The Midwest pioneer, his ills, cures, & doctors - University Library ...

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idea, I imagine, that the hired girl pours dish-water down
a rat-hole, that of filling a vacuum and killing time."^
Although this remark referred to the 1880's, it well
describes conditions a generation earlier.
In addition to the
regular members of the profession, seventeen different
kinds of "doctors" were named as practicing: eclectic,
botanic, homeopathic, uroscopian, old Thomsonian, hydropathic,
electric, faith, spiritual, herbalist, electropathic,
vitapathic, botanico-medical, physio-medical, physioelectric,
hygeo-therapeutic, and "traveling."^ Several others
might be added, but this inventory will serve as a
working list. More than three quacks to every regular were
reported in Wisconsin, and early Michigan's high death rate
was said to result from their presence. Indiana was adjudged
"a sink-hole in medical practice"; Ohio was condemned as
a "paradise of the incompetent."
Most prominent and influential among the irregular
medical sects were the Thomsonians. Thomsonianism derived
largely from aboriginal root and herb healing; in
turn it became the point of departure for many minor
groups and cults.
Once a man has been labeled as a leader, a certain number
of human beings will view with admiration; if he arise
from the masses they will add awe and reverence. Such a
man was Samuel Thomson, originator of the "steam system"
of Botanic medicine, which swept the country, particularly
the West, in the 1830's and 1840's.
Thomson was born in 1769 at Alstead, New Hampshire.
In modern parlance, he would be termed a "natural," for
at the tender age of three, while driving the cows and
minding the geese, he might have been found, he says, "very
curious to know the names of all the herbs which I saw
growing, and what they were good for; and to satisfy my
curiosity was constantly making enquiries of those persons
that I happened to be with, for that purpose. All the information
I
thus obtained, or by my own observation, I
carefully laid up in my memory, and never forgot." Of
particular persistence was his early unpleasant contact with