Address in refutation of the Thomsonian system of medical practice : delivered in the lecture room of the Chester Co. Cabinet of Natural Science, West Chester, Pa., on December 31, 1836 / by Sumner Stebbins.
- Stebbins, Sumner.
- Date:
- 1837
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Address in refutation of the Thomsonian system of medical practice : delivered in the lecture room of the Chester Co. Cabinet of Natural Science, West Chester, Pa., on December 31, 1836 / by Sumner Stebbins. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![side: the cold, which is i and health will be restored. In all cases culled lever, the en us,, is the same ma greyer or less decree, and may be relieved by one general remedy. The cold causes canker, and before the. canker is seated/ the strife will lake place between cold and heat ; and while the hot flashes an;! cold chills remain, it is ev- idence that the canker is not settled, and the hot medi alone occasionally assisted by steam, will throw it off; but as the contest ceases the heat is steady on the outside; then canker assumes the power inside, this is called a settled fever. The truth is tbe canker is fixed on the ir.side and will ripen and come off in a short time, if the fever is kept up so as to over- power the cold. This idea is new and never was known until my discovery. By raising the fever with Mos. ! and 2, and tak- ing of the canker with No. 3, and the same given by injections, we may turn a fever when we please, bet if this is not under- stood, the canker will ripen and come offitself, when the fever will turn and go inside and the cold will be driven out, there- for* they will do much better without a doctor than with.— The higher the fever runs, the sooner the cold will be subdued ; and if you contend against the heat, the longer will be the run of the fever, and when killed death follows. When a patient is hied, it lessens the heat and gives double power to the cold ; ],i:o taking out of one side of the scale and putting it in the oth- er, which doubles the weight, and turns the scale in favor of the disease. By giving opium it deadens the feelings, the small doces of nitre and calomel tend to destroy what heat remains, and plants new crops of canker, which will stand in different stages in the body, the some as corn planted in the field every week, will keep some in all stages, so is the different degrees in canker. This is the reason why there are 60 many different fevers as art: named, when one fever turns an other sets in an I so continues one after another until the harvest is all ripe, if the season is long enough, if not, the cold and frost takes them off—then it is said they died of fever. It might with as much propriety be said thit the corn killed with frost, died whh heat. The question, whether the heat or cold killed the patient, is easily decided, for that body which bears rule in the body after deatri is what killed the p.itient, which is cold—as much as that which bears rule When h9 is alive, is heat. When a per- son is taken sick, it is common to say, 1 have got a cold and am afraid I am going to have a fever, hut no fears are expressed of the cold lie has taken, neither is it mentioned when the cold](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21156244_0018.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
