eld was that of administering medical relief to the
afflicted.

FRIDAY, January 1, 1836. He says: "I have long had doubts in
regard to the curative efficacy and health-restoring virtue of the
regularly established course of medical practice of the present day.
Active depletion of the body, by copious blood-letting, blistering,
drastic cathartics and starving, is, to my mind, not the best way to
eradicate disease and restore the diseased human body to its normal
state. I am well aware that every age has had its own way of treating
diseases, and every age has thought its own way the best; but fashion
and custom have, no doubt, had quite a controling power in this as in
other things; and 'the fashion of the world passeth away,' because
there is little or nothing of substantial good in it."

SAMUEL THOMPSON.

"Dr. Samuel Thompson, of Vermont, is introducing a new system of
medical practice which I believe to be more in accordance with the
laws of life and health than any I know of. His maxim, applied to
disease, is: 'REMOVE THE CAUSE, AND THE EFFECT WILL CEASE.'

"Every diseased condition of the body is the effect of some cause.
This cause being removed, the disease, either simple or complex, must
yield to the restorative forces of nature. But to diminish the
activity of these forces, by copious depletion of the body, to be
followed by a regimen so severe as to withhold, almost absolutely,
the nourishment and support nature demands, is, in my view, to say
the least, irrational."

Had Brother Kline penned these words fifty years later in the century,
they could not be more in harmony with the popular theory of medical
science as it is taught in the schools of the present day. They are
almost prophetic. He goes on: "I am therefore determined to try the
new way of treating disease, and see what I can do with it. I feel
sure it will do no harm, even if it does but little or no good."

His subsequent success as a physician for many years proves that he
was not mistaken in the conclusions at which he arrived preparatory to
his entering the field of medical practice.

He procured his remedies in their virgin purity from the mountains,
meadows and woods, either in person, with hoe in hand, or through
agents whom he employed for the work. Lobelia, Boneset, Pleurisy-Root,
Black-Cohosh, Blue-Cohosh, Lady's-slipper, Red Raspberry, Ginseng,
Spignet, Black-Root, Seneca-Snake-Root, Gentian, May-Apple, Golden-Rod,
and many other