More Billy - Old West - Medicine

Compared to today living in the 1800s had little medical care for people living in the remote places of the Old West. They was not really much if any real pain relief and if you needed an operation it was very likely you wouldn't survive! Most common illnesses such as flu and viruses could be deadly at this time if not treated right and there was also the worry of contracting something more sinister, Tuberculosis and Small Pox being the worst. Most diseases that we have cures for today could not be treated and often lead to death. Cuts and wounds that most would survive in our time proved deadly back then due to little understanding of germs and infection. Antiseptics were still rare and antibiotics unknown. Giving birth was very dangerous for women at this time. Infection and complications during and after birth could easily lead to the death of both mother and child. Children in general didn't have it easy, many died before their tenth birthday from various illnesses.

Many doctors in the west worked in very remote locations. The equipment they had to use was limited and most of the time quite primitive. They usually carried forceps, catheter, stomach pump, syringes, heating iron, various bandages, splints and a thermometer. They did not have hypodermic needles so they rubbed opium or morphine on a wound. They placed their ear on someone's chest to listen to the heart.When criminals were hung or Indians killed, some doctors took the corpses so they could study human anatomy.

Bloodletting was still a common practice at this time.

Common drugs were calomel for infections, quinine for fever, and digitalis for heart conditions. These drugs had to be ordered from the East or at least a big town so many doctors turned to nature and collected wild plants such as raspberry leaves, spearmint, peppermint, fleabane, and mustard. These plants contained similar qualities to the drugs.

Whiskey was always used as an anesthetic, it was easy to come buy and not only could it be used on wounds but the patient could drink a good amount to help relieve pain. Some doctors had to remove Indian arrows, a common injury, by cutting off the arrowhead and pulling the shaft through the body... Ouch!

Mining camps and rough towns were notorious for violence. Doctors spent much of their time patching up bullet wounds and amputating damaged limbs, some limbs were amputated with a meat saw and a butcher knife, whatever was to hand and could be used was used.Doctors also dealt with Soiled Doves who often suffered sexually transmitted diseases, particularly syphilis. Colds and flu were as common normally due to the close quarters people shared either in towns and meeting places, such as saloons.

Doctors also tended many wounds that afflicted cowboys, mainly horse related injuries such as broken legs, concussions and dislocated shoulders. Doctors used carbolic acid to clean wounds and had sutures with needles and thread in case he needed to sew any wounds closed. Some areas didn't have doctors, but only the local old woman with her folk remedies. Most of the remedies this woman offered would be old wives tales and not particularly helpful (see below for more home remedies used at the time.)

Most folks living in towns didn't visit the doctor unless they were seriously ill. Seeing a doctor cost money which most couldn't afford so home remedies were very popular as were travelling medicine shows which sold cure-alls that were all horsefeathers! Just name your problem to the colorfully dressed salesman with a charming smile and he'd promise his tonic would cure it. In fact these tonics often contained nothing but water and herbs or in some cases a more sinister cocktail of opium, cocaine, morphine and alcohol. It wasn't until 1920 that the government stepped in and began regulating all medicine, before who knew what you might be taking!

Dentists weren't really in high demand as the local barber or doctor would be expected to help with pulling a tooth or curing toothache.If you had a sore tooth the likelihood would be that it would be taken out rather than treated. Midwives or women of a town/village that had some experience attended to childbirths.

We don't recommend you try any of these cures yourself, although some are used today and do have good properties (Chamomile tea), some could turn out to be dangerous. We urge you to stick to what you know and leave this stuff where it belongs, in the past.

* Addiction to Alcohol: Eat an orange every morning and alcohol will become repulsive
* Anemia: Eat raw liver and drink fresh blood.
* Asthma - Buttercup tea
* Baldness/Thinning Hair: Smear your head with fresh cow manure.
* Bee Stings: Put honey on the affected area
* Bleeding: Wood ashes, cobwebs and flour
* Boils: Bacon rind or a poultice of bread or milk used to 'ripen' the boil.
* Bruise: Apply raw meat to the bruise. The meat will 'draw out' the bruise.
* Bullet Wound: Apply gunpowder to the wound.
* Burns: Spread a thin layer of butter of the burn or a mixture of the white of an egg and lard.
* Chapped skin: Rub with olive oil
* Cholera: Red pepper and whiskey or brandy.
* Colds: Eat a raw onion or mullein plant candy.
* Consumption: Drier climate. Cod liver oil, quinine.
* Coughs: drain the juice from baked onions and drink
* Croup: Apply a hot rag to the chest of the child.
* Cuts: Apply spiderwebs over the cut to stop bleeding
* Fevers: Sassafras tea.
* Headache: Apply brown paper soaked in vinegar to the forehead. Soak feet in hot water while drinking herb tea.
* Menstrual Cramps: Chamomile tea
* Pain: Opium, laudanum or paregotic. Willow bark tea.
* Scarlett Fever: Bacon rind, carbonized petroleum jelly, calomel and aconite to bring the fever down.
* Scurvy: Eat plenty of vegetables.
* Smallpox: Dissolved cream of tartar in a pint of water. Drink this at intervals when cold.
* Snakebites: Raw beef or slab of chicken flesh put over the bite to draw out the poison. Spurge. Whiskey.
* Sore Eyes: Bathe with tepid water or milk.
* Sore Throat: Gargle salt and vinegar, with a little cayenne pepper.
* Stomach Ache: Peppermint sucking candy
* Stomach worms: Pumpkin tea
* Sunburn: Vinegar or cucumbers applied to the burn
* Toothache: Peppermint oil applied directly to the tooth
* Typhoid: Calomel, quinine
* Vomiting: To induce vomiting hold the person (normally a child) upside down and tickle the throat with a goose feather soaked in grease.
* Whopping Cough: A syrup made from onions, garlic, honey and spirits of camphor.
* Yellow Fever: Quarantine, Quinine, sulfate of magneis ans calomel.