‘He is quite ignorant of physiology,’ wrote Quincy to Webb1 in 1853, ‘and has no belief in hygiene, or in anything pertaining to the body except quack medicines. That he has survived all he has taken is proof of an excellent constitution. . . . You remember his puff of Dr. C——'s Anti-Scrofulous Panacea, . . . in which he said that he felt it “permeating the whole system in the most delightful manner.” “Permeating the system!” said Hervey Weston, with the malice of a regular practitioner; “why, it was the first time he had taken a glass of grog, and [he] did n't know how good it was!” —some sort of spirits being the basis of all these sort of quackeries.’The want of physiological instruction combined with my father's acquired distrust of authority, creeds, and schools to make him a thorough eclectic in matters medical. His first experiment was with Thomsonian remedies, and for these he retained a fondness to the last, and regarded their inventor as a benefactor and a martyr to2 innovation.3 I fancy that the pungent or at least positive taste of some of these gave him an idea of their efficacy. He thought himself a poor subject for homoeopathy, whereas my mother was noticeably susceptible to this treatment, which was also provided for the children from the time of making Dr. Wesselhoeft's acquaintance.4 Hence they were, to their lasting gratitude, saved from the nauseous doses of the old school, and knew not the meaning of blue pill or castor oil. The hydropathic treatment was agreeable to my father, and was applied by him to his children in case of cold or fever; but it had the disadvantage of sometimes being awkward for family use. For himself, he bought a great variety of patent medicines of whose potency the advertised testimonials5 (owing to his spontaneous trust in human nature) had persuaded him; and often, as would appear, rather
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First and last he certainly took a good deal of medicine, largely by his own prescription.
1 Ms. Jan. 13.
2 Ms. Mar. 4, 1879, W. L. G. to W. P. G.
3 See Thomson's own account of his being imprisoned Nov. 10, 1809, on a charge of murder brought by a rival practitioner of the old school. The place of confinement was the Newburyport jail, the condition of which was loathsome in the extreme, and the whole management barbarous.
4 Ante, 3.82.
5 Ante, 1.37.
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