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.)

    19/20
    MEDICAL QUACKERY—MYSTERY. If the reader is desirous of testimony to confirm the opinion expressed by the late Rev. John Wesley, in the following extract from his writings, that the self- styled faculty designed the bull: of mankind should not pry into the myste- ries of their craft, we request him to look over the list of diseases at the Alms House, cured, &c. by Dr. Miller, and he will find four-fifths expressed in a lan- guage not understood by the very individuals to whom the report was made, un- less the Dr. condescended [bless his meek soul, perhaps he did condescend] to translate or explain the terms. It has been said that this report was intended only for prof essional men ; why not then have sent it to the Colleges and Infirm- ary, instead of to the Mayor, to be promulgated at the expense of the city ? In timesgone by, it was also maintained that the scriptures were intended only for the priesthood*, but the doctrine has long since been exploded. We are pleased to see the reports of the indefatigable and worthy Secretary to the Board of Health, dressed almost entirely in an English garb, and we advise the Trustees to direct the physician of humanity's commons to follow the example, for the informa- tion of the people. John Wesley says—profit attended their employ, as well as Aonor; no won- der Dr. Miller should be afflicted with THowsoNphobia, when the empirics, as he alleges, undertake cures for sake of a compensation no greater than they could obtain by cobbling old shoes ! We can prove that they have undertaken cures for even a less compensation than cobbling, and succeeded when patients were abandoned by Paracelsian quacks:—But let us hear John Wesley:—As theories increased, simple medicines were more and more disregarded and dis- used ; till in a course of years, the greater part of them were forgotten, at least in the more polite nations. In the room of these, abundance of new ones were introduced by reasoning, speculative men ; and those more and more difficult to be applied, as being more remote from common observation. Hence rules for the application of these, and medical books were immensely multiplied; till at length physic became an abstruse science, quite out of the reach of ordinary men. Physicians now began to be held in admiration, as persons mho viere something more than human. And profit attended their employ, as well as honor. So that they had now two weighty reasons for keeping the bulk of mankind at a distance, that they might not pry into the mysteries of their profession. To this end they increased those difficulties by design, which were in a manner by accident. They filled their writings with abundance of technical terms, utterly unintelligible to plain men. Those who understood only how to restore the sick to health, they branded with the name of Empirics. They introdnced into practice abundance of com- pound medicines, consisting of so many ingredients, that it was scarce possible for common people to know what it was that wrought a cure. Abundance of ex- otics, neither the nature nor the names of which they their own countryffien un- derstood. (Copy Right secured according to Law.) \