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, and restoring the
perfect equilibrium, activity and energy of the system, must be the
best, and universally applicable.
I shall now describe the fuel which continues the _fire_ or _life_
of man. This is contained in two things—_food_ and _medicine_, 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 the _deposit_ from 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 food _well 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 of _medicine_, and the
_kind_ needed; which is such as will clear the _stomach_ and
_bowels_, and restore the _digestive 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 know what _medicine_ will 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 the _necessary information given_ to 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 the _principles_ of Thompson’s theory. The
_principle_ contained in the last sentence, touching the sale of
family rights, was the favorite one, the _golden_ one in his eyes,
and he fought for it manfully. He made no blunder in putting this
among the _principles_ of his _practice_.
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
person AT 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 such _compounds_ as earth, air, water and fire
_elements_. 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 cold
_sweat_ of death; with the _sweating_ sickness, as it was called,
once so extensively prevalent and so fatal; with the colliquative
_sweat_, always so bad a symptom in disease, though there may be heat
enough with it to satisfy the most _ardent_ Thompsonian; or with the
_sweat_ of rheumatism, so unapt to bring relief to the disease. In
all these cases, there is certainly _un_obstructed 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 from _cold_,’ 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 fight in 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 with a 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 your _minerals_ where I am.’—‘What _shall_ we put
on doctor?’ asked a by-stander. ‘A hot bag of salt,’ said he. What
_vegetable_ mine the salt came from I did not learn. So too, a
Thompsonian lecturer told his hearers, that he disapproved of _all_
mineral medicines, such as mercury, _opium_, arsenic, &c.
We occasionally hear some singular reasoning from Thompsonians
in regard to the _modus operandi_ of 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 peculiarly prevalent. I refer to the
sentiment of _radicalism_, and to the prejudice against _mineral_
medicines.
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 it _is_ ‘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 necessity
of some restrictions. And it is _restrictions_ which constitute
the ‘regularism,’ the ‘monopoly,’ against which they have always
declaimed.
Thompsonians have made much use of the popular prejudice against
_mineral_ medicines. This prejudice has arisen in part from the
evils which have been seen to result from the _abuse_ of 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 deleterious _because_ they are minerals.
Their chemistry, which, as you have seen, recognizes the existence of
only four elements, has not, I suppose, taught them, that their own
bodies 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 their _vegetable_ remedies, 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 a _harmlessness_ in vegetable remedies that
does not attach to mineral medicines, and that their effects are of a
_less abiding_ character. 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 comparative _duration_ of 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-time are 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 morbid _impressions_
upon the system through the nerves with which they come in contact,
or local _irritations_, 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 administered by a botanic empiric, which was composed in
part of elaterium. Her life was destroyed in thirty-six hours by this
_vegetable_ remedy 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 are not poisons. The medicines used by the
‘regulars’ Thompsonians consider as belonging to the first class,
especially their _mineral_ remedies; 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
the _usual_ effects 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 a _relative_
sense. 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 noxious drug 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
the medical 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.