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

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THE HISTORY OF HERBAL MEDICINE IN NORTH AMERICA

 

(Part Seven)

 

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.

 

Education and the cause of botanic medicine

 

In 1832 Thomson’s system of herbal therapy attracted an energetic young man

named Alva Curtis. Like many Americans around this time, Curtis had experienced

the horrors of Regular medicine firsthand, after his brother died from mercury

prescribed by a Regular physician. After reading Thomson’s New Guide to Health

at the suggestion of a friend, Curtis became convinced of the efficacy of

Thomson’s alternative to Regular treatment. He soon became a competent

practitioner and spokesman for the Thomsonian movement, and in 1835 was

appointed editor of the Thomsonian Recorder. The journal provided patent holders

with the latest news from Thomsonian practitioners, and detailed its trials and

tribulations in defense against Regular medicine. Under the influence of Curtis

the Thomsonian Recorder slowly changed its focus, increasing its content of

letters from practitioners who not only detailed their successes, but also wrote

in to ask for help in particularly difficult cases. Over time, it

occurred to Curtis that Thomsonism would best be served by having some kind of

training center, although his and Thomson’s conception of such an institution

were distinctly different. Throughout his life Thomson argued against the

pedantic and theoretical training of the learned doctor. “The study of patients,

not books – experience, not reading,” claimed Thomson, was the only true path to

a proper understanding of health and healing (Haller 2000, 92). Thus while

Thomson wasn’t opposed to the idea of a clinic and infirmary that would serve as

a training ground for practitioners, he was vociferously opposed to any

conception of a Thomsonian medical school. Curtis however saw that many

practitioners did not fully understand the tenets of Thomson’s system, and in

his capacity as editor of the Thomsonian Recorder, sought to establish support

for the creation of a school of medicine based upon Thomson’s New Guide To

Health.

 

A few years before a man named Wooster Beach, similarly disgusted with the

practice of Regular medicine, sought to undertake studies with a local root

doctor named Jacob Tidd, in New Jersey. Beach is said to have applied several

times to apprentice under the old German herbalist, only to meet with Tidd’s

consistent refusal. Beach eventually prevailed however, and after studying with

the old man until his death, Beach enrolled in a one year medical program in New

York City, conferring upon him the right to practice medicine. With this rather

impressive array of training under his belt, Beach opened an infirmary in New

York in 1827, and two years later established the Reform Medical Society, and

published a journal called the Medical Reformer. Beach then attempted to found a

reform school of medicine in New York, but was unable to obtain a state charter.

In 1930, Beach was invited by Episcopalian-liberal arts Worthington College in

Ohio to establish a reform medical college under their

state charter (Haller 2000, 103; Wood 1992, 110). Although Beach was a vigorous

opponent of high doses of calomel and bloodletting, he preferred to work from

within the system, incorporating ideas from both Regular medicine and folkloric

systems. Over time the system that Beach developed was referred to by his

supporters as “eclectic,” that is to say, taking the “best” from all systems of

medicine.

 

In March of 1836 Alva Curtis and six other botanic physicians met in Cincinnati,

Ohio, to discuss the concept of creating a school similar to Beach’s. Such a

college, rationalized Curtis, would protect Thomson’s system from becoming

sullied by the numerous patent holders that had brought ill repute to the system

by employing its principles incorrectly. Curtis suggested that unless the

practice of Thomsonian medicine were “raised to the standard of scientific

physicians, the confidence of the community never can be enlisted in behalf of

the Botanic cause” (Haller 2000, 94). At the meeting, Curtis suggested the

creation of a school that would teach only “eclectic principles, taking the

foundation of Samuel Thomson as a basis,” while providing additional training in

chemistry, surgery, obstetrics, pharmacy, botany, and materia medica (Haller

2000, 94). The meeting attendees were at loggerheads as to which city should be

the first location for such a facility, and in the stalemate Curtis

successfully promoted a third alternative in Columbus, Ohio, the same city that

played host to Beach’s reform medical college.

 

On March 23rd, 1836, Curtis opened the first session of the Botanico-Medical

College of Ohio, with twelve students. Women were not allowed to apply for study

as a doctor, but could enroll in a nursing program. The reaction of Samuel

Thomson and his most stalwart of supporters however was far from enthusiastic.

Thomson’s opinion was voiced in the Thomsonian Manual, a journal published in

Boston, when the editor wrote that “It would seem that the object is to make a

craft of it (i.e. Thomson’s system), the same as all other crafts have been

made; and as long as this is the case, it can have no aid, neither it ought to

expect any, from Dr. Thomson” (Haller 2000, 98). Despite these stern warnings

from Thomson and some early political setbacks, the Botanico-Medical College of

Ohio was given legal status by the Ohio legislature, and became only the second

chartered reform medical school in the United States, after Wooster Beach’s

college at Worthington, and the first to implement the

Thomsonian system of medicine.

 

Although the idea behind Alva Curtis’ Botanico-Medical College and Wooster

Beach’s reform medical program at Worthington College was probably no wider than

the few miles that separated the two facilities, advocates of each college

wasted no time in putting each other down, pitting their hallowed founders

against each other. Beach’s advocates illustrated the rather plebian origin of

the Thomsonian system by contemptuously referring to its practitioners as “steam

and pepper doctors,” while Thomson’s advocates railed against the continued

usage of mineral drugs, lancets and toxic botanicals by reform physicians. The

Botanico-Medical College however scored early against Worthington College when

one of its lecturers, a Dr. L. Terry, formally resigned from the faculty stating

that the reform system lacked any kind of coherent system of practice. This

relatively minor victory was soon overshadowed in 1839 when a body that was

missing from a local grave was found on the dissecting table at

Worthington College. The medical department at Worthington College was stripped

of its charter by the state, and was forced to close its doors. After operating

as a private college for a few years, the faculty at Worthington College

reopened their institute in Cincinnati as the Eclectic Medical Institute.

 

The Botanico-Medical and Worthington colleges were by no means the only schools

of botanical medicine that evolved during this period, and many other institutes

opened up to serve regional needs. Perhaps the most notable of these

institutions was the Southern Botanico-Medical College in Macon, Georgia.

Delegates that attended the Thomsonian Medical convention in Milledgeville,

Georgia, in May of 1839, resolved to construct a training center and infirmary

to serve the south, and enjoyed a significant degree of support from both the

Georgia legislature and Gov. Joseph Brown, as well as from the typically

stalwart defenders of Samuel Thomson’s system of medicine. In August of 1840 the

cornerstone for the Southern Botanico-Medical College was laid in Forsyth,

Georgia, but the facility was soon moved to the capital in Macon to accommodate

a larger population. In 1854 the college changed its name to the Reformed

Medical College of Georgia, indicating a shift in faculty thinking towards a

more eclectic approach to healing. This was subsequently reversed in 1881 to a

more or less strict form of Thomsonian medicine, when the college again moved,

this time to Atlanta (Haller 2000, 189-90). After a few years in pursuit of this

ideology, the college found it too difficult to sustain a sufficient degree of

interest, merging with the Georgia Eclectic College (founded in 1867), which

finally closed its doors in 1916.

 

Soon after Worthington College reopened in Cincinnati as the Eclectic Medical

Institute, Alva Curtis also moved his institute to Cincinnati, where it was

renamed as the American Medical Institute and Botanico-Medical College. The

American Medical Institute existed primarily to serve the public good, providing

public lectures on hygiene and health, as well as operating an infirmary and

retail dispensary (Haller 2000, 198). The Botanico-Medical College on the other

hand was a chartered college that could award the degree of doctor of medicine

(Haller 2000, 198). In November of 1841, after Alva Curtis assembled a competent

faculty to provide students a thorough knowledge of the medical and botanical

sciences, the new college opened its doors, providing a two-year doctorate

program, although students who completed just one session were eligible for a

license to practice. In June of 1843 Alva Curtis secured a much larger and

grander location in a fashionable district in Cincinnati called

the Bazaar Building. The first floor housed offices for faculty, a consultation

room, private infirmary rooms, and a specially constructed room for vapor baths

(Haller 2000, 201). Upstairs was a lecture hall that could accommodate as many

as 500 attendees, as well as a small chemical laboratory and some private rooms

for patients (Haller 2000, 201). On the top floor was a large amphitheatre where

anatomy classes were held, as well as several other, smaller lecture rooms that

contained various teaching aids including diagrams, charts, botanical and

chemical specimens, chemistry equipment, and surgical tools. Alva Curtis and his

faculty were justifiably happy with their new institute, and attracted many

satisfied and loyal students.

 

Unfortunately, this happy situation would not continue for long. Curtis’s

occasionally arrogant and self-righteous attitude would only prove to be a

lightening rod for controversy. Earlier in his career, Curtis had alienated

Thomson and his stalwarts by advocating Thomsonian medical training centers.

Such vigorous aspirations could be forgiven by forward-thinking reformers, but

Curtis would also go on to embrace many highly controversial therapies,

including mesmerism, spiritualism, and phrenology. Nonetheless, Curtis was still

respected as a leading spokesman for the cause of Thomsonism, or

physiomedicalism, as it was now coming to be called.

 

After alienating some of the faculty of his new college with some questionable

decisions, Curtis arrived back in Cincinnati after touring the lecture circuit

to find that the faculty had petitioned the Ohio legislature to separate his

Botanico-Medical College into two distinct entities. The newly chartered

college, now called the Physiopathic Medical College, took all of the enrolled

students and most of the faculty with them. The faculty of the new school then

publicly rejected the tenets and practices of physiomedicalism, and severed all

ties with Alva Curtis. Curtis, however, wasn’t left completely bereft, and

received hails of support from many corners, all of whom were afraid that the

cause of medical reform would be damaged by the new college. Curtis then

applied to have the Literary and Scientific Institute, all that was left to

Curtis after the faculty had moved to the Physiopathic college, to become a

chartered school, and despite the vigorous and litigious protestations by

the dean of the Physiopathic Medical college, Curtis was granted a charter.

 

In 1851 Curtis opened the doors to new the Physio-Medical department of the

Literary and Scientific Institute, located in the Bazaar Building in Cincinnati.

In what could be judged as either a sympathetic or rather cynical maneuver,

Curtis allowed women to enroll in the doctorate program. Curtis had noted the

increasing influence of the Suffragette movement, and stated that women and men

would be treated as equals in his college, although women were inexplicably

charged $40 more for tuition. Beyond this inconsistency, Curtis assembled a

comprehensive syllabus and a reputable faculty, which included Professor William

Cook, who was made dean of the college.

 

The schism between the Physiopathic Medical College and Curtis had left him in

dire financial straights, and Curtis was eventually forced to open up the Bazaar

building to other businesses. Curtis continued to try to raise more funds for

his struggling college, but found it difficult to materialize. Desperate for

funds, he traveled east to establish other programs in Boston, Connecticut, and

New York, but was unsuccessful. When he returned to Cincinnati in 1854, the

prestige of his program was greatly diminished, especially next to the renewed

vigor of the Eclectic Medical Institute. This was due, in part, to a precipitous

lack of training manuals that reflected the Thomsonian/Physio-medicalist

perspective on therapeutics, which could thereby distinguish and promote its

cause. It was also due, however, to Curtis’ insistence on graduating students

who had failed the program, much to the annoyance of William Cook, the Dean of

the college. William Cook finally quit Curtis’ school in a

fit of frustration, and opened a new college called the Physio-Medical

Institute in 1859, taking much of the faculty with him. Curtis continued such

questionable tactics well after his school’s charter expired in 1869, offering

to sell a diploma for $18 to students who failed to graduate from Cook’s

Physio-Medical Institute. Although Curtis began his career as one the foremost

supporters and innovators in the physiomedical tradition, by the end of his

career, Curtis had done irreparable harm to the cause of herbal medicine.

 

The basic approach of Thomsonism however, continued to live on and inspire many

practitioners, particularly in the work of William Cook. While he administered

the program at the Physiomedical Institute in Cincinnati, Cook assumed

editorship of the Physio-Medical Recorder (formerly the Botanico-Medical

Recorder, edited by Alva Curtis) and authored the Physio-Medical Dispensatory.

With this latter publication, Cook enhanced the original Thomsonian list of

about seventy medicinal plants to over 500, becoming the official materia medica

of the physiomedical tradition.

 

Cook’s break with Alva Curtis in 1859 however, would occur at a difficult time

in American history. Despite an expected enrollment of forty students for the

fall semester in 1862, the Confederate victory at Bull Run set many young men to

uniform, and the resulting loss of manpower resulted in widespread financial

gloom. During the course of the civil war physiomedicalism took a back seat to

Regular medicine, despite Cook’s complaints that Regular physicians with only

one semester under their belt were given commissions instead of botanic

physicians with years of experience. All soldiers were forced to submit to

Regular medicine, despite the fact that many believed in medical reform. This

was in contrast to the Confederate army, which allowed the practice of both

Regular medicine as well as more sectarian forms of healing.

 

Classes at Cook’s Physiomedical Institute resumed in 1863, and despite

opposition by the Ohio Medical College of Regular physicians, physiomedical

students continued to have unfettered access to the Cincinnati Hospital, where

students could attend lectures and observe surgeries. Cook continued

administering the program in Cincinnati until 1885, when after a series of

internal disputes with the appointed trustees of the college, as well as Cook’s

belief that in order for physiomedicalism to survive, it needed to be fostered

in a larger center, Cook moved the college to Chicago.

 

Chicago however already had a school of herbal medicine: the Physio-Medical

College of Indiana, founded by George Hasty, a graduate of Cook’s college in

Cincinnati in 1860 (Haller 1997, 78). Chicago was a big city however, and

despite an uneasy tension that settled between the two schools, Chicago soon

became one of the most important centers for physiomedical training. Both

schools offered four years of training, which included at a complete exposition

of the theory and practice of physiomedicalism, as well as training in anatomy

and surgery. For unknown reasons, Cook would later open a rival college to his

Physiomedical Institute in 1897, called the Chicago College of Medicine and

Surgery. Together, these three schools were the apex of physiomedical training

in North America, and a Mecca for aspiring students well into the early 1900’s.

 

Despite the academic rigor of the physiomedicals, and unlike Cincinnati, Regular

physicians were able to maintain their stranglehold over the teaching hospitals

in Chicago throughout this period. This was an important coup for the Regulars:

emergent techniques in patient care such as diagnostic laboratory testing were

inaccessible to the physiomedicals. Later, under the auspices of the Indiana

State Board of Health, the AMA organized the Council on Medical Education, which

found the physiomedical colleges of Chicago deficient in clinical training.

Despite the protestations of the physiomedicals that the very reason for this

was the AMA’s monopoly over the hospital system, the physiomedicals would

continue to feel the carpet being pulled from beneath their feet.

 

CONTINUING

 

 

 

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