Dr. James H. Miller's "Thompsonalgia" report to the trustees of the Baltimore County Alms House, with comments : preceded by a few introductory remarks relating to the same / by the Committee of Correspondence of the Thomsonian Friendly Botanic Society of Maryland.

  • Miller, J. H. (James Henry), 1788-1853.
Date:
[1836?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. James H. Miller's "Thompsonalgia" report to the trustees of the Baltimore County Alms House, with comments : preceded by a few introductory remarks relating to the same / by the Committee of Correspondence of the Thomsonian Friendly Botanic Society of Maryland. 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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    would call (if permitted to coin a new term,) Mineral-a/gia So long as the degen- erate sons of Esculapius, continue to worship at the shrine of their god Mercu- ry, so long as they employ this fatal messenger of disease and death, will this de- structive complaint continue its pestilential ravages in the human family. We do not know whether he still continues his avocation of conducting the souls of the dead to the infernal regions; but we do know that he prematurely conducts millions of the tortured bodies of poor deluded mortals to their quiet graves! There is another trait in the character of this heathen deity, that we perceive he still maintains to this day. He robbed Neptune of his trident, Venus of her girdle, Mars of his sword, Jupiter of his sceplre, and Vulcan of many of his me- chanical instruments; and he still continues his thievish propensity by robbing his ignorant and credulous devotees of their health? The merchants of Rome yearly celebrated a festival in honour of Mercury, in a temple near the Circus Maximus. Here they entreated him to forgive whate- ver artful measures, false oaths, or falsehoods they had used or uttered in the pur- suit of gain. Do the mineral merchants annually assemble together to confess their mani- fold medical sins, and implore the assistance of Mercury to aid them in their widely destructive practice ; and entreat him to forgive whatever artful measures they had undertaken, or falsehoods they had used or uttered in the pursuit of gain, or in the slander and persecution of Thomsonians ? Do they stand in need of music to calm their troubled consciences ? their favorite deity can accom- modate them. It is said he invented the Lyre, with its seven strings! Nero fiddled, whilst Rome was in flames!!! Although it may not suit the views of many members of the faculty to state candidly what kind of medicines they really do believe injure and render incu* rable, yet we find some who have honesty and independence enough to admit that the various preparations of Mercury, Antimony, Arsenic and Prussic Acid, &c. do produce these results, are traceable to the effects of this system of mal- practice upon the most trivial indisposition ; and that the ignorant, credulous, and confiding victims of learned quackery do constitute a most appalling amount, but they are diffused through the community, and are therefore not particularly marked, being sublimated into immortality. The world, it is true, has been long duped by medical pretenders and impos- tors, and among the many schemes of medical abuse which have disgraced the annals of humanity, we have never been presented with any more fatal in itself, or more widely destructive in its tendancies, than the present bleeding, blistering, mineral and vegetable poison practice of the law protected faculty. This scheme, from its truly imposing exterior, and pompous parade of technicalities, is partic- ularly adapted to impose upon the imbecile and uninformed—thjey look up with wonder and astonishment when they hear the learned doctor descanting on their diseases, in a mysterious, unintelligible jargon; and whilst he proffers to cure them, gratifies their strongest propensities, by frequently recommending brandy and other impure stimulants! It will be perceived on a reference to Dr. Miller's famous Thompsonalgia ieport, that the above are his own words, with some slight alterations, calculated to place the subject in its true light. What the doctor has asserted without proving, and applied to the Thomsoni- ans, is in our opinion, which we will endeavor to establish by proof, applicable to the regular faculty. Ever since the time of Paracelsus, who introduced the mineral quackery, (as it vflb then termed) the world has been duped by medical impostors, and deeply has the whole family of man suffered by the imposition. By his succes- sors the country has been flooded with a tide of human gore, sufficient, if collect- ed in one grand reservoir, to float the whole phlebotomising fraternity. To prove what we have before asserted respecting the fatality and destructive