title: Thomsonian medical books and the culture of dissent in Upper Canada.
abstract: Adherents to American lay healer Samuel Thomson's system of medicine have been viewed in Canada primarily as antagonists of mainstream medicine. Their publishing activities, however, reveal a wide reform impulse. As this discussion illustrates by considering publishers, printers, editors, and compilers of Thomsonian books in Upper Canada, most had links--real and temperamental--to Reform politics and to dissenting Protestant beliefs, especially Methodism. Their publications may thus be viewed as vehicles for social change in a British colony having a strong Tory alliance between church and state.
authors.affiliation: Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto, Ontario.
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Connor
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000266:history*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D018156:Journalism, Medical / Q000266:history; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000266:history*; D008517:Phytotherapy / Q000266:history*; D011057:Politics; D011327:Printing / Q000266:history; D011643:Publishing / Q000266:history*; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D014481:United States