THE

PRACTICE OF MEDICINE

ON

THOMSONIAN PRINCIPLES,

ADAPTED AS WELL TO THE

USE OF FAMILIES AS TO THAT OF THE PRACTITIONER.

CONTAINING

A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DR. THOMSON,

PROPOSITIONS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THOMSONIANISM; A BRIEF
HISTORY OF THE SYMPTOMS, PECULIARITIES, AND GENERAL COURSE OF
DISEASE IN ITS DIFFERENT FORMS AND VARIETIES;

WITH

PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS FOR

ADMINISTERING THE THOMSONIAN MEDICINES,

INCLUDING THE

VARIOUS METHODS OF ADMINISTERING VAPOUR BATHS, EMETICS, &C.

AND

A Materia Medica, adapted to the Work.

BY J. W. COMFORT, M. D.

FOURTH EDITION.

PHILADELPHIA:

LINDSAY & BLAKISTON.

1853.

Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by

J. W. COMFORT, M. D.,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

STEREOTYPED BY J. FAGAN.

PRINTED BY C. SHERMAN,

TO THE READER.

THIS work is presented to the public as a Practical Guide in the treatment of disease, in accordance with the principles of medical science discovered and promulgated to the world by Samuel Thomson.

The author does not claim to have made improvements upon' the fundamental principles of the Thomsonian system of practice. Daily observation affords confirmatory evidence that this system is based upon correct principles; and that the remedial means therein employed, are adapted to the cure of every variety of disease that is curable by means of medical treatment. What I have aimed at in the following pages, besides a description of the symptoms and peculiarities of the principal varieties of disease as detailed by medical authors, has been to point out that treatment best adapted to the different forms and stages of disease under various conditions of the system.

In the directions for conducting the treatment, repetitions in relation to preparing medicines have been introduced, which may appear superfluous or unnecessary; but, designed as a plain family guide, it was deemed right to pursue this plan, that the work might be better adapted to answer the purpose intended.

The Practice of Medicine, based upon correct principles, needs not the "garb of mystery, too often employed to conceal imperfection, and to give to false knowledge the appearance of science." Samuel Thomson, influenced by benevolent motives, made known his medical discoveries and system of practice, without a semblance of disguise. Taught in the school of Nature, he imparted