1800-1900: Thomsonian remedies for asthma

Samuel Thompson (1769-1843)

Samuel Thompson did not fashion himself as an Indian Physician, nor did he claim to get his inspiration from the Indians. He did, however, fashion himself as a botanic physician, an expert on herbal remedies. (1, page 131)

Despite his lack of formal education, and lack of knowledge regarding anything medical, he was able to convince many people that his medicine worked, and he earned himself quite a following.

This was contrary to licensed physicians, who endured several years of formal education to learn about the anatomy of the body, the diseases that plague it, and the remedies proven to work.

In fact, it was highly unlikely Thomson, nor any of his followers, knew any more about anatomy and diseases than the people he sold his products to.

Michael Flannery, in an article he wrote for Journal of the Medical Library, said:

In 1834, Thomsonians claimed one and a half million adherents; by the 1840s, optimistic estimates placed their number at between four and six million. (2) 

So Thomson became a very successful botanic physician.  Yet as he earned his success, he also earned the ire of the the medical profession.

In his 1970 book "American Indian Medicine," Virgil Vogel said Thomson...

...managed to become a bete noire to much of the medical profession of his time. (1, page 131)

But there was nothing any licensed physician could do to stop him, at least in most instances.  Not only did Thomson have many followers, there were also many copycats who pretended to be his followers.  Perhaps some had noble intentions, but many simply intended to make some money.

Vogel said:

In those days, no licensing laws or other legal impediments hindered them from plying their trade.  Some of them were fakers and charlatans, while some others were doubtless honest men who imagined themselves to be human benefactors."  (1, page 131)

In this way, Thomson helped create a profession of uneducated people who called themselves doctors and physicians, although licensed physicians called them nothing more than quacks or quack doctors.

The truth is, however, that while many of them were indeed quacks, some of their remedies worked just as well, if not better, than the remedies offered by licensed physicians.

While many botanic physicians, often claiming to be root and herb doctors, claimed to have obtained their remedies from the Indians, Thomson never made such claims.

Instead, Vogel said Thomson claimed to have spent time with...

...an elderly female 'root and herb' healer in his father's neighborhood.  When, to avoid the hard labor of scratching a living from a Vermont homestead, he took to doctoring, he promoted the idea that herbs and natural remedies were superior to mineral and exotic drugs, and was much devoted to 'steaming' or sweating patients in all kinds of ills" (1, page 131)

Thomson said he learned about his favorite remedy, lobelia, which many refer to as Indian tobacco, while "looking for the cows at the age of four."  (1, page 131)

These were obviously good stories, although no one will ever prove whether he was telling the truth, or just fibbing to increase the credibility of his products.

A 2002 article in  Journal of the Medical Library Association, Michael Flannery suggests Thomson was simply playing on the theme set forth amid the nation by the then President of the United States, Andrew Jackson. (2)

Flannery said that while Jackson preached that an uneducated man can run government, Thomson preached that an uneducated man could administer medicine. (2)

Thomson ultimately obtained a patent for his product "that Dr. William Thornton of the U.S. Patent Office termed a 'Fever Medicine,' said Flannery.  He continued:

The duly authorized patent was both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it gave Thomson some legal protection and remedy against those who deigned to usurp his system for their own, on the other hand, it became so jealously guarded by Thomson that it more often than not served merely as a source of contention and division within his growing circle of followers, divisions that turned friends into foes. Thomson quickly came to regard many agents not as allies but as enemies. He became convinced that duplicitous agents sailing under the Thomsonian banner were making unnecessary “improvements” to his system, were out to steal the profits for themselves, or were selling inferior, bootlegged products for quick profit. Thomson's fears were both real and imagined, but he tried to give added protection to his patent as well as create a vehicle for its expansion with the publication of his New Guide to Health, or Botanic Family Physician in 1822.  But even this became a source of difficulty as pirated editions began to dot the countryside." (1)

This provides me a segue into Thomson's asthma remedy.  It is listed on page 77 of volume II of the Botanic Family Physician . He notes in his book to have various correspondents around the United States who are always on the lookout for ideal Botanic Remedies.  Thus, his prescription for asthma is as follows:

THE ASTHMA. A correspondent remarks that, always wishing to do good and to be communicative to the great botanic community, and having been conversant with asthmatic affections, that he has found the following prescription uncommonly successful:

1. A thorough course of medicine several times repeated.
2. An emetic, either by the mouth or by injection, or both, daily, and always during a paroxysm.
3. Use a drink made of the white or silver-colored moss that grows on the limbs of sugar trees—The bark off of or near the roots of the beech tree, cleared of the outward surface—sarsafarilla roofs, spignard roots, wild valerian, of each equal parts—pour on boiling water and make a strong decoction— strain oft' the decoction and sweeten pleasantly with honey—scald and scum. Dose a tea-spoonful at a time every two hours, using a little occasionally if dry, at other times.— This method will seldom if ever fail of effecting a cure in asthma, which appears to be always attended with some obstructions of the bronchia and with some "spasmodic condition of the lungs and diaphragm.

We have no doubt of the efficacy of the prescription, having undo trials of a course very similar with remarkable success. It is a mode of treatment truely Thomsonian in principle, and with pleasure we give it a place in the Recorder.

The Paris Academy of Medicine lately reported the case of a man who died in July last, in that city, delirious, and in the right ventiele of whoso heart was found imbedded a needle, which extended into the cavity. No trace of a cicat rix, by which the needle might have entered, could be discovered on the exterior of the body. He had been sutfering for fomc months from pain in the side. (1, page 77-78)

There you go, there's your Botanic Remedy for asthma. If you want to believe it came from natives, so be it. Chances are, if you were desperate for something to remedy your asth ma, you'd give Mr. Thomson's asthma remedy a whirl.   

References: 

1. Vogel, Virgil, "American Indian Medicine," 1970, London, Oklahoma University Press
2. Flannery, Michael A., "The early botanical medical movement as a reflection of life, and literacy in Jacksonian America,"  Journal of the Medical Library Association, October, 2002, 90 (4), pages 442-454
3. Thomson, Samuel, "The Thomsonian Recorder or Impartial Advocate of Botonic Medicine: and the principles which govern the Thomsonian Practice," 1834, Volume II, Columbus (Ohio), Printed at the Thomsonian Botonic Office by Jonathon Phillips, page 77-78

1759: Hill recommends honey for consumption

Doctor John Hill was an ardent champion for honey as a remedy for nearly every internal ailment, and so it only made sense for him to recommend it to his patients suffering from consumption.

He wrote:

THE great and only hope, for the cure of a consumption, lies in taking it in time; and with that advantage Honey, assisted by a proper course of life, will cure it entirely. Young people, who will take early care of coughs by honey, will escape consumptions often, without knowing they were in danger; and the great hope afterwards lies in a constant use of the same medicine.

A consumption naturally begins by a cold taken in the winter, which brings on at first a common cough; and that being neglected settles itself upon the lungs, which by degrees become more and more obstructed, than enflam'd , and afterwards ulcerated: a stow fever attends these last stages of the disorder, and relief comes then too late. Thin and weakly young men are most in danger of consumptions, and these principally from seventeen to three and twenty. Therefore let such persons, and especially at at such time of life, avoid colds as much as possible, and take honey upon the first appearance of a cough.

If the cough does not abate in two or three days, the person should be let blood; and from that time he must avoid most carefully all high season'd foods and strong liquors: he must ride two or three hours every day;: and take a spoonful of Honey night and morning, and half a spoonful at least twice in the day beside.

A common remedy for consumption in this era was to have the patient ride a horse in the fresh air.  This was perceived to make breathing easier.

It rarely happens that the body becomes costive in a course of Honey, but if it does, gentle purges must be taken at times; and the Honey continued. This gentle purging is confined to the first stages of the disease; for toward the end the patient will be too weak for it. If the bad symptoms encreafe in spite of Honey, temperance and exercise, issues will be needful, and very little flesh should be eaten.

With these cautions, Honey, without rashness, will be considered as a cure for consumptions: and it is very singular that physicians, who have shocked the constitutions of their patients with opium and mercury, never have thought of this happy and innocent medicine, whose virtues as an aperient determent detergent and balsamick, they have always acknowledged tho' they never thought of employing it, where such virtues were so greatly wanted. (1, pages 31-33)

If only honey worked as well as Dr. Hill believed, the disease would not have caused so much suffering through the years.   

References

1. Hill, John, "The Virtues of Honey," 3rd edition, 1760, :London,

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1769: Buchan and Smellie's self help book

Cover page from "Domestic medicine"

Almost all medical books prior to the late 18th century were written for medical students and physicians, and were therefore long-winded, dry, and full of complicated medical terms that made them difficult for the common person to read.  This all changed in 1769 when two men joined forces to publish a medical book that anyone could understand.

The two men were William Buchan, a physician, and William Smellie, a printer. Buchan is generally given credit for the book, as his name is on the cover and Smellie's is not.  Still, some people believe that Smellie wrote the book, and Buchan's name was put on it simply to give the book credibility.

Smellie  was a printer, editor and encyclopedist who also had an interest in medicine.  His name would only appear in the first edition of the book as the printer.

While the two men probably wrote the book for "economic reasons," they also did it "for the humanitarian purpose of providing substitute for the deficiancies of medial care.  But, besides this, its author saw a useful, even necessary virtue in 'laying Medine more open to mankind'."

The book essentially brought a basic knowledge of medicine, which included information and treatment of respiratory diseases such as asthma and tuberculosis, into the homes of thousands of Europeans and Americans.

In this way, a common housewife could easily learn how to treat the common diseases or injuries of the day simply by flipping through the pages of the book.  It would be the 18th century equivalent to doing a Google search for "how to treat asthma," or "what are the common signs and symptoms of pneumonia."

Their book brought scientific ideas about diseases known to physicians, and placed them in an easy to read format, replete with preventative measures and remedies. Their book, "Domestic Medicine" was first published in 1769.

The authors -- be it Buchan or Smellie or both -- believed that if the populace was better educated about medicine, fewer lives would be lost to the diseases mankind faces.

In the preface to the 11th edition, the author said that as a...

...malancholy fact: that almost one half of the human species perish in infancy, by improper management or neglect."

He believed that most of these deaths were due to the "ignorance,"  and that "it is hoped, that when nurses are better informed, their conduct will be very different." (4, page x)

Dr. William Buchan (1708-1809)

So the humanitarian intent was obvious.

Whether the authors succeeded in educating the public cannot be known, although what is known is their book was a huge economic success.  (1, page 217)

"Domestic Medicine" was the most popular "self help book" prior to the 20th century, with over 80,000 copies being sold prior to Buchan's death in 1805.

The book was ultimately translated into every European language, and over the next 200 years would go through 19 editions.  (1, page 217) (2)(5, page 20)

The book was also "published in Philadelphia in 1771," and "continued to appear from a variety of towns and at frequent intervals until its demise at Boston in 1913. Throughout its many variations the basic form of the book remained unchanged." (5, page 20)

While Buchan was credited as writing the book, little else is known of his life. Although we do know that one of his teachers was William Cullen.  Smellie, on the other hand, "compiled, edited and contributed to the first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica published in 1771."  He also wrote "Philosophy of natural history," another book that had a successful run.  (5, page 21)

William Smellie (1740-1795)

Buchan was a physician, and Smellie extensively studied medicine.  Most evidence suggests Buchan wrote the original copy of the book, and "Smellie compressed, corrected, and to some extent rewrote (it)."  (5, page 21)

Although, to what extent each of these authors actually contributed to the book no one really knows.  Some even, as noted above, go as far to say that Smellie wrote the book himself.  (5, page 21)

Like Cullen and other of his contemporaries of the day, the author of "Domestic Medicine" wrote against following the writings of quacks, which was probably a reference to root and herb doctors, or doctors of botanic medicine.  (3, page 72)

So, a housewife is coddling a 9-year-old boy who is struggling to breathe.  He is sitting in her wooden rocker, pressing his arms firmly on the arms of the chair in order to hold his shoulders up to create more space for air.  He appears stiff, and his entire body rocks with each breath.  She suspects the boy has asthma, so she pulls out her copy of "Domestic Medicine" to learn if this is true.  She yearns for a remedy, and is 20 miles from the physician, and the ground is covered with snow.

She flips through the pages until she got to page 406, and reads:(4, page 406)

The asthma is a disease of the lungs, which seldom admits of a cure. Persons in the decline of life are most liable to it. It is distinguished into the moist and dry, or the humoural and nervous. The former is attended with expectoration of spitting; but in the latter the patient seldom spits, unless sometimes a little tough phlegm by the mere force of coughing." (4, page 406)

She learns that asthma has quite a few causes: (4)

• Hereditary 
• Bad formation of the breast 
• Fumes of metals or minerals
• Violent exercise, especially running 
• Haemorrhoids
• Gout
• Small pox
• Measles
• Sudden fear or suprise
• Any cause that either impedes circulation of the blood through the lungs, or prevents their being duly expanded by the air (4, pages 406-411)

She learns the signs and symptoms of the disease (4, pages 406-411)

Quick laborious breathing, which is generally performed with a kind of wheezing noise. Sometimes the difficulty of breathing is so great, that the patient is obliged to keep in an erect posture, otherwise he is in danger of being suffocated. A fit or paroxysm of the asthma generally happens after a person has been exposed to cold easterly winds, or has been abroad in thick foggy weather, or has got wee, or continued long in a damp place under ground, or has taken some food which the stomach could not digest, as pastries, toasted cheese, or the like. (4, page 407)

This confirms for her that she has the proper diagnosis.  Now for the remedy, if there was one.  She remembers when she was a child her mother made her brother, who suffered from asthma, drink a shot of some liquor, but she couldn't remember exactly what it was.   

She learns that to treat and prevent a fit of asthma, the asthmatic -- in this case her son -- must follow a specific regimen.  If this alone doesn't prevent or allay symptoms, there are certain medicines that can be trialed.  (4, pages 406-410)

• The food ought to be light, and of easy digestion
• Boiled meats are to be preferred to roasted, and the flesh of young animals to that of old
• All windy food, and whatever is apt to swell in the stomach, is to be avoided
• Light puddings, white broths, and ripe fruits baked, boiled, or roasted, are proper
• Strong liquors of all kinds, especially make liquor, are hurtful
• The patient should eat a very light supper, or rather none at all, and should never suffer himself to be long costive. 
• His clothing should be warm, especially in the winter-season.
• Nothing is of so great importance in the asthma as pine and moderately warm air
• Asthmatic people can seldom bear either the close heavy air of a large town, or the sharp, keen atmosphere of a bleak hilly country a medium therefore between these is to be chosen.
• The air near a large tpwn is often better than at a distance, provided the patient be removed so far as not to be affected by the smoke. 
• Some asthmatic patients indeed breathe easier in town than in the country; but this i$ seldom the case, especially in towns where much coal is burnt.
• Asthmatic persons who are obliged to be in town all day, ought at least to sleep out of it. Even this will often prove of great service
• Those who can afford it ought to travel into a warmer climate. Many asthmatic persons who cannot live in Britain, enjoy very good health in the south of France, Portugal, Spain, or Italy.
• Exercise is likewise of very great importance in the asthma, as it promotes the digestion, preparation of the blood and etc. The blood of asthmatic persons is seldom duly prepared, owing to the proper action of the lungs being impeded. For this reason such people ought daily to take as much exercise, either on foot, horseback, or in a carriage, as they can bear.

Buchan recommends medicine when the asthmatic is "seized with a violent fit. This indeed requires the greatest expedition,:as the disease often proves suddenly fatal."  

Upon reading the word "fatal," she felt a palpation in her chest.  She read the next words fast, yearning to fix up this remedy.  (4, pages 408-409)

In the paroxysm or fit, the body is generally bound; a purging clyster, with a solution of afafeetida, ought therefore to be administered, and if there be occasion, it may be repeated two or three times. The patient's feet and legs ought to be immersed in warm water, and afterwards rubbed with a warm hand, or dry cloth. Bleeding, unless extreme weakness or old age should forbid it, is highly proper. If there be a violent spasm about the bread or stomach, warm fomentations, or bladders filled with warm milk and water, may be applied to the part affected, and warm cataplasms to the soles of the feet. The patient must drink freely of diluting liquors, and may take a tea-spoonful of the tincture of castor and of saffron mixed together, in a cup of valerian tea, twice or thrice a-day. Sometimes a vomit has a very good effect, and snatches the patient, as it were, from the jaws of death. This however will be more safe after other evacuations have been premised. A very strong infusion of roasted coffee is said to give ease in an asthmatic paroxysm. (4, pages 408-409)

He then describes two types of asthma: moist and convulsive/ nervous.  Moist asthma was a common term for asthma that presents with chronic cough and excessive sputum production, and it may actually be what we refer to as chronic bronchitis.  For this type of asthma the author writes: (4)

Such things as promote expectoration or spitting ought to be used; as the syrup of squills, gum ammoniac, and such like. A common spoonful of the syrup, or oxymel of squills, mixed with an equal quantity of cinnamon-water, may be taken three or four times through the day, and four or five pills, made of equal parts of afafœtida and gum-ammoniac, at bed-time*. (4, page 409)

This certainly did not describe her son's asthma.

The author then explained convulsive or nervous asthma as a type of asthma whereby some exciting cause incites the nervous system to send signals to the lungs to cause the muscles wrapping around the air passages to spasm.

Obviously neither Buchan nor Smellie wouldn't have known about bronchial muscles, although they were well aware that air passages of the lungs spasm during a fit.  He explained that spasms generally left no lesions, and therefore were often regarded as a neurosis.  For this type of asthma they said: (4)

For the convulsive or nervous asthma, antispasmodics and bracers are the most proper medicines. The patient may take a tea-spoonful of the paregoric elixir twice a-day. The Peruvian bark is sometimes found to be of use in this cafe. It may be taken in substance, or infused in wine. In short, every thing that braces the nerves, or takes off spasm, may be of use in a nervous asthma. It is often relieved by the use of asses milk; I have likewise known cows milk drank warm in the morning have a very good effect in this case. (4, pages 409-410)

They add:  

In every species of asthma, setons and issues have a good effect; they may either be set in the back or fide, and should never be allowed to dry up. We shall here, once for all, observe, that not only in the asthma, but in most chronic diseases, issues are extremely proper. They are both a safe and efficacious remedy; and though they do not always cure the disease, yet they will often prolong the patient's life. (4, page 410)

So this is what you would learn about asthma upon referencing his book.  As noted above, it was among the few medical self help book prior to the 20th century.  Most other books regarding diseases and medicine were written for physicians.  As noted by Buchan in his 11th edition: (4, page vi)

Although the Domestic Medicine was never intended to supersede the use of a physician, but to supply his place in situations where medical assistance could not easily be obtained, yet the Author is sorry to observe, that the jealousies and fears of the Faculty have prompted many of them to treat this Work in a manner altogether unbecoming the professors of a liberal science: notwithstanding their injurious treatment, he is determined to persist in his plan, being fully convinced of its utility;, nor shall interest or prejudice ever deter him from exerting his best endeavours to render the Medical Art more extensively beneficial to Mankind. 

While such self-help wisdom benefited our house wife, and was generally accepted by the populace, the medical community did not accept it so well.  In fact, physicians resented such information from getting out.  They wanted such wisdom to remain esoteric to only medical students and physicians, mainly because they feared that if people learned how to do what they were trained to do, they would no longer be needed.

Although, as we know today, that is hardly ever the case -- physicians were, are, and always will be necessary.  Yet if someone could treat basic problems in the home, it would be beneficial to the patient, but also to the pocket books of the patient and the patient's family.

It was nothing new for the medical community to look with antipathy toward such a "self-help" book.  In 1768, Dr. Phillip Sterns published a self-help book that was flat out rejected by the medical profession. Although, unlike Stern's book, Buchan's was a major success.

In fact, Buchan's book was so successful it was often plagiarized, as noted by Buchan himself in his 11th edition:  (4, page vi)

But this illiberal treatment of the Faculty is not the only thing of which the Author has cause to complain. By some of them his Book has been served up mangled and mutilated, and its title, type, size, &c. so closely imitated, that purchasers are misled, and frequently buy these spurious productions instead of the real one. That a needy Author, incapable himself of producing an original work, should prey upon another, and that a mercenary Bookseller should vend such productions, knowing them to be stolen, are things not at all to be wondered at: but that all this can be done with impunity, shews that the laws of this country respecting literary property, are still in a very imperfect state, and stand much in need of amendment.

Steeling other people's ideas, and making them available for free, continues to be a problem that plagues mankind to this day.  Both Hollywood and the music industry loses millions, if not billions, of dollars annually because pirated versions of their songs and movies are available for free on the Internet.

Regardless, there were many people in Europe and the United States who benefited from the wisdom available in the book of Buchan and Smellie.  The fact that this was a nice humanitarian effort, one that netted a nice profit I bet, made it worthwhile for Dr. Buchanan to risk his reputation to put is name on the cover.

References:

1. Nulan, Sherwin B, "The mysteries within: a surgeon explores myth, medicine and the human body," a good starting place is 216 where Nulan describes van Helmont's archeus and 
2. Maryland, Hilary, "Medicine and Society in Wakefield and Huddersville: 1780-1870," 1987, Cambridge University Press, page 447 (this information is available too many references to name, and therefore is generally considered to be public knowledge.  I reference Maryland here mainly due to the quality of her reference).
3. Jackson, Mark, "Asthma: The Biography," 2009, New York, Oxford University Press
4. Buchan, William, "Domestic Medicine, or a treaties on the prevention and cure of diseases," 11th Ed., London, 1790, pages 406-410
5. Lawrence, C.J, "William Buchan: Medicine Laid Open," Medical History, 1975, volume 19, pages 20-35. 
6. Buchan, William, "Domestic Medicine: or, a Treaties on the Prevention and Cure of Disease by Regimen and Simple Medicines," 5th edition, 1776, London, pages 406-410

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