The steam doctor's defence : exhibiting the superiority of the Thomsonian system of medicine, in relieving and curing disease : consisting of facts and extracts, from the writings of the most respectable authors on the system : to which is added, some account of the cholera, and its treatment on the Thomsonian plan : with an engraved frontispiece / by Benjamin Thompson.
- Liddell, Sophia.
- Date:
- 1833
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The steam doctor's defence : exhibiting the superiority of the Thomsonian system of medicine, in relieving and curing disease : consisting of facts and extracts, from the writings of the most respectable authors on the system : to which is added, some account of the cholera, and its treatment on the Thomsonian plan : with an engraved frontispiece / by Benjamin Thompson. 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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![53. Would disease, reader, have ever appeared in such a mortal form in this country, had not the deadly name of cholera been intro- duced, and the preventives and the name and the remedies all travelled together ? 54. Have not thousands suffered death by doctoring the name in- stead of the malady ? The same remedies have followed up the name from Asia, though Europe to America, with equally destructive ravages*; and should the same articles or medicines he used for the name hunger, it would produce similar effects, withoutregard to name, sex, or situation. 55. Thus have I given my reader some genera] outlines of the cause, or, to say the least, of one of the causes; and I honestly think 1 may safely say, one of the principal causes of the greatest plagues that ever visited mankind. 56. The honest reader will perhaps inquire, among the many forms of disease that have appeared in our country, are there none of these dis- ordered states of men's bodies, that are not produced or occasioned by such remedies or poison medicine? 57. 1 answer yes. There is the same disease, though in a different form, that formerly appeared in our country,—the scarlet fever, spotted fever, yellow fever, and cold plague, are limbs and members of the same body, if you will allow me to personify disease. 58. The doctrine of transmigration will apply much better to the various forms of disease in human bodies—much more philosophically, than the Pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of souls. 59. The yellow fever and dysentery of 1806, transmigrated into the spotted fever in 1810,—into cold plague in 1816; and the terrifying ghost now walks a cholera spectre through the country. 60. The same disease, whatever livery it wears—the same demon, in whatever shape be appears, and the same poisons, have been given for the relief and euro ofthe afflicted. 61. The unity of the disease is evident; that some remedies that excite and support the powers of life, remove disease and restore health in the one case, has Uniformly succeeded in all other cases when used in time anil faithfully attended—as certain as the mineral poisons have made quick work, dispatched the patient, and sent him to his grave. 62. The preceding summer, spring and fall, like the same seasons in the years 1806, '15 and 'l(i, has been remarkable for the chilly state of the atmosphere and the deficiency ofthe summer crops, particularly Indian corn. 63. The peculiar mortality of some seasons seems to be augmented, by sudden and excessive transitions or fluctuations from heat to cold, and from cold tO heat. 64. It will be readily recollected that the preceding winter com- menced eariy in the fall of 183L The air was cold and chilly until late in the season,the last summer. The cold and chilly weather was protracted beyond the usual period—all nature appeared to feel the impression. <;.». The heat of animal bodies were subject to the peculiar influ- ences these circumstances were calculated to produce; the natural or vital beat was diminished some degrees below the healthy point, consid- ering the time of the year, when the wintry, cold and chilly blasts were intruding on the warmth of summer. 66. The heat of summer came on suddenly, and the weather be- came rapidly and intensely hot. The inward heat of men's bodies could](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21159282_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
