Humans in Nature: Native American Medicine

By Jennifer Mueller

When Europeans came across the New World, they were presented with an entire new system of healing: new plants and new people who had devised new methods to use them. Some of the plants were familiar. Willow, for instance, grows in the Old World and the New and is the basis of the modern aspirin. Others, completely unknown, would soon appear in the settlers' medicine chests, so to speak, alongside their old favorites from home.

While many Native American families would have common plants for common ailments at hand, medicine was often spiritual for more complex ailments, appeasing the bad spirits that were making a person sick, as well as providing the physical remedy. Among the Chippewa of Minnesota, for instance, the medicine men would not just pass on the remedies to anyone, worried that they would not treat the plants with proper respect. Plants were often not even given names to keep them properly revered. Just as a hunter would present an offering of tobacco for the animal they killed to feed them, so too would the medicine men offer tobacco to the plant being used to heal them. Bloodletting, the scourge of Old World medicine, had its place as well, though perhaps it would be said that it was used with more medical purpose than letting out evil humors--when a fall had created too much blood in an area or a sprain had caused the area to swell substantially, for instance. Amputation was also practiced, with nothing more than dried wild cherry bark applied to the wound, often without incident of infection.

If a man was spitting up blood, they made a tea of the spike moss flowers. A tea made of fireweed roots and its inner stem would relieve constipation. These were just a few of the remedies the Blackfoot employed, but every people had their own indigenous plants. It's interesting to note, though, that while the plants stayed in the same in a general region, each tribe would give it its own use as well.

Sage, for instance, a widely available plant across much of the western part of the US, was commonly used for ceremonial purposes. They purified the body before ceremonies or used it as incense, not to mention as protection against evil influences. But among the medicinal uses, you come across much more variety. The Dakota used it for stomach ailments. The Lakota made a tea to remedy constipation, inability to urinate, difficult childbirth, and menstrual irregularity. The Cheyenne would use crushed leaves as snuff for sinus attacks, nosebleed and headache. The Crow used a salve of sage on sores, as a tea for eczema and a deodorant. The Kiowa made a tea to reduce phlegm and lung complaints, as well as stomach complaints. The Mesquakies used it as a poultice for sores and to treat tonsillitis and sore throat. The Omaha used to to bathe in and as a powder to inhale for nosebleeds. I could go on with as many uses as there are tribes. Sage is, of course, common on many a spice rack now, but modern medicine has found that its use as a wash for the skin, helping to break a fever, coughing, and sore throats. Many of the varied reasons that it was used for have turned out to be true.

What the Pipsissiwa once used for kidney stones, bladder inflammations and as an astringent for eye washes is now a secret ingredient in certain soft drinks, causing it to disappear in some areas. Take a look sometime at the vitamin and supplement section and you'll find all sorts of plants that were once carried in a medicine mans pouch.

Bibliography
How Indians use Wild Plants for Food, Medicine, and Crafts by Frances Densmore
Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie by Kelly Kindscher
Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region by Melvin Gilmore
Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West by Gregory Tilford
Indian Herbology of Noth America by Alma Hutchens

Maladies & Treatments: Asylum

By Eliza Tucker

Mental health has been a concern since ancient times, with accounts of insanity reaching as far back as 630-562 BC. In an inscription apparently written by King Nebuchadnezzar II and translated by British archaeologist Sir Henry Rawlinson, the king admitted heavy depression:

"For four years the seat of my kingdom in the city...did not rejoice my heart. In all my dominions I did not build a high place of power; the precious treasures of my kingdom I did not lay out in the worship of Merodach, my lord, the joy of my heart. In Babylon the city of my sovereignty and the seat of my empire I did not sing his praises, and I did not furnish his altars; nor did I clear out the canals."

The famous Greek philosophers studied the mind continually. In works such as De Anima, De Sensu, De Memoria, and Parva Naturalia, Aristotle touches on ideas that would later be examined extensively by psychologists.

In the 8th century, Muslim physicians began to build psychiatric care facilities in which to observe, regulate, and treat patients with various ailments. Dream interpretation was a major focus for early Islamic psychologists, as the religion put a heavy emphasis on understanding the subconscious.

Bethlem Royal Hospital in South London began admitting society's outcasts and mentally ill in 1403, but by the early 1500s there were only 31 patients. Bethlem became widely known as a terrible near-prison in which the violent inmates were manacled and chained to walls or floors. Eventually known as Bedlam, Bethlem became one of the first freak shows upon its move to Moorfields. "Well" folks paid a penny to watch the exploits and lifestyles of the less fortunate--except on the first Tuesday of each month, when admission was, charitably, free.

In 1700, Bedlam's inmates were first called "patients," and in the "curable" and "incurable" wards were opened in the early part of the 1700s.

For Westerners, the lack of Christian values was to blame for all manner of insanity. Demon possession and immorality were considered viable causes for physical deformities, cognitive deficiencies and mental impairments, resulting in society's desire to separate the insane from the well. In the late 1700s, France's Bicêtre Hospital became a hotbed of reform.

Philippe Pinel, physician of the infirmaries at Bicêtre, and Jean-Baptiste Pussin, "governor" of Bicêtre came together to assess the 200 men in the mentally ill ward. Using an "empirical approach" of humane treatment, Pinel prohibited the use of painful "treatments" such as bleeding and purging, and instead visited each patient frequently, capturing each with conversation instead of manacles.

In 1834, the Vermont Asylum for the Insane opened in Brattleboro, Vermont, in the United States. Instead of treating patients like criminals, the Vermont Asylum offered sanitary living conditions and eventually expanded into work programs, exercise and recreation, specialized education, and spiritual guidance. In the mid-1800s, more asylums were founded and in the United States and Australia, even the architecture was specially designed to aid in the treatment of the insane.

The public received a widely-received, if particularly tame, literary look into the madhouse when The New York World published "Ten Days in a Madhouse", a serial by 24-year-old reporter Nelly Bly. In the introduction of the Ian L. Munro publication of the story, Miss Bly writes:

I am happy to be able to state as a result of my visit to the asylum and the exposures consequent thereon, that the City of New York has appropriated $1,000,000 more per annum than ever before for the care of the insane. So I have at least the satisfaction of knowing that the poor unfortunates will be the better cared for because of my work.

This is running long because I hate to feel like I'm reducing a history of a topic so universal and important, but here's hoping these quick snapshots will turn out!

Thursday Thirteen: A Little Drink Can Kill You

By Delia DeLeest

The Volstead Act, aka Prohibition, did not prohibit the prescribing of intoxicating liquor for medicinal purposes. Problem was, bootleg booze was just as likely to put you in the hospital as it was to cure what ailed you. Today's Thursday 13 involves both.

1. Doctors were allowed to withdraw six quarts of whiskey and five gallons of beer for laboratory purposes.

2. They were not allowed to prescribe more than one pint of whiskey or one quart of wine per person every ten days.

3. There was no friend like your doctor when you suffered from 'chronic thirstitis.'

Of course, if you couldn't get a doctor to prescribe government grade liquor for you, you could always run the risk of drinking bootleg hooch--which was a tad bit riskier.

4. Liquor corroded the zinc tops of mason jars. The resulting zinc salts created acute gastritis, which could be fatal.

5. The 'heads' or first shots of moonshine were high in aldehydes--very strong acids.

6. The 'tails' or dregs of moonshine were high in fusel oil, which could cause nausea, vomiting or even a comatose state.

7. Many times the alcohol was not properly aged, resulting in 'raw spirits' which contained numerous poisons.

8. Some bootleg was made with denatured alcohol, a non-beverage liquor made for industrial usage.

9. Poisons were sometimes added to homemade liquor to give it a little 'kick' (more like 'kick the bucket' if you ask me).

10. Sometimes wood alcohol would be used by mistake, causing victims to die a much faster, more violent death than those who drank either denatured alcohol or corrupt moonshine.

11. The aftermath of bad bootleg liquor could cause delirium so severe it resulted in stupefaction followed by uncontrolled frenzy.

12. Some people had been known to commit suicide from the agitation resulting from bad liquor.

13. And if the booze itself didn't kill you, you always ran the risk of getting caught in the middle of the gangland wars over bootlegging territory.

Sounds like it was easier and safer just to stay sober, doesn't it?

Maladies & Treatments: Madness in a Bottle

By Jennifer Linforth

They were all dead.

His pregnant wife had a bullet hole in her head and four year old Rose was killed when curiosity roused her from her bed. Two year old Blanche was murdered where she lay sleeping, but found in her father's arms outside the house. Her father, Jean, tried to kill himself once he realized what he did to his family. He botched the attempt. The father turned murderer would be tried and convicted and the murders blamed on a tiny green fairy.

Jean, a Swiss peasant, was known for being an alcoholic of mammoth proportions. It did not matter that the man was a constant raging drunk. The only thing to blame was the devil in a bottle slowly consuming all who drank it.

Labeled as dangerously addictive and psychoactive it is appropriate that the odd green drink called absinthe has a colorful history. Absinthism was the condition coined for addicts of the 'green fairy' and by the late 19th century absinthe would be considered the worst alcoholic drink ever known to man. But was it worse then other types of alcohol?

It was rumored absinthe gave a drinker clarity of thought—which is why many writers and artists consumed it. The belief was an element in the wormwood (which absinthe is based from) blocked the effects of drunkenness until its neurotoxins slowly effected the brain causing hallucinations and madness. The finger of blame was pointed at this new poison for the general ruin of society in France and in particular for insanity. Thujone, an element in absinthe, was blamed for convulsions and wild mood swings.

Statistics of the time showed a drinker was 246 times more likely to become insane from absinthe than other forms of liquor. By 1880 and into the 90's (the absinthe decade), the temperance warnings went out--'absinthe rend fou' (absinthe drives you mad). Insane asylums filled with victims of the drink. Some who consumed it claimed an amazing high--one that involved seeing a variance in colors, perhaps why so many artists drank it. But what goes up, must come down...

Absinthe became popular in France after 1840 when soldiers introduced it to their favorite cafes. Soon it became fashionable among the bourgeoisie, so much so, cafes were crowed during 'l'heure vert--the green hour. Jean loved the green hour. He carried in his pocket a flat slotted spoon. Lips quivering in anticipation, he would perch the spoon on the top of his glass, place a sugar cube atop it and slowly add cold water to his liquid green candy. His favorite brand was by far the Pontarlier. No matter the brand, all absinthe was gaining a reputation with the upwardly mobile class of poets, artists and soldiers.

Absinthe is derived from wormwood. Wormwood use dates back to ancient Greece when it was used to aid rheumatism, menstrual pains and jaundice. Prior to its popularity as a social drink, absinthe was believed to prevent fever and kill bacteria in water. It was Pierre Ordinaire, a French doctor, who is believed to have first used absinthe as a cure-all remedy. Cheaper than wine, it was the most popular drink from 1876-1900. How could something so beneficial suddenly be considered the deliverer of delirium?

It was our murderer Jean, last name Lanfray, and his famous Absinthe Murder of 1905 that put the final nail the coffin of absinthe. It was banned in his homeland of Switzerland by 1910--in France in 1915. It took a military order to do so. The wormwood oil and the convulsions it caused in laboratory animals is what began the bad reputation--far before Jean got so stinking drunk he lost his ability to think straight.

Today we know much more about the myths regarding absinthe and each person can pass their own judgment on the drink. It is more likely that lesser quality brands of absinthe with poor adulterants caused more harm then the thujone itself. By drinking inferior brands of absinthe, lovers had to consume more of it to achieve the same highs from the quality absinthe. And what happens to the mind on high levels of alcohol? But in the late 19th century there was sin lurking behind sips of absinthe. And while I have done some crazy things in order for realism in my novels (I know all about the side effects of morphine first hand and natural childbirth was possibly the stupidest thing I have never done in the name of my career)I can't bring myself to sip absinthe. Perhaps it is its history of 'madness in a bottle' and the fact that one glass of wine knocks me on my ear. I can only imagine what absinthe can do to a lightweight. But I am oh so curious... (Apparently you can get absinthe in the United States, with the level of toxicity removed.)

However, I do know the addictive quality attached to it and the madness that goes with it makes for one great villain. I have never enjoyed crafting a character more then my absinthe addict Loup.

Oscar Wilde probably summed it up best:

After the first glass you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.

Maladies & Treatments: Ancient Egypt

By Jean Adams

If you had to be ill in ancient times, the best place to do so would probably have been Egypt. Not that it would have been a picnic even there. Unlike the injuries received through accidents or fighting, or scorpion stings and snake bites, illnesses and their causes were mysterious.

The Egyptians explained them as the work of the gods, caused by the presence of evil spirits or their poisons, and cleansing the body was the way to rid the body of their influence. Incantations, prayers to the gods - above all to Sekhmet, the goddess of healing, curses, and threats, often accompanied by the injection of nasty smelling and tasting medicines into the various bodily orifices, were hoped to prove effective.

Preventive measures included prayers and various kinds of magic, above all the wearing of amulets. The importance of the diet was partially recognized, and the natural human craving for diversity and rich well-irrigated soil resulted in a diet which was mostly reasonably balanced: carbohydrates from cereals, vitamins from fruit and vegetables, and proteins mostly from fish. Milk and milk products were only occasionally consumed, as were legumes, seeds and oil.

Healers

The Egyptian priest-physician had a number of important functions. First, to discover the nature of the particular entity possessing the person and then attack, drive it out, or otherwise destroy it. This was done by some powerful magic for which rituals, spells, incantations, talismans and amulets were used. Sekhmet priests also seem to have been involved in the prevention of plagues, inspection of sacrificial animals and even veterinary medicine. Other healers seem to have had recourse to the same methods and scriptures..

Physical medicines such as herbs were mostly expected to assuage the pain only, while magic effected the cure. A section in the Ebers Papyrus is about charms and invocations used to encourage healing. One spell, recited before taking an herbal remedy, reads as follows: "Come Remedy! Come thou who expellest (evil) things in this my stomach and in these my limbs!" The wording of these spells is often followed by a recommendation, such as: "Truly excellent. Millions of times."

Not all Egyptian medicine was based on wishful thinking (and we should never disregard the effect faith can have on our health), much was the result of experimentation and observation.

Nothing certain is known about the way physicians acquired their medical knowledge, but we assume that after (or in parallel to) their formation as scribes they were apprenticed to practising healers.

Medical Knowledge

A few papyri have survived, from which we can learn about Egyptian medicine, one describing surgical diagnosis and treatments and another is on ophthalmology, diseases of the digestive system, the head, the skin and specific maladies like aAa, which some think may have been a precursor of aids and others, perhaps more reasonably, consider to have been a disease of the urinary tract.

The treatments in these texts are often organized into groups. The Edwin Smith Papyrus for instance opens with eight texts concerning head wounds, followed by nineteen treatments of wounds to the face (forehead, eyebrows, nose, cheeks, temples, mouth, chin), six descriptions of how to deal with injuries to throat and neck, five dealing with collar-bones and arms, and seven with chest complaints. It appears that all this knowledge dates to the third millennium BC, even though the papyrus itself is of a much later date.

This knowledge reached Greece through the doctors of Alexandria.

Herbal Medicine

Herbs played a major part in Egyptian medicine. The plant medicines mentioned in the Ebers papyrus for instance include opium, cannabis, myrrh, frankincense, fennel, cassia, senna, thyme, henna, juniper, aloe, linseed and castor oil - though some of the translations are less than certain. Cloves of garlic have been found in Egyptian burial sites, including the tomb of Tutankhamun and in the sacred underground temple of the bulls at Saqqara.

As we still do today, the Egyptians thought garlic and onions aided endurance, and consumed large quantities of them. Raw garlic was routinely given to asthmatics and to those suffering with bronchial-pulmonary complaints. Onions helped against problems of the digestive system.

Garlic was an important healing agent then just as it still is to the modern Egyptian and to most of the peoples in the Mediterranean area: Fresh cloves are peeled, mashed and macerated in a mixture of vinegar and water. This can be used to gargle and rinse the mouth, or taken internally to treat sore throats and toothache. Another way to take garlic both for prevention as well as treatment is to macerate several cloves of mashed garlic in olive oil. Applied as an external liniment or taken internally it is beneficial for bronchial and lung complaints including colds. A freshly peeled clove of raw garlic wrapped in muslin or cheesecloth and pinned to the undergarment is hoped to protect against infectious diseases such as colds and influenza. There was a whole raft of healing herbs in Egypt, too many to address here.

Impact

Egyptian physicians were much sought after in the Ancient World, despite the fact that little was added to the knowledge after the First Intermediate Period (about 2000 BC). Ramses II sent physicians to the king of Hatti and many rulers, the Persian Achaemenids among them, had Egyptian doctors in attendance.

Their treatments were based on examination, followed by diagnosis. Descriptions of the examination - the most exacting part of a physician's job - are lengthier than both the diagnosis or the recommended treatment

Treatment was conservative: if no remedy was known then only such steps were to be taken which would not endanger the patient. Some head wounds for instance, considered as an ailment not to be treated might just be anointed externally with an unguent forestalling infection or the patient might be tied at his mooring stakes, until the period of his injury passes by in order to prevent him from causing further damage to himself.

On the other hand many of the ancient medical practices were ineffective, if not suspect: e.g. excrement used in medicines will only in the rarest of cases prove to be wholesome, and if applied as wound dressing may well cause tetanus poisoning, yet dung continued to be used in Europe until the Middle Ages. The reliance on magic and faith may well have retarded the development of more rational views of the causes of diseases and their cures.

Nevertheless, Egyptian theories and practices influenced the Greeks, who furnished many of the physicians in the Roman Empire, and through them Arab and European medical thinking for centuries to come

*****
Jean

ETERNAL HEARTS by Jean Adams, Highland Press, Spring 2008
Book Video
A PLACE OF HEALING, TBA, Wild Rose Press, Champagne Rose
PRINCE OF SECRETS, third place, opening hook, Wallflower, 2007
BEATS A WILD HEART, TBA, Highland Press

Maladies & Treatments: Laudanum, The Miracle Drug

By Vicki Gaia

In my book, Eliza's Hope, I have a scene where one of my characters is taking laudanum. This was a very popular opium based drug that was falling out of favor around the Edwardian period because of its addictive quality:

Jewel stared at the innocuous bottle in her hand. She'd taken a dose last week, and it left her feeling euphoric, easing her depression. Since her first taste, she took sporadic doses, careful to hide the bottle from Eliza. She began to rely on the laudanum to get her through the day.

Eliza reached for the bottle. "It's addicting."

"Why, it's harmless." The thick glass bottle tempted her, her innards buzzing, yearning for a taste. One more dose is all. Clutching the bottle tight, she'd take one dose and toss it in the trash.

Eliza snatched the bottle from Jewel and opened the lid. Her nose scrunched. "There have been countless horror stories about this stuff."

Of course Jewel read of women getting addicted to laudanum but she had better sense. She'd never fail William and ruin their family name. Pride ran deep in her family.
Pa had lectured daily on living a clean life, and she took it to heart. But now, what did clean living get her? She had no life of her own, no husband to love.

Laudanum has been around since Paracelsus first made it into a compound, and named it from the Latin word, laudare, to praise. It's an alcoholic solution of opium, and was prepared and used widely through the 19th century for treatment of various disorders. In 1680, laudanum was introduced in England under one of the first patent medicine brand--Sydenham's Laudanum. It was a miracle drug with claims to relieve pain, to allay irritation, to produce sleep, to check excessive secretions, to support the system and as a soporific. Laudanum was prescribed for colds to Meningitis to cardiac disease to Yellow Fever in adults and children.

Doctors weren't aware of the addictive nature of opium, and laudanum and opium-based drugs were widely spread throughout the 19th century. You can imagine how taking a daily dose of laudanum would alleviate a person's aches and pains, poverty and boredom.

Laudanum was cheaper than alcohol because it was treated as a medication for legal purposes and not taxed as an alcoholic beverage. It first became a working class drug, but its use quickly spread to the middle and upper classes. According to Wikipedia, here are a few of the famous that used it:

Lord Byron
Kate Chopin
Lewis Carroll
John Keats
Charles Dickens
Edgar Allan Poe
Mary Lincoln Todd - prescribed for anxiety, hallucinations and sleep problems. This only increased her problems and led to her eventual commitment to an asylum.

This brings up the use of this drug for women's troubles. Victorian women were prescribed the drug for relief of their vague aches, depression, menstrual cramps, and to achieve that pallid complexion prized by women at the time. Its not surprising that in the United States, most users of narcotics in the 19th century were women. Besides the drug being described for women's troubles, it was frowned upon for women to drink alcohol. This proved to be a cheap and easy alternative. Easily obtained from their doctors or pharmaceutical, they could drink it, use it in a salve, shoot it up, or take it as a suppository.

Governments began to take notice and halt the use of non-medical use of opium. It's interesting that the alternative was the manufacture of heroin, thought to be 'non-addictive' alternative to opium! Under medical supervision, morphine and opium derivatives are still used today for pain relief.

Maladies & Treatments: Accidental Science

By Carrie Lofty

For generations, healers and physics (an early term for physicians) used natural cures that worked wonders for their patients. Little did they know, the cures were based on scientific principles of chemistry that wouldn't be verified for hundreds of years. They only used what worked.

One of the medieval cures for cleansing a wound involved calcium carbonate. Called "quicklime," it was made from crushed shells or bones. The quicklime was added to salt or a sodium-rich plant, with a little dry mustard (a powerful astringent). Healers would wash the wound in hot beer--beer being far more hygienic and reliably sterile than water--and then scrub the area with the quicklime and salt mix. For the final step, they coated the would with a vegetable oil and pulverized fir, another proven astringent that also helped form scabs.

There is sound chemistry behind this cure. The calcium carbonate, salt and oil formed an impromptu soap on the skin, keeping the wound clean. Ta-dah! Science!

Trial-and-error science was not limited to cures; nutrition also benefited. One medieval means of cooking involved a double boiler. Cooks would bundle cool, thickened leftover pottage (porridge) in a linen cloth, a large ball of ground meat in another, and a selection of vegetables in a third. The packets were layered on top of one another in the smaller pot, pottage on the bottom, then meat, then vegetables. Cooks would pour broth in the larger pot of the double boiler, assemble it, and let it simmer for hours--a medieval crock pot.

What was so ingenious about this method, aside from saving time and keeping food warm until it was needed, is that is wasted nothing. Healthful vitamins released by the vegetables were simply collected in the double boiler, invigorating the broth with much-needed nutrients, while the boiling, swirling broth kept the food moist, gave everything a nice flavor, and slowly steamed the vegetables--no wiggly veggies! They might not have known it was a healthy thing to do, scientifically speaking, but record of this method of cooking shows that medieval citizens knew they were better off eating from multiple food groups and not overcooking vegetables.

Over the years, cures and techniques such as these were scrutinized by science and proven sound. People of old might not have known how it worked, but they benefited nonetheless. Now if only someone had been around to tell them that mercury worked so well as a diuretic because it was slowly poisoning the body...

Maladies & Treatments: Medieval Bloodletting

By Lisa Yarde

One of the basic principles of medieval medicine was that four humors controlled the health of the human body. The balance between blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile was essential for the well-being of a medieval person. Phlebotomy, or the practice of bloodletting, has been around since the Greco-Roman period. It was considered a form of surgery by medieval practitioners. They believed that organs in the body were connected by certain veins, therefore, letting the blood from a specific vein would affect a particular organ. When medieval practitioners treated sick patients, one of the first things they did was to inspect the blood. They checked the blood for its viscosity, temperature and rapidity of coagulation, and even tasted it.

Blood-letting allowed for the control of humors in a particular part of the body. It was often practiced at the end of Lent (the 40 day period before Easter, during spring). To rid themselves of the "bad humors" that accumulated in the winter, where salted meat was the most common food staple, medieval people turned to bloodletting to deal with the symptoms of scurvy, which resulted from the lack of vitamin C in their diet. When Lent began, meat was prohibited but fresh herbs and vegetables were available during the spring time. But medieval practitioners believed the bloodletting rather than the herbs and vegetables, improved the health of their patients.

The dangers of blood-letting are obvious; persons who were already sick now faced the possibility of death by infection, or the accidental cutting of nerves and arteries. Knives and other tools used in cutting were not sterilized because medieval people did not understand the concept of germs. More often than not, the result of blood-letting was either continual sickness or death of a patient. One of the most interesting aspects of medieval bloodletting was that in its origins, the practice did not start with physicians. Barbers, in addition to trimming beards, doubled as surgeons and often, a good bleeding was just was the barber ordered.

Maladies & Treatments: Healing with Urine

By Sandra Schwab

In the past human and animal urine was used for all kinds of things: for cleaning cloth and wool (even as late as 1966, the British government decreed that the famous Harris Tweed ought to be cleaned with urine--even if it did smell funny), for tanning, as reducing agent in dyeing, and even for the production of watercolours: since 1750 the colour Indian yellow had been imported from India, but what nobody in Britain knew was that the lovely deep yellow was the result of feeding cows only with mango leaves and water, collecting the urine (or perhaps the earth on which the cows had peed), drying it and eventually forming funny smelling balls of the raw pigment. Apart from that, urine has always been used in medicine as well.

In the antiquity, urine didn't yet play an important part in medical diagnosis, even though doctors already knew that a strange smell or a strange colour might indicate a disease: "If the urine stinks, is too thin or too thick and black of colour, the patient ought prepare for his last journey." Nevertheless, looking at the urine of a patient was not yet part of the doctor's routine. However, they did recommend using urine as medication: drinking one's own urine was supposed to help against snake bites, poisoning, and dropsy. Urine boiled in the skin of a pomegranate was said to heal a purulent inflammation of the ears, while patients who had trouble with breathing were treated with the urine of pure young boys. And those with kidney problems were given donkey urine. Furthermore, scars, burns, rashes and other skin problems were all treated with urine as well.

Due to the influence of Arabian teachings, the uroscopy eventually became an important part of medical diagnosis in the Middle Ages. Indeed, looking at the urine of a patient, inspecting the quantity and quality, the smell, taste, colour and cloudiness of it became such an important task of the medieval doctor that he is usually depicted with the uroscopy flask in art. The flask with the morning urine of a patient was brought to the doctor who could then consult his charts of urine colours. Different parts of the flask were thought to correspond to specific parts of the body, therefore some doctors used flasks that looked liked miniature humans.

The art of uroscopy became more and more complicated as more and more elaborate charts of urine colours were published. In addition, the superstition surrounding this form of diagnosis grew: some doctors even claimed they could tell not only the age and the sex of the patient from looking at the urine, but also whether somebody was still a virgin. Due to these extreme forms of uroscopy, it was finally banned from orthodox medicine. Yet this does not mean that the practice of uroscopy disappeared: one of the most famous practitioners of this art was Johann Reinbacher, who died in 1935. In the Steiermark (in Austria) and beyond he was known as the "Höllerhansl" and he enjoyed such a good reputation that in the years 1925-1930 the conductors on the trains between Graz and Stainz gave out numbered tickets to regulated the masses of people who wanted Reinbacher to look at their urine. Even today this railway line is known as the "Flascherlzug" (the "Bottle-Train") because of the bottles of urine people brought to Reinbacher, who lived near Stainz.

In folk medicine, urine was not only used as medication (for the treatment of skin and eye problems, of wounds and burns, of fever, stomach pains, sprains, and flatulence), but also for charms and magic: for example, peeing through one's wedding ring was supposed to prevent impotence; and if you had fever, you ought to pee into a river while saying the following blessing:

Flowing water, I come to thee,
Seventy-seven forms of fever I bring to thee,
Thou shalt carry it over stick and stone!
That shall help [insert name of patient],
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
While some of these customs seem outlandish in the extreme, others do contain a grain of truth: treatments with urine can indeed be quite effective especially when it comes to skin problems such as acne or neurodermatitis, wounds, burns, but also skin diseases like shingles.

Thursday Thirteen: Medical Reasons Why I'm glad I Live in 2008

By Bonnie Vanak

In a ballroom scene in my upcoming Egyptian historical, The Scorpion and the Seducer, the hero's mother cajoles him to find a wife and sire a son to keep the title in the family. Thomas snaps, "Mother, I'm only 25. I have plenty of time for siring a plethora of little heirs."

These days, Thomas might reply, "Mother, I'm only 25, but if I don't marry until I'm in my forties, my sperm can easily conceive a child because men can father a baby later in life, unlike women, who go through menopause and stop ovulating, and even then I could chose an older bride and we could use a surrogate and fertility drugs, or if my bride or I had infertility problems there's always in vitro fertilization, so leave me the hell alone and let me enjoy the ball in peace."

Modern medicine has come a long way since 1907. Here are 13 medical reasons why I'm grateful I live in this century and not during Thomas's time or 200 years before it.

1. The discovery of aspirin. In 1897, German chemist Felix Hoffmann produced acetylsalicylic acid, more commonly known as aspirin. He was searching for a means to relieve his father's arthritis. Men all over smiled to know that finally there was a cure for their wives' complaint: "Not tonight, dear, I have a headache..."

2. 1977 and the invention of the MRI machine. Who would have thought a giant magnet could diagnose medical problems?

3. Alexander Fleming. Great guy. He discovered penicillin by accident in 1928, after leaving a Petri dish of staphylococcus bacteria (say that ten times fast!) uncovered a few days. Mold had grown in the dish and was hindering growth. Bet I know what the bread looked like in his house.

4. Invention of soft contact lenses. Czech chemist Otto Wichterle in 1950 is responsible for his work in making lenses much more comfortable than the standard rigid glass lenses. My eyes thank you, Otto, and so do the walls of my old school, which I used to run into because I was too vain to wear my glasses.

5. American doctor Crawford Williamson Long used ether as an anesthetic in 1842 in surgery. It was much more stable and less dangerous than chloroform.

6. Development of the polio vaccine in 1947, thanks to the groundbreaking work of Jonas Salk. Statistics say at one time, one in every 5,000 children developed polio. My mother used to tell me how her parents forbid swimming in public pools because of the fear of polio. Sadly, in countries like Haiti today, people still suffer from polio's crippling effects.

7. Dr. Christian Barnard in 1967 performed the first heart transplant in South Africa. Today, this kind of surgery is commonplace and anti-rejection drugs help patients live much longer than the 18 days Dr. Barnard’s patient lasted.

8. Nicolae Paulescu. He was successful in 1916 in developing an extract which helped normalized blood sugar levels in a diabetic dog. By 1921, insulin began to be in use among human diabetics.

9. In 1998, the FDA approved Pfizer's new little blue pill as the first pill to treat male impotence, thus giving comedians source material for years to come. Stock in the company, along with other items, rose sharply and sometimes stayed that way for four hours or more.

10. Invention of the X-Ray machine in 1895 by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen by using his cathode ray generator. If not for Mr. Röntgen, Superman wouldn't be quite so cool with his superpowers. After all, we can fly in airplanes, but who else has the ability to see that Lois Lane's panties are pink?

11. Dr. Virginia Apgar, a professor of anesthesia, who devised the Apgar scale in 1953 as a means to determine the health of newborns. It's administered to babies at one minute and five minutes after birth, scoring respiration, muscle tone, heart rate and color and tells medical professionals if the newborn needs immediate medical care.

12. Discovery of the importance of antiseptics by Hungarian doctor Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis. While working at a maternity department, Dr. Semmelweis realized in 1847 that washing hands reduced childbed fever. The medical community dismissed his theory. Dr. Semmelweis kept lobbying for hand washing among physicians before treating patients and even wrote a book about it in 1861. The book received lousy reviews and Dr. Semmelweis had a nervous breakdown in 1865. He was committed to an insane asylum. Dr. Semmelweis's groundbreaking work has resulted today in the importance of hand washing. (NOTE: Two words. Hand sanitizers. These solutions, comprised mainly of alcohol, are great. I highly recommend getting a small, airplane security approved sized bottle and carrying it on travels. I usually purchase Purell and take it with me on all my trips for the day job to developing countries and use it frequently.)

13. The birth of Louis Pasteur on Dec. 27, 1822. Why did I list his birthday? Because that's how important Pasteur is. His groundbreaking work in germ theory led to many medical breakthroughs, including his development of the first vaccine for rabies and pasteurization of milk. This great microbiologist founded the Institut Pasteur in 1887, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to fighting infectious disease. Scientists associated with the institute are responsible for breakthrough discoveries to control diseases from yellow fever to tuberculosis. Eight scientists from the institute have been awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology.

Thanks, Louie. Because of you, there are treatments and cures for diseases that once killed thousands.

Maladies & Treatments: The Budas of Abyssinia

By Karen Mercury

The Christian highlands of 19th c. Abyssinia were a hotbed of ills of the flesh, and an abundance of myths and superstitions cropped up to explain or alleviate them. The 8,000 foot craggy mountain ranges were afflicted with drastic temperature drops at night, and terrible humidity during the heavy rain seasons that lend the royal massifs their characteristic dramatic splendor were all responsible for a wide array of bronchitis, pleurisy, and influenza. Ordinary head colds, known as tej metall, they believed were brought on by drinking liquor outdoors in the sun, or the glancing of the sun off the waters of Lake Tzana, and the cures were highly imaginative.

The great Scottish traveler James Bruce, visiting Abyssinia in 1770, spoke of some "medicine a saint from Waldubba had given him which consisted in characters written with common ink upon a tin plate, which characters were washed off by a medicinal liquor and then given him to drink." Bruce wrote:

I opened all the doors and windows, fumigating the apartments with incense and myrrh, in abundance, washed them with warm water & vinegar.... The common & fatal regimen in this country has been to keep their patient from feeling the smallest breath of air, hot drink, a fire, and doors are shut so close as even to keep the room in darkness, whilst heat is further augmented by the constant burning of candles.

Dr. Henry Blanc, one of the Europeans imprisoned in the 1860s by Emperor Tewodros in his mountaintop fortress at Magdala, wrote that, "Charms are here the great remedy. Almost every individual--nay, cattle & mules & horses--are covered with amulets of all shapes and sizes." Constantly followed by crowds chanting "abiet, abiet, medanite, medanite" (Lord Master, medicine, medicine"), Blanc was trailed night and day by syphilitics, lepers, epileptics, or those afflicted with elephantiasis or mutilated at the hands of their enemies, the Galla--all in the hopes the great hakim would open his medicine chest.

The Falasha Jews of the highlands around Gondar were designated lower-class weavers, potters, and most of all, dreaded blacksmiths. Hereditary blacksmiths had malevolent reputations and were often accused of being budas who transformed themselves into hyenas capable of riding horses or sometimes wearing earrings, the majority of budas being women who have turned down sex with another buda.

In The Four Quarters of the World, I wrote:

"I have heard you are treating sick people again! Do you not know that is bad for your health?"

Delphine exhaled. "These people are needful. If I can give them some succor from my medicine chest, why shouldn't I?"

Anatole grasped Delphine about the forearms. "But you mustn't! Don't you see they will begin to prey on you, like—"

"Buda!" A piercing shriek came from the vicinity of the front door, and both Anatole and Delphine craned their necks to see. "He's a buda!"

There were six or so waiting patients Delphine had allowed into the courtyard, sitting on another alga, and at the sight of Kaspar they had all fled until they were pressed up against a wall, making themselves as flat as possible, like rats.

Kaspar screwed up his face and waved a disgusted hand at them. "Ach, buda. . . Is that all they can think about? Their depraved hearts and benighted minds know nothing of God or Heaven!" He walked toward the stairs, pausing to regale the multitude. "Do you not believe in the Prophets, and in Christ, of whom all the inspired writers unitedly testify?" He didn't seem to expect an answer, for he continued up the stairs.

Delphine admonished the huddled group, "Just because he's a blacksmith, it doesn't mean he's a buda. Why do they not think you a buda, Anatole? You're a blacksmith as well."

Few people bothered blacksmiths for these reasons. No one reveals their birth names, because a buda cannot act upon anyone whose real name he doesn't know. Should the buda get the true name of a victim, he gets a kind of straw and mutters something over it, bends it into a circle and places it under a stone. The person thus doomed is taken ill at that moment. Should the straw snap, the patient will die. White men are protected from buda attacks by the color of their skin.

Here, my hero has just told an Abyssinian princess he cannot marry her, and coincidentally she becomes "possessed" on the spot:

The maiden burst into the most horripilating round of laughter. Or was it laughter? Eyes closed, mouth open in a great wail of chortling as though possessed, she kept it up minute after minute until Ravi was compelled to grab her and give her a few swift shakes.

"Woizero Bell, please! Stop that right now!"

But she continued pealing gale after gale of the hyena-like laugh, until women who had been hiding behind the wall rushed forward, crying, "It's a buda! She's possessed by a buda!

Ravinger, knowing budas to be the worst sort of bilgewater imaginable, released the stricken woman and turned her over to the care of her sisters. Abruptly the laughter stopped, and Louisa became stone serious, her eyes staring ahead of her, plainly unseeing. The yammering women around her hushed, and she said in a dead monotone, "I'm perfectly fine. I only want to be bled." She set to howling and flinging her arms above her head, as all the women grabbed at her and concurred, "A buda!

"The buda is tricking us! If we bleed her, he will just attack her even more strongly!"

Some women looked to Ravi for confirmation, so he nodded dully. "Yes, yes, obviously a buda. I'll go see if I can find some charcoal and, er, other various filth." For people so possessed had a great craving for those items, and would sup at a bowl of shit like a faro

"Who are you?" two women demanded of Louisa. "Who are you inside of our friend?"

When Louisa commenced to "replying" in a shrieking gibberish, Ravi backed off slowly. "Take hold of her thumbs!" a woman cried. It was the first sign that the devil was leaving if he allowed her thumbs to be held.

The British Consul Walter Plowden wrote about the medicinal value of hot springs, where both sexes were allowed to enter "promiscuously," but ominously warned that "anyone impure entering the bath will have a snake issue from the spot."

One also had to constantly beware "the evil eye," a belief held in common to many Mediterranean countries. Against that terror, Plowden counseled that people used:

...roots and plants of many kinds--some heirlooms, and others picked up from favored friends, or revealed occasionally in dreams, with shells, bits of amber or ambergris, leg-bones of hawks...the circle of preservatives worn round the neck, these latter are more a precaution against "the evil eye" or "hyena sorcerer."

Plowden may have said much more had he not been murdered by an enemy of Emperor Tewodros near Gondar in 1860.

Maladies & Treatments: Patent Medicines

By Jacquie Rogers

The labels carried wild promises but no list of ingredients. Patent medicines were ubiquitous in the 1800s, partly because medical science had made advances and partly because the search for health exceeded medical science's capabilities.

These elixirs, creams, and compresses were made from any number of ingredients, ranging from vegetable juice to narcotics. Remember, there were no drug laws in the USA until after the turn of the 20th Century. When a patient took a dose of patent medicine, he or she could be taking opium, alcohol, mandrake, belladonna, marijuana, or extracts from hellebore, henbane, datura, and hemlock.


The term "patent medicine" refers to a product with a proprietary list of ingredients and sold directly to the public, not that the medicine was patented. Some of these products originated as old family recipes, but some manufacturers were a bit more mercenary in the development of their tonics. The quest for the almighty dollar soon surpassed any anecdotal or scientific basis for these medicines, and the patent medicine business became a huge economic force.

Tired of Viagra ads? Believe me, these ads certainly aren't new. Here's one of my favorite patent medicine ads, taken from The Owyhee Avalanche in the 1880s:

*************************************
LOST MANHOOD RESTORED
*************************************

THE DR. LIEBIG Private Dispensary
400 Geary St. San Francisco, Cal
Conducted by qualified physicians and surgeons--regular graduates. The Oldest Specialists in the United States, whose LIFE-LONG EXPERIENCE, perfect method and pure medicine, insure SPEEDY and PERMANENT CURES of all Private Chronic and Nervous Diseases. Affections of the Blood, Skin, Kidneys, Bladder, Eruptions, Ulcers, Old Sores, Swelling of the Glands, Sore Mouth, Throat, permanently cured and eradicated from the system for life. NERVOUS Debility, Impotency, Seminal Losses, Sexual Decay, Mental and Physical Weakness, Failing Memory, Weak Eyes, Stunted Development, Impediments to Marriage, etc. from excesses or youthful follies, or any cause, speedily, safely and privately cured.

Young, Middle-Aged and Old men, and all who need medical skill and experience, consult the old European Physician at once. His opinion costs nothing and may save future misery and shame. When inconvenient to visit the city for treatment, medicines can be sent everywhere by express, free from observation. It is self-evident that a physician who gives his whole attention to a class of diseases attains great skill, and physicians throughout the country, knowing this, frequently recommend difficult cases to the Oldest Specialist, by whom every Known good remedy is used. The Doctor's Age and experience make his opinion of Supreme Importance.

...and it goes on and on!

The patent medicine industry was brought to its knees shortly after the turn of the 20th Century. From the Food and Drug Administration:

A few muckraking journalists helped expose the red clauses, the false testimonials, the nostrums laden with harmful ingredients, the unfounded cures for cancer, tuberculosis, syphilis, narcotic addiction, and a host of other serious as well as self-limited diseases. The most influential work in this genre was the series by Samuel Hopkins Adams that appeared in Collier's on October 7, 1905, entitled "The Great American Fraud." Adams published ten articles in the series, which concluded in February 1906; he followed it up with another series on doctors who advertised fake clinics. The shocking stories of the patent medicine menace were accompanied by startling images, such as "Death's Laboratory."

Good health to you!



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Maladies & Treatments: Florence Nightingale

By Marianne LaCroix

Florence Nightingale. It is a name we all recognize, but what exactly is so important about her? She is the woman who established the importance of sanitary conditions in a medical environment as well as nursing standards used today such as good nutrition, proper rest and gentle human caring.

Florence was born in Italy and named after the city of her birth. Born to privileged parents, Florence was educated at home by her Cambridge educated father. She was vibrant and admired socially, and her family expected her to marry well. However, in 1837 she believed she was called upon God to go about her work, issuing her a calling that would drive her into history.

Her parents refused to let her become a nurse as it was deemed unsuitable profession for an educated woman in the mid 1800s. She was sent on a trip to Europe with some family friends. In Germany in 1850 she visited Pastor Theodor Fliedner's hospital and school for deaconesses at Kaiserswerth, near Dusseldorf. She returned to the hospital the next year to study nursing despite her family’s conflict.

Florence came to international recognition during the Crimean War (France and Turkey's war on Russia in 1854). She was appointed by Sidney Herbert, the Minister at War, to introduce female nurses into military hospitals in Turkey. Initially male doctors did not want the women’s assistance, but within days, the 38 nurses' services were indispensable.

The conditions in Scutari (modern-day Üsküdar in Istanbul) at the Selimiye Barracks were desperate. Patients were overcrowded and suffered from poor nutrition. Medicine was scarce. Hygiene neglected. Infection ran rampant, often times fatal. Sickness like typhus cholera, dysentery and typhoid took a grave toll more often than infection from battle wounds. Florence and her nurses took to cleaning the hospital conditions and organizing patient care. Sewers were flush and ventilation improved. After her arrival, the death rate dropped dramatically.

During the war, Florence earned the name "Lady with the Lamp," an image derived from an article reported in the British newspaper, The Times:

She is a 'ministering angel' without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.

After the war, Florence continued her pioneering of nursing care and wrote several works including Notes on Nursing: What Nursing Is, What Nursing is Not (1860). She excelled in statistics and compiled reports on the conditions of medical care and public health.

Before her death in 1910 at age 90, she was awarded the Royal Red Cross by Queen Victoria and was the first woman to receive the Order of Merit. She has influenced worldwide practices in nursing and has several schools named in honor of her, including the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery where she established a nursing training school in 1860.

RESEARCH SOURCES:
Wikipedia
Florence Nightingale

All hail the tireless work of nurses!

Marianne LaCroix
Crossed Swords, Ellora's Cave - RT Top Pick!

Maladies & Treatments: Galen and Ancient Medicine

By Michelle Styles

One of the more interesting aspects that I always find when I am researching a historical period is the way medicine and the treatment of illness has changed over the years.

We like to think of progress as being a straight line, but when you examine the medical instruments of the beginning of the Roman Empire with those of the medieval times, it is quite clear that the Romans had greater skill.

Roman medicine reached its apogee under Galen. Marcus Aurelius described him as Rome's finest doctor. It has been postulated that it would have been far better to be under the care of Galen (AD 129 - AD 210) rather than any other physician almost to the closing years of the 19th century. Indeed, of all the Roman doctors, Galen's writing was the most copied, and he is the one doctor that we do have the greatest body work from.

But who was he?

Before becoming the emperor's private physician, Galen spent his early formative years, in the gladiatorial rings of Turkey--learning about wounds and the part diet played in recovery. Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of gladiators did not fight to the death. He never discovered the circulation of blood, but was nearly there with his theory of blood ebbing and flowing. Because he was from a wealthy background, he was able to use patronage and commanded a far higher social position than most of other doctors in the Roman world. The reason he studied medicine than the more usual architecture or law was that when he was 17, his father received a sign that his son was destined to be a doctor.

Although he invoked Hippocrates in his writing, he did codify various theories. He felt fevers could be caused by several things--overheating through exposure to sun, certain types of exercise or indeed certain food and drink (e.g. hemp), the humours, or inflammation. Most doctors at the time thought fever had only one cause--the imbalance of humours.

Like many in the ancient world, he believed that first came diet, then drugs, venesection (letting of blood/other fluids) and finally surgery. He believed that a good doctor should also be a good cook. He also believed that good diet should be the first line of defense, along with sleep. And that the doctor had to match the treatment and the diet to the individual as every person had a different temperament. Thus he did not believe in indiscriminate blood letting.

If you are interested in read Galen's work, Galen on Food and Diet by Mark Grant translates Galen's work on food into English. There you can learn things like chickpeas are supposed to incite the need for sex and are suppose to increase the productive of sperm. This is why they were fed to stud horses. They are also supposed to break down kidney stones as they can have a purgative effect.

Galen's emphasis on diet also feeds into his stoic philosophy, and his belief that medicine was a legitimate branch of philosophy.

After Galen's death, the impetus to research and study the human body stagnated for a number of reasons--including the linking of medicine with philosophy. thus research into the human body and actual causes of ill health declined.