New guide to health, or, Botanic family physician : containing a complete system of practice, upon a plan entirely new : with a description of the vegetables made use of, and directions for preparing and administering them to cure disease : to which is prefixed, A narrative of the life and medical discoveries of the author / by Samuel Thomson.

  • Thomson, Samuel, 1769-1843.
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: New guide to health, or, Botanic family physician : containing a complete system of practice, upon a plan entirely new : with a description of the vegetables made use of, and directions for preparing and administering them to cure disease : to which is prefixed, A narrative of the life and medical discoveries of the author / by Samuel Thomson. 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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    to tell their children any thing but the truth ; for young children naturally believe whatever their parents tell them, and when they frighten them with such stories, for the purpose of making them behave well, it will most generally have a very bad effect ; for when they arrive at years of discretion, and find that all those sto- ries are falsehoods, they will naturally form very unfa- Yowrable opinions of their parents, whose duty it is to set them better examples. My father and mother were of the Baptist persuasion, and were very strict in their religious duties. They at- tended meeting every Sabbath, and my father prayed night and morning in 'his family. One day they went to meeting, and left me and my sister at home alone, and told us that if we were wicked they should send the bear or the knocker to carry us off. While they were ab- sent I was at play, when we heard a hard knocking on the outside of the house, which frightened us \( vy much, and when they came home I told them what had hap- pened; but instead of letting us know what it was, they told us it was the knocker they had told us of, and that or the bear would always come if we were wicked and did not mind and do as they told us. It was several years alter that my reason taught me that this knocker as they called it, was a wood-pecker that came on the end of the house. Parents ought to be careful to impress on the minds of young children, correct ideas of things, and not mislead their understandings by telling them falsehoods ; for it will be of the greatest importance as respects their future conduct and pursuits in life. When 1 was between three and four years old, my father took me out with him to work. The first busi- ness 1 was set to do was to drive the cows to pasture, and watch the geese, with other small chores, which occupation kept me all day in the fields. I was very curious to know the names of all the herbs which 1 saw growing, and what they were good for; and to satisfy my curiosity was constantly making enquiries of those persons that I happened to be with, for that purpose. All the information I thus obtained, or by my own ob- servation, I carefully laid up in my memory, and never forgot. There was an old lady by the name ©f Ber>