A narrative of the life and medical discoveries of Samuel Thomson : containing an account of his system of practice, and the manner of curing disease with vegetable medicine, upon a plan entirely new ; to which is added an introduction to his New guide to health, or Botanic family physician ... / written by himself.

  • Thomson, Samuel, 1769-1843.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A narrative of the life and medical discoveries of Samuel Thomson : containing an account of his system of practice, and the manner of curing disease with vegetable medicine, upon a plan entirely new ; to which is added an introduction to his New guide to health, or Botanic family physician ... / written by himself. 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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    A* the birth of our third son, my wile was again given o\er by the midwife. Soon after the child was born, she was taken with tigue fits and cramp in the stomach; she was in great pain ;:nd we were much alarmed at her situation. 1 proposed giving her some medicine, but the midwife was much opposed to it; she said she wished to have a doctor, and the sooner the better. I immediately sent for one, and tried to persuade her to give something ■which 1 thought would relieve my wife until the doc- tor could come; but she objected to it, s tying tli it her case was a very difficult one, and would not allow to be trifled with; sVie said she was sensible of the dangerous situation my wife was in, for not one out of twenty lived tlirough it, and probably she would not be alive in twenty-four hours from that time. We were thus kept in suspense until the m in returned, and the doc- tor could not be found, and there w ,s no other within six miles I then came to the determination of hearing to no one's advice any longer, but to pursue n;y own plan. 1 told my wife, th■■! aa the midwife said she could not live more than tweniy-four hour* he> hfe could not be Cut short more than i!;*tt time, therefore there would be no hazard, in trying what I could do to relieve her. I give her some warm medicine to raise the inward heat, and then applied: trie steam which was very much opposed by the midwife; but I persisted in it according to the best of my judgment and relieved her in about one hour, after she had lain in thai situation above four hours, without any thing being clone. The m dwife expressed a great ded of asto-dshmentat the sJc- c ss I h ,1 m M wi h, an 1 s lid th it I hai s ived hor life, for she vv s*certain that without the maans 1 had used, she could not h.vi live!. She continued to d> well and recovered.— Th m ikes the fifth tim ; I h d applied to the mother of inven- tion for assistance, and in all of them was completely success- fill. These tilings began to be taken some no'ice of aboui this tim;?, and caused much conversation in the neighborhood. My assistance was called for by some oi the neighbors, and 1 at- tended several cases with good success. I had previous to this) time, paid some attention to the farrier business, and had been useful in that line. This, however, gave occasion for the igno- rant and credulous to ridicde me and laugh at those whom I attended; but these things had little weight with tr:o, for I had i.o other object in view but tobe service' le to my follow crea- tures, and I was too Ermly fixed in my determination to pursue