LOOK AND SEE what an eminent physician of the regular order says below:—The science of medicine is a barbarous jargon, and the effects of our medicine upon the human system are in the highest degree uncertain, except indeed that they have already destroyed more lives than war, pestilence and famine combined.—Dr. Good.
The scrap above, as you may see, is from great Dr. Good,
He's great because great truth he tells, as every wise man should
The faculty if virtuous men we'll pay them just respect
If true (and 'tis what Good has said) their drugs should all neglect. J. P.
INDIAN CURE!
For Scofula, Salt-Rheum and various other eruptive humors which infect and ruin the blood, (originating from various causes—such as intemperance and bad habits of the present, and foregoing generations, poisonous Medicines or vaccinnations from bad matter, &c.) being a decoction of Roots and Herbs, accompanied by a box of Indian Vegetable Pills, from both of which are excluded all deadly vegetable and mineral poisons, and if used according to the directions, is warranted to cleanse the blood and eventually restore the patient to health.
Also AMERICAN INDIAN VEGETABLE PILLS.
Being anti-dyspeptic and anti-bilious in their nature, they are warranted to execute their office without causing pain to the patient—but will relieve it and answer all purposes where physic is required. Take them, try them, prove them, and it is confidently anticipated that you like myself and thousands of others who have proved them, will exclaim from the heart, blessed be the Inventor and especially his inspirer for so much real good, bestowed on us and our neighbor. Also
AMERICAN INDIAN SALVE.
Or Ointment, (if a little Spirits Turpentine or Alcohol may be added,) which is warranted to heal any sore where the patients blood is free from humors, should this not be the case, the Indian Medicine which will speedily cleanse and purify the system, will be found together with the medicines mentioned above and below for sale by J. POWERS, North 4th st., No. 37, Troy.
Also a variety of American roots and herbs in their natural state, and likewise mixed according to the Indian plan and mode of doctoring, designed for the cure of various diseases, especially Cancers, Salt-Rheum, Scroffula, Venereal, Gravel, Diabetis, Colds, Coughs, Consumption, Cramp and Convulsion Fits, Male and Female weaknesses—a very speedy and natural Indian cure for Summer complaints, Dysentary and Bloody-flux, together with Indian dry mixtures, Tinctures, Decoctions, &c., for the cure of various other diseases too numerous to mention.
Should the efficacy of the above Medicine be questioned by interested opponents, numerous testimonials in its favor can be given by those who have tested its merits, myself for one have used the Indian Medicines only in my family for the last ten years with complete success, have cured different kinds of fevers, coughs, colds, inflamations, diarrhea, summer complaints, &c. Should any one attempt to fix a blot on the above, by calling it Quack Medicine, the answer is, that all reformers in Physic, Law, Morals, or Divinity, in their day were denounced as Quacks, and Heretics, by those holding reins of fashion and power. Therefore would it not be wise for this generation to try the simple Medicines of our gardens and forests, which experience, reason, genius and common sense shall dictate, and hold fast what is proved to be good. Being myself poor, I shall endeavor to remember that class and do them all that good my circumstances and abilities will allow.
If you from me this Medicine receive,
And say in truth, you've followed my direction,
And also show it had not you relieved,
I'll pay you back your money every fraction.
Take exercise in sweet pure morning air,
Be strictly temperate if good health you prize,
When sick, the Indian Roots and Herbe prepare,
And shun all sorts of poisons in disguise.
If Rats-bane, Wolfs-bane, Mercury and quinine,
Kill vermin, dogs and cats and even swine,
Why then should man need war to thin the specie,
While fashion from such nostrums won't release ye.
It would by heart rejoice I'm sure,
Could I proscribe to you a cure,
That would both warm your flesh and bones,
Ah! sooth your pains and stop your groans,
Thus spoil the Undertaker's trade.
Daily Troy Budget. August 10, 1843
Dr. John Mason Good (1764-1827) doesn’t seem to have said "The science of medicine is a barbarous jargon, and the effects of our medicine upon the human system are in the highest degree uncertain, except indeed that they have already destroyed more lives than war, pestilence and famine combined."
"The following editorial address, may serve as a specimen of the ability with which the Lobelian is to be conducted. […]“It is an Abercrombie who says, ‘We own that our system is defective, and the action of our remedies in the highest degree uncertain,’ except, indeed, that they have already destroyed more lives than war, pestilence and famine. […]
“It is a Good, who terms it a ‘barbarous jargon.”
Botanico-Medical Recorder 6(18). June 2, 1838: 279. http://books.google.com/books?id=RQqgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA279
It’s apparent in the above 1838 text that “except, indeed, that they have already destroyed more lives than war, pestilence and famine” was written by an advocate of “Thomsonian Medicine” in an 1838 issue of the Lobelian and Rhode Island Medical Review (which may have ceased publication that same year) and was not written by John Abercrombie (1780-1844): it’s not in quotation marks. Where it is that Dr. Abercrombie wrote “We own that our system is defective, and the action of our remedies in the highest degree uncertain,” if the words are even his, I do not know.
Good’s words, the ones attributed to Abercrombie, and the Lobelian’s merged:
"Dr. Good […] the author of a Medical Work entitled, ‘Good’s Study of Medicine,’ […] says, ’The science of medicine is a barbarous jargon, and the effects of our medicine on the human system are, in the highest degree, uncertain, except, indeed, that they have already destroyed more lives than war, pestilence and famine combined. […] Dr. Abercrombie says, ‘We own our system defective, and the action of our remedies in the highest degree uncertain.’”“Defence Against Allopathic Abuse.” New England Botanic Medical and Surgical Journal 1(14). July 16, 1847. 225.
Good’s “barbarous jargon” was taken grossly out of context. He didn’t call the science of medicine a “barbarous jargon,” but was objecting to a lack of “common principle” for nomenclature, an issue he felt could be resolved.
"The main object of the present attempt is not so much to interfere with any existing system of nosology, as to fill up a niche that still seems unoccupied in the great gallery of physiological study. It is that, if it could be accomplished, of connecting the science of diseases more closely with the sister branches of natural knowledge ; of giving it a more assimilated and family character; a more obvious and intelligible classification; an arrangement more simple in its principle, but more comprehensive in its compass ; of correcting its nomenclature, where correction is called for, and can be accomplished without coercion ; of following its distinctive terms as well upwards to their original sources as downwards to their synonyms in the chief languages of the present day ; and thus, not merely of producing a manual for the student, or a text-book for the lecturer, but a book that may stand on the same shelf with, and form a sort of appendix to, our most popular systems of natural history ; and may at the same time be perused by the classical scholar without disgust at that barbarous jargon, with which the language of medicine is so perpetually tesselated - and which every one has complained of for ages, though no one has hitherto endeavoured to remedy it. […]"What has been done for chemistry, botany, and natural history, ought long ago to have been done for medicine ; whose vocabulary is a jumble of terms derived from almost every language, and every system, whether dead or living, founded upon no common principle, and equally destitute of precision and simplicity. It consists of Hebrew and Arabic terms ; Greek and Latin ; French, Italian, Spanish, German, English, and even Indian, African and Mexican; often barbarously and illegitimately compounded, doubtful in derivation, cacophonous to the ear, and, for want of a determinate signification, formed, as one would think, rather for the purpose of suppressing ideas than of communicating them. It is not necessary to detail the cause of this confusion. It has manifestly arisen, in a very considerable degree, from those political and geographical changes that have marked the history of medicine in its different epochs, in conjunction with that succession of theories, which, very nearly from the time of Hippocrates, has been perpetually unfolding to the world ; almost every one of which, if characterized by nothing else, has at least taken care to mark its existence by a new coinage of words.”
Good, John Mason. The Study of Medicine: With a Physiological System of Nosology. Vol. 5. 4th American Ed. Philadelphia, PA: H.C. Carey et al., 1825. vii, xxxvi. https://archive.org/details/63410410RX5.nlm.nih.gov
Josiah Powers (1806-1882) might be interred in Marlboro, Vermont, where is wife is. His brother and business partner Lyman Powers (1802-1868) is in Troy's Old Mount Ida Cemetery:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=116927210
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