Page:Quackery Unmasked.djvu/211

Rh spirit. They formed associations in various parts of the United States, which were called "Friendly Botanic Societies," and each of these sent delegates annually to a general Botanic Convention. This grand consociation met each year at some appointed place. In 1825 it met in Boston. For a time Thomson and his disciples supposed that the death warrant of legitimate medicine was sealed. Never did a class of quacks boast of success more loudly or more positively, or struggle against opposition with more determined heroism. It is supposed that there were at one time in the United States between one and two thousand Thomsonian or Botanic practitioners, besides those which had Family Rights for their own use. Itinerant practitioners spread Thomson's papers, medicines, and principles, in the South, over the far West, and even carried them into Canada. Sometimes men of wealth, learning and influence favored the scheme, and many clergymen and other literary men gave it their support.

Perhaps this strange delusion had reached its