Background
Thomson was born on February 9, 1769 in Alstead, N. H. He was the son of John and Hannah (Cobb) Thomson. His father was a struggling pioneer farmer, who put his son to work on the farm when he was five, though he had been lame from birth.
Thomson was born on February 9, 1769 in Alstead, N. H. He was the son of John and Hannah (Cobb) Thomson. His father was a struggling pioneer farmer, who put his son to work on the farm when he was five, though he had been lame from birth.
At ten the boy had one month's schooling. He took a great dislike to farm work, and from his earliest years spent most of his time in the fields and woods. Here he became interested in herbs and their medical uses. One especially impressed him because of its peculiar effect in producing vomiting and profuse perspiration. It was lobelia inflata, and later he was to use it extensively in his career of healing, claiming its medical properties as his own discovery.
At the age of twenty-one he assumed charge of the family farm. His confidence in the curative properties of herbs strengthened, he began to use them, first in his own family and then among the neighbors. Calls for his services increased and at length, formulating a system, he devoted himself wholly to medical practice, his activities extending over all eastern New England.
He soon incurred the enmity of the regular school physicians, who persecuted him for the rest of his life. He became involved in many law suits, was charged with murder on at least one occasion and was once confined for six weeks in a loathsome prison. The trials in which he was involved created a considerable sensation in their day.
His theory of disease was based on the assumption that all ills are produced by cold and that any treatment which increases inward heat will hasten recovery. Although he used many other vegetable remedies, his method in general consisted in prescribing lobelia followed by Cayenne pepper. Usually the vapor bath was also employed.
So great was his success that he decided to obtain a patent for his process. One was granted on March 3, 1813, and a revised patent on January 28, 1823. He also conceived the idea of selling rights to practise his system, and societies were formed in all parts of the country, including the Middle West. Most of the agents whom he employed proved dishonest, and his life was made miserable by their misdeeds.
He published A Brief Sketch of the Causes and Treatment of Disease (1821); A Narrative of the Life and Medical Discoveries of Samuel Thomson (1822); New Guide to Health: or Botanic Family Physician (1822); and Learned Quackery Exposed (1824). Having had no educational advantages, in writing his books he wisely accepted aid from others. A number of short-lived journals, exponents of his system, were issued, among them the Botanic Sentinel (later called Philadelphia Botanic Sentinel and Thomsonian Sentinel), 1835-40, and the Thomsonian Recorder, started in Columbus, Ohio, in 1832, which was later (1837) called the Botanic-Medical Recorder and lasted until 1852.
Although most of the regular school of physicians were jealous of Thomson's success, he was treated with much kindness by such practitioners as Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia, Benjamin Waterhouse of Harvard, and William Tully of Yale.
The significance of his work lies not in any contribution to medical science but in the strong influence that he created against the prevailing practice of his day, in which bleeding, calomel, and opium were the ruling remedies. His residence in his later years was Boston, Massachussets, where, at his home on Salem Street, he died.
(Excerpt from The Friend to Health: Being a Selection of V...)
(Excerpt from The Thomsonian Manual: Or Advocate of the Pr...)
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
He was lame from birth. Without question he was sincere, and he exhibited great courage in withstanding the persecutions of his opponents.
On July 7, 1790, married Susan Allen, who bore him eight children. Soon after his marriage his wife became ill, and when the regular physicians failed to perform a cure he employed two root doctors, under whose ministrations she rapidly recovered.
