Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1837-05-05
For the Vermont Phpnix.

Mn EDIToR,-In former number of
your paper, l presented the public with a
communication from Jeremiah Arnold, with
a few remarks by way Of review, over the
signature of Jerry Pepperbox Jr.". had
no design then, nor have now of entering
into newspaper controversy with the gen
tleman, but to amuse your readers with a
little specimen of the profound eruditiOn,
meekness and WnaSSUaling medical skill of the
Thomsonian fraternity.
l had supposed the gentlenan's vanity
would have been so much gratifed in See
ing his communication going the rounds OF
the papers, that he would thereafter have
been satisfied with preserving "digniied
silence" But in this il seems | was mista-
ken, for in your paper of April l4th hea again
-esia 6s Is app rance Il. his usual egotistic-
al STYLE endeavoring to sustain his favorite
system, and to brand with ndellibe infamy,
oil the poison doctors, both ancient and mod
ern. II Paracelsus and SydenhanIha only
have known what terrible thwacking they
were to receive in these latter days, they
must have wept tears of blood, and even
cursed the day in which they were born
They, poor men, little thought OF the fate that
awaited them in these days OF Thomson and
Arnold.
There is ore circumstance however,
which will go littlein mitigation on Syden-
hams offence. He is accused of being the
inventor Of bleeding Now if Mr. Arnold
will turn his attention little further TO the
history of the medical profession, he will find
that one Of the principal remedies in the
treatment OF disease, prescribed by Hippo
crates was od-letling;-and Hyppocrales
lived four hundred years before the christian
era. Sydenham was an English physician,
of the seventeenth centuryl Only atrifling
mistake of tl0O thousand gears Now If
blood-leuing has destroyed "in the space of
one hundred years, more lives than persisted
by war, pestience and famine" how many
have persisted by the lancet in the twenty
two hundred and thirty-seven years which
have elapsed since the days of Hyppocrates2
AN arlthmetical question for Mr. Arnold's
next piece,
But now let us attend minute to the
heavy charges preferred against Paracelsus
He first introduced mercury, (quicksilver)
anthony and opium into the Materia Medi-
ca" Well now, confess that expected,
when read the above, that we should have
seen the writer exercise all his mighty pow
MISUNDERSTANDING anthony and opium
had destroyed its tens of thousands at least,
and confess ! was almost prepared to weep
over the incalculable mischiels and suffer
ings about to be portrayedl But you may
imagine, Mr. Editor, my happy disappoint-
ment when came to the following and only
consequence Of the introduction of such po-
tent drugs into practice, to wit; But he toas
arrogant rain and Profigats and after lie
ing The life of a VGgabond, he died a confirm
ed sOtF And now whether all these conse.
quences followed from the use of marcuTv,
&c. we are not informed.
One other charge only is preferred against
this truly unfortunate man, and that is" he
wrapt up his knowledge in terms of his own
invention, so as to keep his knowledge con-
fined 10 himself and few of his chosen fol-
lowers" Now the fact is this, Mr. Editor,
Paracelsus first introduced the science of
chemistry into medicine; and of course,
chemical terms became indispensable,
these appearing unintelligible to Mr. A., it
gave rise to the grave charge of mystery"
SC One other charge, however, had liked
to have escaped my attention, viz" The
cant phrase Of quack belongs to the learned
PaIacelsus, but not to the mystery-hating
Thomson, who considers mystery and rogue
~ offspring of the same father"
Now, Mr. Editor, great share Of the con
troveTsy existing in our world arises from
mlsappfehension in terms therefore, in the
first place, in the language of a modern lex
cogTapher, ! will define the terms--merit,
and quackery.