and was reprinted in London in 1752, and in New York in 1757. It met with favorable reviews in America, England and France. Dr. Thacher ("American Medical Biography," 1828, vol. i, p. 66, refers to the "Discourse" in the following manner: "This production was highly applauded both in America and Europe, as at that period (1750) the practice of inoculation was on the decline. The author states that inoculation was so unsuccessful at Philadelphia that many were disposed to abandon the practice; wherefore, upon the suggestion of the 1392'd Aphorism of Boerhaave, he (Thomson) was led to prepare his patients by a composition of antimony and mercury, which he had constantly employed for twelve years, with uninterrupted success."
Drs. Redman (q.v.) and Kearsley (q.v.) of Philadelphia, and others, first opposed the method, but later it was universally adopted in the colonies and was favorably received in England. It soon became known as the American method for inoculation and was introduced as routine procedure in the first inoculating hospitals which were established near Boston, Massachusetts, in February, 1764. Dr. William Barnett was called from Philadelphia to supervise the work because of his reputation there as a successful inoculator. He used Dr. Thomson's method, but was not generous enough to admit the fact. (See address, Quinan, Maryland Medical Journal, 1883, vol. x, p. 115). In England, the method was highly recommended by Huxham, Woodward and others.
Woodville in "History of the Inoculation of the Smallpox in Great Britain" (1796, p. 341) quotes from Dr. Gale's "Dissertation on the inoculation of the Smallpox in America" as follows:
"Before the use of mercury and antimony in preparing persons for inoculation one out of one hundred of the inoculated died, but since only one out of eight hundred," and (Ibid., p. 342), by last accounts 3,000 had recovered from inoculation in the new method by the use of mercury and antimony and five only had died, viz.: children under five years of age." Dr. Gale and others conceded Dr. Thomson to be the most successful inoculator in America.
Thomson married the widow of James Warddrop, of Virginia. She was Lettice Lee, daughter of Philip Lee, of Virginia, a great- granddaughter of Richard Lee, the emigrant. After Thomson's death she married Colonel Joseph Sims. She had issue only by Dr. Thomson, Mary Lee and Alice Corbin.
Dr. Adam Thomson died in New York City, September 18, 1767. The following notice of his death appeared three days later in the New York Mercury:
"On Friday morning early, died here, Adam Thomson, Esq., a physician of distinguished abilities in his profession, well versed in polite literature, and of unblemished honor and integrity as a gentleman."
Thomson, Samuel (1769-1843).
Associated with a system called the Thomsonian and as having implicit faith in steam and in lobelia as curative agents, Thomson should not by any means be deemed a quack if the term means a vain and tricky practitioner, for he told all he knew in as plain a manner as possible and acquired much knowledge of hitherto unknown virtues of plants. He experimented on himself, then published the results, leaving others to form their own opinions.
He was born on February 9, 1769, in Alstead, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, the son of John and Hannah Cobb Thomson. He began early as an herbalist, for, discovering by self experimentation vi-hen four years old the emetic properties of lobelia, he amused him- self inducing boy friends to chew it, and made further researches as a boy by associating with an old woman herbalist, the only "doctor" in that wild region. When sixteen he offered himself as a pupil to a "root doctor," one Fuller of Westmoreland, but owing to deficient education was refused. Later he bought a
