Attack on the sauna

[Guest guest]

List,

The health benefits of the sauna and

associated heat-generating and detoxifying herbs

are well established, but to this day how rare it

is for a conventional physician to recommend a

steam sauna or cayenne pepper. The steam bath

was part of the stock in trade of the Thomsonian

botanic physicians who had quite a large

following during the first half of the nineteenth

century in the eastern and central US. Of course

the conventional physicians with their proven

methods of bloodletting, and decoctions of

arsenic, lead, and mercury, were very hostile to

the " steam doctors. " I came across a delightful

attack on the skills of the Thomsonians:

BOSTON MEDICAL AND SURGICAL JOURNAL.

BOSTON, JANUARY 25, 1837.

REPORT ON THE THOMSONIAN SYSTEM OF PRACTICE.

In the course of human events, it appears that a

small company of worshippers at the shrine of

ignorance in the towns of Pendleton and

Abbeville, S.C., not content with being permitted

to indulge themselves with the luxuries of the

stone bath and liberal potations of decocted

cayenne, have fervently besought the legislature

of that State to confer upon the idols of their

adoration, by the force of law, very

distinguished privileges. They pray " that the

Thomsonian practitioners of medicine be placed

upon an equal footing with the regular faculty,

and be allowed to charge for their services. "

This petition was referred to a committee, whose

report has been kindly sent to us. We can only

republish a small portion of it, but the extracts

will show very satisfactorily how well this

monstrous absurdity is understood by men of

intelligence in all sections of the union.

" Your Committee would respectfully suggest, that

the Thomsonian practice of physic is not founded

in a knowledge of the anatomy of the human body,

nor of the laws which govern its different

functions, either in health or disease. And that

any system of practice resting upon any other

basis than that of a thorough knowledge of

Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology, can never be

productive of any great benefit to the community.

The duties of a physician in managing the

diseases of the human body, have been very justly

compared to those of a commanding general in

conducting military operations. The body of the

afflicted man is likened to an invaded territory;

the disease is the enemy, and the physician is

the general engaged to resist him. Whilst every

one must recognize at a single glance the

indispensable importance in the process of

military operations of the most minute

topographical knowledge, on the part of the

commanding general of the invaded country, none

will doubt that similar acquaintance with the

structure of the human body is equally necessary

to the Medical General. Your Committee,

therefore, are of opinion that a system of

medical practice which dispenses with this

all-important preliminary instruction, must stand

forever condemned by the common sense of mankind.

It involves a pretension scarcely less ridiculous

than that of a man who should venture to

advertise himself a repairer of watches who had

simply learned to count the figures on a

dial-plate, or of (he officer of a campaign who

on being informed of the death-dealing powers of

powder and ball, directs his ordnance against the

ramparts of his enemy without making a single

inquiry as to the point whore they could be most

successfully assailed. Your Committee conceive

that it is a glaring absurdity to suppose that

any system of practice of medicine can be used to

advantage which is not founded in a thorough

knowledge of the anatomy of the human body and of

the laws which govern it both in health and

disease. From the complex structure and

diversified action of the different parts of the

human system, and from the fact that most of the

derangements with which the physician has to

contend are internal, it is obvious that to

enable him to have a rational conception both of

the kind and degree of the derangement, and of

the best mode of restoring the parts to a healthy

condition, and at the same time to understand the

modus operandi of the medicines used, he must

have a knowledge of the parts involved in the disease. "

With reference to the pharmaceutical attainments

of the practitioners of this system, the Committee remark :­

" Their only crucible is the human stomach, and

their only test of the healing or destructive

powers of their remedies, the consequent injury

or improvement, the life or death, of the

patient. Are not these considerations amply

sufficient to show how utterly futile it is to

expect anything like general success from a

system of practice where these requisitions are

wanting? How then do these requisitions compare

with the Thomsonian system of practice? Thomson,

the reputed author of the system, was doubtless

ignorant of anatomy, physiology and chemistry.

" Nothing is required to initiate the most

ignorant man in the community into all the

mysteries of their practice, except the

procurement of a patent, a little light reading

on the medicinal properties of a few plants, and

the several combinations of their medicines,

together with a great deal of abuse of science

and of scientific men. Thus armed, and with no

other qualifications, they step forth and ask to

be placed upon a footing of equality with the

regular faculty and be allowed to charge for their services. "

After a series of logical deductions, touching

the utter worthlessness of the whole system,

which is without system or common sense, the report adds:­

" Your Committee are of opinion, therefore, that

unless the Legislature is prepared to decide that

all learning is a humbug, and that the pretender

has a right to equality with the man of science,

the prayer of the petitioners cannot be granted.

" We cannot admit the possibility, that any such

mushroom system as that of Thomson's Practice,

which sprang up in darkness, and is inevitably

doomed to wither and perish when exposed to

light, can ever win favor with this enlightened

Legislature, and be permitted on an equality with

that scientific system of practice, which is

founded on a knowledge of anatomy, physiology,

and pathology, and which has been maturing for

the last twenty centuries, and has received

contributions from some of the most enlightened

and brilliant minds of every age.''

Were it convenient to insert the whole report, we

are sure it would be well received. The

petitioners, however, who consider themselves

persecuted for righteousness sake, in common with

their brethren of the same class in other States,

are never discouraged ; they continue to hope for

a return of the dark ages, and seem to believe

that by multiplying ignoramuses, they shall

ultimately triumph over the sunshine of literature and science.

[Then their comment on “Medical Discussions” a

well-edited compendium loaded with sharp-witted

debates that I will be posting:]

Pseudo-Medical Discussions.­ Dr. A. Curtis, of

Columbus, Ohio, whose ambition evidently prompts

him to become the Alpha and Omega of all steam

quackery in the west, has forwarded a duodecimo

to our address, containing four hundred pages,

entitled " Discussions between several members of

the regular Medical Faculty and the Thomsonian

Botanic Physicians, & .c. " with a special request

that the preface may be published in the Journal.

This we shall do, to show that we entertain no

personal hostility to the man who asks the favor,

though he has endeavored to handle our humble

self from the 317th to the 329th page, in what he

probably considers fine style. Because we

refused, some time since, to admit into this

Journal a communication from Dr. C. which was

neither useful, reasonable, nor even creditable

to a person of reputed common sense, we have been

held up to the gaze of Thomsonian ignoramuses, as

the arch enemy of these great, devoted,

persecuted botanico-medical pretenders, who are,

as a general rule, as profoundly ignorant of the

leading principles of medical philosophy, as they

are deficient in a grammatical knowledge of the

English language. We neither ask their patronage,

nor covet their esteem ; and we shall not only

boldly denounce their system whenever occasion

requires, but continually warn the people to shun

it as they would a pestilence that spares not.

This self-styled Doctor Curtis makes himself

unnecessarily obnoxious ; not content with being

treated kindly and politely, he evidently

endeavors to provoke a controversy. Perhaps on

this, much of his own dignity and influence with

his own kith and kin, depends. The following is the Preface.

" Though I have copied the favorite motto of

Jefferson, 'Error is harmless, where truth is

left free to combat it,' I must remark that, so

numerous and powerful are the prejudices against

truth, and so great is the unwillingness of most

minds to embrace it when presented, that this

'wise saying' is subject to many exceptions and

limitations which make it exceedingly desirable

that error should never bespread before the

public mind, even under circumstances the most

favorable for its counteraction. Still if it must

be disseminated, nothing can be more desirable

than that truth should be ' close at its heels.'

" Though the following discussions, first

published in sundry political newspapers in

different parts of the United States, are now

re-published in a more compact and permanent

form, at the earnest solicitation of the friends

of the Thomsonian System ; yet, as they contain

also, entire, all the arguments brought against

it by its regular opponents; we have reason to

expect that the latter will subscribe as largely

to their distribution, as the former have done.

We have further reason to expect the co-operation

of 'regular physicians' in the dissemination of

this work, in the fact that Dr. Deloney boasts of

having demolished our system, which Dr. 'Medicus'

intimates is worse than the cholera, and that Dr.

says, 'All I would ask, is for it to be

placed in the hands of the public.' Surely these

gentlemen will aid us with all their might.

" A southern correspondent of the Boston Medical

and Surgical Journal, says, (vol. xi. page 215),

'Let scientific physicians discountenance this

(Thomsonian) quackery through the medium of

journals, & c.,' and the editor of that paper

says, (vol. xii. page 308),' We perfectly agree

in sentiment with the talented author of the

review' (Dr. Deloney's, of our lectures, page ­].

We expect that the Journal will earnestly

recommend to physicians to scatter our book all over the United States.

" Those gentlemen will here see that Drs.

, Medicus, and Deloney have put a strong

hand to this work, and of course we shall depend

on them for the gratuitous distribution of many

hundreds of copies. Dr. of the Baltimore

Almshouse too, will doubtless use his powerful

influence, to aid us in our benevolent exertions

to expose this destructive 'Thomsonalgia' to the

'enlightened circle in which he moves. "

" With the exception of the two Baltimore

lectures, which contain something like a

connected, fair and full view of the two Medical

Systems, their comparative merits, and the

conduct of their advocates, the Botanic writers

contented themselves with keeping pretty

generally, in the path marked out by their

regular opponents, satisfied rather to take them

in the snares of their own setting, than to dig new pits for their capture. "

Presuming that none but a lunatic would think of

purchasing the volume, our copy of it is at the service of all borrowers.

[For the record, our sauna at the Center is in

almost constant use, but we have greatly updated

our use of heat sensitizers. ]