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physician. Thus, Thomsonianism had great appeal to the "common man" of Jacksonian America
who wanted to end elitism in the medical world. The patient no longer had to be "doctored to
death" or spend large sums of money for physicians' services; botanics were widely advertised
and dispensed both wholesale and retail.

Another group of irregulars of dissenters were the homeopaths, founded by Samuel Christian
Friedrich Hahnemann (1775-1843) who proclaimed that "like cures like." Hahnemann believed
that the drug causing symptoms of a certain sickness in a healthy person could also cure the same
illness in a sick person. For example, cinchona, if administered to a healthy person, caused the
symptoms of malaria; therefore, cinchona would cure these symptoms in a malarial victim. This
German physician also believed drugs were to be diluted since large doses of drugs hid their true
essence. Homeopathy never gained midwestern support until after the 1830s.

Self-help suggestions were also obtained through a variety of domestic medical books containing
both orthodox and botanic cures. The most popular home remedy books were William Buchan's
Domestic Medicine or Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases by Regimen and Simple
Medicines, originally published in Edinburgh in 1769, and John C. Gunn's Domestic Medicine or
Poor Man's Friend, published in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1834. Some of these books were
written for those people denied access to a physician, while others specifically attacked the
medical profession. A few authors, like Gunn, believed their manuals obviated the need for a
physician even in amputation cases.

Besides the advice given in these books, people had at their disposal a variety of packaged
nostrums or patent medicines that promised to cure anything from the common cold to scarlet
fever. Most were not "patented" cures but merely concocted by the person whose name was
attached. Over thirty-five patent medicines were available to the Indianapolis public, including
Gardner's Celebrated Vegetable Liniment for sprains, bruises, scalds, wounds, and ringworms;
Swaims Panacea; LaMott's Cough Drops; Burnham's Drops for cure of dyspepsia, influenza,
colds, pains, and bowel complaints; and Dr. Linsey's Vegetable Tonic and Efficacious Remedy
against fever and ague.

MEDICAL SERVICE
Despite criticism from sectarian practitioners and some authors of domestic medical books,
doctors and patients generally believed that everything possible was being done to combat
disease in the face of insurmountable odds. Usually, as the most educated man in the community,
the doctor received great respect from his patients. The number of patients was often indicative
of society's attitude toward the physician. Although not everyone in the community believed or
trusted orthodox medicine, doctor's account books indicate a fairly large reliance upon medical
treatment. Dr. Jabez Percival of Lawrenceburg visited about 120 different families in 1836.
Rossville's Dr. Lawrence A. Johnson had over 60 patients in eight months while another local
doctor reported 297 in 1840. A few people seemed to frequent the doctor for almost every
ailment. Louella Case of Patriot, Indiana, wrote:

We have a good, sensible, and gentlemanly physician next door to whom I now apply for every
headache that lasts over noon so you see I will not let sickness get hold again, and whose
medicine is such as I do not fear to take it, though not homeopathic.

Medicine of Jacksonian America Page 6 of 8