A new guide to health; or, botanic family physician. Containing a complete system of practice, upon a plan enitrely new; with a description of the vegetables made use of ... to cure disease. To which is added a description of several cases ... attended by the author ...
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- Z. * s' •t % V{* - , •■ *4 >V> ■ P i* V :• * A*/* a * \ k,; A ■ * 'H- .-■•-■ £'~ -c- •' r , 'K * I I Vii ; , . • v ■ %* . A zz> ■ • -%*• ■A' ■• ' !*•■*- -■,. 5(* *v\, r iT-iu'^ ' " ' ' TW I P •i> . ■ - • V.*V^ •fKl- fc,Vi ♦ .**• V*V : ;s-' v. ■ k ,V ' « I •> .<iwl <"■' V-'; zu A - ?C*XU>.' w & 77 r* i” '1 <fi* • * »T.^- «* ' -'• v k v‘v ‘ li ‘»i 1 - • ‘ "A v **'< *■■■■ ■ \ >*<V.V 4 * ; - ?«v 3 . - • •J r • J •: >.; '• £? & •-? & v> < 1 f V. T t (, A* (/ ... .^3' * 7 ' ' *v'-v "•'•> . f Opv‘* - *• «. -*••• / • ' .-•„ - rv. «> f *A t ■ \ FTii i. r..^«:uV i; 'fa \v & NEW GUIDE TO HEALTH, • OR BOTANIC FAMILY PHYSICIAN: CONTAINING A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF PRACTICE, UPON A PLAN ENTIRELY NEW: WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE VEGETABLES MADE USE OF, AND DIRECTIONS FOR PREPARING AND ADMINISTERING THEM TO CURE DISEASE. TO WHICH IS ADDED A description of several cases of disease attended by the Author, with the mode of treatment and cure. BY SAMUEL THOMSON, NEW EDITION. LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO. UYRRPOOL: EDWARD HOWELL, 6, CHURCH STREET. 1 849. f* LIVERPOOL. PRINTED BY EDWARD HOWELL, €HtfR0H STREET. «vu0°*: HISTORICAL medical V</8RX TO THE PUBLIC. * The preparing the following work for the press, has been a task of much difficulty and labor. To comprise in a short compass, and to convey a cor* rect understanding of the subject, from such a mass of materials, as I have been enabled to collect, by thirty years’ practice, is a business of no small magnitude. The plan that has been adopted, I thought the best to give a correct knowledge of my system of practice ; and am confident that the descriptions and directions are sufficiently explained, to be understood by all those who take an interest in this important subject. Much more might have been written ; but the main object has been to confine it to the practice, and nothing more is stated of the theory, than what was necessary to give a general knowledge of the system. If any errors should be dis¬ covered, it is hoped that they will be viewed with candor ; for in first pub¬ lishing a work, such things are to be expected ; but much care has been taken that there should be no error which should cause any mistake in the practice or preparing the medicine. Many persons are practising by my system, who are in the habit of pre¬ tending that they have made great improvements, and in some instances, it is well known that poisonous drugs have been made use of under the name of my medicine, which has counteracted its operation, and thereby tended to destroy tbe confidence of the public in my system of practice ; this has nevfer been authorised by me. The public are therefore cautioned against such conduct, and all those who are well disposed towards my system, are desired to lend their aid in exposing all sneh dishonest practices, in order that justice may be done. Those who possess this work, may, by examin¬ ing it, be able to detect any improper deviations therefrom ; and they are assured that any practice which is not conformable to the directions given, and does not agree with the principles herein laid down, is unauthorised by me. * Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Wellcome Library https://archive.org/details/b29287923 INTRODUCTION. There are three things which have in a greater or less degree, called the attention of men, viz : — Beligion, Government, and Medicine. In ages past, these things were thought by millions to belong to three classes of men, Priests, Lawyers, and Phy¬ sicians. The Priests held the things of religion in their own hands, and brought the people to their terms : kept the Scrip¬ tures in the dead languages, so that the common people could not read them. — Those days of darkness are done away, the Scriptures are translated into our own language, and each one is taught to read for himself. Government was once considered as belonging to a few, who thought themselves “ born only to rule.” The common people have now become acquainted with the great secret of government; and know that “ all men are born free and equal,” and that magistrates are put in authority, or out, by the voice of the people, who chose them for their public servants. While these and many other things are brought where “ common people ” can understand them, the knowledge and use of medicine, is in a great measure concealed in a dead language, and a sick man is often obliged to risk his life where he would not risk a dollar; and should the apothecary or his apprentice make a mistake, the sick man cannot correct it, and thus is exposed to receive an instrument of death, instead of that which would restore him to health, had he known good medicine, “ It may be alleged, (said Dr. Buchan, )that in laying medicine more open to mankind, would lessen their faith in it. This indeed would be the case with regard to some ; but it would have quite a contrary effect upon others. I know many people who have the utmost dread and horror of everything prescribed by a physician, who will, nevertheless, very readily take a medicine which they know, and whose qualities they are in some measure acquainted with.” “ Nothing ever can or will inspire mankind with an absolute confidence in physicians, but by their being open, frank, and undisguised in their behaviour.” “ The most effectual way to destroy quackery in any art or science, is to diffuse a knowledge of it among mankind. Did physicians write their prescriptions, in the common language of the country, and explain their intentions to the patient as far as he could understand them, it would enable him to know when the medicine had the desired effect; would inspire him with absolute confidence in the physician; and would make him dread and detest every man who pretended to cram a secret medicine or poison down his throat.” A 2 6 INTRODUCTION. It is true, that much of what is this day called medicine, is deadly poison ; and, were people to know what is offered to them of this kind, they would absolutely refuse ever to receive it as a medicine. This I have long seen and known to be true ; and have labored hard for many years to convince them of the evils that attend such a mode of procedure with the sick ; and have turned my attention to those medicines that grow in our own country, which the God of nature has prepared for the benefit of mankind. Long has a general medicine been sought for, and I am confident I have found such as are universally applicable in all cases of disease, and which may be used with safety and success, in the hands of the people. After thirty years study, and repeated successful trials of the medicinal vegetables of our own country, in all forms of disease incident to our climate, I can, with well grounded assurance, recommend my system of practice and medicine to the public, as salutary and efficacious. Great discoveries and improvements have been made in various arts and sciences since the first settlement of our coun¬ try, while its medicines have been very much neglected. As these medicines, suited to every disease, grow spontaneously upon our soil; as they are better adapted to the constitution ; as the price of imported drugs is very high, it follows : whether we consult health, which is of primary importance, or expense, a decided preference should he given to the former, as an object of such magnitude no longer to be neglected. Yet, in the introduction of those medicines, I have been violently opposed, and my theory and practice condemned, notwithstanding the demonstrative proofs in their favor. But those who thus con¬ demn, have taken no pains to throw off-prejudice, and examine the subject with candor and impartiality. Such as have, are thoroughly satisfied of their utility and superior excellence. From those who measure a man’s understanding and ability to he beneficial to his fellow men, only from the acquisition he has made in literature from books ; from such as are governed by outward appearance, and who will not stoop to examine a system on the ground of its intrinsic merit, I expect not encou¬ ragement, but opposition. But this will not discourage me. I consider the discovery I have made of inestimable value to mankind, and intended for the great benefit of those who are willing to receive it. Being born in a new country, at that time almost a howling wilderness, my advantages for an education were very small ; but possessing a natural gift for examining the things of Nature, my mind was left entirely free to follow that inclination, by inquiring after the meaning of the great variety of objects around me. Possessing a body like other men, I was led to inquire into the nature of the component parts of which man is made. I found him composed of the four elements — Earth, Water, Air and Fire. The earth and water I found were the solids : the air and fire the fluids. The two first I found to be component parts ; the two last kept him in motion. Heat, I found was life ; INTRODUCTION. 7 and cold, death. Each one who examines into it, will find that all constitutions are alike. 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 growing in the same field, 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 all their medicines, 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 maintained in the stomach by 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 fuel which is consumed in the fire-place. The greater the quantity of wood consumed in the fire-place, the greater the heat in the room. So in the body ; the more food well digested, the more heat and support through the whole man. By constantly receiving food into the stomach, which is sometimes not suitable for the best nourishment, the stomach becomes foul1, 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. 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 powers. When this is done,, the food will rais e 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 wl'iole room be warmed as before. The body, after bein g cleared of whatever clogs it, will consume double the food, and the food will afford double the nourishment and heat that it did before. We know that our life depends on food, and the stomach b eing in a situation to receive and digest it. When the stomach mad bowels are clogged, all required is, the most suitable medicine to remove the obstruction in the system. All disease is caused by clogging the system; and all disease is removed by restoring the digestive powers, so that food may keep up that heat on which life depends. I have found by experience, that the learned doctors are wrong, in considering fever U disease or enemy ; the fever is a friend, and cold the enemy. This I found by their practice in my family, until they had fix e times given them over to die. Exercising my own judgment’, I followed after them, and relieved my family every time. After finding a general principle respecting fevers, and reducing tliat to practice, I found it sure in all diseases, where there was any nature left to build on ; and in three years’ constant practice, I never lost one patient. I attended on all the forms of fever peculiar to our country, and always used it as a friend, and thau returned the gratitude to 8 INTRODUCTION. the patient. I soon began to give this information to the people, and convinced many that they might as certainly relieve them¬ selves of their disease, as of their hunger. The expense to he always able to relieve themselves and families, would be but small ; and the medicine they might procure and prepare themselves. This greatly disturbed the learned doctors, and some of them undertook to destroy me, by reporting that I used poison ; though they made no mention of my using their instruments of death — mercury, opium, ratsbane, nitre, and the lancet. — I considered it my duty to withstand them, though I found my overthrow was what they aimed at. — A plan was once laid to take me in the night, but I escaped. Next I was indicted as though I had given poison, and a bill brought against me for wilful murder. I was bound in irons, and thrust into prison, to be kept there through the winter, without being allowed bail. I petitioned for, and obtained a special court to try the cause, and was honorably acquitted after forty days’ imprisonment. I main¬ tained my integrity in the place where my persecution began. In five years, whilst vindicating this new and useful discovery, I lost five thousand dollars, besides all the persecutions, trouble, loss of health, and reproach, which has been in connection with the losses. It has been acknowledged, even by those, who are unfriendly to me and my practice, that my medicine may be good in some particular cases, but not in all. But this is an error. For there are but two great principles in the constitution ofthings, whether applied to the mind or body — the principle of life, and the principle of death. That which contains the principle of life, can never be tortured into an instrument of death. If, then, a medicine is good in any case, it is became it is agreeable to nature, or this principle of life, the very opposite of disease. If it is agreeable in one case, it must be absolutely so in all. By the active operation of nature, the whole animal economy is earried on: and the father of the healing art, Hippocrates, tells us what is an obvious truth, that Nature ts Heat. The principle is the same in all, differing only in degree. When disease in¬ vades the frame, it resists the heat ia proportion to its force, till overpowered into submission, and vlien extinguished, death follows, and it ceases to operate alike in all. If, then, heat is life, and its extinction death, a diminution of this vital flame, in every instance, constitutes disease, and is an approximation to death. All then, that medicine can do in the expulsion of disease, is to kindle up the decaying spark, and restore its energy, till it glows in all its wonted vigor. If a direct administration can be made to produce this eflict, (and it can,) it is evidently immaterial what is the name cr color of the disease, whether bilious, yellow, scarlet, or spotted ; whether it is simple or com¬ plicated, or whether nature has one enemy or more. Names are arbitrary things; the knowledge of a name is the cammm and annis; but in the knowledge of the origin of a malady, and its antidote, lies the weightier matters of this science. This know¬ ledge makes the genuine physician ; all without it is real quackery. INTRODUCTION. It has been a general opinion, that extensive study and great erudition, are necessary to form the eminent physician. But all this may be, as Paul saith, but science, falsely so called. A man may have a scientific knowledge of the human frame — he may know the names in every language, of every medicine, mineral and vegetable, as well as every disease — and yet be a miserable physician. But there have been men without this to boast of, from the earliest ages of the world, who have “ arisen, blest with the sublime powers of genius, who have, as it were, with one look, pierced creation, and with one comprehensive view, grasped the whole circle of science, and left learning itself toiling after them in vain.” A man never can be great without intellect, and he never can more than fill the measure of his capacity. — There is a power beyond the reach of art, and there are gifts that study and learning can never rival. The practice of the regular physicians, that is those who get a diploma, at the present time, is not to use those means which would be most likely to cure disease, but to try experiments upon what they have read in books, and to see how much a patient can bear without death. 'After pursuing this plan during their lives, they know just about as much as they did when they began to practice, of what is really useful to mankind. If a patient dies under their hands, why, it is the will of God, and they are sure to get extravagantly paid for their trouble, and nothing more is said about it ; but if one out of hundreds of my patients die, and where the doctors have given them over as incurable, they at once cry out, that it is quackery, that I gave them poison, &c., for the purpose of running me and my medicine down, and to prevent its being used by the people.. The fact is well known to thousands who have used my medicine, and to which they are ready to attest, that it is perfectly harm¬ less; and I defy the faculty to produce one instance, wherein it has had any bad effect. It is true, that the study of anatomy, or structure of the human body, and of the whole animal economy, is pleasing and useful;, nor is there any objection to this, however minute and critical, if it is not to the neglect of first great principles, and the weightier matters of knowledge. But it is no more necessary to mankind at large, to qualify them to administer relief from pain and sickness, than to a cook in preparing food to satisfy hunger and nourish the body. There is one general cause of hunger, and one general supply of food ; one general cause of disease, and one general remedy. One can be satisfied, and the other removed, by an infinite variety of articles, or a few best adapted to those different purposes. That medicine, therefore, that will remove obstructions, promote perspiration, and restore digestion, is suited to every patient, whatever form the disease assumes, and is universally applicable. And what are called acute disorders, such as fevers, cholics, and dysentery, may be removed thereby, in twenty-four, or forty-eight hours at most. 10 INTRODUCTION. REMARKS ON FEVERS. Much has been said and written upon fevers, by the professedly learned doctors of medicine, without throwing the least profit¬ able light on the subject, or greatly benefitting mankind. They have been abundantly fruitful in inventing names for disease, and with great care and accuracy distinguished the different symptoms ; but they appear quite barren as to the knowledge of theirjorigin and remedy. To the first, but little importance, comparatively speaking, can be attached ; the latter is of the highest importance to all classes of people. According to the writings of learned physicians, there are a great variety of fevers, some more, and some less dangerous. But to begin with a definition of the Name : What is a fever ? Heat, undoubtedly, though a disturbed operation of it. But is there in the human frame more than one kind of heat ? Yes, says the physician, (strange as it may appear,) there is the pleuretic heat, the slow nervous heat, the putrid heat, the hec¬ tic heat, the yellow heat, the spotted or cold heat, the typhus or ignorant heat, and many other heats; and sometimes, (cala¬ mitous to tell) one poor patient has the most, or the whole of these fevers, and dies at last for want of heat ! Is fever or heat a disease ? Hippocrates, the acknowledged father of physicians, maintained that nature is heat ; and he was correct. Is nature a disease ? Surely it is not. What is commonly called fever, is the effect, and not the cause of disease. It is the struggle of nature to throw off disease. The cold causes obstructions, and fever arises in consequence of those obstructions, to throw them ©ff. This is universally the case. Remove the cause — the effect will cease. No person ever yet died of a fever ! for, as death approaches, the patient grows cold, until in death, the last spark of heat is extinguished. This, the learned doctors cannot deny; and as this is true, they ought in justice to acknowledge that their whole train of de¬ pletive remedies, such as bleeding, blistering, physicking, starv¬ ing, with all their refrigeratives, their opium, mercury, arsenic, antimony, nitre, &a., 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 re¬ store 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 in¬ crease the remainder, put on water, snow and ice ! As it is a fact that cannot be denied, that fever takes its rise from one great cause or origin, it follows, of course, that one method of removing that cause, will answer in all cases ; and the great principle is to assist nature, which is heat. At the commencement of the fever, by direct and proper ap¬ plication of suitable medicine, it can be easily and speedily re¬ moved. Twenty-four or forty-eight hours, to the extent, are sufficient, and often short of that time, the fever may be re- INTRODUCTION. 11 moved, or that which is the cause of it. But where the patient is left unassisted, to struggle with the disease, until his strength is exhausted, and more especially, when the most unnatural and injurious administrations are made, if a recovery is possible, it must of necessity take a longer time. — These declarations are true, and have been often proved, and can be again, to the satis¬ faction of every candid person, at the hazard of any forfeiture the faculty may challenge. Notwithstanding all these things, how true are the words of the intelligent Dr. Hervey, who says, “ By what unaccountable perversity in our frame does it appear, that we set ourselves so much against any thing that is new ? Can any one behold without scorn, such drones of physicians, and after the space of so many hundred years’ experience and practice of their pre¬ decessors, not one single medicine has been detected, that has the least force directly to prevent, to oppose, and expel a con¬ tinued fever ? Should any, by a more sedulous observation, pretend to make the least discovery of such remedies, their hatred and envy would swell against him ; as a legion of devils against virtue ; the whole society will dart their malice at him, and torture him with all the calumnies imaginable, without sticking at any thing that should destroy him root and branch. Bor he who professes to be a reformer of the art of physic, must resolve to run the hazard of the martyrdom of his reputa¬ tion, life and estate.” The treatment which the writer has received from some of the learned physicians since his discovery of the remedy for fever, and various other forms of disease, is a proof of the truth of this last saying of Dr. Hervey. They have imprisoned him, and charged him with every thing cruel and unjust ; though upon a fair trial, their violent dealings have come down upon their own heads : while he has not only been proved innocent before a civil tribunal, but his practice useful, he having relieved many which the other physicians had given over to die. I will now take notice of the yellow fever. The cause of this fatal disease is similar to the spotted fever. The cause of death in the latter, is in consequence of its producing a balance by cold outward and inward; and in the former there is a balance of heat, outward and inward ; both produce the same thing, that is a total cessation of motion, which is death. The colour of the skin has given name to both these forms of disease. The yellow is caused by the obstruction of the gall ; instead of being discharged through its proper vessels, it is forced and diffused through the pores of the skin, the same ef¬ fects that are produced by these two different forms of fever, may be observed in the motion of the sea ; when the tide is done running up, there is what is called slack water, or a ba¬ lance of power, and the same thing takes place when it is done running down ; when the fountain is raised the water runs from it; but when it is lowered, the water runs towards it. The same cause produces the same effects in fever, whether spotted or yellow ; for when a balance of power between the outward and inward heat takes place, death follows. 12 INTRODUCTION. Having described the two kinds of fever which are the most alarming, they being most fatal, I shall pass over those of a less alarming nature, and merely observe, that there is no other difference in all cases of fever, than what is caused by the diffe¬ rent 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 re¬ stored: but on the other hand, if cold gains the ascendancy, heat will be dispossessed of its empire, and death will follow, of course. As soon as life ceases, the body becomes cold, which is conclusive evidence that its gaining the victory is the cause of death. When the power of cold is nearly equal to that of heat, the fever, or strife between the two parties, may continue for a longer or shorter time, according to circumstances. This form of disease has sometimes been called a long fever, on account of its tedious continuance. In ague and fever, the battle between cold and heat will take place periodically, sometimes every day, at other times every other day, and they will leav e off nearly equal, heat keeping a little the upper hand. In attempting to cure a case of this kind, we must consider whether the fever is a friend or an enemy ; if it is a friend, which I hold to be the fact, when the fever fit is on, increase the power of heat, in order to drive off the cold, and life will bear the rule ; but, on the con¬ trary, should cold be considered a friend, when the cold fit is on, by increasing its power, you drive off the heat, and death must ensue. Thus you may promote life or death, by tempering cold and heat. Much has been said by the doctors concerning the turn of a fever, and how long a time it will run. When it is said that a fever will turn at such a time, I presume it must mean that it has been gone — this is true, for it is then gone on the outside, and is trying to turn again and go inside, where it belongs. Instead of following the dictates of N ature, and aiding it to subdue the cold, the doctor uses all his skill to kill the fever. — How, I would ask, in the name of common sense, can any thing turn when killed ? Support the fever, and it will return inside ; the cold will be driven out, and health will be restored. In all cases called fever, the cause is the same in a greater or less degree, and may be relieved by one general remedy. The cold causes cancer, and before the cancer is seated the strife will take place between cold and heat, and while the hot flashes and cold chills remain, it is evidence that the cancer is not settled, and the hot medicine alone, occasionally assisted by steam, will throw it off ; but as the contest ceases, the heat is steady on the outside ; the cancer assumes the power inside ; this is called a settled fever. The truth is, the canker is fixed on the inside, and will ripen and come off in a short time if the fever is kept up, so as to overpower the cold. This idea is new, and never was known till my discovery. By raising the fever with Nos. 1 and 2, and taking off the cancer with No. 3, and the same given by injections, we may turn a fever when we please ; but if this is not understood, the cancer will ripen and come off itself, when the fever will turn and go inside, and the cold will be INTRODUCTION. 13 driven out ; therefore, they will do much better without a doctor than with. The higher the fever runs, the sooner the cold will 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 is bled, it lessens the heat, and gives double power to the cold ; like taking out of one side of the scale, and putting into the other, which doubles the weight and turns the scale in favor of the disease. Giving opium deadens the sense of feeling. Small doses of nitre, calomel, and opium, have a tendency to destroy what heat remains, and plant new crops of cancer, which will stand in different stages in the body, the same as corn planted in the field every week, will keep some, in all stages ; so is the different degrees in cancer. This is the reason why there are so many different fevers as are named ; when one fever turns, another sets in, and so continues, one after another, until the harvest is all ripe, if the season is long enough ; if not, the cold and frost takes them off — then it is said they died of a fever. It might, with as much piopriety, be said that the corn killed with frost, died with the heat. 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. When a person is taken sick, it is common to say, I have got a cold, and am afraid I am going to have a fever ; but no fears are expressed of the cold he has taken; neither is it mentioned when the cold left him. The fashionable practice is to fight the remains of heat till the patient dies, by giving cold the victory ; in which case is it not a fact that the doctor assists the cold to kill the patient? Would it not have been more reasonable, or likely to have cured them, when the fever arose, to throw off the cold, to have helped the fever, and given nature the victory over its enemy, when the health would have been restored, the same as before they took the cold. We frequently see in the newspapers, accounts of people dying in consequence of drinking cold water, when very warm. Some fall dead instantly, and others linger for several hours — the doctors have not been able to afford any relief when called. The principal symptoms are chills, and shivering with cold, which is viewed with astonishment by those who witness it. Proper caution should always be observed by persons when very warm and thirsty, who drink cold water, to swallow something hot before drinking the water, and drink but little at a time, which will prevent any fatal effects. This strange circumstance, of being cold on a hot day, and which has never been accounted for in a satisfactory manner to the public, I shall endeavour to explain in as comprehensive and plain language as I am capable. The component parts of animal bodies, are earth and water; and life and motion are caused by fire and air. The inward heat, is the fountain of life ; and as much as that has the power above the outward heat, so much we have life and strength ; and when we lose this power B 14 INTRODUCTION. of heat, our strength and faculties decay in proportion j and it is immaterial, whether we lose this power, by losing the inward heat, or raising the outward heat above it, as the effect is the same. If you raise the stream level with the fountain, it stops the current, and all motion will cease, and the same effects will follow by lowering the fountain to a level with the stream. When the outward heat becomes equal with the inward, either by one being raised, or the other lowered, cold assumes the power, and death takes place. The cause of the fatal effects produced by drinking cold water, is, the spring of life is overwhelmed at the fountain, the inward heat being lowered, by throwing into the stomach so large a quantity of cold water as to give the outward heat the power of balancing the inward, and in proportion as the one approaches to an equality with the other, so the strength is diminished ; and when equal, they die. I shall now make some further remarks on this and other subjects, with a hope that it maybe beneficial to mankind. The reason why these extraordinary cases appear so wonderful to the people, is because they are unacquainted with the cause. Why should we wonder at a person being cold on a hot day, when we are not ; any more than we should wonder at another being hungry, when we have just been eating ; or that others can be in pain, when we are enjoying good health? The one is as plain and simple as the other when understood. The want of inward heat is the cause of their being cold, just as much as the want of food is the cause of hunger, or the want of health is the cause of pain. One person may have lost the natural power of heat by an effect which others in similar situations may not have experienced, and will suffer the consequences of cold in proportion to the loss of inward heat ; this is manifest in the different degrees of sickness. If the inward vital heat be suddenly diminished, so as to derange and destroy the natural proportion or degree of the power and influence thereof in the system, so that the inward and outward heat come to an equili¬ brium, or balance, life is extinct. This is the case in spotted fever, and in drowned persons. When the inward and outward cold is balanced, life ceases, and the blood being stopped in its motion, settles in spots, which appearance has given name to what is called spotted fever. — The same appearances take place in drowned persons, and from the same causes. The practice of bleeding for the purpose of curing disease, I consider most unnatural and injurious. Nature never furnishes the body with more blood than is necessary for the maintenance of health ; to take away part of the blood of any person, is tak¬ ing away just so much of their life, and is as contrary to na¬ ture as it would be to cut away a part of their flesh. Many ex¬ periments have been tried by the use of the lancet in fever, but I believe it will be allowed by all, that most of them have proved fatal ; and several eminent physicians have died in consequence of trying the experiment on themselves. If the system is di¬ seased, the blood becomes as much diseased as any other part ; remove the cause of the disorder, and the blood will recover and INTRODUCTION. 15 become healthy as soon as any other part ; but how taking part of it away can help to cure what remains, can never be recon¬ ciled with common sense. There is no practice used by the physicians that I consider more inconsistent with common sense, and at the same time more inhuman, than blistering to remove disease ; particularly insane persons, and in what the doctors call dropsy in the brain ; in which cases they shave the head and draw a blister on it. Very few patients ever survive this application. What would be thought if a scald should be caused by boiling water, to re¬ move disease ? Yet what is the great difference between this and a blister made of flies ? I have witnessed many instances where great distress and very bad effects have been caused by the use of blisters ; and believe I can truly say that I never knew any benefit derived from their use. It very frequently causes strangury ; when the attempted remedy becomes much worse than the disease. In support of my opinions on the subject, I will give the fol¬ lowing extract from the writings of Dr. Hillary, an eminent phy¬ sician of London : — “ I have long observed that blisters are too frequently, and too often improperly used, as they are now so much in fashion. It is very probable that we have no remedy in all the Materia Medica, that is so frequently and so often improperly applied, not only in many cases where they cannot possibly give any re¬ lief, but too often where they must unavoidably increase the very evil which they are intended to remove or relieve. How often do we see them applied, and sometimes several of them, by pretended dabblers in physic, not only where there are no indications for applying them, but where the true indications are against their application ; as in the beginning of most fevers, and especially those of the inflammatory, and of the putrid kind, where, in the first, the stimulus of the acrid salts of the cantha- rides, which pass into the blood, must unavoidably increase both the stimulus and the momentum of the blood, which were too great before, and so render the fever inflammatory, and all its symptoms worse. “ And it is well known, that the canlharides contain a great quantity of alkaline semi-volatile salts, which pass into the blood, though they are applied externally ; and attenuate, dis¬ solve, and hasten and increase its putrefaction, which is also confirmed by the putrid alkaline acrimony which they produce in the urine, with the heat and strangury ; which it gives to the urinary passage.” ON STEAMING. Steaming is a very important branch of my system of prac¬ tice, which would, in many cases without it, be insufficient to effect a cure. It is of great importance in many cases considered by the medical faculty as desperate ; and they would be so under my mode of treatment, if it were not for the manner of applying heat to the body, for the purpose of re-animating the system, 10 INTRODUCTION. 