America's botanico-medical movements : vox populi

Author(s)

• Berman, Alex
• Flannery, Michael A.

Bibliographic Information

America's botanico-medical movements : vox populi

Alex Berman, Michael A. Flannery

（Pharmaceutical heritage : pharmaceutical care through history）

Pharmaceutical Products Press, c2001

• :pbk

Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-274) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Discover a fascinating lost episode of American pharmacological history! A CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book!The first comprehensive study of the American botanical movement, this fascinating volume recounts the rise and fall of nineteenth-century herbal medicine, the emergence of a second wave of interest arising from the counter-culture of the 1960s, and the recent herbal renaissance in the United States. In the 1840s the American medical establishment was under attack. Its opponents in the botanico-medical movement claimed that herbs and other natural cures were more effective and considerably safer than conventional medicine. They were right. Conventional medicine at the time consisted of "heroic" doses of mercury and antimony, supplemented by Spanish fly and croton oil, with copious bloodletting as a treatment recommended for everything from mania to miscarriage.By contrast, many of the herbal cures espoused by the new wave of medicine were helpful or at least not actively poisonous. Unfortunately, the botanico-medical movement harbored its share of quacks as well. The history recorded in America's Botanico--Medical Movements includes useless or dangerous treatments as well as petty politics of the worst kind: schisms, public denunciations, physical brawls (with weapons up to and including small cannons), and vicious invective worthy of Hunter Thompson. The favored treatments and pharmacopias of Thomsonians, Neo-Thomsonians, physio-medicalists, and eclectic practitioners are all discussed in detail.In addition to its fascinating narrative, America's Botanico--Medical Movements offers hard-to-find source documents, including: a catalog of nineteenth-century medicinal plants the constitutions of several medical societies explaining their doctrines a libelous editorial attacking members of one of the schismatic groups patented formulas for fever medicines, emetics, enema preparations, and many other cures advertisements listing vegetable medicines for sale America's Botanico-Medical Movements provides a scholarly yet entertaining view of the rise and fall of a typically American medical movement. Pharmacists, historians, physicians, and herbalists will find instructive parallels between the nineteenth-century conflicts and the present-day battles between alternative medicine and the medical establishment. This fascinating book represents nearly 50 years of scholarship on the subject and offers the only comprehensive look at medical botany in this country.

Table of Contents

Contents Foreword Preface The Significance of the Botanico-Medical Movements Historiographical Review--The Berman Legacy A Note on Methodology Acknowledgments Part I. Background of the Botanico-Medical Movement Chapter 1. The Therapeutic Factor The Colonial Roots of Botanicism The Heroic Approach--"A Strange Mishmash Indeed" Early Thomsonians and Eclectics The Decline of Heroic Therapy Chapter 2. The People's Medicine Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Influences The "Spirit of Radicalism" Standards of Medical Education The Public Views the Medical Profession The Medical Profession Views Itself Summary Chapter 3. Growth and Utilization of the Plant Materia Medica Toward a Plant Materia Medica of the United States Botanic Practitioners and the Plant Materia Medica Procter's Critique of Kost and King William H. Cook's Dispensatory Rafinesque: Unique and Controversial Medical Botanist Vox Populi! Part II. The Botanico-Medical Revolt, Decline, and Revival Chapter 4. The Thomsonians A Roster of Botanic Groups Samuel Thomson and His Followers Patents, Agencies, and Sale of Rights The Decline of Thomsonianism Attitude Toward Regular Pharmacy Manufacture, Sale, and Distribution of Remedies Thomson's "Six Numbers" and Other Remedies Conclusion Chapter 5. The Neo-Thomsonians The New Therapeutics Organizational Phases of Neo-Thomsonianism The Physio-Medical Medical Schools Pharmaceutical Resources of Neo-Thomsonianism Chapter 6. The Eclectics Wooster Beach (1794-1868) American Eclecticism: A Brief Historical Appraisal The Eclectic Impact on American Pharmacy, 1830-1869 The "Antiphlogistic" Period, 1830-1850 The "Concentrated Preparations," 1847 to the Civil War E. S. Wayne versus B. Keith and Company Parrish's Critique of the Concentrates Procter's Critique of King and the Eclectics Revisited The Shakers and Eclectic Pharmacy Conclusion of the Early Period A New Era Dawns--Specific Medication, 1869-1936 John Uri Lloyd (1849-1936) Interprofessional Relations Between American Eclecticism and American Pharmacy An Evaluation Chapter 7. Where Have All the Botanics Gone? The End, 1910 and After Causes for Decline--Science and Culture The Botanic Legacy The Current Botanicism Conclusion Appendixes Appendix 1. Materia Medica of Dr. Samuel Thomson's Guide and Narrative, Being a Correct Catalogue of all the Plants Recommended by Him, in His Practice of Medicine Appendix 2. Platform of Principles Adopted by the National Convention at Baltimore, October, 1852 Appendix 3. Union Platform of Principles (Subscribed to by the Middle States Reformed Medical Society and the Faculty of the Eclectic Medical College of Pennsylvania) Appendix 4. Platform, Constitution and By-Laws of the American Physio-Medical Association Appendix 5. Specification of a Patent Granted for "Fever Medicine." To SAMUEL THOMSON, of Surrey, County of Cheshire, New Hampshire, March 2, 1813 Appendix 6. An Attack Made by Morris Mattson Against the Alva Curtis Faction That Seceded During the Seventh National Thomsonian Convention in 1838 Appendix 7. Preamble and Constitution of the New York Thomsonian Medical Society Appendix 8. Advertisement in Samuel Emmons' Book, The Vegetable Family Physician, Boston, 1842 Appendix 9. Notice for an Alleged Libel Against the Impositions of Paine D. Badger, Boston, 1839 Appendix 10. Some Typical Remedies Compounded and Sold in Thomsonian Establishments RESOURCES A Note on Resources Notes Bibliography Index Reference Notes Included

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

• NCID: BA56027661
• ISBN:
  • 0789008998
  • 0789012359
• Country Code: us
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: eng
• Place of Publication: New York
• Pages/Volumes: xxiii, 289 p., [27] p. of plates
• Size: 22 cm
• Classification:
  • LCC : RV5.B47
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : Medicine, Botanic -- United States -- History
  • LCSH : Materia medica -- United States -- History
  • LCSH : Medicine, Herbal -- History -- United States
  • LCSH : History of Medicine, 19th Century -- United States
  • LCSH : History of Medicine, 20th Century -- United States
  • LCSH : Materia Medica -- United States
  • LCSH : Plants, Medicinal -- United States
• Parent Bibliography ID:
  • BA56027515