Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1854-02-09

I
loheTed at all adequate to the mora! obliquity
OF such conduct or all men on earth, the
Clergy ought to be most caPable-amidst con-
fllcting interests, and opposing arguments-to
decide Alright. Having enjoyed extended
means Of education, with ample moral training.
they are very justly supposed 10 be more capa.
bic Of correcting the errors Of community than
other men. But with a large proportion Of
those who have assumed the Office Of spiritual
teachers, and prescribe daily for the maladies
Of the soul, more ignorance and stupidity is
manifested respecting the diseases Of its clay
tenement, than with any other class. Of equal
number, in the community Having made
this DEPRESSION, in order to show some of the
causes which tend to perpetuate quackery. and
10 elevate the empiric in the public esteem as
he man Of seience-We again enquire, What
are the merits of the different systems of Med
icine practiced among us?
Without including the whole circle Of charla-
tanism, ii will be sufficient to demonstrate onr
point, briefly 10 allude to the most prominent sys-
TENS Of Medical Practice now in use. Some Of
these differ only from regular practice, in the do
ses Of remedies; the mode Of diagnosis, or the a.
mount Of fabulous uncertainty that enshrouds
their origin and past history; others have no ele-
ments in them essential to medical sy stem, ex-
cePt such as are pGrloined from Allopathic
schools, and consequently live only in tradition.
None ofthese pretended systems claim so great
antiquity as the Botanic. Ever since the earli-
est periods OF Medical history, doctrine has
existed, that somewhere in the Universe, there
was found a remedy for every disease that ever
was. or ever viii! be, incident to the Human
Body Whence this opinion originated, is as diff
cult to PROVE as it is to convince deluded lolow-
ers Of its utter fallacy. AS a counterpart of
this traditional dogma, it is also believed that.
the laws Of God and Of Nature have placed these
remedies in the Vegetable Kingdom. these two
equally unfounded assertions have been coupled
together and handed down from time immem-
mortal. as Authority Divine" for the exclu-
sive use Of Botanic medicine And notwithstan-
ding that four fills of the remedial agents used
by Allopathics are Vegetable origin, and
large proportion of those used by Botanics are
Minera--there still exists somewhere in the i'm
oginotonS Of the Vegetable loving community,
a class of Practitioners purely Botanic. But
no one, however devoted to "herb gathering"
has ever bee able to prove, by scientific evil
dence and logical inlerences, that animal and
mineral remedies were, on account of their orr
gin detrimental to the human system--or that
such products, as class, are more poisonous,
and therefore more liable to abuse in their ad-
minislration, than vegetable remedies. No
Medical Schools can be found in the civilized
world, that teach this long cherished tradition
Of purely Vegetable practice. Still an abstract
faith in the harmessness of herb tea, lives IN the
recolections of many of the inhabitants in every
country. VIII ether such traditional phantoms of
the Imagination, ought to be styled system of
medicine; and if so, what merit it possesses, we
have no disposition to enquire. But several
modes of practice, based upon this purely Bo-
tanic idea, have created some excitement in the
Medical world, and therefore might deserve
passing notice. About the year 1919 or IS,
(according to report samuel Thompson was
employed as nurse during the epidemic preva-
lence Of an asthenC form of fever in which
bleeding, cathartics, and antiphlogistic remedies
generally were but little used by Physicians.
But such was the proStr ating nature of disease.
that tonics th internal and external stimulants;
proved to be the most successful treatment-An
occasional emetic, followed by wine, brandy and
cayenne pepper, aided by hot baths and rube-
facients to the skin, were often indispensable TO
sustain the diminished vitality of the patient
He carefully observed the success of these rem
edies-and whilst the same low grade Ofdisease
continued, and consequently indicated The same
treatment, he began to practice medicine.
Though possessed of no medical powers, and no
medical education, he soon attracted some no.
tice as a prescriber; and, as a necessary con-
sequence attained some degree ofsuccess, with
the same remedies, which scientific ply ysicians
had frequently administered in his presence du-
ring that epidemic He soon after wrote book
in which he claims to have discovered a new
and improved system of medicine: But in his
materia medica he had the remarkable sagacity
to place those medicines among the most essen
tial, in all his mixtures, which were oftenest
used BY physicians during his nursing pupilage
and in the epidemic tha: gave birth to his med
ical career.
Forty years have elapsed and no such epi-
demic has again appeared as gave rise to that
particular mode of treatment, During this long
period, various changes in diseased action have