American Medicine & Thomson 1.

01
D. Mackay

North America & Canada

Native American Indians
Medicine Wheel
Elements, Humors, Nature Spirits, Directions,
ancestors, mind, body, organs, tissues, colours
Man as part of nature (holism, ?gaia)
Regional differences bioregional
Ritual, sacred sites, shrines, etc
Sweat lodges, scarring (phlebotomy) Purging
Water, Diet, exercise
Doctors, herbalists, shamans, midwives, etc
Nomadic hunter gatherer
+ crops and settlements (bioregional)

Native American Map

American Herbs
Including:

Hydrastis canadensis
Echinacea purpurea
Lobelia inflata
Cayenne pepper
Canada fleabane (conyza)
Solidago canadensis
Pacific Yew**

.numerous ethnobotanical texts; tribal pharmacopeia's

available + the works of Michael Moore are recommended

Herbs from North America

Check your materia medica and see if you can
find any? Check Mrs Grieves website if you are
having trouble finding any
Or check US ethnobotany websites and native
American resoures
Susan Weed (author, healer, + website) = might
be a good gateway?
Michael Moore books = very good
Find an online copy of Thomsons book and
investigate the herbs he recommends.

From Britain to America

back to Britain
Amongst many other colonial powers, the
British landed and established colonies in
North America

Samuel Thomson (1769 1843)

Highly influential figure in American medicine during the
1700s early 1800s
Inspired a resurgence in British herbal medicine, an interest
in American herbal remedies & greatly influencing the
physiomedical school
Seen as a major impact on medicine that played a major
role in re-establishing Vitalistic medicine
The physiomedical medical model details Vitality as the
foundation of its practice (Vis medicatrix naturae)

 Thomson began to practice in a time when

medicine was described as `heroic medicine
Doctors were heroes, frontiers men, typifying the
brave new era. Their medicines also part of that
claim providing sometimes radical cure where
remedies of tha past had failed and also
employing extreme medicines to `fight disease
= remebering that these doctors believe disease
is caused by external ills only

 Heroic medicine employed blood letting, mercury

drugs, high dose minerals and metals; chemical
poisons; extreme therapies that pushed the client to
the extreme
Purging had a large place in medicine
If they did not kill the patient, they were often seen as
successful and although they could provide
symptomatic relief this system did not take into
account suppression of illness, internal factors, nor the
development of chronic disorders

Samuel Thomson life

Sick as a child
Fixed by (Widow) Mrs Benton
His mother dying during heroic medical treatments
disturbed him
Medical efforts during his childrens births disturbed
him
A sick daughter the medical establishment could not
cure which he himself healed through `native
theories and traditional practice (steam bath)
His visitations from early childhood with Mrs Benton
had a lasting effect on Thomson
Also the herbal efforts of Dr Kitteridge impressed him

 Much of the US colony started to use

Thomsons methods
They say 60-80% of his colony (?
Pennsylvania?) were using his methods
The Doctors were unhappy and tried to have
him imprisoned and barred from practice to
no avail.

How the body works Thomson style

Seen as a fountain; cycling water and energy
With surface valves opening and closing
Vitalist = vital force animates us
Holistic = environmental `participants

Thomson pillars of health

`Thomsonianism
Thomson accepted Hippocrates as the father
of medicine and his practices echoed those
that Thomson had learnt from the American
tradition
Thomsonianism resurrected the concept of
the vital force as a mainstream understanding
of health and the human condition

M. Moore on Thomson
Thomson's own description of his legal problems is given in flat,
understated New England dryness and couched in seeming venal
paranoia.... After finishing the later material, offering 3rd party
perspective, you realize that Thomson's movement had affected a
million or more Americans, started a medical reformation that
would not peak for another 50 years, and the brightest medical
minds of the time were split vehemently both against and for
Thomson's right to practice...bitterly divided between Federalists
and Republican politics...Populists and Elitists...rural and urban. The
tribulations of this former pig farmer rocked the young republic for
over a decade and were headlines everywhere. Because of the
success of Thomson and his followers, states began, for the first
time, regulating medical practice along party and class lines. Messy
and fascinating stuff

Thomsons `New guide to Health

Patent medicines
Index correlates conditions with formula and advice
Herbs, doses and formulas are given numbers e.g.
spoon of number one, a spoonful of number 3 and a
handful of number 4.
This made is accessible to the common people
Each patent sold came with one year supply of herbs

Who, what, when, how

During and after Samuel Thomson
The physiomedical school
The eclectic school
Dr Coffin, Dr Cook
Thurston, Lyle,
http://www.swsbm.com/ManualsOther/Samuel_Thom
son-Lloyd.pdf
*Chiropractors (arose during the same time period)

Coffin & Cook, et al

Alva Kurtis starts the `"Independent Thomsonian Medical
Society from which formed the Eclectic school
The Physiomedical School largely
The information from Thomson was taken back to England
and promoted by Doctor Coffin and Doctor Cook
They are notable amongst the physiomedical and eclectic
practitioners of the time.
Along with Lyle, Lloyd and Thurston

Physiomedical Vitalism
& the Tissue States

THE PRINCIPA
1. The Human organism is essentially a vital
commonwealth, dominated by the Vital
force, with integrative, constructive, and
regenerative instinct

Tissue States & Medicinal Actions

Actions of plants can be described as a variety
of classes and categories
In regard to `tissue states we can categorise
the imbalance as:
Physiological imbalance
Physiological function
Organ affinity

 Physiological imbalance
E.g. astringent, stimulant, sedative, aromatic,
antispasmodic
Physiological function
E.g. Diaphoretic, antipyretic, diuretic,
emmenagogue, anodyne
Organ affinity
E.g. Nervine, nephretic/nephrotic, pectoral,
stomachic, cardiac

 The relationship between tissue states can be

quite specific
Specific tastes and temperatures can be
spoken of in relation to specific tissue states
The basic therapeutic correlations (for
physiological patterns) are:

Tissue State

Taste

Actions

Excited

Sour

Refrigerant
Sedative

Constricted

Pungent/Acrid
Bitter

Relaxant
Antispasmodic

Relaxed

Astringent

Astringent

Atrophy

Mucilaginous, oily
Sweet, Salty, Bitter

Mucilage
Tonics

Stagnation

Bitter
Other flavours

Alterative
Detoxifying
Aperients/laxative

Depression

Aromatic, Spicy
Pungent, (pine oils)
Fragrant bitters
Volatile oils

Stimulant
Carminative
Antiseptics

Tissues States = and Greek/Tibb

Medicine
The physiomedical tissue states and understanding of
energetics is little changed since the original premises set
down by the Ancients
The term `tissues is a more modern translation that is/was
suited to the paradigm of the day and a part of the great
resurgence led by people suck as Thomson, Cook, Coffin,
Thurston, etc
The American traditions brought forth a renewed
confidence in the vitalistic appreciation of health
The similarities of the tissue states to Greek medicine.

 HEAT = exciting
COLD = Depression
DRY = Atrophy
Damp = Relaxing

Tissue States
Pathologies of Tissues:

Heat
Wind
Dry
Cold
Damp 1
Damp 2

*Qualities of Humors*
Black Bile = Cold and Dry
Blood = Hot and Moist
Phlegm = Cold and Moist
Yellow Bile = Hot and Dry

 Too much Earth = melancholic

Too much Air = Sanguine
Too much Fire = Choleric
Too much Water = Phlegmatic

Physiomedical libraries
Priest & Priest
Typify the Physiomedical approach
-- all physiomedical texts
Thurston, provides elaborate discussion of the
practitioners `duty to attend the vital force

Physiomedical Framework
The framework has been associated with the
European Naturopathic theory
There are also the contributions and influences of
other medical systems such as iridology,
homeopathy, mineral therapy, naturopathy,
nutritional medicine, conventional medicine,
pharmaceutical medicine, surgical, etc..
And cultural medicines, Chinese, Ayurvedic, etc

 What we need to appreciate is how the American

knowledge spread from America to
England/Europe and then back to America again.
Who took up this knowledge and used it to
rekindle an interest in the Western Vitalist
tradition
And appreciate how this medical philosophy and
practice has developed into todays practice of
herbal medicine