James Morison (physician)
Encyclopedia
James Morison was a British
quasi-physician who sold Vegetable Universal Pill
s, a would-be-cure-all.
Morison founded a pseudo-academic institution, British College of Health, to promote his cures and propagate for natural or vegetable healing with its pamphlets. One of them was Morisoniana, the collection of Morison's works that, in the first page, announced "the old medical science is completely wrong". The whole book was a long argument against "elitistic" physicians - everybody could be his own doctor. Morison claimed that his pills would "make every man his own doctor?. He claimed to have cured 300,000.
Morison called himself "hygeist" and "not a doctor". His main thesis was that "Blood
forms the Body - Air gives it Life?" and anything more specific was superstitious nonsense propagated by medical profession. Every body part served to contribute to the whole body what was just a covering to protect the blood. His pills served to purify the body and the blood from the harmful elements to originally pure stage "as God intended". He especially harked against physician's enthusiasm for bleeding
, dissection
and surgery
and that they concentrated on body parts, not the people (maybe preceding the idea of holistic medicine).
Patients should take as many pills as possible and the more they'd take, the sooner they got well. During one trial, a London grocer swore that he had taken 18,000 Universal Pills. Even "mothers will secure the certainty of sound and perfect children".
The pills were widely distributed in England and all over the world. The list of Morison's agents worldwide in the Morisoaiana was six pages long and included people from "spirit doctors" to housewives. Because they could not sell unlicensed drugs, they subverted the regulations by paying a licensing fee in the form of a stamp tax. In New York, patients spent $150,000 on the pills. One of the reasons was probably price - the poor could afford to buy lots of pills but could not afford a doctor's appointment.
Medical doctors in both sides of the Atlantic fought back the best they could. The medical journal Lancet
published reports of deaths due to Morison's pills, often due to excessive bowel movements. Still, when the authorities did act, they apprehended Morison's distributors, but did not him.
Morison was sued many times with mixed results. In one case, the court heard a professor of chemistry who had analyzed the pills; they contained mainly purgative gamboge
s, cream of tartar and aloe
s.
Morison died 1840. His supporters continued to sell his wares for some time afterwards.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
quasi-physician who sold Vegetable Universal Pill
Pill
Pill or The Pill may refer to:* Pill , referring to anything small and round for a specific dose of medicine. The term is used colloquially in several ways:** A tablet or capsule which replaced dosing via pill...
s, a would-be-cure-all.
Morison founded a pseudo-academic institution, British College of Health, to promote his cures and propagate for natural or vegetable healing with its pamphlets. One of them was Morisoniana, the collection of Morison's works that, in the first page, announced "the old medical science is completely wrong". The whole book was a long argument against "elitistic" physicians - everybody could be his own doctor. Morison claimed that his pills would "make every man his own doctor?. He claimed to have cured 300,000.
Morison called himself "hygeist" and "not a doctor". His main thesis was that "Blood
Blood
Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
forms the Body - Air gives it Life?" and anything more specific was superstitious nonsense propagated by medical profession. Every body part served to contribute to the whole body what was just a covering to protect the blood. His pills served to purify the body and the blood from the harmful elements to originally pure stage "as God intended". He especially harked against physician's enthusiasm for bleeding
Bloodletting
Bloodletting is the withdrawal of often little quantities of blood from a patient to cure or prevent illness and disease. Bloodletting was based on an ancient system of medicine in which blood and other bodily fluid were considered to be "humors" the proper balance of which maintained health...
, dissection
Dissection
Dissection is usually the process of disassembling and observing something to determine its internal structure and as an aid to discerning the functions and relationships of its components....
and surgery
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
and that they concentrated on body parts, not the people (maybe preceding the idea of holistic medicine).
Patients should take as many pills as possible and the more they'd take, the sooner they got well. During one trial, a London grocer swore that he had taken 18,000 Universal Pills. Even "mothers will secure the certainty of sound and perfect children".
The pills were widely distributed in England and all over the world. The list of Morison's agents worldwide in the Morisoaiana was six pages long and included people from "spirit doctors" to housewives. Because they could not sell unlicensed drugs, they subverted the regulations by paying a licensing fee in the form of a stamp tax. In New York, patients spent $150,000 on the pills. One of the reasons was probably price - the poor could afford to buy lots of pills but could not afford a doctor's appointment.
Medical doctors in both sides of the Atlantic fought back the best they could. The medical journal Lancet
The Lancet
The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal. It is one of the world's best known, oldest, and most respected general medical journals...
published reports of deaths due to Morison's pills, often due to excessive bowel movements. Still, when the authorities did act, they apprehended Morison's distributors, but did not him.
Morison was sued many times with mixed results. In one case, the court heard a professor of chemistry who had analyzed the pills; they contained mainly purgative gamboge
Gamboge
Gamboge is a partially transparent dark mustard yellow pigment.Other forms and spellings are: cambodia, cambogium, camboge, cambugium, gambaugium, gambogia, gambozia, gamboidea, gambogium, gumbouge, gambouge, gamboge, gambooge, gambugia...
s, cream of tartar and aloe
Aloe
Aloe , also Aloë, is a genus containing about 500 species of flowering succulent plants. The most common and well known of these is Aloe vera, or "true aloe"....
s.
Morison died 1840. His supporters continued to sell his wares for some time afterwards.