The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1935-04-12

Greek historian, whom everyone still
regards as a most accurate observer
and recorder of what he saw, reported
that in Persia: "The citizen who has
leprosy or the white sickness may not
come into town or consort with other
Persians. They say that he is so Of
fiicted because he has sinned in some
way against the sum-"
But things weren't so much better
in Europe or the other countries in
western Europe. Doctors did their
best, according to the knowledge they
had. But one must remember that our
knowledge of anaesthesias and germs
and antiseptics and disinfectants have
all come since 1916 when ether was
first used.
Before the days of ether, the operat-
ing rooms were filled with the groans
and shrieks of the unfortunate victims.
Often the noise and suffering were so
great that students would faint.
The only way patients could forget
their pain was in sleep-if they could
sleep. Shakespeare says in Cynibeline:
HE that sleeps feels not the tooth
ache"
Speaking of toothache, it was the
BARRIERS who generally extracted teeth.
And in Shakespeare's day the BARRIERS
had custom of having musical instru-
ments in their shop windows-maybe
it's from that custom that we derive
the term barber shop chords" and
then they would tie the teeth they had
drawn to the end of the lutte strings.
But one of the most famous physicians
in medical history, Avlcenna, whose
Canon was a text book in medical
schools as late as the Fifteenth CEN
fury, 'loosened teeth by means Of the
fat Of tree toads in preference to pull
ing them"
The BARRIERS were the surgeons just
about everywhere. Indeed the sur
geon was an apprentice to the barber
shops. In England in 1910, union
of barber surgeons and guild surgeons
known as the Company of BARRIERS and
Surgeons was founded. A practicing
surgeon didn't begin to have the social
standing of a physician proper. His
business was to do blood-letting and to
open assesses and to dress wounds.
He wasn't allowed to prescribe internal
Y medicine.
In Holland the barber surgeons used
to remove glands or sebaceous cysts
from various portions of the head and
neck. "He has stone in the head"
meaning "he is crack brained" was a
common saying In Holland in the Six
teenth aud Seventeenth centuries. So
cutting the stones from ones head"
was supposed to be curative for mental
deficiency.
People everywhere believed In
charms. In many places people dared
not be bled without consulting the
stars. Those who couldn't afford as
trologers consulted almanacs printed
for that purpose. In England the mere
touch of the sovereign's hand was a
cure for scrofula. Kings Evil was an
other name for this affliction. Perhaps
a circumstance that helped maintain
the royal touch as cure was the fact
that it was always accompanied by the
gift of a gold piece to the patient from
the sovereign. Charles II in % years
touched more than $4,000 for Kings
Evil. Queen Anne was the last to
practice the royal touch. Samuel
johnson, the great photographer. was
touched by Anne.
But there were some queer remedies
in this country, too. In Governor
Winthrop's day, a well-known woman
healer had two favorite recipes for
curing jaundice: In one she put lemon,
tumeric and saffron; the other consist
ed Of 20 head lice mixed with nutmeg
and sugar and powder Of tumeric. And
many believed that jaundice could be
cured by the patient looking at yellow
objects.
Hydrophobia was one of the great
scourges of the Eighteenth and early
Nineteenth centuries. Here is rem
edy which the legislature of the state
of New York bought from a Mr.. Crous
for the sum Of $1,000. 1t consisted Of
on ounce of the jaw bone of dog.
burned and pulverized or pounded to
a fine dust; the false tongue of a
newly foaled colt which was dried and
pulverized, and finally one scruple of
verdegris, which was raised on the
surface of old copper after lying in old
earth, the copper Of George I and
George II being the unrest and rest.
These ingredients we're mixed -ogether,
and an adult was given teaspoonful
of 1t daily.
Still the physicians of these by-gone
times were no fools. They had lot of
knowledge of human nature.
For instance George Cheyne, English
physician born In 1871, said: "Too
great nicely and exactness about every
minute circumstance that may impair
ones health is to die for fear of dying"
That holds true to this day.
WnuAA~m FTulnm