Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1900-03-30
HORRIBLE REMEDIES
THOSE USED BY DOCTORS IN THE
SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
Patients Cast into Wells to Cure
ConVEIsions-A ladder Used In Set
ting a DisIOcated ShOuIder-Dead
Bodies Made Into Medicine.

ConVEIsions-A Ladder Used In Set
ting a DisIocated shouIdcr-Dead
Bodies Made Into Medicine.
A fragment of a curious volume has
fallen into the hands of local physi-
clan which graphically describes the
methods of surgery of several centuries
ago. When it is considered that anaes-
thetics were unknown in those ancient
days, the modus operandi of the sur
geou of the sixteenth century must APP
pear startlingly cruel in the light Of
the present day.
The work is that of Ambrose Parey,
who in 1879, being then the much IA
nous .chirurgion" of his day. publish
cd a bulky volume which became such
an established authority and held its
place for so long time that 40 years
afterward it was translated into Eng
lish and published in London.
In his first book he considers the gen.
eral phenomenon OF the body in health
and disease. and in the chapter relat-
ing 10 temperaments and humors he
writes. IAN humor is called by physi-
clans what thing soever is liquid and
flowing in the body of living creatures
Enclosed with blood" Proceeding to
the manifold divisions of humors."
he separates them into four parts, dis
tinct in color. taste. effects and quail
ties-namely, blood. phlegm, choler and
melancholy. Exact in his subdivisions,
he says: "All men ought to think that
such humors are wont TO move at set
hours of the day as by a certain Pe-
culiar motion or tide. Therefore. the
blood flows from the ninth hour of the
night to the third hour of the day;
choler to the ninth of the day: Then
melancholy the blood flows from the
ninth hour OF the night is under the
dominion of phlegm.''
Equally curious is the following on
spirits, which he divides into ami
MALL" 'vitall' and 'naturall:"
The animal spirit hath taken hrs
seat in the brain. 1t is called animal
because ii is the life. but the chief and
prime instrument thereof. Wherefore
1t hath n most subtle and aery sub
stance. This animal spirit is made
and harbored in the windings and fold
ings of the veins and arteries of the
brain. brought thither sometimes of
the pure air or sweet vapor drawn in
by the nose in breathing. The vital
spirit is next to 1t in dignity and eX
cellency. which hath its chief mansion
in the left ventricle of the heart. The
natural spirit. If such there be any,
hath it's station in the liver and veins"
Describing certain Juggling and de-
ceitful ways of healing of cures by
such means as fear. surprise and even
by music for spider bite. the music
causing the patient to dance so Justify
that he shakes all the poison out of his
system" he sums up some of those
heroic remedies thus: Il would not
cast the patient headlong out of a.
window. but would rather cast them
sodainly. and thinking of no such
thing. into a great cistern filled with
cold water. with their heads foremost.
Neither would | take them out until
they had drunk a good quantity of
water. that by that sodain fall and
strong fear the matter causing the
frenzy might be carried from above
downward from the noble parts TO the
ignoble."
\ medicine upon which be dilates at
great length is ''mummie." referred TO
as the usual remedy for Commissions.
and be describes ii as follows:
"Mummie is a liquor flowing from
the aromatick embalmenS of dead bod
les. which becomes dry and hard" and
being ground into medicine was lad
ministered either in whole or portion
to such as have fallen from high
places, the first and last medicine of
almost all our practitioners ut this day
in such 4 case"
He also gives some grewsome facts
connected with the preparation of
''mummie" when he says: Certain of
our French apothecaries, men won
drous audacious and covetous to steal
by night the bodies of such as were
hanged and embalming them with salt
and drugs they dried them in an oven
so as TO sell them thus adulterated in
stead of true mummie. whereupon we
are thus compelled, both foolishly and
cruelty. TO devour the mangled and
putrid particles of the carcasses of the