86  The  American  Materia  Medica. 
claimed  the  privilege  of  selecting  from  any  source  whatever,  as  they 
saw  proper,  whatever  could'  be  properly  utilized.  They  made  their 
code  of  ethics  the  "  Golden  Rule  "  only.  They  did  not  recognize 
the  authority  of  the  regular  profession  as  concerns  doses  or  medi- 
cines. Thus,  they  too  were  "  irregulars  "  in  the  eyes  of  the  legalized 
part  of  the  medical  profession  and  needs  be  suppressed. 
But  yet  the  widely  divergent  Thomsonians  or  botanies  (for 
Thomson  eschewed  minerals  altogether)  were,  strangely  enough, 
confounded  by  most  legalized  practitioners  with  the  eclectics,  whose 
precepts  were  merely  those  of  greater  kindness  to  the  sick  and  a 
closer  study  of  the  American  materia  medica  than  was  practised  by 
either  the  Thomsonians  or  the  regulars.  'The  eclectics,  as  was  their 
duty,  even  more  forcibly  and  systematically  than  did  the  Thomson- 
ians, fought  bitterly  the  bleeding,  blistering,  mercurial  purging  and 
salivating  methods  still  prevalent  in  the  mother  school,  but  not  less 
earnestly  did  they  oppose  the  sweating,  the  vomiting,  and  the  heroic, 
enervating  "  courses  "  of  the  Thomsonians.  But  not  even  the 
eclectics  of  that  early  day  could  altogether  escape  the  prevalent 
theories  concerning  disease  and  disease  names,  as  well  as  many 
questionable  methods,  inculcated  from  abroad.  Slow,  indeed,  is 
the  process  mankind  travels  from  established  error  to  intellectual 
freedom !  Aiming  to  parallel,  in  a  more  kindly  way,  the  processes 
of  both  the  regular  school  and  the  Thomsonians,  the  eclectics  yet 
believed  in  treating  diseases  by  name,  in  the  use  of  violent  cathartics, 
and,  as  is  known,  in  this  direction  they  (King)  introduced  the 
"  resin  of  podophyllum  "  (1835),  subsequently  known  as  the  "  eclec- 
tic calomel."  They  also  believed  in  counter-irritants,  producing  thus 
running  sores,  for  the  purpose  of  relieving  underlying  affections,  and 
in  this  direction  devised  their  "  compound  tar  plaster."  to  be  used 
instead  of  old  school  applications  of  croton  oil,  cantharides,  and 
tartar  emetic.  Whoever  has  seen  its  effect  will  not  question  its 
severity.  They  believed  somewhat  in  emesis,  and  for  this  purpose 
devised  "  compound  tincture  of  sanguinaria,"  and  "  compound  lo- 
belia powder,"  utilizing  in  the^first  a  drug  introduced  by  Barton,  and 
in  the  other  the  banner  drug  of  Thomsonianism.  In  view  of  such 
facts  as  these,  as  perhaps  seems  reasonable,  the  adherents  of  the 
eclectic  school,  coming  in  the  height  of  the  warfare  between  Thom- 
son and  his  antagonists  and  at  the  most  vicious  period  of  that  con- 
flict, were  viewed  as  renegades  by  the  old-school  physicians,  and 
by  the  Thomsonians  as  pirates.    Between  1840  and  i860  this  trian- 
