THE

Thomsonian Recorder,

OR

IMPARTIAL ADVOCATE OF BOTANIC MEDICINE:

AND THE PRINCIPLES WHICH GOVERN THE

THOMSONIAN PRACTICE.

Published by JARVIS PIKE & Co., Proprietors.

THOMAS HERSEY, Senior Editor.

The bare intelligence and memory of philosophical propositions, without an ability to demonstrate
them, is not philosophy, but history only. Where such propositions, however, are determinate
and true, they may be usefully applied in practice, even by those who are ignorant of their demon-

stration.-LEONARD.

To understand the cause and nature of life and death, or of warmth and motion, of cold and inaction,
it is necessary to advert to general principles, and the analogies of nature.-S. THOMSON.

VOL. II.

COLUMBUS, (OHIO.)

Printed at the Thomsonian Botanic Office, for the Proprietors,

By JONATHAN PHILLIPS,

1834.

30505

PREFACE.

In closing the Second Volume of a Periodical devoted to the Great Botanic Reformation, into which we have been initiated, through the instrumentality of Dr. Samuel Thomson, we must renew our testimony to that debt of general gratitude due to the great founder of a new and marvellous System of Botanic Practice, and also to his wisdom, prudence and perseverance, in establishing a National Botanic Convention-an Institution which promises to sustain and give perpetuity to his important discoveries.

We feel bound, by all the ties of an high and honorable consideration, publicly to announce our most grateful acknowledgments to an enlightened community, who appear to have taken a deep and unusual interest in the prosperity of the cause in which we have been so laboriously engaged. Those gentlemen by whose efforts our subscription list has so widely extended, many of whom have contributed liberally the labors of their pens, to enrich our columns, will please accept of our cordial assurance that we highly appreciate the assistance they have afforded us, and that we respectfully solicit their continuance of similar favors through all our subsequent labors. It has been by such contributions, that public confidence in the New Botanic System has been more firmly established, and ourselves have been encouraged to renew our exertions.

It is truly a reproach to the Regular Profession, that they have been so extensively and bitterly engaged, in many instances, in an unreasonable and ungentlemanly opposition. But having TRUTH for our motto, we have been able to keep the field, and defy the shoutings of the warriors. Facts have been multiplied sufficient to baffle the ingenuity and confound the evil devices of our enemies. We heartily congratulate the great Botanic Brotherhood, on the extraordinary accession of talents, wealth and influence to the Thomsonian ranks. Prejudice and superstition have been compelled to yield before the resistless power of the congregated testimony which confirms the high and distinguished reputation of the Thomsonian System.

The patronage and literary contributions from so many distinguished and honorable individuals, impose obligations that serve to rouse our zeal to render our services more and more acceptable. To collect, compose and arrange our materials, has not been an idle business. Our best remuneration is found in the hearty approbation of so many intelligent and judicious persons, as have been pleased gratuitously to applaud our course. Our correspondence has been greatly enlarged the current year, and many things valuable are in reserve for future publication, that have been unavoidably crowded out of the present volume.

In prosecuting the publication of the Recorder, we have endeavored to illustrate and confirm the fundamental principles that distinguish and govern the Thomsonian mode of practice.

There has been an immense accumulation of facts in relation to the Practice, which has scattered a flood of light on the Thomsonian philosophy, and contributed largely to the more extensive confirmation of the public mind in the sovereign efficacy of Thomsonian remedies. The present volume, like the former, is furnished with a copious index, and, by referring to this table of contents, which the index literally comprises, the enquiring reader can readily turn to some article where he may find an abundant solution of all the usual difficulties that may be thrown in his way.

In all things we would wish to direct public attention to plain matters of fact, rather than to the most plausible theory that can be suggested unsustained by such demonstration. The uniform success of the Thomsonian Practice, in all the multiform variety of symptoms that attend a state of disease, evinces the correctness of