In the different ages of the world the medical faculty have been very prolific in forming systems of the theory and practice of medicine. One man builds up a system for another that comes after him to pull down, who erects one of his own, which is followed for a time and is then supplanted by another. They have gone on in this way, almost every age producing a new system, to the present time; each one pronounces the other to be wrong, they certainly cannot all be right, and the most natural conclusion is that they are all wrong; for no good has resulted from all they have done, but on the contrary it has tended to produce much confusion and doubt, in the minds of all who seek to gain a correct knowledge of the subject. The best evidence of this is the bad success that has attended the regular faculty in all their practice, for they do not pretend to a knowledge of a certain remedy for any case of disease; and it is readily admitted by the most distinguished men in the profession, that there is no art or science so little understood and miserably conducted as that of medicine.

The way to become a fashionable doctor at the present day is to spend three or four years in what they call reading physick, when they receive a degree and a diploma from some medical society. This time is spent in learning the latin names of the different preparations of medicine, according to the plan adopted by the facul ty, as also of the different parts of the human body, with the names, colours and symptoms of all kinds of disease, divided and subdivided into as many classes and forms as language can be found to express; and sufficient knowledge of the nature of medicine to know how much poison can be given without causing immediate death. With . these qualifications and a little self-importance, they commence their medical career, as ignorant of what is really useful in curing disease, as though they had been shut up in a cloister all the time. Their heads are filled with the theory, but all that is most important in the removal of disorder, they have to learn by practice, which can never be learnt in any other way. Those patients who are so unfortunate as to come under their care become subjects for them to learn upon and have

to suffer from their experiments.

After pursuing this

course for many years, they begin to learn that their practice has been wrong; and it is a fact well known, that all our old and most experienced physicians, who have become distinguished in the profession, make use of but very little medicine; prescribing principally simples, with directions how they may cure themselves; the greater part of their patients, are such as have been run down and had their constitutions destroyed by the improper treatment they have received front the young and inexperienced part of the faculty.

This picture may be considered by some as highly coloured; but if prejudice is laid aside and viewed with candour, it will be found not to be far from the truth. There are no doubt many exceptions among the practising physicians; but their manner of treating disease by bleeding and blistering, and administering mercury, arsenic, nitre, antimony, opium, &c. is directly opposed to nature, and cannot be justified by any principles founded on natural causes and effects. Another serious difficulty exists, which is that the people are kept ignorant of every thing of importance in medicine, by its being kept in a dead language, for which there can be no good reason given. Dr. Buchan has made some very good remarks on this subject, to show the impropriety of such a practice, and gives it as his opinion, that if physicians would write their prescriptions in the language of our own country and lay medicine more open to the people, much good would result from it. In the new Pharmacopoeia got up lately by the medical societies in this country, an entire new arrangement is made and new names adopted, which is to be revised every ten years; this will completely keep the people in ignorance of the medicine they use, when prescribed by the faculty.

There can be not the least doubt but there is medicine enough grows in our country to answer all the purposes necessary in curing every disease incident to the climate, if the people had a knowledge of it; but the doctors have so much influence in society, and manage their affairs with so much art for their own profit and praise, that the common people are kept back from a

knowledge of what is of the utmost importance for them to know. If any man undertakes to pursue a practice differing from what is sanctioned by the regular faculty, let him show ever so much ingenuity in his discoveries, or be ever so successful in curing disease, he is hunted down like a wild beast; and a hue and-cry raised against him from one end of the country to the other. There must be some reason for all this more than an aim to the public good; for the people are certainly capable of judging for themselves, whether what is done for them removes their complaint or increases it. It is not unreasonable we think to conclude, that it arises from a fear that the craft is in danger.

Nothing could more fully exemplify the above opinion than the treatment which Dr. Thomson has received from the medical faculty, during the whole of his practice. He has been persecuted and pursued with all the malice of demons, for no other cause that can be imagined, than because of his extraordinary success in curing disease, which has tended to enlighten the people, and do away their blind confidence in the infallibility of doctors. This opposition has not been from the people at large, for all who have been attended by him, and those who have had a correct knowledge of his system of practice, are not only well satisfied, but are thoroughly convinced of its superiority over the practice of the doc. tors; and some of the faculty who have examined the subject, allow the discovery to be original and ingenius, and that the principles upon which it is founded are corIf the physicians generally had, instead of trying to destroy him and his practice, enquired into and made themselves acquainted with his improvements, and treated him with that courtesy due to every ingenius man, who devotes himself to the advancement of the arts and sciences, they would have received much useful information on one of the most important branches of the medical art, that is of the medicinal virtues of the veget ables of this country, with the best method of preparing and administering them to cure disease; but they seem to consider every thing relating to the subject as a sort

rect.

of holy ground, on which no one has a right to tread, but the regularly initiated.

Dr. Thomson began his practice as it were from accident, with no other view than an honest endeavor to be useful to his fellow creatures; and had nothing to guide him but his own experience. He not having had an education, has received no advantages from reading books, which left his mind unshackled by the visionary theories and opinions of others; his whole studies have been in the great book of nature, and his conclusions have all been drawn from that unerring guide; by this he was enabled to form correct opinions of the fitness of things. His first enquiry was to know of what all animal bodies were formed, and then to ascertain what caused disease; after being satisfied on this head, the next thing was to find what medicine was the best calculated to remove disease and restore health. For this he looked into the vegetable kingdom, where he found a large field for contemplation and for the exercise of his enquiring mind. Here by an invention of his own, that of ascertaining the qualities and power of vegetables by their taste, he was enabled at all times to find something to answer the desired purpose; his apothecary's shop was the woods and the fields.

In his practice it has always been his first object to learn the course pointed out by nature, and has followed by administering those things best calculated to aid her in restoring health. This is unquestionably the only correct course that can be pursued with any chance of success, for all the good that can be expected by giving medicine, is to assist nature to remove the disease. The success with which his practice has been attended bas astonished all who witnessed it, and has led the people to wonder how a man without learning could perform what could not be done by the learned doctors; this is not strange, for people most generally form their opinions by what is fashionable, without examining into the nature of things. A man can be great without the advantages of an education; but learning can never make a wise man of a fool; the practice of physic requires a knowledge that cannot be got by reading books, it

must be obtained by actual observation and experience. It is very common with the doctors to call all those who practice and have not been regularly educated to the profession, quacks, and empirics. The deffiniton of the word quack, is an ignorant pretender; and those who are entitled to this appellation, are best known by the knowledge they possess in their profession, and the success with which they pursue it; and there may be probably more ignorant pretenders found among those who have received a diploma than in any other class. An empiric is one who is governed in his practice by his own experimental knowledge; and Dr. Thomson can have no reasonable objection to be honoured by this title, for there is nothing valuable in the whole range of the medical science, but what has been derived from this source. In ancient times the man who could discover any thing that proved to be useful in curing disease, was entitled to honourable notice and a reward for his ingenuity, without regarding whether he was learned or unlearned. In this way the faculty have obtained all their knowledge of vegetable medicine, and if they had confined themselves to this it would have been much better for the people, than to make use of those poisonous minerals. which have been the production of the learned, and is the only addition they have been able to make to the Materia Medica.

In the following work Dr. Thomson has endeavoured to embody in a small compass, and to convey to the public in as plain and simple terms as he was capable, a correct knowledge of his system of practice, with his manner of treating disease, together with a description of all the vegetable productions of our own country that he has found to be useful in curing disorder, and the best manner of preparing and adminstering them. It will be found of the greatest importance to the people; being the result of thirty years constant practice, in attending on all kinds of disease common in this country. It offers to the public an opportunity to make themselves sufficiently acquainted with the subject, to enable every one who avails himself