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

184
convention address he summarized the work of the various
conventions, spoke of their difficulties, expressed his displeasure
with some of its followers, then concluded: "With
these considerations and with no other object than the permanent
good of us all, so far as my System of Practice can
contribute to that end, I ask that this Convention may be
forever dissolved." The convention did not adopt this recommendation,
but divided. One group, headed by Dr.
Curtis, formed the "Independent Thomsonian Botanic Society,"
and the old guard organized itself as the "United
States Thomsonian Society." Thereafter each organization,
of course, regarded itself as the true society and branded
the other as the heretic.
The United States Thomsonian Society held its first
meeting in New York in 1840, but the attendance was
small. Only the state society of Delaware expressed its loyalty
to the old system. Though Dr. Thomson tried to keep
the organization intact, the heyday of his power had passed.
Neither he nor his sons — he died in 1843 — were able to
hold the old following together. For a while after Thomson's
death three main groups of Botanies were apparent:
the True Thomsonians, the Physiomedicals, and the Reformed
Botanies, or Eclectics. The True Thomsonians,
realizing that the name of their founder no longer carried
the magic of earlier years, soon dropped his name from
their societies and called themselves simply Botanies. Many
of their better members deserted to one of the other factions;
by the time of the Civil War the Botanies, as an
organization, had practically disappeared.
Meanwhile Dr. Curtis with his Independent Thomsonians
had been assuming the domineering characteristics
which he had so deplored in Dr. Thomson. He tried to
channel his followers' beliefs into a definite system which
he called Physiomedicalism. Whatever the differences between
this brand of Botanic practice and the older ones,
they must have existed largely in the mind of Curtis. Like
Thomson, he believed heat to be "the manifestation for
life, the cause of fever, and cold an effect or obstruction,