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

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THE HISTORY OF HERBAL MEDICINE IN NORTH AMERICA

 

(Part Six)

 

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.

 

The business of Thomsonian medicine

 

After his acquittal, Thomson continued his practice and began to train others to

use his system, all the while the doctors were losing patients. In many cases

however, Thomson was still regarded by his patients as unworthy of payment,

adding to his already desperate financial situation from the court case with Dr.

French. Mulling his situation over Thomson decided to pursue some way of

ensuring some degree of financial recompense for his discoveries, and in March

of 1813, was awarded a patent for his system of healing. In his patent, Thomson

detailed the framework of six basic therapeutic approaches, labeled one through

six. Thomson did this, in part, to obscure the specifics of his system, thinking

that by referring to the approaches as a number, he could protect his ideas from

being copied by somebody else.

 

To individuals or families that purchased the patent for $20, Thomson accorded

them entry into the Friendly Botanic Society, where members could discuss

treatment rationales, seek assistance from more experienced members, and

purchase the herbal remedies directly from Thomson. For an additional two

dollars, members could purchase Thomson’s New Guide to Health or Botanic Family

Physician. Members that sold the patent to others acted as agents for Thomson,

and took a percentage of the profits, ensuring a motivated sales force that

rapidly introduced Thomsonian medicine to the general public. Thomson also made

his patent equally available to women, thus setting a precedent for the first

female medical practitioners in the United States.

 

In many ways, Thomson can be thought of as the first multi-level marketer, and

by 1839 claimed over 3,000,000 adherents to his system, included among them many

Regular physicians. One such convert was Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, Professor of

Theory and Practice of Medicine at Cambridge University, Massachusetts, who rose

in defense of Thomson by stating, “…this man is no Quack. He narrates his

medical discoveries, gives an account of his system of practice, together with

his manner of curing diseases, upon a plan confessedly new; to which he adds the

principles on which this new system is founded. He… merits attention” (Griggs

1981, 176). Waterhouse also publicly stated that he had used Lobelia, and had

even undergone a few Thomsonian treatments.

 

Although the cause of Samuel Thomson and his supporters would be affected by the

warp and weft of various political interests over the next few years, Thomson’s

influence upon the practice of medicine cannot be overstated, even though his

name remains for the most part absent from the medical history books. Part of

the reason for this was Thomson himself: he was wary of any kind of technical or

medical language, preferring simple concepts understood by the people that used

his medicines. Thus his methods could not me subjected to the rigor of

scientific language, attracting the venomous scorn of his opponents who

continued to refer to Thomson as an “illiterate farmer.” And, what we have of

Thomson’s writings today is perhaps not the best record of his achievements or

methodology, although his Narratives make for very interesting reading.

Fortunately Thomson had many adherents that clarified his methodologies, such

Dr. Benjamin Colby who wrote an excellent treatise on Thomsonian

medicine called A Guide To Health.

 

Thomson was certainly a man of his times, and its unlikely that an unlettered

and simple farmer could have ever attained what Thomson did at any other point

in history. During Thomson’s lifetime, the United States was a young country,

full of the ideals of democracy and the power of the common man. This ardent

republicanism of the United States was inspired and bred by such luminaries as

the greatest of the U.S. presidents, Thomas Jefferson, who believed that that

“those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God.” Such faith in the

power of the people to manage their own affairs stimulated great energy and

excitement in the populace, and with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, which added

some 2 million square kilometers to the United States, the people felt no limit

upon what they could achieve. “Determine never to be idle,” Thomas Jefferson

said. “No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never

loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are

always doing.” Taking such words to heart, the United States underwent a period

of expansion that remains unrivalled in history.

 

By 1805 Thomson was 36 years old, and for the last several years had traveled

hundreds of miles to attend to his patients scattered all over the eastern

seaboard of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. For such labors Thomson

rarely received the kind of compensation that he felt was due. Given his rather

involved courses of treatment, Thomson often spent the entire day applying his

methods to one patient, whereas a medical doctor might have a brief interview

with the patient, measure out a dose of calomel or quickly drain the required

volume of blood, and then be on their way to attend somebody else. This

disparity to Thomson was especially evident when the patients he cured refused

to pay him. To simplify things Thomson devised a prepayment plan, consisting of

the sale of his patent, which then allowed the patients to purchase his

remedies. Thomson provided only a partial explanation of the details of his

patent before the sale, and after the sale provided specific details of

treatment, although he referred to his remedies only as number one through six

to maintain his monopoly and prevent anyone from copying his system.

 

As Thomson’s practice grew, he quickly found that he could not manage all

aspects of his business, and sought persons to act as agents on his behalf,

selling the patents and instructing the purchasers in its usage. Unfortunately,

Thomson was a poor judge of character, something that would haunt him to the end

of his days. His first agent was an act of charity, William Little, a man that

Thomson had rescued from poverty and to whom he had imparted all his knowledge.

Little proved however to be a decidedly bad apprentice, and thanked Thomson by

stealing his money and medicines while Thomson was away on business (Haller

2000, 40). The next apprentice also turned out to be a charlatan, charging

patients outrageous fees and even taking property as collateral from poor

farmers while Thomson was away collecting more medicine (Haller 2000, 40).

Finally, Thomson got lucky with an able man named John Locke, and with his help,

was able to extend Thomson’s reach to Philadelphia, Washington and

Alexandria.

 

To support his patent holders Thomson organized the creation of four different

Friendly Botanic societies, with each society sharing in the profits of the sale

of Thomson’s patent and herbal remedies. These societies however proved unwieldy

for Thomson, with many members wishing to have a greater degree of autonomy in

choosing new agents and how the profits from sales were to be shared. Eventually

Thomson realized that four separate societies were four different sources of

problems, and in 1818 he dissolved them and created the United States Friendly

Botanic society. In this new society, members did not have any share in the

profits and Thomson regained control over which people could become agents in

his name. Instead, the new society existed solely for the purpose of instruction

and support (Haller 2000, 43).

 

In 1822 Thomson sought a patent for his book entitled New Guide To Health (1822)

with some haste, as a former agent named as Elias Smith had published his own

medical treatise based on Thomson’s ideas. In this book Thomson delineated 31

directions for the cure and prevention of disease, and while providing much of

the theoretical background for his system, he left out the full instructions for

the implementation of his different therapies. These instructions Thomson would

only provide in person either from himself or his agents to purchasers of his

patent. By 1834 Thomson had sold thirteen editions of his book, and claimed to

have at least two million adherents to his system. Since Thomson was the only

source of the medicines used in his systems, the widespread adoption of his

system ensured that Thomson was very comfortable.

 

But as the practice of Thomsonian medicine grew, so did Samuel Thomson’s

inability to control the dissemination and practice of his system. In September

of 1832 Thomson called together all the members in his Friendly Botanic Society

to a national convention, ostensibly to bring together its many practitioners

under one roof to share in their experiences and learn of improvements to the

system. Thomson’s real agenda however was to publicize the harm that he thought

had been done to his system by former agents who had subsequently published

their own treatise on botanic medicine, claiming that they had made

“improvements” upon Thomson’s system. In most cases these improvements were

simple modifications of his formulations, but in some cases these authors

altered the theoretical basis of Thomson’s system. Specifically, Thomson used

the 1832 convention to defend his interests against a former agent named Horton

Howard, with whom he had a falling out a few years before when Howard

withheld a substantial amount of the profits from his sale of Thomson’s New

Guide To Health. After his estrangement from Thomson, Horton became convinced

that Thomson’s system was still in its infancy, and published his own medical

bible in 1832 called An Improved System of Botanic Medicine, Founded Upon

Correct Physiological Principles, Embracing a Concise view of Anatomy and

Physiology; Together with an Illustration of the New Theory of Medicine.

Although rather magnificently named, Horton’s work was largely ghost written by

a friend named Dr. Hance, who refused to take credit for the work (Haller 2000,

69).

 

In his Improved System Howard had even gone so far as to correct Thomson’s

theory of “animal heat” or vital capacity, suggesting that it was the friction

of the blood that moved through the arteries that caused the generation of heat,

not the stomach. A patient that was feverish and perspiring, suggested Howard,

was at risk of losing the vital capacity, and Howard thus recommended the use of

drastic botanical purgatives to diminish circulation (Haller 2000, 70).

Although the remainder of Howard’s text bore striking similarity to Thomsonian

practices, it was this fundamental difference, as well as his liberal borrowing

of Thomson’s practices, that was repudiated by Thomson and his supporters.

 

Although Thomson’s outrage at Howard’s book was probably justified, in

subsequent conventions Thomson continued to rage against his enemies, both real

and imaginary. In his inaugural addresses, Thomson provided almost morbid

details of business dealings that had gone awry until by the fourth annual

convention in 1835, the patience of his supporters had worn thin. Thomson also

worried that many of the delegates who supported the idea of a national

Thomsonian infirmary, which he pledged to support, also wanted a training center

that would rely upon the kind of book learning to which Thomson was vociferously

opposed. No one among his supporters questioned the almost divine role that

Thomson had played in shaping medicine, but they also knew that Thomson had done

quite well form himself. In consistently focusing on the injustices committed

against him, and Thomson’s paranoia with any kind of book learning, some

supporters began to wonder if the old man hadn’t soured a little with age.

Thomson’s pugnacious and often paranoid behavior at these conventions, and the

manner in which he stifled any kind of debate, eventually incited the formation

of a schism within his movement, the departing group referred to simply as the

“New Light” Thomsonians (Haller 2000, 167).

 

In 1841 Thomson’s son John Thomson published a revised and “corrected” edition

of the New Guide To Health called the Thomsonian Materia Medica. In many

respects this book was everything that Samuel Thomson had objected to: it

contained extensive information on physiology, anatomy and botany that was

plagiarized from other texts, as well as portions of Thomson’s earlier works,

and an expanded section of botanical remedies and formulations, many of which

had never been used by Thomson. Unlike Thomson’s former works, this was a huge,

voluminous text that seemed more in keeping with a medical text rather than a

practical, do-it-yourself manual for patent-holders. After the publication of

the text Thomson became estranged from his sons John and Cyrus, and with the

death of his youngest son, Dr. Jesse Thomson, Thomson was without family. In

late September of 1843 Thomson was feeling poorly, and followed through with a

few courses of treatment. Nothing appeared to relieve his symptoms

however, and in the last few days before his death, Thomson tired of these

regimens, and eating only nourishing food and performing an occasional enema,

gave himself over to death, at the age of 74 (Haller 2000, 186).

 

CONTINUING

 

 

 

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