except when they have added the last to their roast beef, or turtle soup? We fear they can scarcely believe us, credulous as they are; but still such is the mortifying fact. The whole process for the invention, patenting, selling, and killing off by means of these preparations, may be stated in a few words. Pick up a physician's recipe for 'antibilious pills,' 'stomachic bitters,' or 'diaphoretic powders'-or, if you should have been so fortunate as to be an apothecary's apprentice, or bookkeeper for a doctor, and have thus acquired the knowledge that will enable you to frame some compositions for yourself; in either case, apply to the patent office, and swear upon your voire dire, that you do verily believe, that you are the true inventor or discoverer of such compounds; whereupon a patent will issue, authorizing you to sell out for the benefit of the af flicted,' that of which the president knows about as much as Charles I. knew or possessed of the American continent, when he granted letters patent to Mr. Saybrook, for a slip of country from Long Island Sound to the Pacific ocean.

But let us turn more fully from the patentees to the patentors; and inquire by what authority they grant letters for the cure of diseases.

By the statute of 1793, it is provided that—

"When any person or persons, being a citizen or citizens of the United States, shall allege that he or they have invented any new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement on any art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, not known or used before the application, and .shall present a petition to the secretary of state signifying a desire of obtaining an exclusive property in the same, and praying that a patent may be granted therefor, it shall and may be lawful for the said secretary of state to cause letters patent to be made out, in the name of the United States, bearing teste by the president of the United States."-Ingersoll's Digest. p. 656.

Now not one word is here said by the law, about drugs or medicines, or cures, or quack doctors; and we seriously doubt, whether the framers of the law ever contemplated an extension of its exclusive privileges, to the preparation and administration of remedies for the sick. The phrase 'composition of mat ter' evidently refers to the arts. Such obviously is and should be its meaning, for what can be more preposterous than a pa

tent method of curing diseases; when not one of the whole catalogue, can be cured by the exhibition of any single medicine. A man would be entitled to the 'copy right,' a speciesof patent, for a chart of the Mississippi, by which a steam boat might be safely run from New Orleans to Louisville; but not a patent right for managing the boat on such a voyage. So, a chemist would be entitled to a patent for the discovery and preparation of Epsom salt or the sulphate of quina; but not for its exclusive application to the cure of diseases. If a man should discover the existence of aloes and rhubarb and ipecac, in plants which has not hitherto afforded them, he might fairly claim from the government the exclusive right to extract them from such plants. But these substances, by varying their proportions, may be formed into a hundred dif ferent kinds of pills, adapted in judicious hands, to a hundred different states of morbid action, though not necessarily a cure for any. How preposterous, then, to grant letters patent, for one of a series of compositions, that might be multiplied ad infinitum! But the patenting system, in its practical operation does not stop at this. A single composition will not do. This could not be offered as an infallible cure, more than some twenty or thirty incurable maladies. Let the patents then be multiplied to 'No. 6' or upwards; print your directions accordingly, and let the retailers visit the sick, daily, and drench them secundum artem, novem vel nigrum: Thus under the federal patent you come to practise physic, the. state laws to the contrary notwithstanding. Such is the origin of the Thomsonian or steam quackeries, which are the reigning epidemic of the day. That all who thus occupy themselves, do it in violation of the laws regulating the practice of medicine, and are obnoxious to their penalties, we have not a single doubt; but when our judges and legislators turn 'steam doctors,' and leave off butchering the constitution of the state, to butcher the constitutions of their fellow citizens, it would be credulous in the extreme, to believe that the statute against quackery is any thing more than a dead letter.

for

But it is time to enter on the review of the important works which lie before us.

Of these books, the first is by doctor Thomson, who has fa vored the public-(that is such part of them as have the good sense to pay twenty dollars for a patent right) with an engraved likeness of himself, which we commend to the amateurs. The first 30 pages are composed of interlarded. sketches, of the author's birth, labours and persecutions; of warnings to the good people against the 'regular faculty,' and of his system of physiology, pathology and therapeuticks. As most of the people are no doubt ignorant on all these important points, we shall make such extracts as the occasion seems to require.

"There are three things which have in a greater or less degree, called the attention of men, viz: Religion, Government, and Medicine. In ages past, these things were thought by millions to belong to three classes of men, Priests, Lawyers and Physicians. The Priests held the things of religion in their own hands, and brought the people to their terms; kept the scriptures in the dead languages, so that the common people could not read them. Those days of darkness are done away; the scriptures are translated into our own language, and each one is taught to read for himself. Government was once considered as belonging to a few, who thought themselves "born only to rule." The common people have now become acquainted with the great secret of government; and know that "all men are born free and equal," and that magistrates are put in authority, or out by the voice of the people, who choose them for their public ser

vants.

While these, and many other things are brought where "common people" can understand them; the knowledge and use of medicine, is in a great measure concealed in a dead language, and a sick man is often obliged to risk his life, where he would not risk a dollar; and should the apothecary or his apprentice make a mistake, the sick man cannot correct it, and thus is exposed to receive an instrument of death, instead of that which would restore him to health had he known good medicine.

"It may be alleged, (said Dr. Buchanan,) that laying medicine more open to mankind, would lessen their faith in it. This indeed would be the case with regard to some; but it would have a quite contrary effect upon others. I know many people have the utmost dread and horror of every thing prescribed by a physician, who will nevertheless, very readily take a medicine which they know, and whose qualities they are in some measure acquainted with."

"Nothing ever can, or will inspire mankind with an absolute confidence in physicians, but by their being open, frank, and undisguised in their behaviour."

"The most effectual way to destroy quackery in any art or science, is to diffuse the knowledge of it among mankind. Did physicians write their prescriptions in the common language of the coun

try, and explain their intentions to the patient, as far as he could understand them, it would enable them to know when the medicine had the desired effect; would inspire him with absolute confidence in the physician; and would make him dread and detest every man who pretended to cram a secret medicine or poison down his throat."

It is true that much of what is at this day called medicine, is deadly poison; and were people to know what is offered them of this kind, they would absolutely refuse ever to receive it as a medicine. This I have long seen and known to be true; and have labored hard for many years to convince them of the evils that attend such a mode of procedure with the sick; and have turned my attention to those medicines that grow in our own country, which the God of nature has prepared for the benefit of mankind. Long has a general medicine been sought for, and I am confident I have found such as are universally applicable in all cases of disease, and which may be used with safety and success, in the hands of the people..

After thirty years study and repeated successful trials of the medicinal vegetables of our country, in all the diseases incident to our climate; I can, with well grounded assurance, recommend my system of practice and medicines to the public, as salutary and efficacious."

It must be a matter of national pride, that if Germany produced a Luther and England a Bacon, America has sent up from its humblest walks, a self-taught and gifted Thomson, who has done for medicine what those eminent men achieved for religion and philosophy. But let us proceed:

"Possessing a body like other men I was led to enquire into the nature of the component parts of what man is made. I found him composed of the four elements-Earth, Water, Air and Fire. The earth and water I found were the solids; the air and fire the fluids. The two first I found to be the component parts; the two last kept him in motion. Heat, I found was life; and Cold, death. Each one who examines into it will find that all constitutions are alike. I shall now describe the fuel which continues the fire, or life of man. This is contained in two things-food and medicines; which are in harmony with each other; often grow in the same field to be used by the same people. People who are capable of raising their food and preparing the same, may as easily learn to collect and prepare all their medicines and administer the same, when it is needed. Our life depends on heat; food is the fuel that kindles and continues that heat. The digestive powers being correct, causes the food to consume; this con-> tinues the warmth of the body, by continually supporting the fire.

The stomach is the deposit from which the whole body is supported. The heat is maintained in the stomach by consuming the food; and all the body and limbs receive their proportion of nourishment and heat from that source, as the whole room is warmed by the fire which is consumed in the fire place. The greater the quantity of wood consumed in the fire place, the greater the heat in the room. So in the body; the more food, well digested, the more heat and support through the whole man. By constantly receiving food into the stomach, which is sometimes not suitable for the best nourishment, the stomach

becomes foul, so that the food is not well digested. This causes the body to lose its heat-then the appetite fails; the bones ache and the man is sick in every part of the whole frame."

On these momentous speculations we shall not hazard a single remark. Still less shall we risk a comment on the noble effusion of original genius which followeth:

"It has been acknowledged, even by those who are unfriendly to me and my practice, that my medicine may be good in some particular cases, but not in all. But this is an error. For there are but two great principles in the constitution of things, whether applied to the mind or body; the principle of life and the principle of death. That which contains the principle of life can never be tortured into an administration of death. If then a medicine is good in any case, it is because it is agreeable to nature, or this principle of life, the very opposite of disease. If it is agreeable in one case, it must be absolutely so in all.”

The following extract will no doubt impart much consolation and quiet of conscience, to some of the regular faculty. It would be ill-natured to assign the reason:

"It is true that the study of anatomy, or structure of the human body and of the whole animal economy, is pleasing and useful; nor is there any objection to this, however minute and critical, if it is not to the neglect of first great principles, and the weightier matters of knowledge. But it is no more necessary to mankind at large, to qualify them to administer relief from pain and sickness, than to a cook in preparing food to satisfy hunger and nourishing the body. There is one general cause of hunger and one general supply of food; one gen. eral cause of disease and one general remedy. One can be satisfied, and the other removed, by an infinite variety of articles, best adapted to those different purposes--That medicine, therefore, that will open obstruction, promote perspiration, and restore digestion, is suited to every patient, whatever form the disease assumes, and is universally applicable. And acute disorders, such as fevers, cholics, and dysentary, may be relieved thereby, in twenty-four or forty-eight hours, at most."

But we must come to particular diseases:

"No person ever yet died of a fever! for as death approaches, the patient grows cold, until in death, the last spark of heat is extinguished. This, the learned doctors cannot deny; and as this is true, they ought, in justice, to acknowledge that their whole train of depletive remedies, such as bleeding, blistering, physicing, starving, with all their refrigeratives; their opium, mercury, arsenic, antimony, nitre, &c. are so many deadly engines, combined with the disease, against the constitution and life of the patient. If cold, which is the commonly received opinion, (and which is true,) is the cause of fever, to repeatedly bleed the patient and administer mercury, opium, nitre,