The Thomsonian Treatment Of Disease - Part 1

After long experience and a thorough investigation and examination of all the principal systems of medical practice, Prof. Curtis, a graduate of a regular school of Medicine, an able lecturer and founder of the first Physio-Medical College, said the following:

"There is a true science and practice called the 'Physio-Medical,' the character of which is indicated by its title. Its leaders are not men, but the immutable laws of Nature.

"It is not the gift or invention of any man or company, or succession of men. It is the eternal truth, science and art of God and his inestimable and unequalled gift to all who will receive and apply it properly.

"Different individuals in all ages and countries have discovered and promulgated more or less of its principles, and means and modes of practice, for which we should render to each one due honor and gratitude. And since, among them all, I know of no one who has given us so much that is true and good, connected with so little that is false and bad, as Dr. Samuel Thomson, so I know of no one who is entitled to higher honor or deeper and more lasting gratitude from all the sons and daughters of affliction than this man, of Alstead, New Hampshire, who presented to the world its chief medical discoveries and inventions in the ninth year of the last century.

"Other men may more clearly develop these God-given principles, remove from them errors and crudities that still cling to them, discover and devise better ways and means of applying them; but, I repeat, the doctrines themselves, the general deductions from them, and the character of the processes of medication which constitute the Physio-Medical science and practice, are the immutable truths and art devised by the unchangeable God for the benefit of the unchangeable constitution of man, and can never 'progress' nor be supplanted while man shall inhabit this earth and disease continue to vex him.*

"This science and practice is the system of principles properly called physiological, or those that govern the formation and preservation of the organized body.

" (1) Its doctrines are that the human body is formed and controlled, preserved and defended, and, when injured, restored by the action of an invisible agent called the vital force; that, when all its parts are in such condition that this force can act freely and fully through them, this body is said to be in health.

"(2) The inability of any organ to perform its healthy function denotes disease. Hence, anything which in any way interferes with, or interrupts, this full, free and universal action through the body may be a cause of disease.

"(3) When, by ignorance, inadvertency, or unavoidable exposure, the conditions called disease have occurred, it teaches the duty of aiding the vital forces in its exciting, irritating and inflammatory efforts to remove the obstacles to healthy action, by means and process that do not further damage it, but tend directly to restore it [to supply requirements] and to heal the breach, if any.

[Editor's note - This practice is no longer followed by modern herbalists. Modern herbalists believe in supporting the body's healing capabilities, not by inducing inflammation, or vomiting, or similar practices popular in this period of herbal history.]

* As long as man remains a physical creature, in part or whole, and as long as food is essential to his continuance, the Physio-Medical system of treatment is the natural and logical one, due to the fact that in each prescribed remedy there are elements required by the body of man just as there are in the food he daily consumes in order to rebuild the various parts of his body.

"(4) It makes use of those articles and those only, which, in their nature, harmonize with the organic tissues and the vital forces; and, in the measure and mode of application required in any given case, directly aid that force in restoring its equilibrium, by judiciously removing or helping it to remove all the obstacles to its free and universal action.

"(5) It regards as poison anything and everything that is certainly known, in authorized medicinal doses or degrees, to have directly destroyed human life, or is, in its nature, calculated to deprive the organs of the power to respond to the action of the vital force in the production of irritation and fever, viz., antimony, arsenic, mercury, belladonna, cantharides, cicuta, digitalis and other agents of like nature, and rejects these in toto from its remedial means.

"(6) It adopts as remedial means and measures only those agents whose inherent tendency, like that of food, exercise, warmth, electricity and the influence of pleasant company, harmonize with the organic and conservative force of the system, and, like food and water, may and should be given or applied in the quantities and modes required, till the objects of their use are fully accomplished; till perfect health is established.

This is part of the online book, the Thomsonian System of Herbal Medicine. It is an historical text. For the index, please see this page: History Of Herbal Medicine