SAMUEL ROBINSON: CHAMPION OF THE
THOMSONIAN SYSTEM
By PHILIP D. JORDAN, PH.D.
Thomsonian medicine, as a system of
medical botany, cre-
ated a decided stir both among
physicians and the laity during
the nineteenth century when so many
curious panaceas were being
sponsored by scientific groups and by
social organizations. The
Thomsonian school was represented in
Ohio, not only by scores
of physicians, but also by medical
journals dedicated to the dictum
that the "flora of our country will
yet so enlarge and establish
her dominion as to supercede the
necessity of all other remedies."
There is small need to describe in
general or in detail the influence
of "Dr." Samuel Thomson upon
the history of medicine in Ohio.
That has been done elsewhere.
From time to time, however, the medical
historian interested in
the annals of Thomsonianism in the
Buckeye State finds supple-
mentary evidence that, if properly interpreted,
sheds additional
light upon a particularly colorful
chapter in the history of science.
The following discussion presents
another fragment which may fit
into the smaller picture of the
Thomsonian system in Ohio as well
as into the larger frame of reference
of the narrative of medicine
in the United States during the first
half of the nineteenth century.
In June, 1829, two "steam
doctors" of Cincinnati, named
Willis and Wilson, inserted
advertisements in Queen City news-
papers announcing that a Samuel Robinson
had been engaged to
deliver a series of lectures upon the
rapidly-growing Thomsonian
system of botanic medicine.1 As both
Willis and Wilson had been
advertising botanic medicines imported
from the East for sale and
had been dispensing this herbal
pharmacopoeia both in wholesale
and in retail lots to the profession as
well as to the layman, it
1 Liberty Hall and Cincinnati
Gazette, June 11, 1829.
(263)
264 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
may be legitimately inferred that the
booking of Robinson was
calculated to serve a double purpose.
First, to stimulate interest
in Thomsonianism and second, by this
interest, to increase the sale
of botanic supplies. Such procedure, of
course, was not uncom-
mon in the day when medical schools
competed fiercely for candi-
dates, when body-snatching was the rule
rather than the exception,
and when a dozen or more scientific and
medical philosophies
were challenging the authenticity of one
another.
Robinson's first lecture was scheduled
for Saturday, June 27,
1829, at candlelight in Talbert's
schoolroom. Admission was not
exorbitant, but was high enough for the
times. A single lecture
cost the earnest seeker after health via
the Thomsonian method
the sum of 25¢; gentlemen and
ladies were charged $1.50 for
the entire course of fifteen talks, and
practitioners were forced to
pay $3.00.2 Talbert's school was just
one of about fifty private
institutions located in Cincinnati
during the late twenties and
stood on Fifth Street between Vine and
Race streets.3 Although
the school was mentioned briefly in a
description of Cincinnati,
there was no mention that it was used at
times for private lectures.4
Apparently, however, Robinson, backed by
the two steam
doctors, delivered his lectures
according to schedule, and pre-
sumably the early residents of
Cincinnati came to hear him, al-
though there seems to be no testimony to
indicate the number who
actually attended either single lectures
or the entire course. Neither
is there evidence to show how local
physicians of other schools
of thought responded to this series of
addresses. It might be
relatively safe to assume that some
residents turned out either
from curiosity or from illness to hear
Robinson, and that a few
physicians might also have been present.
Such conclusions, how-
ever, are mere conjecture.
There is no doubt that illness ravaged
the Queen City popu-
lation and that then, as now, the laity
hurried from one school
of medicine to another in the hope of
securing relief from either
real or imaginary pain. Daniel Drake
pointed out in an early
2 Cincinnati Emporium, June 22, 1829.
3 Charles T. Greve, Centennial
History of Cincinnati (Chicago, 1904), 1, 545.
4 B. Drake and E. D. Mansfield, Cincinnati
in 1826 (Cincinnati. 1827), 43.
OHIO MEDICAL
HISTORY, 1835-58 265
work the diseases to which the Miami
Valley resident fell prey.
Although Drake expressed the belief that
the Miami country was
generally healthy, he also said that
Cincinnati and environs offered
a variety of typical frontier diseases,
including "pulmonary con-
sumption," cholera, croup, and
bilious and typhus fevers.5 He also
described the typical training of a
back-country physician during
the early years of the century.6 A
case, for these reasons, could be
made to support the hypothesis that
probably the prevalent interest
in health among the people of a frontier
community and the
curiosity of at least some physicians
resulted in a fair attendance
at Robinson's series of addresses.
There is, however, another bit of
evidence that seems to sup-
port the hypothesis that not only were
the residents of Cincinnati
and surrounding country more than mildly
interested in Robinson's
remarks, but that pioneers throughout a
rather large area of Ohio
exhibited some curiosity.
On September 17, 1829, Horton Howard, a
Columbus printer
and publisher, attested that he had just
published Robinson's lec-
tures as delivered in Cincinnati. The
volume, an octavo running
to 199 pages, was entitled A Course
of Fifteen Lectures, on Med-
ical Botany.7 It seems impossible to determine today either how
many copies of this work were printed or
how well it was re-
ceived by the practitioner and the
public. That it must have
attracted more than ordinary attention
is evidenced by the fact
that at least six editions were
published.8 It is entirely possible
that when all the volumes in the
long-delayed Ohio Imprints
Inventory are published, other copies--and perhaps editions--will
be located in the State and elsewhere.
It is worthy of note, how-
ever, that Sabin in his monumental
directory does not list the
volume.9 Even if other copies should be
located, Robinson's
series of lectures still would be
considered a rarity.
5 Daniel Drake, Natural and
Statistical View, or Picture of Cincinnati and the
Miami Country (Cincinnati, 1815), 179-86.
6 Daniel Drake, Discourses (Cincinnati,
1852), 52-6.
7 A Course of Fifteen Lectures, on Medical Botany,
Denominated Thomson's New
Theory of Medical Practice; in Which
the Various Theories that Have Preceded it
Are Reviewed and Compared; Delivered
in Cincinnati, Ohio [nine lines of
verse],
Columbus: Printed and Published by
Horton Howard. 1829. Covington Collection
(Miami University Library, Oxford,
Ohio).
8 Surgeon-General's Office, Index-Catalogue
of the Library (Washington, 1891),
XII, 265; ibid. (Washington,
1909), 2 Ser., XIV, 660.
9 Joseph Sabin, Dictionary of Books
Relating to America (New York, 1868-1936).
266
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
After the first edition of 1828, a
second was published in Bos-
ton by J. Howe in 1830. In the same year
still another edition
was brought out in Columbus. Five years
later, J. Pike and
Company of Columbus printed another of
205 pages and, at the
same time, a 216-page variant was
produced in Boston by J. Q.
Adams. In 1834, that is between the time
that Howe in Boston
printed an edition and that Pike and
Adams brought out their
editions dated 1835, Howe in Boston
published still another
variant edition. To sum up: the original
edition was printed in
Columbus in 1829; this was followed by
Columbus and Boston
editions in 1830 which, in turn, were
followed by another Boston
edition in 1834; in 1835, still another
edition was printed in Co-
lumbus and another in Boston. As far as
can now be determined
Robinson produced only one other work
devoted to medicine. In
1832 he wrote and had published in Cincinnati a
thirteen-page
pamphlet entitled A Lecture
Introductory to a Course on the
Science of Life.
The fact that Robinson delivered his
talks in June in Cincin-
nati and published them in September in
Columbus, leads to some
interesting speculations, particularly
as few biographical details
now are available. Who was Samuel
Robinson? Was he a physi-
cian in the sense that he had been
tutored in the time-honored
manner or had attended a medical college
of his day? Where was
the place of his birth and when was he
born? Was he one of
the steady stream of emigrants who
trekked into the Northwest
Territory during the early years of the
nineteenth century? Or,
was he a native Buckeye who had been
impressed by the new
system of botanic healing? Perhaps he
was only a traveling lec-
turer who earned his living, as did so
many glib talkers of his
day, by snaring the gullible public with
honeyed words? Did he
settle in Ohio, or did he follow the
frontier as it pressed west-
ward into the trans-Mississippi region?
Was he the author of
other medical volumes? Why did he speak
in Cincinnati and
publish in Columbus? When and where did
he die?
The majority of these questions can not
now be answered
with assurance, but the Cincinnati
directories offer a few tangible
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 267
clues. In 1828 and in 1831, a Samuel
Robinson was listed, al-
though he was not characterized as a
physician. In 1829, a
Samuel Robinson, described as a
"lecturer" on historical subjects,
was boarding at D. Davenport's. In 1831,
a Samuel Robinson,
"lecturer on philosophy and
history," was boarding at W. Porter's.
In 1834, an unidentified Samuel was
listed. Before and after
these dates there are no possible
entries.10 Until more intensive
research is completed there seems little
hope of knowing more.
Fortunately, however, the lectures
themselves shed some light
upon the author. Robinson, in his
preface to the reader, said that
a "combination of causes"
induced him to examine the system of
medical botany and to deliver his series
of lectures. He described
himself as "but a pioneer in a path
unknown" whose only purpose
was to aid in relieving the maladies of
the human race by direct-
ing the sick to a "mode of practice
safe and salutary, at once
within the reach of their attainments
and pecuniary resources."11
In addition, Robinson consistently
speaks of physicians as if he
were not one of them.12 Indeed,
Robinson does not describe him-
self upon the title page of his volume
as a physician as he most
assuredly would have done had he the
slightest claim to the title.
Then again, he apparently thought it
desirable or perhaps neces-
sary to append a sort of bibliography to
his book wherein he listed
some seventy-six authors, ranging from
the Greeks to the mod-
erns, whom he had consulted in the
preparation of his lectures.13
It seems a safe assumption that the
average frontier physician
would have been unfamiliar with many of
these citations. The
evidence that Robinson was more learned
than the average physi-
cian is indicated again in the text. His
lectures abound with his-
torical, philosophical and classical
allusions and seem devoid of the
scientific language and medical
vocabulary of even the average
doctor of his day. Robinson spoke glibly
enough of mercury,
arsenic, corrosive sublimate, white
vitrol, antimony, tartar emetic,
iron and opium, but a careful
examination of the text lends cre-
dence to the belief that he spoke of
them as a foreigner rather
10 Eleanor S. Wilby to Edgar W. King, Cincinnati, March 16, 1942.
11 Samuel Robinson, A
Course of Fifteen Lectures, iii.
12 Ibid., iv.
13 Ibid., [200].
268
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
than as a scientist who had actually
used an elementary materia
medica.14 One can almost observe him hard at work paraphrasing
and rearranging the words of the
authorities whom he laboriously
consulted. Then again, his knowledge of
even the rudimentary
anatomy of his day aids to build the
case against his being a
practitioner. There is still further
evidence. Although Robinson,
from time to time, quotes case
histories, he never speaks of a case
that he treated and only once does he
mention a case that came
under his own observation.15 This exception occurs when Robin-
son is speaking of surgery and says he
saw a patient perish be-
cause the operator was inattentive,
lacked a firm hand, "a fixed
eye and a determined soul."16 As
it was not uncommon for a
layman to be present or even in
attendance in the crude surgical
theater of the frontier home during
early days, it is entirely
conceivable that Robinson did witness
such an event, but even
here it is clearly understood that he
was not the operator, and it
seems doubtful that his presence was any
more than as an in-
terested witness. The preponderance of
evidence, then, seems to
indicate that Robinson was not a medical
man.
If Robinson was not a physician, what
was he? There is no
doubt that he was highly educated,
extremely well read and that
he possessed a literary style which,
although florid, was equal, if
not superior, to that of the common man.
His book abounds with
literary, philosophical and metaphysical
allusions. At times, his
prose is tinctured with religion, but
there is little internal evidence
to indicate that he was a clergyman. No
evidence at present
exists to show that he knew anything
about the law except in an
academic sense and he does not write as
a schoolmaster although,
at times, his language is obtuse enough
to be that of a professor.
It is obvious that he was not engaged in
trade and commerce.
The process of elimination, then, seems
to leave only one field of
activity.
Robinson probably was the historical and
philosophical lec-
turer who was boarding in Cincinnati in
1829
and 1831. As the
14 Ibid., 116.
15
Ibid., 118-9.
16 Ibid., 66.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY,
1835-58 269
directories prior to 1828 list no Samuel
Robinson, it seems safe
to assume that he arrived in the Queen
City about 1827 or early
in 1828. Again, it seems fairly safe to
assume that he came from
the East and that he had been
well-trained in the standard classical
curriculum of his day. As the Cincinnati
directory did not list
Robinson in 1839, it seems a logical
inference that the lecturer
left Cincinnati sometime after he
delivered his series of lectures
in June, 1829, and moved to Columbus
where he had his book
published in September. He may have
remained in Columbus
for several months and might even have
gone elsewhere, but it
appears that he was again in Cincinnati
in 1831, and perhaps in
1832. What happened to him after that
must be the subject
of further research.
Robinson's lectures added nothing really
new to a knowledge
of what constituted the Thomsonian
system of botanic medicine.
When summing up the three important
results of what Robinson
believed to be the essence of the
Thomsonian system, he said
briefly that "it removes
obstructions, restores the appetite, and
invigorates the powers of life."17
He continued to describe the
effects of botanic medication upon the
patient as like a sound and
refreshing sleep after which the sick
man "rises restored and
strengthened, like a giant refreshed by
wine!"
That Robinson's lectures met opposition
in some quarters,
probably among physicians alien to the
Thomsonian school, can
not be doubted. The author himself hints
broadly at criticism
when he writes: "We are sometimes
forced into opposition with
our best friends; it is extremely
painful. I was often, since the
commencement of these Lectures, on the
very point of abandoning
them forever, and wished I had never
begun the subject; but as
I progressed, and witnessed the salutary
results of this new prac-
tice, I did verily believe that I was
serving God and my country,
in striving to diffuse a knowledge of
its doctrines."18
It is entirely possible, although
perhaps not probable, that
Queen City opposition to Robinson's
championing of the Thom-
sonian system prompted him to forsake
Cincinnati and travel to
17 Ibid., 193.
18 Ibid.
270 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Columbus until he thought it safe once
again to return and to
resume his occupation as an historical
and philosophical lecturer.
Up to this time, however, there is no
evidence that Samuel Robin-
son ever again spoke or wrote upon
medical practice nor, it seems,
ever again took up cudgels for botanic
medicine. His course of
lectures, however, offer an interesting
and valuable, although
minor, insight into the chapter of
Thomsonianism in Ohio.