Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1837-09-14
From the Lectures Of Samuel Robinson, NJ. ID
Theory Of Jeper according TO the modern sys-
tenn OF medicine.
ICoNrINUED FROM OUR LAST.

II ist. The symptoms Of fever are mis-
yor class, rs treated for another; and the
ysicians declare, the symptoms, are 50
often blended, complex, and Prote-forn-
ed and fashioned, that it is impossible ia
comprehend them. This 10 one sourc g
Of uncertainty in practice.
Cd. Nosology, or the monrnluL aud
dreary list Of tho names Of thirteen hun
dred and eighty-seven diseases, besides
the new diseases, so difficult to be un-
dsrstood, to be remembered, or dist'n-
/ guished, is another source Of unce itainty
in practice.
4 Sd. Theories constructed on false
principles misIead the physician, and
direct him to the use Of wrong medicines;
for false theories will make false practice.
Of practice.
4th Error in judgment, from misap-
prehe ending the remote, the exciting, or
the proximate cause Of disease, destroys
the certainty Of practice, and brings
death to the patient.
9TH. Medicines used in the cuie Of
fever, Of the most dangerous nature
poisons Of the rankest dye and most fatal
often the causes OF sudden
death, and destroy, or ought to destroy,
all confidence in the established practice.
1t is, in truth, like running the gauntlet
amongst armed Indians, or red hot plough
shares, to escape from the poisens Of
medical practice.
From all these causes, and many more
that mig Int be assigned such a. the re-
cipes being concealed in n dead Ian
guage; the mistakes in filling them up,
one substance mistaken for another at
tendance OF boys, and persons nnskilled
in the apothecaries' shops, when rankest
poisons are distributed as medicines; all
these causes have filled the whole history
of medical practice with dismay, uncer-
tainty and death.
"Mr. Barry, a respectable citizen of
Boston, during the course Of the last
summer, applied to an apoihrcary tor
dose ofcream Of tartar; in place OF which
he received tartar emetic /; he had no
sooner taken a small portion of it, than
he was thrown into the most violent puk-
ing and spasms A physician was i'm
medla,ely sent for, who administered
fifteen grains Of white vitriol. Death
soon followed. Qmery-Which killed
the man--thc tartar emetic or the white
vitrioi?"
Now, the great superiority and GER
tainty Of Thomson's system, consist inl
the simplicity Of his practice. and the
safe and certain operation of his remedy
And, although Thomson seems to have
been utterly unconscious Of the hazards
and difficulties Of the established prac-
when these were brought TO
light, they served to confirm him in the
value and universally Of his discoveries,
because, il all the wisdom Of the schools,
and genius, and ingenuity, of practition-
srs, had been baffled and cOnfOunded,
through the lapse of four thousand years,
it was evident that the discovery Of
universal remedy for fever, must be
found in another department than that Of
the established science! And in that
department Thomson rose to eminence,
and received "his degree from the hand
of nature" In that great laboratory of
medical science, where nature makes
our food and fashions our medicines,
Thomson spent thirty years Of his life
A quack is one, who, in unblushing ig
norance, palms his detestable and dead
y nostrums upon the public, of which he
knows nothing! Thomson laid before
tho public, without shadow Of conceal
ment, remedies, the healing virtues Of
which he had tested by practice Of
thirty years; and with invariable and in.
disputable success, n success, which,
had ! not seen, | should have deemed
impossible. But some Of the most learn
I'd Of the faculty, who have attended TO
the, effects of this new practice, have
given their decided testimony to its pow
er and its efficacy.
Prejudices, rank and strong, as might
have been expected, have prevented the
popularity Of "saie and simple method
Of cure" which bids fair, were il univer-
sally introduced, to Danish diseases and
untimely death from the nations Of the
world to introduce the dawn Of that re-
deeming day, when sickness shall not be
seated in the constitution To emaciate the
body and PROSTATE the mind but shall
be met and expelled at its very entrance,
by a remedy, that shall neither entail
debility, nor chronic maladies, on the
patients
A ray Of this new light seems to have
broken in on the mind Of Cullen; for DR..
Rush ascribes to him, the first princi pie