New guide to health, or, Botanic family physician : containing a complete system of practice, on a plan entirely new : with a description of the vegetables made use of, and directions for preparing and administering them, to cure disease : to which is prefixed, A narrative of the life and medical discoveries of the author / by Samuel Thomson.

  • Thomson, Samuel, 1769-1843.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: New guide to health, or, Botanic family physician : containing a complete system of practice, on a plan entirely new : with a description of the vegetables made use of, and directions for preparing and administering them, to cure disease : to which is prefixed, A narrative of the life and medical discoveries of the author / by Samuel Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    four days after our arrival, we were enabled to clear a small spot and to build us a camp to live in; we had to do our own cooking and washing; our fare was poor, and we had to work very hard; but we got along tolera- bly well till the 2d of December, when I had the mis- fortune to cut my ancle very badly, which accident pre- vented me from doing any labor for a long time, and almost deprived me of life. The wound was a very bad one, as it split the joint and laid the bone entirely bare, so as to lose the juices of my ancle joint to such a de- gree as to reduce my strength very much. My father sent for a Doctor Cole, of Jericho, who ordered sweet apple-tree bark to be boiled, and the wound to be wash- ed with it, which caused great pain, and made it much worse, so that in eight days my strength was almost ex- hausted; the flesh on my leg and thigh was mostly gone, and my life was despaired of; the doctor said he could do no more for me; my father was greatly alarmed about me, and said that if Dr. Kitteridge, of Walpole, could be sent for, he thought he might help me; but I told him it would be in vain to send for him, for I could not live so long as it would take to go after him, without some immediate assistance. He said he did not know what to do; I told him that there was one thing I had thought of which I wished to have tried, if it could be obtained, that I thought would help me. He anxious- ly inquired what it was, and I told him if he could find some comfrey root, I would try a plaster made of that and turpentine. He immediately went to an Md place that was settled before the war, and had the good luck to find some; a plaster was prepared by my direc- tions and applied to my ancle, the side opposite to the wound, and had the desired.effect; the juices stopped running in about six hours, and I was very much relieved; though the pain continued to be very severe and the inflammation was great; the juices settled between the skin and bone, and caused a suppura- tion, which broke in about three weeks; during which time I did not have three nights sleep, nor did I eat any thing. This accidental remedy was found through necessity, and was the first time the mother of in- vention held forth her hand to me. The success