Lloyd Library and Museum Samuel Thomson and the Poetry of Botanic Medicine, Chapter 3

Samuel Thomson and the Poetry
of Botanic Medicine, 1810-1860

Chapter 3 The Botanic's Materia Medica

During his travels, Samuel Thomson searched for and tested on himself the roots and herbs found in the countryside, including cleavers as a diuretic, capsicum or pepper as a stimulant and antiseptic, lady's slipper or umbil as an antispasmodic, and snake's head ( Chelone glabra ) to correct the action of the liver. The seventy medicines that eventually became his materia medica included a combination of Native Indian, immigrant, folk, and domestic remedies whose origins were blurred but which stood the test of his own practice and experimentation. As J. Worth Estes has noted, however, 75% of his plant remedies had already been listed in the Edinburgh New Dispensatory (1791), 62% were found in Jacob Bigelow's American Medical Botany (1817-20), and surprisingly, only one-third were indigenous to the United States . Estes concluded that Thomson's remedies "were neither unique to his own system nor were they uniquely American."

The fact was that botanic medicine always had a place in medical orthodoxy. During the age of discovery in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, physicians took a interest in New World flora, collecting and cataloging botanicals, and seizing upon them as a source of new medical knowledge. Theologians and naturalists reinforced this activity by teaching that God had provided each region of the world with its own medicines. This belief, along with reports on the medicines used by indigenous peoples, suggested the efficacy of a local plant materia medica to replace the more expensive mineral and plant drugs of the Old World . Although sixteenth-century medicine relied heavily on mineral drugs, the introduction of new substances--such as guaiacum, sarsaparilla, balsam of Peru, lobelia, cascara sagrada, cocaine, curare, capsicum, arrowroot, cocillana, jalap, and tobacco--turned the attention of many to the identification of less expensive alternatives, and even to the concept of drug specifics.

Not surprisingly, the British Crown ordered the Virginia colony to cultivate native plants to determine their medicinal value. Indeed, herbs indigenous to North America were investigated and employed by some of the earliest colonists. Before long, settlers were using sassafras for skin diseases, gout, rheumatism, and syphilis; snakeroot as a tonic, diuretic, diaphoretic, and stimulant in typhoid and digestive disorders; dittany as a purge for worms; jimsonweed as a sedative and antispasmodic; and wild cherry bark as a specific in wounds and sores. In time, native plants became a inexpensive source for the emetic, purging, and sweating regimens of regulars, and in rural areas especially, replaced the more expensive chemical and galenical preparations of the day.

It took little convincing for Americans to turn inward to their fields and forests for medical stock. Given the cost of transportation, and the assumption that God provided his creatures with local vegetable simples to cure their maladies, botanicism was more than just a poor man's medicine. No less revered leaders than religious liberal Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) and clergyman and author Cotton Mather (1663-1728) drew from native lore and folklore for their herbal cures. Dr. Christopher Witt (1675-1765), botanist and mystic, was famous for his botanical gardens at Germantown , Pennsylvania . John Bartram (1699-1777), a self-educated American botanist, spent a lifetime studying medicinally active plants unknown in Europe . Bartram wrote the preface and appendix to Thomas Short's Medicina Britanica (1751) which described medicinal plants native to America . Another pioneer American botanist was Benjamin Smith Barton (1766-1815), a lecturer in materia medica at the University of Pennsylvania . Barton's Collections for an Essay Towards a Materia Medica of the United States (1798) surveyed the therapeutic value of numerous indigenous American plants. According to historian Alex Berman, nineteenth-century regulars "already possessed an impressive plant materia medica when the Botanics appeared on the scene, early in the nineteenth century." So much so, in fact, that "regulars had an overwhelming superiority of output in scientific medical botany in comparison with the Botanic practitioners."

Lobelia, the herb discovered by Thomson in his youth, became the source of his fame and the basis for his system. The next several poems celebrate that discovery and its significance in botanical medicine.

LOBELIA SPEAKS FOR ITSELF

My Hearers of a gentle mind,
Look unto me; I'm pure and kind,
I help the poor in their distress,
When sickness does them much oppress.
The great Creator formed me so,
That I on every land might grow;
My seeds he strewed on roads and plains,
To ease mankind of groans and pains.

Beneath the feet of learned men,
Who knew not how to use me then,
I've long been trodden to the ground,
But now am rising to renown,
My roots are set in every land,
My leaves are plucked by every hand
That owns a head of common sense,
And stand's upright in life's defense

Lobel first spoke to me in Dutch,
But of my virtues knew not much;
Though complimented me by way,
And called my name Lobelia,
Then Linnaeus next took up my cause
And said I kept some wholesome laws;
But all were then too deaf and blind
My worth to know--my powers to find.

The great, thelearned, and the wise,
Have clothed my name with countless lies;
But after all they've said and done,
My glorious reign has just begun.
Some pull me up and throw me down;
Some scoff and jeer and hand me round,
And some by chance my leaves do eat,
And soon their pains do all retreat.

And so they drive me here and there,
Some full of hope and some despair;
Some say I'm good; some say I'm bad;
While some are raging, some are glad;
Some say I'm poison branch and root,
While others highly prize my fruit;
And by-the-bye, through hope and fear,
They've found me out most every where.

When Samuel Thomson was a youth,
He spoke to me in simple truth,
My leaves he tasted where I stood
Among the cattle's summer food.
He also tasted many a weed,
But found that I did all exceed;
And what he learned he never lost,
Though for his zeal he paid the cost.

But I to him was ever true;
In hopeless cases bore him through,
'Till he my real worth did find,
Then sweet composure filled his mind.
Then to the world he gave my name,
And I am yet the very same,
Lobelia then, Lobelia now;
To me disease must gently bow.

My enemies, I'm well aware
Are struck with panic far and near,
They fear that I will soon dispel
Their boasted hero Calomel;
But to my friends I still can say
Heed not the clamors of the day,
But use me just on wisdom's plan,
And health will reign throughout your land.

(Dr. Samuel Thomson) xxxix

A DIALOGUE OF A RECENT MEETING OF DEATH AND DISEASE

Death
How comes it, friend, in every shape,
You let so many folks escape!
A few years back, you know full well
The sick you killed with calomel.

Dyspepsia then had power to kill;
Asthma defied the Doctors' skill;
The lancet, too, as well you knew,
Its hetacomb of victims slew.

Then, costiveness could fatal prove,
And rheumatism no power remove;
A simple cold--and lo! they went
A subject to my kingdom sent.

How comes it then, that, now-a-days,
Folks slip your gripe and go their ways!
Asthma besides, dyspepsia cured;
The lancet is no more endured.

The sick, to-day, forget all sorrow,
And laugh at both of us to-morrow.
Something is wrong--of this I'm sure,
Nor can I longer this endure.

Disease
Dear sire, I sue all means I can
To much abridge the life of man;
I chase his footsteps from his birth,
Till he returns to mother earth.

And though 'tis true that my success
Is daily growing less and less,
This satisfaction I can feel,
I have not slackened in my zeal.

I use all means I used of old;
Changes of weather, hot and cold:
I gave them colds, I give them pains,
I rack their bones, I fire their veins.

I clog with canker, some say bile,
In place of the nutritious chyle;
Yet all is useless--none are killed;
The world with Thomson's system's filled.

The stomach sick, the head will ache;
The fever high, will make it shake;
The voice is feeble, pulse runs high,
Yet none but Thomson, will they try.

Lobelia!--Ah; the sick man's friend,
Will cleanse the stomach's filth and phlegm;
And now the nervines put to sleep,
And when they wake, they bawl for meat.

(A Listener) xl

REGULAR TOASTS

No. 1.--LOBELIA is like the power that pulls the bow-string.
It strains the bow quickly, and as suddenly lets it go;
Thus allowing it to recover its condition,
Without injury to its elasticity.

No.2.--The next in order, CAPSICUM so called,
Its stimulating powers with living heat,
Doth support and comfort bring,
Diffusive and lasting it its effects on the human frame.

No.3.--A friend in need.
Though Rough, is always Ready;
Assists the first, and aids the next,
And puts the patient in good fix.

No.4.--When nature's bitters fail, the sick
It aids, and regulates the balance power--
Strength, health and energy imparts,
Until nature is restored to perform her part.

No.5--When further aid the sick demand,
As a pendulum of proper length,
Regulating and strengthening to the digestive organs,
Will be its effect when timely employed.

No.6.--May be used first and last, or mixed.
Healing, both in its inward and outward use;
Bruises, cuts, or inflammations of the most dangerous kind,
May be arrested and cured by its embalming qualities.

(Anonymous) xli

DEATH'S VISIT

One day as I roamed the street along,
Musing on earth and earthly ills,
I heard Death singing a funeral song,
And Beating time on a box of pills.

I knew him not, so I asked his name,
And returned the press of his bony hand;
He said it was Death, and the place whence he came,
Was called by mortals the " Spirit Land ."

He had come to visit his patients here,
And to view their works with his practiced eye,
For business was dull and great his fear,
That they had stopped the use of mercury.

He had brought a supply which he wished to sell,
But the sales were small and light his purse,
He had scarcely heard a funeral knell,
And was sure that affairs were getting worse.

He could scarce purchase victuals from day to day,
Had no place to rest his head at night,
Folks would not take his physic in pay,
Which placed him in rather a sorry plight.

His face was all haggard with doubt and care,
But he stopped at a house when I caught his arm,
And told him Thomsonians resided there,
But he thought he would call, "there could be no harm."

On a stalk of Lobelia he placed his eye,
And shaking with dread that plant to view,
He uttered a long and piercing cry,
And cursing Thomsonians away he flew.

(Anonymous) xlii

ODE TO LOBELIA; WRITTEN DURING A BILIOUS ATTACK

Oh bile! thou tyrant of the inner man,
Thou who can'st stupify the brain,
And brutalize the heart,
My coated tongue shall dare complain.
All-powerful as thou art;
And though I writhe within thy chain,
I'll lift my head and howl, albeit I howl in vain.

I think thou art the blood of some arch fiend,
Thou steal'st the brightness from the eye,
The beauty from the cheek;
Thou bid'st the best affections fly,
The strongest mind be weak--
Earth is a hell while thou art by,
And the dull yellow veils the azure of the sky.

Then LOBELIA, thou great Deliverer, come!
Purge from my eye this ochre hue,
And clear my head again;
Make me benevolent and true,
And just to other men;
And the first worthy deed I do,
I'll own, O LOBELIA! my virtue is from you.

(Anonymous) xliii

LOBELIA

Take away the lute and sing,
Lobelia's wondrous fame;
Its hidden virtues we must bring
To light. Its glorious name
Invoke the muses fire,
To assist us with this theme.
But while we used this tuneful lire,
We still the truth esteem.
Yet what a nauseous thing
Is this most famous plant,
To which our botanists do cling,
And on so much discant.
If what they say be true,
A power it doth possess,
That is indeed surpassed by few
In healing of distress.
This herb, they do declare,
Removes all nauseous things,
But leaves the good and wholesome fare
From which our vigour springs.
A sickness first pervades,
We then discharge the bile,

Or any other nauseous seeds
That get among the chyle.
'Tis felt in every nerve,
No place that it don't pry;
It follows every turn and curve,
And death seems to be nigh.
But this is not the case,
Lobelia works not death:
It hath a purifying grace,
And leaves a healthful breath.
Some doubt the cleansing power
Of this most useful plant.
But He who formed the better flower,
We call Omnipotent.
Could He not virtue give
To any plant He'd choose;
And bid the suffering patient live,
If they this means would use.
The son of David spake
Of all the trees and plants,
And we the freedom take
To follow his comments.

(Anonymous) xliv

LOBELIA
Lobelia! Lobelia! sounds throughout the earth, In private and public they speak of her worth; Some style her a princess and make her their pride, While others abuse and her virtue deride. They term her a poison and wonder to see That people enlightened should use her so free; The great ones do mostly defame and despise, But still our Lobelia in honor doth rise. She meets her opposers so firmly and bold, They cannot withstand nor remove the deep hold That now she has taken thro'out the great world, And poison from practice we trust will be hurled. The learned do tell us she's hurtful and bad, With dangerous virtues Lobelia is clad, 'Tis strange that her poison should never be known But unto her foes and accusers alone.	There's thousands who use her and praise her effect In spite of her foes who so warmly reject; Her friends are most willing to let her be tried By competent judges--so strong they confide. But custom and pride when they once get the sway, Too soon we may see how the world falls a prey; To sweeping delusions the worshippers bend, Regardless of sorrow or pain in the end. But those who love Mercury and poison so much, We'll leave them to tamper and not fear to touch; Until sad experience has opened their eyes, And sorrow and suff'ring has made them more wise. (Anonymous) xlv

BOTANIC LANGUAGE

A balm have physicians found out;
Its emblem botanic, I give--
"Away with your quackery!" Shout!
LOBELIA'S language is-- live!

Then physic in all its base forms,
"To the dogs" we will cast out awhile,
And rob fell disease of alarms--
So "Away with your quackery" vile!

The lancet or phleme when you see,
"Away with your quackery," say--
" The Blood is the life! " and for me
Lobelia's a welcome bouquet.

When quacks praise their calomel high,
All multiform ailments to cure,
"Away with your quackery!" aye,
Lobelia, life's emblem, secure!

"Away with your quackery!" away
All nostrums! Let quacks disappear!
A catholicon true I display:
Man's best friend, Lobelia, is here!

Yes, "Away with your quackery" vile;
The medicine I offer will cure;
Lobelia holds truth in its style;
'Twill ever prove safe, mild, and sure.

(L. S., Hartford ) xlvi

LOBELIA

Lobelia, an herb--that grows all o'er the land,
A gentle emetic, and always at hand:
In marshes or meadows, among the green wood,
There grows this Lobelia, this herb that's so good.

The plant is biennial, wherever it grows,
And needs no description as every one knows;
The blossoms are blue, and I hope you'll remember,
It blossoms in June and is ripe in September.

The Botanic Doctors make use of this weed,
Of the leaves they make tincture; they grind up the seed;
They simmer or scald it, or press out the juice,
And then it is ready and fit for their use.

They use it in tincture, in powders and pills,
The patient it cures, but it never him kills;
It is first rate to cure in all cases of fevers,
But is hated and feared by the regular deceivers.

It is good for diseases too tedious to mention,
But the theory by some is called mere quack pretension;
I only will say that the truth will gain ground,
So lift up your voices and let the truth sound.

Truth surely will triumph and error will fly,
Like the shades of the night 'fore the orb of the sky,
It will rise in full splendor, its banner unfurled
To cheer and enlighten a perishing world.

(Miss M. Hull) xlvii

E. E. Helm, of Mason County, Kentucky, wrote this untitled poem as a caution to young women who were about to marry, urging them to be staunch in their botanic cause.

UNTITLED

If e'er I consent to marry,
(And I certainly think I shall soon,)
The lad I will give my fair hand to
Shall not be a mineral loon.

Though his looks may be bright as the morning,
His countenance fair as the moon,
His wealth, be it e're so enticing,
Do you think I would marry a loon?

He must toil in the great undertaking,
Be firm in the Botanic cause,
Discard every species of poison,
And obey all the natural laws.

Look to it well you young gallants,
The time will admit no delay,
The great monster poison Goliah,
You must help the young Davids to slay.

I will tender my hand at the altar,
To one that is able to save,
The blooming young damsels that sicken,
And prevent an untimely cold grave.

(E. E. Helm) xlviii

The following poem references the use of may apple, mandrake, or wild lemon (Podophyllum pelatatum), indigenous to the United States and Canada , for stomach disorders. Mandrake promoted expectoration, augmented the glandular functions and cleansed the intestinal canal. It was useful in scrofulous and syphilitic diseases, affections of the liver, painful menstruation, rheumatism. Its range of application was more extensive than most other cathartic medicines and used by botanics as a substitute for mercury.

LOVE'S COMPLAINT

Oh, Mother dear, the sun shines bright,
But, ah! for me its light is shrouded;
The moon with radiance fills the night,
From me her radiant face is shrouded.
Around me flowers quick bloom,
Birds fill the air with notes of gladness;
But ah! all--all partake the gloom
Of my too sore prevailing sadness.

I sit me down, and try to rouse
Gay dreams of pleasures fondly cherished--
The hawthorn tree, the whister'd vows,
That with the evening zephyrs perished;
And hours come back, when hope and love
Made life one long and glorious vision;
When all was calm and fair above,
And all below was bliss Elysian.

A numbness and a sense of pain--
A drowsy, unimpassioned feeling--
A fire that smolders in the brain,
Through all the listless pulses stealing,
Preys on me through the livelong day,
Like a grim phantom haunts me nightly,
Takes feeling, thought and power away,
Till all looks ghastly--all unsightly!

Life is a leafless, blighted bough--
This stifling pang, how may I smother?
What can I love, or live for now?
Oh, comfort me my own dear mother!
Say, say what mean these fancies drear,
That on despair and frenzy border?
"Pshaw! take this dose of Mandrake, dear,
'Tis just your stomach's out of order!"

(Anonymous) xlix

The author of the next few verses was a seventy-four year old gentleman in 1841 and claimed that botanic medicine was used exclusively by more than half of the population of Marion County , Kentucky . He reported in an accompanying letter that botanic science had gained ground against the mineral doctors who were beginning to use less of the lance and of poison as a result of the public's change in doctors. He noted that he had turned to Thomsonism in 1824 and attributed his good health to a liberal use of capsicum every day.

UNTITLED

I have assum'd the scarlet dress,
An emblem of my doing good;
I change the sallad skin to fresh
By purifying of the blood.
I raise the pulse, I fill the veins,
I cause the stomach to crave food,
I ease the head and back of pains
By purifying of the blood.

All your aches, and all your ills,
By me, if I'm well understood,
I'll cure your aches, and shakes, and chills
By purifying of your blood.
The reason I make blood my theme
Is, 'tis your life, we're taught of old;
My doctrine is no idle dream,
'Tis consciousness that makes me bold
CAPSICUM.

(Travis Coppedge) l

Rhody Ann Ellis of Waterville, Maine, wrote this poem in praise of the biweekly Botanico-Medical Recorder that, to her, amply substituted for "a prescribing physician." "Had I not been permitted to peruse its pages," she wrote editor Alva Curtis, "I think I should not now have been numbered with the living." By perseverance with botanic remedies, and reading the pages of the Botanico-Medical Recorder, she and the members of her family had overcome the evils of regular medicine.

BOTANIC REMEDIES

Botanic remedies were designed,
To heal the body and soothe the mind.
Let every tongue and every pen,
Proclaim the virtues of cayenne.
Nor will we fear to use it freely;
Nor value less the good lobelia.
But let us bear in mind with reason,
To take those remedies in season,
If them our God is pleased to bless,
They will relieve us in distress.
This truth we find, and even more,
'Twill oft to perfect health restore--
But that false science--Oh how vain!
That doth life's crimson current drain!

Reduce the patient to the grave,
In expectation life to save!
And poisons too, no hope can give,
Nor bid the dying sufferer live.
Tongues and pens may they never cease,
Till the world in knowledge shall increase.
Till error and prejudice shall find,
They are uncongenial to the mind;
Till truth and science hold their reign,
Throughout this wide--this vast domain.
I greet you with a warm applause,
And hail you in the happy cause;
And may we live to see the day,
When mineral poison's done away.

(Rhody Ann Ellis) li

xxxix. Samuel Thomson, "Lobelia Speaks for Itself," Thomsonian Recorder, III (June 6, 1835), 288.

xl. A Listener, "Dialogue at a Recent Meeting of Death and Disease," Botanico-Medical Recorder, VII (July 13, 1839), 330-31.

xli. Anonymous, "Regular Toasts," Botanico-Medical Recorder, XV (October 23, 1847), 341.

xlii. Anonymous, "Death's Visit," Thomsonian Messenger, II (October, 1842), 25.

xliii. Anonymous, "Ode to Lobelia," Thomsonian Manual and Lady's Companion, V (June 15, 1839), 230.

xliv. Anonymous, "Lobelia," Philadelphia Botanic Sentinel and Thomsonian Medical Revolutionist, IV (July 25, 1839), 381.

xlv. Anonymous, "Lobelia," Thomsonian Manual, VII (March 1, 1841), 118.

xlvi. L.S., "Botanic Language," Thomsonian Messenger, II (June, 1843), 92.

xlvii. Miss M. Hull, "Lobelia," Botanico-Medical Recorder, XII (June 15, 1844), 252.

xlviii. E. E. Helm, "Untitled," Botanico-Medical Recorder, XIII (January 18, 1845), 83.

xlix. Anonymous, "Love's Complaint," The Botanic Medical Reformer and Home Physician, II (March, 1842), 160.

l. Travis Coppedge, "Untitled," Botanic Medical Reformer, II (January, 1842), 131.

li. Rhody Ann Ellis, "Untitled," Botanico-Medical Recorder, XIV (January 17, 1846), 58.

Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8

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Lloyd Library and Museum

Bringing Science, Art, and History to Life

Samuel Thomson and the Poetry of Botanic Medicine, 1810-1860

Chapter 3

The Botanic's Materia Medica

Samuel Thomson and the Poetry
of Botanic Medicine, 1810-1860