The name commonly applied to the American School Physicians, a distinct group of Medical Doctors who trained in their own schools, and were licensed as M.D.s. They specialized in low-tech, nonhospital rural health care...the famous country doc with a black bag. Besides standard medical procedures, they used a more wholistic approach to disease, sometimes terming themselves Vitalists. They were the most sophisticated of the many movements that arose in response to the almost maniac medical practices of the first half of the 19th century, especially in the United States, where, as always, medicine was philosophically invasive and heroic (often a wonderment to visiting physicians from Paris or London) The Eclectics flourished and grew out of the settlement and usurpment of the Ohio and Missouri Valleys, with a sparse population and no organized hospitals, relied on methods that were not invasive (unless emergencies dictated), used therapies that relied on strengthening natural resistance (no hospitals, just someone’s sod hut) and made particular care to explain and prepare the family or neighbors for THEIR part in caring for the patient...long after the physician left. Scudder, John King, Felter, Ellingwood and Clyce Wilson were some of the more famous Eclectics, and John Uri Lloyd was the most famous pharmacist/pharmacologist within the profession. The Eclectic movement lasted from 1840 to 1937...when the only remaining medical school, unwilling to change to a Flexner Curriculum (as had the other survivors) closed its doors in Cincinnati. Long operating in a tradition of radical, populist and antiestablishment philosophy, they were unable to get any public funding, were unable to ally themselves with full universities (and share faculty and funding), and were unable to expand their teaching facilities with only a base of tuition income. They lost the licensing wars and are no more. Their tradition was exported by practitioners in Germany and Mexico, and the German Eclectics, transformed by that peculiar culture into wild-eyed Nature Curists such as Ehret, Mausert and Lust, started the nucleus for the Naturopathic movement in Yellow Springs, Ohio (next-door to Goddard College) in 1947, helping to found the initial form of the National College of Naturopathic Medicine...10 years after, and 50 miles away from the last Eclectic Medical School. Without benefit of Tanna Leaves or Charleton Heston and an armful of pickled mummy-organs, Eclectecism was reborn into the body of Naturopathy. See: THOMSONIANS
That school of medical philosophy and therapy founded by the American messianic nature therapist Samuel Thomson (b. 1769). Thomson’s great axiom was, “Heat is life, and cold is death.” He lived in New England, which explains some of this. He and the later Thomsonians made great use of vomiting, sweating, and purging to achieve these ends...crude by present standards, but saner than standard medicine of the times (mercury, lead, bleeding, etc.). The Thomsonians split vehemently from the early Eclectics before the Civil War; the latter, larger group preferred to train professional physicians as M.D.s. The first group disavowed any overt medical training (“physicking”) although the small medical sect of Physio-Medicalists, with several medical schools and some east-coast physician converts, used Thomsonian precepts within an otherwise orthodox armamentarium.. Their training, however, became less rigorous and more charismatic in time, and, unlike the Eclectic Medical Schools that, with one exception, chose to change to an A.M.Asupported curriculum to stay in business (thereby selling their souls), the Physio-Medicalist schools were too radical and erratic, and faded into history as their graduates were left, finally, with only Michigan allowing them to practice. Many of the practices of Jethro Kloss (Back to Eden) and John Christopher are neo-Thomsonian, and much of what still goes on in the old guard of alternative therapy is what Susun Weed calls the “Heroic Tradition” (no compliment intended). Rule of thumb: If you see Lobelia and Capsicum together in a formula, along with recommendations for colonics, it’s probably something Sam Thomson did first.... thomsonian medicine
Loss of ability to move a limb or the whole body. Flaccid paralysis (with wasting of muscle) is due to lesion of a spinal or peripheral nerve. Spastic paralysis is due to “stroke” in the brain. Diagnosis: wasting follows damage to a surface nerve. In damage of the spinal cord there will be no wasting but loss of use of muscles.
Treatment. Depends upon the cause. Though cure is impossible, some herbs tend to prevent stiffening, and ameliorate symptoms. Others may assist function as in paralysis ileus (paralysis of muscles of the intestinal walls) where Ispaghula seeds provide bulk and promote peristalsis. To strengthen the nervous system: Oats. Circulatory stimulants and nerve restoratives are indicated. Nettle tea is helpful. Limbs have regained temporary sensation on being beaten with the herb; others have lost rheumatism. Virginia Snake root had its reputation among early American Eclectics.
For a mild or temporary condition:– Teas: Nettles. Yerbe Mate.
Other alternatives:– Tablets/capsules. Prickly Ash. Black Cohosh.
Formula. Equal parts: Gentian, Ginger, Ginkgo.
Dose – Liquid extracts: 1-2 teaspoons. Tinctures: 1-3 teaspoons. Powders: 750mg (three 00 capsules or half a teaspoon). Thrice daily.
Cystitis: to relieve: Bearberry or Cranesbill tea.
Practitioner. Tincture Nux vomica: 10 drops in 100ml water. Dose: one teaspoon every two hours (temporary).
Thomson School. 1 teaspoon Cayenne pepper mixed with 2 teaspoons Lobelia herb or seeds. Half a teaspoon to each cup boiling water; infuse 15 minutes. Half a cup 2-3 times daily with honey.
Diet. Lacto-vegetarian.
Supplements: B-complex, B6, B12, E. Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc.
For other paralytic conditions see: MOTOR NEURONE DISEASE, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS, MYASTHENIA GRAVIS, POLYMYELITIS, STROKE, SYRINGOMYELIA.
Treatment of severe nerve conditions should be supervised by neurologists and practitioners whose training prepares them to recognise serious illness and to integrate herbal and supplementary intervention safely into the treatment plan. ... paralysis
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