CHAPTER V.THOMPSONISM.
Thompsonism, or Thomsonianism, as it is more often called, or written, is a system of quackery, which, though it is evidently declining in public favor, is still so prominent, that it seems to merit a separate notice.
The principles of this system shall be stated in the language of its founder.
“My system of practice is founded upon these few, simple, and I think, just principles.
1st. That the constitutions of all mankind are essentially alike, and differ only in the different temper of the same materials of which they are composed. The materials, of which all men are formed, may be resolved into the four elements. Earth and water constitute the solids of the body, which is made active by air and fire. And this last element in a peculiar manner gives life and motion to the rest; and when entirely overpowered, from whatever cause, by the other elements, death ensues.
2d. That the construction and organization of the human frame is in all men essentially the same. They have similar solids and fluids, viz., bones, cartilages, tendons, nerves, muscles, veins, arteries, flesh, blood, and other juices, body and parts, or members.
3d. That all are sustained in a manner as similar as their formation, from the earth, the common mother of us all. Of the elements man is made, and by the same elements he is supported.
4th. That a state of perfect health arises from a due balance or temperature of these elements. But when it is by any means destroyed, the body is more or less disordered. And when this is the case, there is always an actual diminution or absence of the element, fire or heat, and in proportion to this diminution or absence, the body is affected with its opposite, cold. The former may be denominated nature itself, the best physician of the body, the latter its enemy; the first is the health and life of the body; the last its disease and death.
5th. That all diseases, however various the symptoms, and different the names by which they are called, arise directly from obstructed perspiration. The many evils derived from hence, must be obvious, when it is considered that the discharge from the body thereby is greater than by all the other evacuations combined. Obstructed perspiration may be produced from a great variety of effects which produce the same cause, originating from cold.
Now as all men have similar constitutions, being formed of the same materials differently tempered; as their construction and organization essentially agree; as they are all sustained from the same elements which form their composition; as a just balance or temperature of these elements produces a state of health, and the reverse destroys it; as all disease takes its immediate rise from obstructed perspiration in a greater or less degree; and as this is an effect universally produced, it is evident that those medicines which are most agreeable to nature, and efficacious in removing obstructions, and the evils thereby produced, andrestoring the perfect equilibrium, activity and energy of the system, must be the best, and universally applicable.
I shall now describe the fuel which continues thefireorlifeof man. This is contained in two things—foodandmedicine, which are in harmony with each other, often grow in the same field, and are created to be used by the same people. People who are capable of raising their food and preparing the same, may as easily learn to collect and prepare their own medicine, and administer the same when it is needed. Our life depends on heat; food is the fuel that kindles and continues that heat. The digestive powers being correct causes the food to consume; this continues the warmth of the body, by continually supporting the fire.
The stomach is thedepositfrom which the whole body is supported. The heat is kindled in the stomach by its consuming the food; and all the body and limbs receive their proportion of nourishment and heat from that source; as the whole room is warmed by the fire which is consumed in the fire-place. The greater the quantity of wood consumed in the fire-place, the greater the heat in the whole room. So in the body; the more foodwell digested, the more heat and support through the whole man. But by constantly receiving food into the stomach, which is sometimes not suitable for the best nourishment, the stomach becomes foul, so that the food is not well digested. This causes the body to lose its heat; then the appetite fails; the bones ache, and the man is sick in every part of the whole frame.
This situation of the body shows the need ofmedicine, and thekindneeded; which is such as will clear thestomachandbowels, and restore thedigestive organs. When this is done, the food will raise the heat again and nourish the whole man. All the art required to do this is to knowwhatmedicinewill do it, and how to administer it, as a person knows how to clear a stove and the pipe when clogged with soot, that the fire may burn free, and the whole room be warmed as before.
The medicines best calculated to have the desired effect are such as will raise and retain the vital heat of the system, remove obstructions, promote perspiration, clear off the canker, and restore the digestive powers. These can only be found in vegetable substances; and there can enough be found in all countries to answer every purpose needed. I have devoted the greatest part of my life to ascertain those articles that are best to answer the above purposes; and these may be found in my Book of Practice, properly classed under the heads of the different numbers, with directions for preparing and administering them in curing all cases of disease, which has been secured to me by patent. Family rights will be sold, and thenecessary information givento enable those who purchase to practice with safety and success, by application to me or any of my agents duly authorized.”
Such is the statement of theprinciplesof Thompson’s theory. Theprinciplecontained in the last sentence, touching the sale of family rights, was the favorite one, thegoldenone in his eyes, and he fought for it manfully. He made no blunder in putting this among theprinciplesof hispractice.
Appended to this ‘statement’ are some ‘Remarks on Fevers,’ which it is not necessary to copy entire.
“No person,” says Dr. Thompson, “ever yet died of a fever! for as death approaches, the patient grows cold, until in death the last spark is extinguished. This the learned doctors cannot deny; and as this is true, they ought in justice to acknowledge that their whole train of depletive remedies,such as bleeding, blistering, physicking, starving, with all their refrigeratives; their opium, mercury, arsenic, antimony, nitre, &c., are so many deadly engines combined with the disease, against the constitution and life of the patient. If cold, which is the commonly received opinion, (and which is true,) is the cause of fever, to repeatedly bleed the patient, and administer mercury, opium, nitre, and other refrigerants, to restore him to health, is, as though a man should, to increase a fire in his room, throw a part of it out of the house, and to increase the remainder, put on water, snow and ice!”
And again—“There is no more difference in all cases of fever than what is caused by the different degrees of cold, or loss of inward heat, which are two adverse parties in one body contending for power. If the heat gains the victory, the cold will be disinherited, and health will be restored; but on the other hand, if cold gains the ascendancy, heat will be dispossessed of its empire, and death will follow of course.
“The higher the fever runs, the sooner will the cold be subdued; and if you contend against the heat, the longer will be the run of the fever, and when extinguished, death follows.”
When a patient dies of fever, Thompson says, “the question whether the heat or the cold killed the patient is easily decided, for that power which bears rule in the body after death, is what killed the patient, which is cold—as much as that which bears rule when he is alive, is heat.”
Again he says, “At the commencement of a fever, by direct and proper application of suitable medicine, it can be easily and speedily removed. Twenty-four, or forty-eight hours, to the extent, are sufficient, and often short of that time, the fever may be removed.”
Now see how confident this bold reformer is in the truth of these assertions. “These declarations,” says he, “are true, and have been often proved, and can be again, to the satisfaction of every candid personAT THE HAZARD OF ANY FORFEITURE THE FACULTY MAY CHALLENGE.”
I have but a remark or two to make upon this theory of Dr. Thompson.
It is rather a rude and unscientific theory. There is a trifling mistake in calling suchcompoundsas earth, air, water and fireelements. Still, as a theory, it is quite as rational as most of the theories spun from the more refined brains of some of Thompson’s enemies, the ‘regulars,’ as they are styled by his erudite followers; and I may say too that it is quite as good a guide in actual practice. But this point I shall speak of in another place.
Thompson makes great account of ‘obstructed perspiration’ in his theory. ‘All diseases,’ he says, ‘arise directly’ from it. It is difficult to conceive what he does in his theory with the coldsweatof death; with thesweatingsickness, as it was called, once so extensively prevalent and so fatal; with the colliquativesweat, always so bad a symptom in disease, though there may be heat enough with it to satisfy the mostardentThompsonian; or with thesweatof rheumatism, so unapt to bring relief to the disease. In all these cases, there is certainlyunobstructed perspiration, and yet it does not remedy the disease, as it should do, according to the Thompsonian theory.
While he considers fire or heat as life, he thinks that the ‘obstructed perspiration’ always ‘originates fromcold,’ which he seems to personify as a sort of master spirit, producing all disease—it is the ‘legion,’ which his medicines, and his alone, are fitted to overcome and dispossess. With him, heat and cold are the two combatants that fightin the battle of disease. And while the doctors, he says, ‘assist the cold to kill the patient,’ under his practice, ‘the heat gains the victory, the cold is disinherited, and health is restored.’
The fact, that the ‘obstructed perspiration’ is often made free by cooling medicines, or by the direct application of cold to the skin, and thus, disease is relieved, (a fact which is as well known to common observers, as it is to ‘doctors,’ and which is directly in the face of his theory,) I suppose he flatly denies, as he asserts in regard to fever, that ‘if you contend against the heat, the longer will be the run of the fever, and when extinguished, death follows.’
It is rather difficult for the unskilled mind of a ‘regular’ to reconcile with the ‘simple and plain theory’ of Thompson, these facts—that persons sometimes die with a great degree of heat upon them—that heat sometimes remains in the body for a long time after death—that in the cholera there is occasionally found after death a great amount of heat, though the patient’s body was very cold for many hours before death, &c. I once asked a Thompsonian the reason of this last fact. ‘Why,’ said he, ‘that is plain enough—the disease was so powerful it kept down the heat, but when the patient died, the disease let go, and then the heat came out.’ The answer was at least ingenious. But Thompson says, ‘if the heat gains the victory, the cold will be disinherited, and health will be restored.’ The warm corpse of the cholera patient ought, therefore, to have revived.
It is asserted by the followers of Thompson, that there is no need of ‘learned doctors.’ They declare that ‘the whole theory and practice, is perfectly plain and simple, requiring no study of the dead languages to comprehend it, thereby enabling any person of common capacity to practice witha certainty of success, in all ordinary cases of disease, and this too with but a few hours instruction.’ And, Thompson himself speaks of the art of medicine, as being as plain and as easy, as the clearing of ‘a stove and the pipe, when clogged with soot.’
The Thompsonian system dispenses with the services of ‘learned doctors,’ for another reason also. It claims that, while other medicines invariably injure the system, the Thompsonian remedies always benefit it, both in sickness and in health. No matter how much they are used, nor at what times—they always do good, for they have, it is claimed, a natural relation to the system. Many Thompsonians carry this idea still farther than this. A prominent physician of this class, one sufficiently orthodox and accomplished to be for a long time an editor of one of their papers, attributed a sort of selecting power to lobelia. He said, that it would never bring up anything that it ought not to bring up, and that if a man with a foul stomach, should eat a good dinner, and then take lobelia, nothing but the bad matter would be thrown off, and the dinner would stay there to nourish the system.
Such views as these, being prevalent among Thompsonians, both in regard to education and to the administration of medicine, it is not strange that Thompsonian practitioners should be a very ignorant set of men. In the remarks, which their special hatred for mineral medicines, leads them to make, they sometimes confound mineral and vegetable substances together. A Thompsonian of some considerable note, finding that a patient was applying hot camphor cloths to her side to relieve pain, said with an air of authority, ‘away with your camphor—none of yourmineralswhere I am.’—‘Whatshallwe put on doctor?’ asked a by-stander. ‘A hot bag of salt,’ said he. Whatvegetablemine the salt came from I did not learn. So too, a Thompsonian lecturer told his hearers, that he disapproved ofallmineral medicines, such as mercury,opium, arsenic, &c.
We occasionally hear some singular reasoning from Thompsonians in regard to themodus operandiof medicines. Though this is confessedly a very difficult subject, they claim to know all about it, and give their opinions in regard to it without any hesitation. A patient once told me that, among the many physicians of whom she had suffered many things was a Thompsonian of considerable celebrity. He assured her that he could effect a cure in a very short time. He began his treatment with the process of steaming. Some heated bricks wrapped in wet flannel were placed around her in bed. Presently some one asked ‘what is it that smells so?’—‘O’ said the doctor, ‘it is the smell of the disease coming out through the pores—things are working nicely—this is just as I want to have it. Disease very often comes out in this way, through the pores, and sometimes I have known the smell to be so strong, that you could hardly stay in the room.’ As he went on to give his clinical lecture on ‘disease coming out through the pores,’ the smell grew worse and worse, as if to give emphasis to his remarks. But at length some one suggested that it was a little like the smell of burnt flannel, and on examination, it was found that one of the bricks had scorched the flannel which was around it. She at once told the doctor, that she had no farther use for his services, for if he did not know enough to distinguish between the smell of ‘disease coming out through the pores,’ and the smell of burnt flannel, he did not know enough to doctor her.
This system of quackery has obtained a large share of its popularity, by the appeal which it has made to two forms of popular sentiment, which have been for some time peculiarlyprevalent. I refer to the sentiment ofradicalism, and to the prejudice againstmineralmedicines.
As it has been fashionable in the world of business and politics, to denounce moneyed corporations, as being monopolies, so that system of institutions, or corporations (as they may be termed,) by which a well educated medical profession is secured to the community, has also been denounced and attacked by this same spirit of radicalism. Thompsonism has been one of the principal channels through which this attack has been made. The followers of Thompson have always spoken of the medical faculty as a privileged order, which must be overthrown, and down with ‘regularism’ has been the chief motto on their banner of ‘reform.’ All this, however, comes with an ill grace from them, for the ‘venerated founder’ of their system began his career with as sheer a monopoly as ever existed—a patent securing to him the power of selling rights for twenty dollars each, to every family; and the last days of this ‘reformer’ were embittered by a quarrel on this point, with some of his agents. And, besides this, his followers have adopted the very ‘regularism’ for which they have professed to have so holy an abhorrence. It is Thompsonian ‘regularism’ it is true, but nevertheless itis‘regularism.’ Like the ‘regulars,’ against whom they have waged such an uncompromising war, they have now in Connecticut, and I suppose in other states also, their State Society, and their board of Censors for the examination of candidates; and they put the badge of ‘regularism’ upon these candidates, by giving them a ‘regular’ diploma. The truth is, that they found that so many of the class who are too lazy to work were coming from the workshop and the field, dubbing themselves at once Thompsonian physicians, that the business was getting to be overdone. Hence the necessityof some restrictions. And it isrestrictionswhich constitute the ‘regularism,’ the ‘monopoly,’ against which they have always declaimed.
Thompsonians have made much use of the popular prejudice againstmineralmedicines. This prejudice has arisen in part from the evils which have been seen to result from theabuseof calomel. This remedy is so effectual an one in many diseases, that it has been used more freely, and with less caution, than it should be; and disastrous effects have sometimes followed this abuse of it. But the same reasoning which prohibits the cautious use of this article, on account of the results which come from its incautious use, would prohibit the use of horses, fire, steam, &c., because, through carelessness and want of skill, horses run away, conflagrations take place, and steam boilers burst. Still this groundless reasoning is applied by a large portion of the community to this remedy. And this prejudice against calomel has been extended to mineral medicines generally. So extensive is this prejudice, that the quack of every name is sure to appeal to it, and he, therefore, puts in his advertisement, the assurance that his medicine is ‘entirely vegetable,’ as a necessary passport to public favor. Many physicians, too, disgracefully yield to the prejudice of the people in this respect. They pretend to give no calomel, or almost none of it; and yet, such physicians generally give more of this article, than those who pursue an open and manly course on this subject.
In the clamor which has been raised against ‘mineral doctors’ Thompsonians have been among the loudest. They uniformly speak of minerals, as if they were deleteriousbecausethey are minerals. Their chemistry, which, as you have seen, recognizes the existence of only four elements, has not, I suppose, taught them, that their ownbodies are partly composed of minerals, that there is lime in the bones, and iron in the blood, that minerals exist in many articles of food, that their good wives sometimes put a mineral of even deadly power into the bread which they eat, and that they daily use as a condiment one of these same luckless minerals. They speak of ‘mineral doctors’ as the poisoners of the race, while they claim so perfect a safety in the use of theirvegetableremedies, that no carelessness or want of skill can make them produce any bad results.
There seems to be a quite a general impression abroad in the community, that there is aharmlessnessin vegetable remedies that does not attach to mineral medicines, and that their effects are of aless abidingcharacter. Nothing can be more untrue. Let us look for a moment at these two points.
First, as to the supposed harmlessness of vegetable medicines. The most active mineral medicines are arsenic and corrosive sublimate. But arsenic taken in large quantity never produces death in a shorter time than five to ten hours, and a large dose of corrosive sublimate destroys life ordinarily in from twenty-four to thirty-six hours. But among vegetable substances, oxalic acid, found in the common wood sorrel, has destroyed life in ten minutes, and prussic acid, which is the bitter principle in wild cherry, bitter almonds, peach blossoms, &c., in the dose only of a few drops, destroys life instantly. Comparisons might be made still further, showing that the most deadly and expeditious poisons are vegetable.
Let us look now at the comparativedurationof the results of vegetable and mineral medicines.
Much is said, especially by Thompsonians, about calomel’s staying in the system, and all the bodily ills of a life-timeare often attributed to this cause without any hesitation. Whether these wise ones have ever applied their rude chemistry to the detection of calomel in such cases I have not learned. But there it is,for they say so. It is in the very bones! Though no intelligent persons believe in such nonsense as this, yet the general notion that the effects of mineral, in comparison with vegetable agents, are peculiarly abiding, is not confined to the ignorant and unthinking.
Leaving out of view the direct corrosive effects upon the living texture of the concentrated acids, I may remark of poisons, whether mineral or vegetable, that they produce either morbidimpressionsupon the system through the nerves with which they come in contact, or localirritations, which may result in inflammation. These impressions or irritations may abide, or they may be partially or wholly removed. The fact that they are produced by a mineral is no more apt to make them abide, than the fact that they are produced by a vegetable. We should expect this to be true, and experience has shown that it is. For example the irritation produced by elaterium (wild cucumber) or croton oil, or any vegetable cathartic of a drastic nature, is as lasting as if it had been caused by any mineral poison.
I trust that it is obvious to the reader from the above statements, that they commit a great error, who suppose that the fact, that a remedy is composed entirely of vegetable substances, is a sure proof that it is innocuous, and that it can be used freely without any discrimination. And yet it is a very prevalent error, to which many lives are constantly sacrificed, to say nothing of the multitudes of cases, in which, though death does not occur, injury is inflicted in various degrees upon the system. A single example will suffice. A case is detailed in the Boston Medical Magazine of a female, who had a medicine administeredby a botanic empiric, which was composed in part of elaterium. Her life was destroyed in thirty-six hours by thisvegetableremedy given her by this denouncer of ‘mineral poisons’ and ‘mineral doctors!’
Lobelia, it is claimed by the Thompsonians, is not a poison. I have often heard them say that there was no danger from it, taken at any time and in any quantity. Some have so said under oath. The vulgar name by which this article has always been known, Indian Tobacco, given to it from the similarity of its effects to those of common tobacco, show what its character is by general acknowledgment. Thompsonians however assert that it is not a narcotic; but every physician, who has had Thompsonian quacks in his neighborhood has occasionally witnessed effects ordinarily considered narcotic, produced by this remedy. These effects, it is proper to remark, do not commonly appear to any great amount, because vomiting occurs so soon, and the medicine is thrown off with the contents of the stomach. But when an ineffectual retching occurs instead of free vomiting, and dose after dose is given, narcosis is certain to supervene in a considerable degree, and sometimes it proves fatal. This is especially apt to take place, when the system from any cause is already in a very depressed state. Several trials have occurred of Thompsonian practitioners charged with killing their patients under such circumstances. Two cases are reported in Guy’s Forensic Medicine, in which the accused were found guilty by the jury, and the penalty of the law was inflicted.
The idea of Thompsonians and of some others in regard to poisons is this—that there are some medicines which always do harm, and these are poisons; while there are some other medicines which always do good, and these arenot poisons. The medicines used by the ‘regulars’ Thompsonians consider as belonging to the first class, especially theirmineralremedies; while the vegetable medicines, which they use in their practice, they claim to be of the latter class.
Let us look at the true meaning of the word poison. Webster’s definition of it is a correct one. He says it is ‘a substance, which, when taken into the stomach, mixed with the blood, or applied to the skin or flesh, proves fatal or deleterious.’
This definition has no reference to the time or the quantity required to produce the effect. There is a wide difference in both these respects between different poisons. Some are slow, and some rapid in their operation. Some, as for example opium, arsenic, and prussic acid, act as poisons in small amounts; while comparatively large quantities of such articles as lobelia, saltpetre, and salæratus, are required to produce ‘deleterious,’ and especially ‘fatal’ effects; and yet lobelia, saltpetre and salæratus are as truly poisons as are opium, arsenic and prussic acid.
It may be remarked also that this definition has reference only to theusualeffects of substances; and not to any occasional effects which may be owing to circumstances. If, for example, any substance produce a bad effect simply from the influence of any constitutional peculiarity, or some temporary condition of the system, it is not to be called a poison. The term poison is used often in relation to the effects of substances in such cases, but it is only in arelativesense. Anything may be a poison in this sense. Anything which is inappropriate to any case will produce a ‘deleterious’ influence upon it, and is therefore a poison to it. Food may thus be for the time being a poison to the sick man, as really as a noxious drug. Indeed a noxiousdrug may be to him a cure, while in the same quantity it would be perhaps even a fatal poison to him if he were well. Thus a man sick with spasmodic colic is relieved by opium, which is a noxious drug to a well man; and perhaps, in order to produce the relief, he requires as much as would kill him if he were in a state of health.
The word poison carries terror to most minds, and it has therefore been one of the watchwords of Thompsonians and other quacks, in their warfare upon the medical profession. And yet, while they are raising this ridiculous outcry, they themselves, as I have before said, daily use poisons, even mineral poisons, as common articles of food. Salæratus, cream of tartar, and even common salt,[13]are poisons, for when taken in large quantities, they prove ‘deleterious,’ in some cases ‘fatal,’ and therefore come within the terms of the definition.
I have said thus much of the popular prejudice on the subject of poisons, and the use which Thompsonians and other quacks have made of it, because there is so general a misapprehension in regard to these points abroad in the community.
I cannot conclude this chapter without noticing the changes which have taken place in the sentiments and practice of Thompsonians within the last few years. These changes have been quite material. I have already alluded to some of them.
Thompsonians formerly denied the necessity of education in the practitioner. But now the candidates for admission to Thompsonian practice must study, and must submit to an examination before a board of Censors. And though Thompsonians have from the first denounced themedical faculty, and their institutions, they have now a medical faculty of their own, and have organized state societies.
Thompsonians are not now so bold and reckless in their practice as they once were. In the infancy of this practice every sick man, whatever might be his disease, or his state at the time, was subjected to what was called “the operation,”—that is, steaming and vomiting with lobelia. But so many died during the “operation,” or immediately after it, that Thompsonian doctors have learned to be more cautious.
Cathartics used to be utterly discarded by Thompsonians, but now they are quite extensively used. Indeed they have widened their range of remedies generally. Once lobelia and steam and red pepper were nearly all in all. But now they are making out a very considerable materia medica. At the same time they are dropping the names Thompsonian Physician and Thompsonian Practice, and adopting instead of them Botanic Physician and Botanic Practice.
Once no Thompsonian doctor would practice vaccination, because as he contended, it was better to have even small pox, under the guidance of Thompsonian treatment, than it was to run the risk of getting ‘humors’ from the vaccine virus. But finding that their employers would have their children vaccinated, even though they were obliged to get the ‘mineral doctors’ to do it, some of them have gone into the business themselves.
Such are some of the changes which have come over Thompsonism, giving it a very different character from that which it exhibited when it first came in its stern simplicity from the rude hand of its founder. Its popularity is already declining, and it will probably soon pass away, to give place to some other kindred delusion.
FOOTNOTES:[13]Guy, in his Forensic Medicine, states that common salt taken in a large quantity has destroyed life, with symptoms of irritant poisoning.
[13]Guy, in his Forensic Medicine, states that common salt taken in a large quantity has destroyed life, with symptoms of irritant poisoning.
[13]Guy, in his Forensic Medicine, states that common salt taken in a large quantity has destroyed life, with symptoms of irritant poisoning.