THE HISTORY OF HERBAL MEDICINE IN NORTH AMERICA (Part Three)

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THE HISTORY OF HERBAL MEDICINE IN NORTH AMERICA

 

(Part Three)

 

 

By RFD Columnist, Todd Caldecott

of Clinical Herbal Studies

Wild Rose College Of Natural Healing

Calgary, Alberta

 

Email: phyto

Website

 

In this major series, RFD Columnist, Todd Caldecott explores the history of

herbal medicine in North America, with the view of fostering a better

understanding of the issues that face modern herbalists and a greater

appreciation of the evolution of the relationships between alternative,

complimentary and conventional medicine.

 

Herbal medicine in North America has a long and venerable tradition, from the

First Nations practices that were in existence thousands of years before the

first colonists arrived, to the development of four-year clinical programs at

the turn of the last century.

 

Samuel Thomson: beginnings

 

Samuel Thomson was born at Alstead, then a frontier settlement in the colony of

New Hampshire, on Feb. 9th, 1769. The eldest son of a poor farming couple,

Samuel was put to labor by his rather severe and abusive father at an early age,

spending much of his early life working in the fields. In so doing, Samuel

became familiar with the local flora, and knowing that some plants were gathered

as medicines, inquired and learned of their usefulness. It was at the precocious

age of four however, that young Samuel came across a plant that he had never

seen before while wandering the fields in search of cows. Out of curiosity,

Samuel picked some of the fruiting pods and chewed them. The acrid taste of the

plant caused his throat to burn and within seconds Samuel began to vomit. The

experience made an indelible impression upon him, and for years afterwards young

Samuel encouraged his cohorts to consume the same plant, only to delight in

watching them purge themselves in a similar fashion.

Several years later, as a young man, Samuel encouraged one of his fellow

workers to chew on some as they were mowing a field. Thomson recalls that this

fellow had a particularly strong reaction to the herb, and saw that " he was in a

most profuse perspiration, being wet all over as he could be; he trembled very

much, and there was no more color in him than in a corpse " (Thomson 30, 1825).

Thomson advised his companion to drink some water, but instead of drinking

vomited several times, about " two quarts " (Thomson 30, 1825). Within a few hours

the poor fellow was feeling much better, had eaten a hearty lunch, and proceeded

to finish the day's work. " He afterwards told me that he never had anything to

do him so much good in his life; his appetite was remarkably good, and he felt

better than he had for a long time " (Thomson 30, 1825). Once again the

activities of this little plant made a significant impression upon Samuel, and

would latter prove to be one of his most important remedies,

Lobelia (Lobelia inflata).

 

Samuel was a sickly child, born with a clubfoot, and knew well the misery of

suffering. The ministrations of local physicians provided little relief however,

and it was not until his father called in one of the local " root " doctors, the

widow Benton, that his health began to steadily improve. This experience added

to his fascination with the local flora, to which he later commented that he was

" … constantly in the habit of tasting everything of the kind I saw; and having a

retentive memory I have always recollected the taste and use of all that were

ever shown me by others, and like-wise all that I discovered myself " (Thomson

1825, 26-27). During the times that Samuel wasn't learning the skill of

blacksmithing or farming from his father, Thomson spent much of his time with

the widow Benton, learning the skills of a root doctor. With his unusual

aptitude for remembering the names and medicinal uses of the local flora, Samuel

was encouraged to seek an education as a healer. At the age

of 16 he applied to study under a root doctor named Fuller who practiced in

Westmoreland, but was soon called home by his parents who insisted they needed

him on the farm. So, with resentment in his heart, Samuel reconciled himself to

a life as a simple farmer, as that was all his parents had deemed fit for him.

 

In July of 1790 Samuel Thomson was married to Susanna Allen, the two of them

settling on a farm in Surry, New Hampshire, and in July of the following year

his eldest child was born. Soon after the delivery his wife went into " fits, "

and doctor after doctor were sent for to control her symptoms, with none

procuring any respite, and almost killing her with their powerful emetics.

Samuel became increasingly agitated with each doctor, as there was no general

agreement with how to proceed among the seven different physicians that attended

her. One doctor wished to bleed her, whereas another stated that such a

procedure would certainly kill her. Realizing that the doctors had no idea how

to proceed, and seemed more intent on treating his wife as a kind of medical

experiment, Samuel finally sent for one of the local root doctors, " by whose

efforts she was restored to feeble health " (Thomson 1841, 495). In the

succeeding few years his wife suffered intermittently from colic, but often

enough

that Samuel eventually convinced a physician to live in a small cabin on the

farm, from which he could easily attend her. With the birth of their second

child however, Samuel attended the event himself, with the advice of Dr. Bliss,

his resident physician.

 

Two years later Samuel's second child was suddenly taken with scarlet fever,

with a purulent rash spreading over her face, nose, ears, and mouth, with her

right eye so wrought with infection that it had swollen shut. The other eye was

purplish and swollen, and his daughter's breathing had become labored as she

struggled for air. Dr. Bliss tried everything he could to halt the progression

of the condition, but to no avail, suggesting to Thomson that she would not

survive. Hearing this, Thomson informed the doctor that he would try to treat

her himself.

 

Sitting her down on his lap, Thomson pulled a blanket around both of them, while

he instructed his wife to hold a shovel of red-hot coals between his feet.

Samuel then poured vinegar on the shovel to raise a steam, and kept steaming his

daughter, as hot as she could bear, when after 20 minutes she began to breathe

easier. Thomson then applied a cold-water compress to her eyes, replacing it as

soon as it had become warm, and followed this treatment with an eyewash made

from Marsh Rosemary (Statice limonium), an astringent, wound-healing remedy that

Thomson had no doubt learned from the widow Benton. During treatment the rash

gradually retreated, and with consistent treatment Thomson was able to save his

daughter's left eye, as well as her life, much to the amazement of Dr. Bliss.

 

Samuel Thomson: root doctor

 

In the succeeding years Samuel Thomson grew more and more confident of his

healing skills, and less so of men like the schooled physician he paid a pretty

price to attend his family's illness. Although he had secured the young Dr.

Bliss to attend to his families ills, Bliss gradually abandoned the botanical

remedies he had used initially, in favor of high-priced mineral drugs, as well

as bleeding. " It seemed, " said Thomson, " as a judgment upon me and my family,

for some one living with me was sick most of the time while the doctor lived on

the farm, which was seven years " (Thomson 1841, 498). Thomson became resentful

of Dr. Bliss, who not only was able to pay for his accommodation in exchange for

treating Thomson's family, but had also accumulated a significant nest egg at

Thomson's expense. Thomson eventually sent Dr. Bliss packing, choosing to rely

upon his own skills to treat the various afflictions of his family. Upon

Thomson's success with his own family's illness, he began to

earn a reputation as a root doctor with the locals, employing the herbal

remedies that were commonly known but underutilized. Patients whom he cured,

where doctors had failed or had made worse by bloodletting and mercury, did not

value his skill however, as he was a farmer like them, and were reluctant to

compensate him for his services. It wasn't until he was constantly in demand for

his services that Thomson decided to leave farming alone and purse the business

of herbal medicine.

 

Thomson was an uneducated man, yet insightful and observant enough to understand

the different activities of the various herbs he used. It was also clear to him

that the emphasis upon mercury administration and bloodletting used by the

college-trained physicians often made patients much worse. Yet when Thomson

considered his approach, he lacked any kind of methodology or theoretical basis

upon which to practice, relying instead on experimentation and on what had

worked in the past. Seeing a need to develop such an approach, Thomson developed

some very general principles based on his observations. Although Thomson

promoted the idea that he was an uneducated man to his prospective patients, he

was certainly not illiterate, and through his personal studies adapted the

ancient Greek concept of the four elements. " I found that all animal bodies were

composed of the elements, and that earth and water were the solids, and air and

heat were the fluids, and a proper organization and a

suitable temperature produced life and motion… " (Thomson 1841, 505-06)

Fundamental to this conceptual framework was a belief that hot and cold were the

two primary energetic systems that drove all life, a concept that resonates in

every other energetic system of medicine on earth. Indeed, later commentators

would suggest that Thomson " without knowing it, has adopted a theory of Galen;

and in his idea of the preserving power of Nature, the curer of disease and the

preserver of life, appears to be the same as that acknowledged by Hippokrates "

(Wilder 1904, 453).

 

CONTINUING

 

 

 

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