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Archiver > MIKALKAS > 2001-10 > 1003067462


From: Colleen Pustola <>
Subject: MI-3 SUNDAY MORNING COFFEE
Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2001 07:51:02 -0600



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) Good morning friends! ( \
.-.,--^--. ( Come on in. . . \* )
\\|`----'| - The coffee pot's on. . . .=|=.
\| |// ...and we even have decaf, |~'~|
| |/ tea, and hot chocolate! | |
\ / _|___|_
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Today's topics include:

1. Welcome to new cousins
2. Those were the days: medicine
3. Did you know ...?


TO OUR NEWEST RESEARCHERS ~~

On behalf of the entire list, I'd like to extend a most hearty welcome
to those of you who joined us this past week. We are very glad to have
you with us and hope you'll stay and remain a part of our online
discussion group. As soon as you're comfortable with us and the list,
please send in your list-surname lines so we can all see how we're
related to you. We do not have a fancy format for sending in records or
queries to the list. Post as many as you wish! If the data has anything
to do with our county ancestors that might help someone, please feel
free to post it. Every scrap of information is appreciated.

This Coffee is being circulated to three Michigan county USGenWeb lists,
hence the MI3 at the beginning of the Coffee's name. Should more
Michigan lists decide they'd also like the Sunday Coffee, the number
will increase. Currently all three participating lists are maintained
by Brenda Moore <>.

Homesite for each of the lists follows:
Grand Traverse County - <http://grandtraverseregion.com/grandtraverse/>;;
webmistress is Brenda Moore <>.
Kalkaska County - <http://grandtraverseregion.com/kalkaska/>;;
webmistress is Brenda Moore <>.
Newaygo County - <http://www.rootsweb.com/~minewayg/>;;
webmistress is Monica Erickson <>.

If you have material or a query you'd like to submit to one of the
sites, or simply a question you need answered regarding your list,
please direct your messages to appropriate webmistress.

Comments regarding the Sunday Morning Coffee however, should be directed
to me at <>.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS: MEDICINE

Before modern medicine ~ those days before antiseptics, anesthesia, and
antibiotics, it just wasn't a safe time to live in this world and get
sick or be injured. A doctor's education was informal. Most were
literate, but some were not. A man who wished to practice medicine
didn't need any type of certification. Most had a period of
apprenticeship with an established physician, but even this was not a
requirement. Physicians in the 18th century had no knowledge of
bacteria, germs, or viruses. They had no idea that disease was caused
by the spread of bacteria. The result meant the medical profession did
not practice the process of sterilization. Theories of medicine at the
time were based on the notion that disease was caused by an imbalance in
bodily "humors," or fluids. To treat an illness, you either added
fluids, or drained them away. Contained in a doctor's little black bag
were implements designed to purge, sweat and bleed infected fluids from
the body. There were emetics and diuretics, scalpels and leeches.
Steaming hot poultices were used to intentionally create infections on
scaled skin. The drainy pus that flowed afterward was thought to ooze
beneficially. In the 1830's health care included a variety of options,
from home nursing and herbal remedies to bleeding and dosing,
hydrotherapy, and treatments with static electricity. In addition,
purgings and high doses of toxic drugs like calomel constituted
treatment for nearly every condition. Bleedings were accomplished using
a surgical lancet and a bleeding bowl - usually a little pewter
porringer - that was marked off inside with the number of ounces.

Since physicians at that time had more in common with a medieval barber
than a modern doctor, they were often consulted only after numerous home
remedies had been tried. An experienced mother or grandmother could
judge a fever or inspect a whitened tongue or bloodshot eye as well as
any physician. When the doctor was called upon, he went to the
patient's home and prescribed treatment that would be administered
there. Families were expected to provide medical care in every sort of
ailment from acute fevers to chronic ills such as cancer, tuberculosis,
and "dropsy" (a swelling of tissues often caused by kidney or heart
disease).

Surgery was a last resort because it was often fatal and was always
painful. In the 19th century, opiates were used to alleviate pain and
quinine was known to be an effective treatment for malaria. However,
since surgery was done with no regard for cleanliness, infections like
septicemia or gangrene were common.

Families called upon a well-understood repertoire of recipes and
knowledge, much of it incorporating and preserving a centuries-old
tradition of oftentimes botanic, information. Much of this lore was
passed on in the form of oral tradition or carefully preserved books of
manuscript "receipts" ~ formulas for everything from curing rheumatism
and how to dress when tending to the ill (the rustling noise of silk
dresses would not do!) to tanning leather and making soap. It is just
ten of these "receipts" that I bring you today:

For a Stitch in the Side: Rub the part affected with unsalted butter and
make the sign of the cross seven times over the place.

For Weak Eyes: A deconcoction of the flowers of daisies boiled down is
an excellent wash to be used constantly.

For Water on the Brain: Cover the head well with wool then place oil
skin over and the water will be drawn up out of the head. When the wool
is quite saturated the brain will be free and the patient cured.

For Consumption (consumption of the 1700's refers to tuberculosis, but
in colonial America it encompassed both lung cancer and tuberculosis):
Every morning cut up a little turf of fresh earth, and lying down,
breath into the hole for a quarter of an hour.

For the Mumps: Wrap the child in a blanket,take it to the pigsty, rub
the child's head to the back of a pig. The mumps will pass from the
child to the animal.

For an Earache: The smoke of tobacco blown into the ear is excellent.

For a Stye on the Eyelid: Point a gooseberry thorn at it nine times
saying "away away away!" The stye will vanish presently and disappear.

To Cure Warts: On meeting a funeral, take some of the clay from under
the feet of the men who bear the coffin and apply it to the wart,
wishing strongly at the same time that it may disappear and so it will
be.

For the Bite of a Mad Dog, for either Man or Beast: Take six ounces of
Rue clean picked and bruised, four ounces of garlick peeled and bruised,
four ounces of Venice treacle, and four ounces of filed pewter, or
scraped tin. Boil these in two wuarts of the best ale, in a pan covered
close over a gentle fire, for the space of an hour, then strain the
ingredients from the liquor. Give eight or nine spoonfuls of it warm to
a man or a woman, three mornings fasting. Eight or nine spoonfuls is
sufficient for the strongest; a lesser quantity to those younger, or of
a weaker constitution, as you may judge of their strength. Ten or
twelve spoonfuls for a horse, or a bullock; three, four, or five to a
sheet, hog, or dog. This must be given within nine days after the bite;
it seldom fails in man or beast. If you can conveniently bind some of
the ingredients on the wound, it will be so much the better.

For Toothache: Carry in your pocket the two jaw bones of a haddock, for
ever since the miracle of the loaves and fishes these bones are an
infallible remedy against toothache and the older they are the better as
nearer the time of the miracle.

DID YOU KNOW ...?

... that a total of 80 ounces of blood had been drained from him in a
12-hour period? Actually, George Washington didn't die from the
bloodletting at all, though you'd certainly have thought so after having
35% of his blood removed. Documentation from the time points to acute
bacterial epiglottitis. This is an infection that causes throat tissue
to swell to the point that the person chokes to death.

... that both Washington and Lincoln had smallpox during their lives?
Washington caught it at about the age of 19 or 20, leaving his face
pockmarked. Lincoln was incubating a case of the disease when he gave
the Gettysburg Address in 1863.

... that the roughened skin of facial smallpox scars were a common sight
in Revolutionary America? Artists tended to render these blemishes as
rosier-than-normal cheeks in portraits of the time.

It all makes one wonder just how any of us managed to be born! It also
causes me to appreciate even more the hard times our ancestors had. We
all know I haven't even scratched the surface of this subject here, but
I believe I may have done enough to have given you the same feeling of
appreciate and/or made you curious for more information on the subject.

It's with this additional appreciation that I say ...

Family ... it's what we're all about.

I wish you all a week filled with health, productivity, fun, and above
all ... filled with love and inner peace.


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(@\'--'/. Colleen
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