History of the rise, progress, and principles of the American eclectic practice of medicine / by W. Paine.

  • Paine, William, 1821-
Date:
[1862?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of the rise, progress, and principles of the American eclectic practice of medicine / by W. Paine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    lopathic graduates, the use of native remedies continued to increase; and at length many of these obnoxious laws were repealed by overwhelming majorities. About the year 1810, a native of New Hampshire, Samuel Thom- son, a strong-minded and sagacious man, observing the faith of the American people in the power of native remedies to remove disease, took advantage of the fact, and attempted to establish new botanic remedies of medicine. He compounded several of the most valuable of them, and arranged them in numbers from 1 to 6, for which he obtained a patent in 1813, thus monopolizing the exclusive right to prepare and prescribe the very remedies which had been so extensively used by the nativjs, as well as many practitioners among the'whites. From the time tnat Dr. Thomson obtained his patent until 1820, he and his followers had almost the exclusive control of the Bota- nic practice. After taking the most extensive and impartial view of the subject, it is quite difficult to decide whether Dr. Thomson's labours were really of more value than detriment to the progress of American medicine; as, while he presented his claims with vigour, his entire ignorance of general medicine led him to reject many of the most valuable remedies which had formerly been used by the Botanies, and to recommend others as universal panaceas, which had only limited virtues. Dr. Thomson's entire practice, when stripped of the bold pretensions with which he advanced and defended it, will be found to be nothing more than the original Bo- tanic system to which I have alluded, together with a few formula- ries, and the more extensive use of vapour baths. The system of Thomson was soon very materially modified, and rendered more ra- tional and beneficial by Dr. Morton Howard, a native of North Carolina, who wrote and published a very much improved system of Botanic practice in Columbus, 0., in 1833; and by Morris Mattson, who published in 1845 a very elegant and elaborate work upon the principles arid practice of the Botanic system, which included not only what ,was known by Thomson, but nearly all the essential and reliable facts relative to the Botanic practice, of thi3 country, up to the introduction of Thomson's system. It is alsor due to Dr. Alva Curtis, of Cincinnati, 0., and Dr. W. J. Comfiort, of Philadelphia, Pa., to say,-that their writings have been essential improvements on the writings of Thomson, and have in no small degree contributed to the advancement of the American Eclectic practice. Before dismissing this portion of the subject, however, I will state that very many of the Botanic and Thorasonian practi- tioners had acquired a large amount of experience, and used the native vegetable remedies with decided skill in the management of many diseases; yet there were no systematic organizations, nor was the scattered and detached medical knowledge of physicians so arranged, and presented by any of the writers, as to constitute a scientific system of medicine.