In Sickness and in Health

Abstract

Yesterdays medicine cabinet looked much different than today. It may have contained camphor, alum, sweet oil, quinine, castor oil, and possibly spirits of ammonia for medicinal use, and not much else. The 17th century French dramatist, Moliere wrote “Nearly all men die of their remedies and not their illnesses.” The 1700’s and 1800’s knew diseases like ague (malaria), typhus, scurvy, rickets, smallpox, tuberculosis, and a host of others that have ceased to be a threat due to medical advancements. Sterilization was not recognized as a factor in treating illness, and hygiene was not noted as a possibility to help prevent disease. + During the American Revolution, the number of soldiers who died from disease equaled those who died as the result of battle. + Treatments commonly used to combat disease included: leeches, bloodletting, blistering, enemas, emetics, and purgatives to induce vomiting. Leeches and bloodletting were practiced since the ancient times of human history. The more serious the problem, the more blood was let. Sadly, that was not always effective, and many times resulted in eventual death from infection or loss of blood. + Wounds were usually bound or crudely sewn together and poulticed. Sometimes they healed, sometimes they didn’t. Many a soldier, who survived the Revolution, carried a musket ball inside of him until his death. If the probing (ungloved and usually unwashed) finger of the surgeon could not locate the musket ball, it was not removed. Whiskey and opium were the essential painkillers of the time. If the wound did not heal, amputation was performed. If the patient lived through the surgery, and survived possible infection and blood loss, they were indeed fortunate. + An account from one homesteader portrays the effect of early medical practice: “The doctor came every day....he purged, he bled, he blistered, he poked – he never cured me.”270 + Early settlement of any area meant doctors and hospitals were not available. Pioneers learned quickly to set their own broken bones. Wounds and cuts were stitched with the same needle used to darn their stockings. Cures for a variety of illnesses that occurred were treated with a variety of remedies passed down from their grandmother, or learned from the Natives. There were potions, plasters, poultices, teas, and tonics that were made from local herbs that grew wild, or from items that grew in the garden. They either got well, or they didn’t.