The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1900-01-18
HORRIBLE REMEDIES
thoSE USED BY DOCTORS IN THE
M SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

A fragment OF curious volume has
fsllen into the hands of local physi-
4ian which graphically describes the
methods of surgery of several centuries
0go. When it is considered that an@s-
1hctics were unknown In those ancient
dAys, the modus operand of the sur
EeOn of the sixteenth century must APP
ear startlngly cruel in the light of
Ahe present day.
sThe work Is that OF Ambrose Parey,
who in 1919, being then the much ia
nous "chrurglon" of his day, publish
"a bulky volume which became such
" m established authority and held its
place for so long time that 20 years
afterward 1t was translated into Eng
lIsh and published In London.
In his first book he considers the gen
ernl phenomenon OF the body in health
and disease, and In the chapter relat-
ing to temperaments and humors he
writes, AN humor is called by physi-
efhns what thing soever is liquid and
Moving In the body Of living creatures
1Rclosed with blood" Proceeding to
the manifold divisions of humors,"
ne separates them into four parts, dis
tiDct in color. taste, effects and quail
ties-namely, blood, phlegm, choler and
mefancholy. Exact in his subdivisions.
Ae says: "All men ought to think that
Gach humors are wont to move at set
nours of the day as by n certain pc
tuliar motion or tide. Therefore. the
Mood flows from the ninth hour of the
night to the third hour of the cay:
ehOler 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 OF
spirits, which be divides into AM
mail" vital" and ''naturall"
NH"The animal spirit hath taken his
seat in the brain. 1t Is called animal
because 1t is the life, but the chief and
prime instrument thereof. Wherefore
Il hath most subtle and aery sub
stance. This animal spirit Is made
and harbored in the windings and fold
1nss of the veins and arteries of the
brain. brought thither sometimes Of
1the pure air or sweet vapor drawn in
4 by the nose in breathing. The vital
Spirit is next to it in dignity and eX-
(elleucy, which hath its chief mansion
N the left ventricle of the heart. The
natural spirit If such there be any,
hath its station in the liver and veins"
fF Describing certain juggling and de-
eeitful ways of healing of cures by
such means as fear, surprise and even
by music for spider bite. the music
M ,Sfn IN rnt m Ionnn CT I1ctilv
that he shakes all the poison out of his
6ystem," he sums up some of those
q heroic remedies thus: IL would not
east the patient headlong out of a
& window, but would rather cast them
Dodainly. and thinking of no such
thing, into great cistern filed with
%$cold water. with their heads foremost.
N{Neither would | take them out until
they had drunk good quantity Of
swater. that by that sodan fall and
Strong fear the matter causing the
tfrenzy might be carried from above
,downward fDm the noble parts to the
jgnoble."
.f \ medicine upon which he dllates at
Wsgreat length Is ''mummie," referred to
n rs the usual remedy for contuslons.
(, and he describes it as follows:
nj "Mummie Is a liquor flowing from
Che aromatick embalmens of dead bod
4 tdes, which becomes dry and hard and
jbeing ground into medicine was "ad-
n ministered either in whole or portion
10 such as have fallen from high
4 places. the first and last medicine of
almost all our practitioners at this day
In such n case"
Nt He also gives some grewsome facts
5connected with the preparation of
.&f mumme" when he says: Certain of
'tOur French apothecaries, men Won
y itirous audacious and covetous to steal
Il ny night the bodies of such as were
Managed and embalming them with salt
Wand drugs they dried them in an oven
tso as to sell them thus adulterated in
Asstead Of true mummie, whereupon we
are thus compelled, both foolshly and
cruelty. to devour the mangled and
'Mputrid particles Of the carcasses Of the
basest people Of Egypt, or Of such as
4 are hanged, as though there were no
other way to help or recover one bruis-
ed with fall from high place.
81 Il have not thought 1t tit In this
4 place" he says. ITO omit the industry
t8of Nicholas Picart. the Duke of Guise,
his surgeon. who. being called to GER
tain countryman to set his shoulder
being out Of joint, and finding none In
gHthe place besides the patient and his
twife. who might assist him In this
||work. he put the patient bound after
Rthe aforementioned manner, to a ladder.
then Immediately he tyed a state at
|lt the lower end Of the ligature, which
tt}was fastened about the patients arm
above his elbow, then put 1t so tyed un-
lder one of the steps Of the ladder as
Dow as he could and got astride there
3Ynpon and safe thereon with his whole
and at the same instant made
bis wife pluck the stool from under his
$eet, which, being done. the bone pres
ently came lnto its place."
W He Also gravely discusses witches
snd witchcraft, the birth OF monsters
with horns, hoofs and wings. ascrblng
their birth to the master of evil. and