The Eclectic Doctor – Wooster Beach
Dec 14th, 2018 by bachmann
Wooster Beach (1794-1859), was an ardent opponent to the allopathic/heroic medical treatments developed in the 18th century, especially such remedies as blood-letting and purging with mercurials. Beach viewed these methods as both ineffective and likely detrimental to the patient. Instead, he was an advocate for keeping an open mind to treatment options and concentrating on using nature’s remedies, botanical solutions derived from Asian and Native American cultures. Beach and his followers were often referred to as “botanic,” “reformed,” or “American” physicians. Beach founded a school and method officially known as Eclectic Medicine. The system was a focused on the application of non-invasive practices through the use of botanical remedies or other healing therapies that were in harmony with the body’s natural curative properties. Eclectic Medicine eventually fizzled out by the mid 20th century under the pressure of AMA professional requirements and the established academic matriculation. However, its legacy is still visible in the more recent developments of holistic medicine.
In addition to establishing medical schools, Wooster Beach was the author of at least a dozen medical works, using publication as way to spread his message. Beach was a reformer and was willing to question conventional thinking in society and religious doctrines. Beach understood the power of publicity and became known nationally and internationally through his numerous writings, which he distributed free to many world leaders.
I have spared neither pains nor expense to acquire a knowledge of the practice of the most noted botanical physicians, retaining from each everything which I have proved by experience to be useful. I have not thought it beneath me to converse with root and Indian doctors, and every one who has professed to possess any valuable remedy, or any improved method of treating any disease. The hints and suggestions of experienced nurses and female practitioners have not escaped my notice. ” For,” says a former president of the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, ” there is not a maxim or remark of any experienced female or nurse which is not based upon sound pathological principles.” They are generally diligent observers of nature, and often point out her indications in a correct and masterly manner, which often disappoints the physician and the friends of the patient.
Sickness op the Stomach.—Some women are incessantly harassed by nausea, or sickness of the stomach, and that during the whole period of gestation or pregnancy. For this symptom the patient should take the following preparation : Take sal Eeratus, (bicarbonate of potash,) one tea-spoonful ; peppermint or spearmint tea, half a pint: mix; of this let a tablespoonful be taken occasionally, to be accompanied with the use of spearmint tea. Soda powders have also been found very serviceable to allay the irritability of the stomach in such cases; but the best preparation that I have ever found to relieve the sickness of the stomach attendant on pregnancy is, an infusion or tea made of the rose willow bark, (cornus sericea.) This has proved, in my hands, exceedingly valuable.
The above figure represents an improved portable shower bath, which may be constructed at a small expense, and placed in a bed-room or other place. Both the bath and the water may be drawn to the desired height by means of the cord or rope running over the pulleys, and fastened to the ceiling. The person taking the shower bath is placed within, surrounded partially or wholly by the curtains, when he pulls a wire or cord which inverts the vessel overhead containing the water, and lets it fall in copious streams over the whole body. There is a receiver at the bottom in which the patient stands, and which prevents any escape of the water. ” The warm, tepid, cold, or shower bath,” says Combe, ” as a means of preserving health, ought to be in as common use as a change of apparel, for it is equally a measure of necessary cleanliness.”
Now a corset, or tight lacing of any kind, fetters the freedom of those bones, destroys all the advantages of the joints and hinges which nature has provided, and thus lessens the room in which the lungs and heart move— besides depriving them of the aid, the impulse they derive from the motion of the bones and muscles. But all this is not half the mischief. The ribs, especially at the joints or hinges, being soft in young people, and the gristles much softer, are compressed by the lacing so as to approach nearer and nearer to the breast-bone in front; sometimes they lap over it and meet each other : nay, there are instances of tight lacing where the ribs have not only passed the sternum and met, but have overlapped each other ! Far short of that extreme, however, fatal effects may be expected.
- Description:
- Beach, W. The family physician, or, The reformed system of medicine on vegetable or botanical principles :being a compendium of the “American Practice” designed for all classes, in nine parts … : this work embraces the character, causes, symptoms, and treatment of the diseases of men, women, and children of all climates. New York : Published by the author, 1843.
- Persistent Link:
- http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:10246894
- Repository:
- Widener Library
- Institution:
- Harvard University