Physician and patient

by Worthington Hooker

This system of quackery has obtained a large share of its popularity, by the appeal which it has made to two forms of popular sentiment, which have been for some time peculiarly prevalent. I refer to the sentiment of radicalism, and to the prejudice against mineral medicines.

As it has been fashionable in the world of business and politics, to denounce moneyed corporations, as being monopolies, so that system of institutions, or corporations (as they may be termed,) by which a well educated medical profession is secured to the community, has also been denounced and attacked by this same spirit of radicalism. Thompsonism has been one of the principal channels through which this attack has been made. The followers of Thompson have always spoken of the medical faculty as a privileged order, which must be overthrown, and down with ‘regularism’ has been the chief motto on their banner of ‘reform.’ All this, however, comes with an ill grace from them, for the ‘venerated founder’ of their system began his career with as sheer a monopoly as ever existed—a patent securing to him the power of selling rights for twenty dollars each, to every family; and the last days of this ‘reformer’ were embittered by a quarrel on this point, with some of his agents. And, besides this, his followers have adopted the very ‘regularism’ for which they have professed to have so holy an abhorrence. It is Thompsonian ‘regularism’ it is true, but nevertheless it is ‘regularism.’ Like the ‘regulars,’ against whom they have waged such an uncompromising war, they have now in Connecticut, and I suppose in other states also, their State Society, and their board of Censors for the examination of candidates; and they put the badge of ‘regularism’ upon these candidates, by giving them a ‘regular’ diploma. The truth is, that they found that so many of the class who are too lazy to work were coming from the workshop and the field, dubbing themselves at once Thompsonian physicians, that the business was getting to be overdone. Hence the necessity of some restrictions. And it is restrictions which constitute the ‘regularism,’ the ‘monopoly,’ against which they have always declaimed.

Thompsonians have made much use of the popular prejudice against mineral medicines. This prejudice has arisen in part from the evils which have been seen to result from the abuse of calomel. This remedy is so effectual an one in many diseases, that it has been used more freely, and with less caution, than it should be; and disastrous effects have sometimes followed this abuse of it. But the same reasoning which prohibits the cautious use of this article, on account of the results which come from its incautious use, would prohibit the use of horses, fire, steam, &c., because, through carelessness and want of skill, horses run away, conflagrations take place, and steam boilers burst. Still this groundless reasoning is applied by a large portion of the community to this remedy. And this prejudice against calomel has been extended to mineral medicines generally. So extensive is this prejudice, that the quack of every name is sure to appeal to it, and he, therefore, puts in his advertisement, the assurance that his medicine is ‘entirely vegetable,’ as a necessary passport to public favor. Many physicians, too, disgracefully yield to the prejudice of the people in this respect. They pretend to give no calomel, or almost none of it; and yet, such physicians generally give more of this article, than those who pursue an open and manly course on this subject.

In the clamor which has been raised against ‘mineral doctors’ Thompsonians have been among the loudest. They uniformly speak of minerals, as if they were deleterious because they are minerals. Their chemistry, which, as you have seen, recognizes the existence of only four elements, has not, I suppose, taught them, that their own bodies are partly composed of minerals, that there is lime in the bones, and iron in the blood, that minerals exist in many articles of food, that their good wives sometimes put a mineral of even deadly power into the bread which they eat, and that they daily use as a condiment one of these same luckless minerals. They speak of ‘mineral doctors’ as the poisoners of the race, while they claim so perfect a safety in the use of their vegetable remedies, that no carelessness or want of skill can make them produce any bad results.

There seems to be a quite a general impression abroad in the community, that there is a harmlessness in vegetable remedies that does not attach to mineral medicines, and that their effects are of a less abiding character. Nothing can be more untrue. Let us look for a moment at these two points.

First, as to the supposed harmlessness of vegetable medicines. The most active mineral medicines are arsenic and corrosive sublimate. But arsenic taken in large quantity never produces death in a shorter time than five to ten hours, and a large dose of corrosive sublimate destroys life ordinarily in from twenty-four to thirty-six hours. But among vegetable substances, oxalic acid, found in the common wood sorrel, has destroyed life in ten minutes, and prussic acid, which is the bitter principle in wild cherry, bitter almonds, peach blossoms, &c., in the dose only of a few drops, destroys life instantly. Comparisons might be made still further, showing that the most deadly and expeditious poisons are vegetable.

Let us look now at the comparative duration of the results of vegetable and mineral medicines.

Much is said, especially by Thompsonians, about calomel’s staying in the system, and all the bodily ills of a life-time are often attributed to this cause without any hesitation. Whether these wise ones have ever applied their rude chemistry to the detection of calomel in such cases I have not learned. But there it is, for they say so. It is in the very bones! Though no intelligent persons believe in such nonsense as this, yet the general notion that the effects of mineral, in comparison with vegetable agents, are peculiarly abiding, is not confined to the ignorant and unthinking.

Leaving out of view the direct corrosive effects upon the living texture of the concentrated acids, I may remark of poisons, whether mineral or vegetable, that they produce either morbid impressions upon the system through the nerves with which they come in contact, or local irritations, which may result in inflammation. These impressions or irritations may abide, or they may be partially or wholly removed. The fact that they are produced by a mineral is no more apt to make them abide, than the fact that they are produced by a vegetable. We should expect this to be true, and experience has shown that it is. For example the irritation produced by elaterium (wild cucumber) or croton oil, or any vegetable cathartic of a drastic nature, is as lasting as if it had been caused by any mineral poison.

I trust that it is obvious to the reader from the above statements, that they commit a great error, who suppose that the fact, that a remedy is composed entirely of vegetable substances, is a sure proof that it is innocuous, and that it can be used freely without any discrimination. And yet it is a very prevalent error, to which many lives are constantly sacrificed, to say nothing of the multitudes of cases, in which, though death does not occur, injury is inflicted in various degrees upon the system. A single example will suffice. A case is detailed in the Boston Medical Magazine of a female, who had a medicine administered by a botanic empiric, which was composed in part of elaterium. Her life was destroyed in thirty-six hours by this vegetable remedy given her by this denouncer of ‘mineral poisons’ and ‘mineral doctors!’