AFeb^y,Pih9iom'}        The  American  Materia  Medica.  85 
practitioners,  in  that  his  publication,  concerning  medicine,  was  pre- 
sented to  a  non-professional  audience.  Thus,  Wooster  Beach  an- 
tagonized both  sections  we  have  been  considering.  It  was  at  once 
seen  that  he  had  invaded  the  field  of  Thomson,  but  not  in  any  wise 
as  his  disciple,  and  that  he  had  also  irrevocably  violated  the  ethics 
as  well  as  the  dogmas  of  the  dominant  school.  The  Thomsonians 
turned  upon  Beach  and  his  followers,  abusing  them  even  more 
viciously  than  they  did  their  old  enemies,  the  "  bleeders."  The 
regulars  raised  their  battle-axes.  Between  the  two  stood  Dr. 
Wooster  Beach,  the  prey  of  both.  We  have  seen  .Thomson  to  be 
a  man  of  indomitable  will,  determined  and  fearless  and  most  fertile 
in  resources,  though  illiterate.    Let  us  now  consider  kia  rival. 
Dr.  Wooster  Beach  was  conversant -with  the  literature  of -the  past. 
Barton's  "  Collections,'!  Rafinesque's  "  Materia  Medica  Americana,!' 
Schoepf's  "  Materia  Medica,"  the  writings  of  Dunglison,  Tully,  and 
Zollickoffer,  the  Pharmacopoeias  of  the  United  States  of  1820  and 
1830,  the  Proceedings  of  the  different  medical  societies,  these  and 
such  as  these  were  to  him  familiar.  With  the  ideal  of  reform  but 
with  high  regard  for  others'  efforts,  he  unhesitatingly  selected  from 
all  these  sources  that  which  he  considered  best,  his  object  being  the 
kindly  treatment  of  disease  and  a  replacing  of  powerful  remedies 
by  those  less  energetic,  whenever  such  were  capable  of  serving 
equally  as  well.  He  believed  in  a  reduction  of  energetic  doses  to 
such  an  extent  that  poisonous  drugs,  if  used,  should  produce  no  toxic 
or  harmful  effect,  and  in  the  modifying  of  compounds  in  which 
poisons  took  a  part,  so  that  if  the  disease  was  not  cured  110  dominat- 
ing constituents  should  thereby  cause  fatal  results. 
The  motto  adopted  by  Beach  and  his  followers,  "  Vires  V  it  ales 
Sustinete "  (Sustain  the  Vital  Forces),  made  it  necessary  that 
these  objects  should  be  accomplished.  It  was  the  opposite  of  that 
of  both  his  antagonists,  for  both  depleted.  Thus  Beach,  the  an- 
tithesis of  Thomson,  and  yet  his  colaborer,  became  the  founder  of 
an  American  system  in  medicine,  antagonistic  to  that  of  Thomson. 
His  followers  believed  in  education,  they  believed  in  colleges,  they 
believed  in  surgery  and  the  sciences,  and  in  rationally  employing 
whatever  could  be  properly  utilized,  from  whatever  source  it  came, 
whilst  the  methods  of  Thomson  were  those  of  teaching  the  people 
directly,  through  travelling  agents  and  by  person.  Antagonistic 
were  these  two,  in  all  points  touching  systematic  medical  education. 
The  name  "  eclectic  "  was  applied  to  the  followers  of  Beach,  who 
