knowledge,
is yielding fast to the sWay of those  eternal princi-
ples of immutable truth, inscribed  by the hand  of
the Deity on the foundations of the universe and  in
the living characters of the starry sky.   When
freedom erected the pillars of her  throne in our
country, we  were assured that we could not govern
ourselves ; that the  people were incapable of self-
government.   When the  pilgrims of the East first
pitched their tents in the howling  wilderness, they
were persuaded that  it was unsafe to dwell near a
man who exercised liberty of thought, or ased free-
             17* 
198
dom of speech.   We are now told, we cannot cure
ourselves when sick ; that years of study are neces-
sary to remove a fever, or cure a heart burn.  These
last may be also mistaken, and with the first, look
back with shame and sorrow, in a few years, on the
part whiGhthey had formerly acted and  the perver-
sity of the course  they  had  pursued.   And even
now, there is evidence sufficient to astound the most
incredulous, and  shake the  confidence of the most
hardened.   Were we able to collect  or  had the
means to bring together the scattered fragments of
truth and  argument, on the true science  of medi-
cine,  from Germany and Spain, from  France and
Italy, and England,  from India and the regions of
this Western world, there would  be a balance in the
scale on the side of the new practice, which at least
might induce its opponents  to weigh with  modesty
the amount  of their, attainments.   I now  bid  the
Bubject farewell.   If I  have  served the  cause of
truth  and righteousness, I am satisfied; if I may
have  led  any poor sufferer to the means  of relief
and safety, I am more than  rewarded.   If a single
tear shall be wiped from the eye, or a pang from the
throbbing heart, or a prisoner rescued from the grasp
of the king of terrors, I shall never regret the days
and nights spent in these  studies, nor the effort to
make them useful to the public.   The subject, so
far from  being exhausted, is only  begun.    I have
acted merely as a pioneer;  a breaker up of the way
on this new and untried subject.   But if these Lec-
tures shall provoke  any more  competent or indus-
trious hand to engage extensively in the develope-
ment of all the principles, the benefits  and  benefi-
cial results of this important subject, I shall feel the
deepest gratification.
  And let it be remembered, if this system of prac-
tice is true, it will have the peculiar blessing of
the Almighty upon its side; because it brings  the 
199
power, the benefits, and the benehcial results of a
safe  medicine,  within  the  reach of the poor; into
their dear distressed families, avIio often perish for
the lack of the means to  procure medical aid! This
single  benefit cannot  fail  of drawing  down from
Heaven the peculiar blessings of Him, who bowed
his majesty and left his throne, and veiled his glo-
ries, to enter the world, and  preach the "gospel to
the poor!" 
A GENERAL  REFERENCE
To the Works quoted, or alluded to, in this
Hippocrates,	Falkner,
Galen,	Waterhouse,
Celsus,	Glisson,
Plato,	Winter,
Aristotle,	Kirkland,
Clem. Alex.	Buchan,
Syncell. Chron.	Ewell,
Diodo. Sic.	Benezette,
Herodotus,	Miner & Tully,
Pliny,	Derham,
Alexander's Hist, of Med.	Thomas,
Encyclopedia Britanica,	Niewenty,
Encyclopedia, Reece,	Burns,
Medical Record,	Richerand,
Medical Journal,	Magendi,
Medical Review,	Linna?us,
Stahl,	Bishat,
Hoffman,	Broussais,
Haller,	Thommasini,
Van Swieten,	Whytt
Baglivi,	Hales,
Sydenham,	Zimmerman,
Hunter,	Barton,
Harvey	Chaptal,
Boerhaave,	Chapman,
Munro,	Lieutaud,
Cullen,	Williss,
Brown,	Gaubius,
Thomson,	Huxham,
Ray,	Nichols,
Rush,	Mead,
Reynolds,	Vaughan,
Barnwell,	Des Cartes,
Darwin,	Lord Bacon,
Hooper,	Sauvages,
Cooper,	Pope,
Donaldson,	Haen,
Newton,	Vogal.
 
       CLOSING  REMARKS,

              By the Proprietor.

  As a number of erroneous statements have been
published by the enemies of the Botanic System, to
impress upon the minds  of the public a belief that
many persons have been destroyed by the practice,
the following  ease  of the  death of Samuel Hills,
Esq. is copied from the  Medical Advocate,  for the
purpose of showing how far the pubUc  may  be  im-
posed upon by those interested in putting down  the
Thomsonian System.

     "CASE OF SAMUEL HILLS, ESQ.
  The death of this gentleman having been  made a
subject of triumph among the enemies of Dr. Thom-
son and the opposers of his system of practice, we
deem it a duty to lay before the public such  facts in
relation to the circumstances as we have been able
to obtain.   The following statement is from the wife
of the deceased, who is  a  sister of Dr. Thomson,
and whose daughter administered the medicine ; the
truth of which is certified to by a Mr. Kilburn, the
only person present except  the mother, and of whom
we could learn nothing  more than  that he happen-
ing to be in the  neighborhood, requested to be pres-
ent  to  witness  the  operation of the  medicine, to
satisfy his mind in regard to it having talked about
purchasing a family right  To which is also added,
a certificate from Dr. Twitchell, a physician of con-
siderable eminence in a neighboring town. 
F
                     202

       STATEMENT OF MRS. HILLS.

  The death  of my husband, Samuel  Hills, having  \
caused much talk in this and the neighboring towns,
in regard to the cause  of his  death, I  now give as
correct a statement of the facts as my memory will
admit which I have not been able to do before, ow-  j
ing to my troubles  and distress of mind ;  but there
having been so many falsehoods published in regard
to it, that I feel it a duty to my friends, that the truth
should be known.
  In the early part  of his  life  he had the itch, and
used  a large  quantity of  mercurial ointment: he
afterwards  had a fever, from. which time  he never
regained good health.  He was liable to take cold,
and was much troubled with costiveness and the
piles ; from which, if he did not discharge blood, he
used  to raise it by coughing.  About twenty-five
years ago he had the small pox, and since  that time
his diet has  been  mostly brown bread  and milk.
About four years ago he heated himself in mowing
away hay ; and drinking too much cold  water, pro-
duced alarming symptoms, and caused  him to  swell
very  much; from this  time we  considered him in
a decline.  Soon after  this, John Thomson, son of
my brother Samuel Thomson, carried him through
a course of medicine, which so far relieved him, that
he enjoyed a better state  of health than he had for
many years;  till about a year ago, when  his old dis-
orders renewed their attack, and seemed to be gain-
ing upon his health.  He at this  time often  impor-
tuned me to carry him through a course of the medi-
cine ; but the  opposition of the neighbors, and the
prejudice of some  of my  friends was such, that it
caused me to neglect this request.  He frequently
told the family, that when he was sick to give him
no  other medicine  than our own.  His  faith in my
brother's system of practice  was so great that he 
£03
"became an agent  for him to sell  family rights; he
had sold one  right and had  several applications for
more, which caused considerable excitement  among
the enemies of the practice.
   He continued to grow more unwell till a few days
previous to the 24th of May last, when we came to
the  conclusion  to carry him through a course of
medicine.  When this was concluded upon, it be-
came known  abroad, which I have  very  much re-
gretted, and caused considerable  talk in the neigh-
borhood,  particularly among  the  enemies  of the
practice.  On the  evening previous to his taking the
medicine, he complained of  a severe pain in his
head.   I applied green horseradish root and mustard
seed as  draughts to  his feet. In the  morning he
complained that his feet were so blistered that it
was difficult to walk.   In the course of the forenoon
he went to bed,,and we commenced giving the medi-
cine in the usual form.  There was but one person
 present except myself  and daughter.  The medi-
 cine, operated very favorably and in the usual  time;
 and he expressed great satisfaction at  the  relief
 given by  it.   Soon after the second dose was given,
 he made  a motion as  if he was going to vomit, and
 died instantly without any other motion, entirely un-
 expected by all present  The operation of steam
 was not  used; and the  sweating, so  much talked
 about, was caused by the medicine given ; the water
 said to be in the bed, was  owing to the cold water
 thrown on him after he was dead, supposing he had
 fainted.
   After death he swelled  very  much, turned black,
 and discharged blood at the mouth, nose, and ears.
 Such a looking corpse I never before saw.  If there
 was any  poisoning in the  case,  it must  have been
 done  by some unknown  hand;  and  I  have seen
 nothing in it that has in -the least discouraged me
 from using the medicine as usual.  The  above is a 
204
correct statement of the facts as far as my memory
serves;  and  all the accounts circulated  differing.  ,1
from this are false and groundless.
                             LUCY HILLS".
    Surry. Oct. 23, 1827.
  This may certify that the above statement of Mrs,
Hills  is  correct as  to  the death  of her  husband,
which took place while I was present.   I was there
when he commenced taking the medicine till he died~
                     ALPHEUS  KILLBURN.

  This may certify, that I called at  the house of tlie
late  Samuel  Hills,  Esq. of Surry, on  the 27th  of
May last, understanding that he was dead ; and that
it was supposed that he died in consequence of cer-
tain  medical treatment; I  requested to see the
corpse,  which was shown me.  His head  and face
was very much swollen, and turned perfectly black.
The cuticle was partly  slipped off, or raised; and
there was a horrid fetor from  putrefaction; in short,
the appearances were similar to  what I had seen in
other cases  where  the  death  was  occasioned by
poison,  viz:  opium,  arsenic,  rum, stramonium, to-
bacco, and other poisons.
                       AMOS  TWITCHELL.

  The  extraordinary  circumstances  attending. this
case, as would appear from the foregoing statements
of facts, seem to require from us some explanation,
as the whole  affair appears to be  involved in mys-
tery ; but to do this in any other manner than mere-
ly giving an opinion, would be impossible ; we shall,.
therefore, only make some  general remarks, and
give such a view of the  case  as our  inquiries  have
enabled us to collect from correct and responsible
sources, leaving the public to  judge for themselves.
  That this death was caused by some deadly poi-
son, we think there can be little doubt; but whether 
205
 by accident or design,  and if the latter, by whose
 agency it was  done, must probably for ever remain
 an impenetrable mystery.  That there is any article
 used in the Thomsonian system of practice, that
 could have the effect that has been described in this
 case, is well known by many thousands to be utterly
 impossible.   In all the cases that have come to our
 knowledge, where the medicine has  been adminis-
 tered, it has been directly the opposite; having been,
 in numerous cases, given  with wonderful success in
 removing the effects  of poison  when taken by de-
 sign  or accident.  Dr.  Thomson  declares, that  in
 more than thirty years practice, and having  given
 the medicine to more than a thousand persons, he
 never knew an instance of its having caused the
 effects  described in this case, or any thing like it
   There is one thing we shall state, for the correct-
 ness of which we have the most undoubted author-
 ity, that when a  patient is under the operation  of
 this medicine, if a very  small quantity  of corrosive
 sublimate or arsenic, equal in size to a kernel of rye,
 is dissolved  in a  dose  of what is usually given, it
 would have  exactly the effect and produce the same
 appearances  as  are described in  this case.   The
 reason why  a small quantity will prove fatal,  when
 given in  this way, and at the  same time  a  large
 quantity may be taken into the stomach, and thrown
 off without injury, is that the vital heat being raised
 by the stimulating  effects  of the medicine, so that
 the stomach is in an active state, the  poison  is  diffu-
 sed through  the  whole  system with the rapidity of
 electricity, destroying all.the functions of life and
 causing instant death.  When a large quantity  is
 taken into the stomach, the poison having no action
 in itself but as it is acted upon by the power of heat,
 remains dormant, there not being vital heat enough
 to give  it motion,  when  nature  sometimes relieves
itself by vomiting, or it may be thrown off by  giv-
 ing an emetic.
             18 
206
  The death of Mr.  Hills caused great excitement
at the time, and the  mysterious and extraordinary
manner in which it took place, was  seized  upon by
the enemies of the practice as  a fit opportunity to
vent their malice  upon all  who were in any wise
friendly to it  The feelings of the  distressed family
were disregarded, and even the sanctuary of the
dead was no bar to their  malevolence.  Their con-
duct towards  the  widow  would, to use  her own
words, disgrace the Algerines.  For this no justifi-
cation can be pretended, as we  are  told, and can be
accounted for in no other way than the effect of the
worst of passions, operated upon  by some master
spirit,  whose  enmities have  been  of  the  bitterest
kind and of long standing.
  Mr.  Hills was the  leading  man of the town, had
been their  representative to the General Court, and
a magistrate ;  and had probably more influence than
any other in the town.  He had, a few  years before
his death,  become a firm advocate  of the Thomso-
nian system of practice, having  experienced its ben-
efits himself, and seen enough of its  good effects
on others,  to  confirm his belief in  its superiority
over all other means  of curing disease.  He had, a
short time  before, become the agent of Dr.  Thom-
son  to sell family rights, prepare  medicine, and
authorize others  to practise ;  and was  exerting his
influence to do away the  prejudices of those who
opposed it, and to convince the people  of the great
benefits of making use of it instead of the fashiona-
ble practice.
  We have thus far  endeavored to give  a faithful
and correct view of the case, as far as our means of
information  would  permit.  We feel confirmed in
the belief, that poison of some kind was  the cause
of his death; that there was nothing in the medicine
intended to be given  him of this nature,  we feel
equally as certain.   The  question  naturally arises, 
207
how could it take place then ?   All  the answer we
can now give is, that it is a mysterious transaction.
There were but three persons present at the time.
No one can for a  moment harbour the idea that an
affectionate wife and daughter could possibly be in-
strumental in destroying an object whom they loved
and respected.  As to the other person present we
know but little, and it would be  very improper to in-
dulge in suspicions without any evidence to support
them.  It might have been done by  accident.  The
truth must  probably lie hid in  darkness,  unless by
Bome chance it should be  brought to light;  and in
the mean time, we must  trust in  the justice of an
A11 wise Providence, whose ways  are past finding
out."


   One of  the  principal  means resorted to  by the
medical faculty to put a stop to the  Botanical prac-
tice, has been to  manage so as to  get laws passed
by many of the States to make  out-laws of all who
practised without a license  or  diploma  from them.
The first step was, a law that no one who practised
without a license should  have power to collect his
dues.  This  not  answering the purpose, (for most
people would  voluntarily  pay without being  sued,)
they obtained a law in some of  the States making it
a penal offence, subjecting them to fine and  impris-
onment  This was carrying their plans a little too
far, for the people were  not disposed to submit  to
such arbitrary and unconstitutional acts of their leg-
islatures ; for the first went decidedly to impair the
obligation of a contract lawfully made between the
practitioner and those who employed  him; and the
other, to make criminal what had been declared by
all the great law  expounders of England  to  be no
crime, where the  intention was to cure, even if death
ensued. 
208
  The people of the State of New York have taken
the lead in opposing these laws; and last winter pe-
titions were presented to the Legislature, signed by
a great number of the inhabitants to have them re-
pealed.  The subject was submitted to a committee,
who,  after a thorough investigation of the nature
and success of the Botanical practice, made a very
able report, recommending the repeal of the obnox-
ious parts  of the law, which was accepted by a large
majority.  In the  report  of the  committee, they
state " that they had searched,  with some  diligence
and care, and can find no  statute of Great Britain,
or any other state or country, of equal  severity with
the objectionable  clause of said act.   The only law
which they can find bearing any resemblance to it is
a statute of Virginia, by which any slave, free negro,
or molatto, is forbidden to administer medicine under
pain of death; provided however, if it be done with-
out any ill intent, or by  consent of  master  or  mis-
tress, such slave to be acquitted on  trial."  So  that
our free white male citizens, learned or unlearned,
are treated with greater severity by our statute than
are the free negroes, or even the slaves of Virginia,
by the laws of that State.
  The  origin of these laws  may  be traced to  a
source, which not being known by the public gene-
rally, we shall endeavor here to point out, as it  may
appear strange to the people, that statutes should be
passed tending to take away the natural rights  of a
free people, that were never thought of by any other
government, even the most arbitrary.  In the year
1809, the  author and inventor of the Botanic System
of medical practice was arraigned  and brought to
trial before the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, at
Salem,  for an alledged murder of a young man by
the name  of Lovett, whom he had attended in sick-
ness.  At this trial Judge  Parsons presided; and
after  hearing the plea of the Solicitor  General  and 
209
the evidence on the part of the complaint he ad-
dressed the  jury, and stated  that nothing criminal
had been proved against the prisoner  at the  bar,
that he had not transgressed any common or statute
law ; and cited Hale and Blackstone, to show  that
any man may administer medicine with an intention
to do good, and if it had effects different from what
he intended, and killed  the patient, it was not mur-
der nor manslaughter, for if physicians  had  to risk
the lives of their  patients, who would practise ?
That  where there  is no  malice, no action  can lie,
The accused was accordingly acquitted.
  The learned judge, however, not  finding any law,
either  common  or  statute, to punish the accused,
against whom he seemed to show very strong preju-
dices, saw fit to travel out of the ordinary duties  of
his station, and recommended an application  to the
legislature, to have  a law made that should be suited
to the case, by  making one to stop quackery, (as he
called it,) by preventing them  from collecting their
dues;  and  if this  did  not answer  the  purpose,  to
make their practising punishable by fine and impris-
onment  A very partial and incorrect report of this
case was made by Judge Parsons himself, and pub-
lished in the 6th volume of Massachusetts Reports.
That he was the author  of the report, we have the
evidence of Mr. Tyng, the reporter to the court.
   This extra-judicial report being thus  published to
the world, the hint  given by the judge was seized
upon by all those  interested in putting down the
Botanical  Practice; and  Legislative  interference
was successfully applied for to favour their  views ;
and if the people could have been kept in ignorance,
 or had quietly rested under the  yoke, it would  have
 established, not only a  complete monopoly, but  an
 entire  control over their  natural and unalienable
 rights   From this source  may be traced all these
 obnoxious and unconstitutional laws, and the nume-
              18* 
210
rous vexatious  lawsuits, that have  been  brought
against those who have endeavored to benefit man-
kind by relieving the distresses of the sick, by a sys-
tem of practice calculated to lessen the sum of hu-
man misery, and founded  on rational and  natural
principles.
  People of the United States, seriously  ponder on
and candidly consider this subject, and be  on your
guard against all those who seek for  worldly fame
and wealth  without  regard to the public  good:  and
remember, that whosoever endeavours to  raise him-
self by a course detrimental to the health and hap-
piness of society, is no friend to the welfare of man-
Kind. 
INDEX.
                                          PAGE.
Dr. Robinson's Introduction,...............   3
Proprietor's Introduction,.................   6
                LECTURE I.
Introductory Remarks, ...................   7
Thomson's Discovery, observations on,  ......   10
Galileo, Newton and Sydenham,  ............   12
Hippocrates' practice in the Plague at Athens,   16
Dr. Rush's confession and hope,  ............   17
The purpose of the Lectures,..............   19
Observations  on the  Guide  to Health, and  Dr.
       Thomson's situation, ................   {6.
                LECTURE II.
Historical View of Ancient Theories,  .......   23
                LECTURE III.
Historical View of  the  Modern Systems of
       Medicine,  .........................   37
Dr. Sydenham's Theory and Practice the foun-
       dation  of the  Theories  of Drs. Rush
       and Brown,  .......................   42
Dr. Sydenham's views that mercurial medicines
       are not to be relied on as specifics, as
       the vegetable, ......................   43
Dr. Browrfs views of medical science,  .......   45
Van Helmont's system and  Dr. Rush's opinion
       of it,  ..............................   48
                LECTURE IV.
Theories of Drs. Brown, Rush  and Thomson,   50
Dr. Brown's views and reason for his practice,   54
Theory that Gout was caused by Plethora,  ...   ib. 
212
                                          PAGE.
 Dr. Brown on the effect of food and drink, ...   55
 Dr. Brown's Theory explained,  .............   56
 The Brunonian system explained,...........   ib.
 Dr. Rush's Theory explained,..............   59
 Dr. Thomson's Theory explained,  ...........   60
                LECTURE V.
 Medicine as it is taught in the Schools,  ......   64
 Dr. Rush banished Nosology from the walks of
       Medicine,.........................   71
 Drs. Thomson, Rush and Brown, on the reme-
       dy of each,........................   72
                LECTURE VI.
 Improved Theory of Medicine,.............   73
 Physianthropy,  considered in its several parts
       and relations, ......................   79
 What  does  the  common school divisions  of
       medical study treat, .................   80
 Dr. Barnwell's new plan of study,...........   81
 Medical Studies may be  reduced and simplified
       as in the example of Drs.  Rush,  Brown
       and Thomson,......................   83
 Dr. Rush on reducing disease to a unit,......   84
 The fruits of Thomson's practice,...........   ib.
 On the discovery of the Kine Pock,.........   85
 Practice  according  to Dr. Ray, of the Celtic
       Tribes,  ............................   ib.
Life in the Blood and not in the Nerves, .....   ib.
               LECTURE VII.
Theory of Fever according to modern systems
      of medicine,  .......................   86
On Fever and tlie Blood, according to Drs. Cul-
      len, Hunter and Thomson,  ...........  87
Dr. Thomson's principle that Fever is  a friend
      and not an enemy, ..................  ib.
The  vital principle  is in the blood, proved by
      Dr. Huuter's  experiments,..........  88
On Fever and the State of the Blood,  .......  90 
213
                                         PAGE.
Dr. Brown's Practice, ....................  92
Drs. Rush,  Brown, Chapman  and Ewell  on
      Fever,  ............................  94
Dr. Thomson's reasons for practice, .........  95
Dr. Harvey's observations on the practice in
      Fever,  ..............................  ib.
Dr. Rush's views of Thomson's system,......  96
              LECTURE VIII.
Fever continued,  .........................  98
Fever—old practice, ......................  99
Superiority of Thomson's system and  practice, 102
Thomson's medicine and mode of practice, . .. 104
Thomson's views of disease, medicine and food, 106
Thomson's practice, and Dr. Rush's remarks on
      practice,........................... 108
Drs. Rush and Thomson of the same views, as
      to the unity of disease, .............. 109
               LECTURE IX.
On Medical Poisons, ...................... 110
Dr. Thomson's mode of theorizing,.......... Ill
Dr. Waterhouse's views on practice, ........ 113
New Theory of the medical school at Paris, .. 115
Dr. Falconer on Mercury,.................. 116
Mercurial Cases,.......................... 118
Dr. Thomson's success in Spotted Fever, and
      practice,........................... 121
A case of Rheumatism,.................... 122
                LECTURE X.
Diseases of Liver and Lungs, .............. 123
Case of Hepatitis, relieved by Thomson's med-
      icine,  ...........................: • 125
Dr. Thomson's medicine has never failed in
      Hepatitis,.......................... 127
Cause of the frequent disease of the Liver ex-
      plained,  ....................•.....  "*•
Dr. Barnwell on disease of the Liver, and prac-
      tice  in India, ....................... 129 
214
                                         PAGK.
Consumption,..........................• • 130
Dr. Rush's views that no disease was incurable, 131
Dr. Thomson's success in Consumption,...... 132
               LECTURE XI.
Review of Dr. Thomson's remedies, ........134
Lobelia, virtues of, ........................135
Case of Asthma, cured by Lobelia,.......... 136
Operation of Lobelia, ...............-.....  ib.
Capsicum, use of,  .........................  ib.
Composition Powders, use of,............... 137"
Bitters to correct the Bile,  .................  ib.
Composition for Dysentery,  ................ 138
Rheumatic Drops,  ........................  ib.
Nervine, use of,  .......................... 139
Dr. Thomson's medicine in harmony with tlie
      vital powers,  ...................... 140
Important views on the  operation of medicine, 141
Dr. Chapman's remarks, and Dr. Thomson's ex-
      tensive knowledge of plants and herbs, 144
Dr.  Thomson's  method  of reducing  broken
      bones and luxations,................. 145
Proofs of the value of Dr. Thomson's discovery, 147
               LECTURE  XII. .
Review of Dr. Thomson's remedies,.....".... 148
Dr. Thomson's success in Fever, ,........... 150
Value  of Steam to assist  nature  in removing
      disease,  ............................  ib.
Dr. Thomson's medicine and success of practice, 151
Dr. Thomson's System agrees with the  receiv-
      ed opinions of the ancients and moderns,  ib.
Dr. Thomson's Medicine is universal in its ope-
      ration over all the organs, and has been
      used 40 years on every form  of disease, 152
Dr. Thomson's success in Parturition, .......  ib.
Improvement of the Thomson practice,  ...... 155
Dr. Robinson's opinion of Thomson's medicine, 159 
21o
                                         PA6E.
              LECTURE XIII.
Power of the Thomsonian Remedies,......161
Drs. Brown and Rush on the uncertainty of the
      Theories of disease,  ................   ib.
Dr. Thomson's success in Fever,............  162
Dr. Thomson's practice in Burns, wounds and
      ulcers, and  in  giving  medicine at the
      same time, a new practice, ...........  167
Dr. Donaldson on the practice of the East on
      wounds, ...........................  168
Dr. Thomson's practice in a broken leg,......  169
Dr. Donaldson on Eastern practice, in the cure
      of Fever,  ..........................  170
The action of medicine depends on the state of
      the living  powers, &c...............171
Case of success of Thomson's medicine, incon-
      sequence  of Calomel, ...............  172
Disease and cases of importance, ...........   ib.
              LECTURE  XIV.
Extent of the Thomsonian Remedies, .......  173
Dr. Rush on-simple remedies, ..............  174
Dr. Reynolds, respecting the Thomsonian prac-
      tice and unity of cure,...............  175
Views of Drs. Rush, Brown, Cullen & Chapman, 178
Views on Small Pox,......................  180
Dr. Robinson's reason for these Lectures  being
      delivered,.......................... 181
Dr. Robinson's opinion on  reading Dr. Thom-
      son's Narrative, ....................  ib.
Dr. Robinson's views  of Thomson's remedies, 182
The advantage of the new practice,......... 183
The system of Dr. Thomson not for  temporary
      relief only, ........................ 184
               LECTURE XV.
General View of the whole subject,......... 185
Dr. Rush on the causes of the failure in  medi-
       cal  practice,....................... 188 
                     216

                                          PAGE.
Dr. Thomson would save 99 ct of 100 curable
      cases, .............................189
Drs. Rush and Chaptal on the Heroic Medicines, 190
Botanic remedies produce  the  most happy re-
      sults on the system,................. 192
Dr. Robinson's candid views of the success of
      the new practice, ...................  ib.
The Botanic practice cannot be wrong, and will
      not  kill,  ........................... 194
Old practice and  the want  of success therein,  ib.
The effects of Medical education on the mind, 195
Dr. Waterhouse's opinion of Dr. Thomson, and
      his declaration,                         ib.
General Reference,....................... 200
Closing Remarks, by the Proprietor,  ........201
Case  of Samuel Hills,  .....................  ib.
Statement of Mrs. Hills,...................202
Certificates of A. Killburne and A.  Twitchell, 204 
!o JJJ'. 
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