Portal:Complementary and Alternative Medicine/Selected biography/5

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Samuel Thomson (born 1769-02-09, died 1843-10-05 in Boston, Massachusetts) was an American herbalist and the founder of the "Thomsonian System" of medicine. As naturopathic physician and author Stan Malstrom has stated. "Samuel Thomson has probably contributed more to the science of herbalogy than any other individual in the history of the United States," although he had no formal medical training.^[1] His influence was such that a substantial portion of American families used his medicine and it went on to influence more professional medicine. ^[2] At a time when so-called "regular doctors" used mercury, arsenic, strychnine, antimony, salt peter, opium and other poisonous materials to induce vomiting or purgation, botanical remedies like lobelia which were cathartic but without toxicity had an attraction.