RICHMOND-L Archives

Archiver > RICHMOND > 2001-10 > 1003082066


From: "Edsel E. Richmond" <>
Subject: Re: [RICHMOND] SUNDAY MORNING COFFEE
Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2001 12:54:26 -0500
References: <3BC997FB.C2E447D1@earthlink.net>


----- Original Message -----
From: "Colleen Pustola" <>
To: <>
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2001 8:49 AM
Subject: [RICHMOND] SUNDAY MORNING COFFEE


>
> )
> ( (
> ) Good Morning Family! ( \
> .-.,--^--. ( Come on in. . . \* )
> \\|`----'| - The coffee pot's on. . . .=|=.
> \| |// ...and we even have decaf, |~'~|
> | |/ tea, and hot chocolate! | |
> \ / _|___|_
> ------ (_______)
>
>
> Today's topics include:
>
> 1. Welcome to new cousins
> 2. Those were the days: medicine
> 3. Did you know ...?
>
>
> TO OUR NEWEST COUSINS ~~
>
> On behalf of the entire family, I'd like to extend a most hearty welcome
> to those cousins who came into the family fold this past week. We are
> very glad to have you with us and hope you'll stay and remain a part of
> our online family. 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 list-surname ancestors that might help someone, please
> feel free to post it. Every scrap of information is appreciated.
>
> 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.
>
>
> )
> (
> )
> _.-~~-.
> (@\'--'/. Colleen
> ('``.__.'`)
> `..____.'
>
>
> ==== RICHMOND Mailing List ====
> Need to reach Colleen, the discussion coordinator? Send her an email
> at <>.
> a couple of home remedies that I encountered as a child, that is not
included above:
for the removal of warts: I once had an elderly lady that said if she
counted the warts on my hands, they would disappear because she was the
seventh child of a seventh child. I had no faith in this,. but let her
count them anyway , however, there was another remedy,i.e. letting a
kattydid bite on the warts would make them disappear, which I also did. My
warts disappeared, and one wonders if it was the old lady's counting them,
the Katydid, or did they just naturally go away. I personally think that
they are temporary and disappeared anyway.
In another instance, during the 1930s, there was a lad of our community that
was accidently shot in the stomach with a .22 rifle. The doctor visited,
and did what he could but didnt offer much hope. Afterward, the mother
gathered a ample amount of a weed called "mullin", made a poltice of it and
placed it on the wound, and fed the boy chicken broth for about three weeks.
He lived and is now an elderly man.

This thread: