Wednesday, May 4, 2016

17th century Medicine by Katherine Pym



Healing the Brain

 While researching my 1660 novels, I come across some very interesting information. The most unique is medicine. Even though the cures were most often worse than the disease, from journals of the time people gave their healers an optimum of trust.

A Surgeon at Work.
At the beginning of the 17th century, Barbers and Surgeons were in demand, but by the end of the century, Physicians took over the bulk of medicine. They were even allowed to enter the birthing chamber.

London Air:
A few great thinkers felt the ‘airs’ in the city were toxic, and a cause for the many illnesses that plagued the environs. To remove the vile odors that poisoned the city, one suggested a barge be filled with freshly cut onions and transported downriver to the sea. The stink would follow the onions like a cloud of bees after their queen.

Another use was to leave peeled onions on the ground for several days. It would soak up all the nearby illnesses. Herbs scattered in doorways and window sills were popular to keep fevers from entering the house. Pomanders filled with spices were shaken by men and women in crowded halls and markets.

In 1664 Amsterdam suffered from the ravages of the bubonic plague. It was only a matter of time before it sailed the North Sea and found its way to London. Superstition and false treatments (expensive too) ruled the day.

Smoking a pipe, Sir Walter Raleigh being doused.
During the London plague of 1665, an edict stated the lanes must be swept of cats and dogs (killed & immediately buried), for they could carry the deadly scythe. Tobacco kept the plague at bay, and was smoked or chewed. Children were whipped if they did not pull on their pipes. Burning brimstone helped, and discharging a musket or pistol in the house cleaned unwholesome airs from the premises. Many wore lucky charms around their necks.

Piss Pot Science: a diagnosis of illness by looking at someone’s urine. The patient can be within reach or elsewhere. It was diagnosis by proxy.

Barbers pulled teeth. They could also bleed a customer, i.e., leech blood to balance the fluids and cool dark bile within the body. To be bled a cup of blood would cost you five shillings. Barbers were not allowed to do surgery, but they often disregarded this rule.  

A medicine: A draught of wormwood (absinthe) with white wine and sheep’s trittles (dung) were infused together. Then the apothecary would add powdered eggshells to the mixture. My sources did not state what this would cure.
More meds: drugs that came from the apothecary could have these ingredients in them—moss, smoked horses’ testicles, May dew, and henbane.

Other cures:
One must sing and dance before the victim of a tarantula bite.
When in bed and fearful of getting ill, have someone tie your hands under the covers. 
The king’s hands held sacred cures. When he touched you, your scrofula would be cured. Touching an executed man’s hand would also cure scrofula, and other ailments.
Rub veal lard on injured parts of your body.
It was good to tie a newly dead pigeon to a patient’s foot. This released poisons from the affected person through its feathers into the dead bird’s body.
If you had the pox (syphilis), you could not get the plague.

Things to do & avoid:
Sweet potatoes bring on wind and lust.
Wear a cloth on the belly to keep from getting cold.
Carry signs of the zodiac to ward off the plague.

Weather:
A green winter (warm) will cause illness.
Do not eat fruit during a warm summer. It will give you a deadly fever.

The sale of fruits was prohibited during plagues. L. Riverius, in The Practice of physic (1672), said, “In summertime crude humors breed... by eating of fruits, and over much drinking which being mixed with choler do breed bastard Tertians.’” (a type of malarial fever)

Mercury was used for almost everything, especially syphilis.
Turpentine was formed into syrups and pills. Easily obtained, it was a solution to many problems. 
Cut a sick child’s hair, put the strands between two pieces of bread; then give it to the first dog you see. This will cause the child’s illness to transfer into that of the dog.
Tobacco also kept tuberculosis (consumption) at bay. Initially called the ‘white plague’, TB gained prevalence during the 17th century. Thomas Willis came to the conclusion all lung diseases would mutate into consumption. He blamed this on the higher intake of sugar and acidity in the blood.

Charms & Good Luck pieces:
Grey cat’s skin=remedy for whooping cough
Key attached to rope=wards off witches
Coins=brings wealth
Iron pyrite covered acorns=prevents lightning strikes.
Hares foot=cures the colic. When it is made into a glister of honey and salt, it “purgeth the guts of slime & filth.”

Due to a large amount of meat in the 17th century diet, constipation was an issue. People would set aside a day to purge, take a physic and sit near the potty-chair. When things got bad, you’d resort to a clyster or enema.

A Physician's Tools
One enema recipe: ale, a fair amount of sugar, and butter. Recipes such as this or warm water in a plunger would be inserted into the anus. With use of a pump, these solutions would be injected into the colon. Not so different from this day and age, but God only knew what was in the ‘warm water’, which came either from the conduits along Cheapside, or more than likely, the Thames, a stinkpot of offal and sometimes a receptacle for dead bodies.

Women’s illnesses:
In the mid-16th century, a physician described the green sickness an ailment of virgins.  Young women would suffer from lethargy and dietary changes. By the late 17th century the disease was considered a hysterical woman’s ailment. A man could be the source of the cure, though. He would have sex with the suffering (chaste & virginal) woman.

Another male diagnosis on the subject of women’s heath was the wandering womb. The physician Aretaeus of Cappadocia said the womb was “’an animal within an animal,’ an organ that ‘moved of itself hither and thither in the flanks.’” The womb would bang into all sorts of internal organs, and sometimes, even make its way into the brain, pushing aside grey matter. To get the woman with child was the only cure; if the woman was celibate or a virgin, so much the better. 

A Treatment for Mental Maladies.  One was to strap a poor fellow to a board and slide his head into an oven constructed like a large beehive. Other holes were drilled around the top of this oven. The fire within this beehive sort of structure would purge the bad humors and make one well again. Not likely he’d survive the fire and smoke inhalation, though. Sad business, that.

~*~*~*~*~
Many thanks to my notes collected over the years,
Culpeper, Nathanial, Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, and

  
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Monday, May 2, 2016

CHOCOLATE AND COMFORT FOOD - MARGARET TANNER



COMFORT FOOD – MARGARET TANNER
Comfort food what is it? Of course, food that makes you comfortable, happy and content. A reward for doing something well, or a panacea for all the trials and tribulations you have had to put up with? No matter what excuse we use, and I have used them all i.e. if something good has happened to me, I reward myself with chocolate. On the other hand, if something bad has happened to me and I need cheering up, I reward myself with a chocolate.

What is my favourite food you might ask? Well, being a chocaholic, you know what I am going to say -  Chocolate, closely followed by biscuits (or as American’s say, cookies). My hips bear witness to this addiction of mine.

My favourite chocolate is milk chocolate, followed by dark chocolate, (which scientists are now saying is good for you, I could have told them that), and white chocolate. I have to confess I am not a great fan of white chocolate, and as much as it pains me to admit it, I find it too sweet and sickly.

I prefer a plain chocolate bar, but I do enjoy a chocolate bar with peppermint or honeycomb in it.

Now biscuits. I enjoy most of them, particularly chocolate coated biscuits, but my favourite are ANZAC biscuits.

In 1915, these biscuits were baked by mothers and sisters and sent in food parcels to troops serving on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey.  The soldiers were members of an expeditionary force, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACS). Four of my novels are set against a background of World War 1.

ANZAC BISCUITS:

Ingredients:
125g (4 oz) butter, 1 tablespoon golden syrup, 2 tablespoons boiling water, 1 ½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda (baking powder), 1 cup rolled oats, ¾ cup desiccated coconut, 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar.

Method:
Melt butter and golden syrup over low heat. Add boiling water mixed with bicarbonate of soda.  Pour into mixed dried ingredients and mix well.

Drop teaspoonfuls of mixture on to greased baking trays, leaving room for spreading.

Bake in pre-heated slow oven (150C/300F) for 20 minutes. Cool on trays for a few minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool.

Store in an airtight container.  Makes about 45.

DARING MASQUERADE:
When Harriet Martin masquerades as a boy to help her shell-shocked brother in 1916, falling in love with her boss wasn’t part of the plan.













Sunday, May 1, 2016

BOUDICA, WARRIOR QUEEN by Shirley Martin


Throughout  past centuries, the island of Britain has endured successive waves of invaders.  First came the Celts, then the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings, and finally the Normans.  All of these groups settled in Britain and permanently altered life on the island.  (Here we will use Celt  and Briton interchangeably.)

Around  3,500 B.C. it was the Celts who first  cultivated land and raised crops.  They spoke a Celtic language.  Their chariots were made of wicker, light and springy. Theirs was an Iron Age civilization, considered  backward  by the Romans who landed  on the island in 43 A.D.  At the time of the Roman invasion, Britain was  populated  by Celtic tribes.  One tribe was the Iceni who lived in what is now Norfolk.  The Iceni were Boudica’s tribe, relatively isolated and culturally backward.

Into this Celtic-speaking, backward country, the Romans came with their legions in 43 A.D.  Many tribes, especially those with strong trading contacts, welcomed the Romans or at least submitted without a fight.  Other tribes fought and were  defeated.  The Iceni of Norfolk submitted.  In due time, the British kings placed themselves under the protection of the Roman Empire.  Among these kings was Prasutagus of the Iceni.  In the circumstances of his deal with the Romans lies the origin of the great revolt of 60 A.D.  Prasutagus’s wife was Boudica.  (Her name means Victoria.)  The Iceni were relatively isolated, cut off behind the forests of Suffolk and Norfolk.

The Romans let the Iceni  retain some privileges  and a token independence in return for a payment of tribute and disbursements.

In time, many tribes came to resent Roman rule, especially when the Romans forbade them to carry arms except for hunting weapons.  In 50 A.D. the Iceni were the first people to rebel, and they immediately sought help from their neighbors.  The revolt was a minor affair but was symptomatic of Celtic resentment against Roman rule.

What is known today as Colchester was a site chosen by the Romans as a model town.  However, this meant that the Romans took land away from the Celts who needed that land to grow crops.  Towns were an innovation in British life in the 50s and were unknown before the Roman conquest.  High Street in Colchester was the main shopping center, then as now.

Most of what we know as Boudica’s rebellion we learn from Tacitus, a Roman historian.
Amazon

Prasutagus died in 60 A.D.  After he died, Roman agents moved into Iceni  country and plundered the royal  household.  Boudica was flogged and her daughters given to Roman slaves to be raped.   This  prompted  the Iceni  revolt, and other tribes joined them.  Colchester was the first object of this revolt, and isolated Roman  settlers on their farms were the first to be murdered.  The Iceni began a reign of terror.

The Roman governor, Suetonius, could not come to help the Roman settlers, for he was far away, attacking the druidic stronghold on the island of Anglesey.

Boudica surrounded Colchester and  burned the town.  With their great supply of fine horses, the Iceni and their allies moved quickly.  They destroyed other towns and settlements.  They moved south and attacked London, a Roman creation.

After the Roman governor, Suetonius, destroyed the druidic stronghold, he rushed to aid his fellow Romans.  He realized that London could not be saved.  The Iceni  continued with their terror tactics, cutting throats, hanging, burning and crucifying.

With London destroyed,  Boudica had reached a moment of decision.  What should she do now?  She decided to follow Suetonius and attempt to deal a decisive blow.

After the fall of London, Suetonius fell back on a base, where he would find the reinforcements he’d already ordered.

At the final  battle, the Roman numbers may have been around 7,000 to 8,000 legionaries, with 4,000 auxiliary and cavalry.  In front of them, the British on foot and on horses spread over a wide area and kept up a terrific racket to frighten the Romans.  They were so confident of victory that they stationed their wives and families to watch the slaughter.

We don’t know for sure the numbers of the British army; it has been estimated at 100,000.  Some say they numbered 1,000,000.  We can say with confidence that the Romans were heavily outnumbered.

Both leaders gave pep talks to their followers, Boudica to the British and Suetonius to the Romans.  We don’t know for sure what Boudica said to her warriors, but most likely Boudica taunted  the men with these words: “Win the battle or perish.  That’s what I, a woman, will do.  You men can live on in slavery if that’s what you want.”

We are more certain of Suetonius’s words to the Romans, for most likely his talk was recorded by Agricola, the father-in-law of Tacitus.  “Ignore the racket made by these savages.  There are more women than men in their ranks.  They’re not soldiers; they’re not even properly equipped.  We’ve beaten them before, and when they see our weapons  and feel  our spirit they’ll  crack.  Stick together.  Throw the javelins, then push forward.  Knock them  down with your shields and finish them off with your swords.  Forget about booty.  Just win, and you’ll have the lot. “

A brave and gallant woman, Boudica was no strategist, nor were the other Britons.  Here, the Britons had no chance, in spite of their superior numbers.  In fact, their numbers made the situation worse.  Also, they had no  body armor, no  protection against the javelins thrown at them.   Driven against their carts, the Britons were slaughtered, even when they tried to surrender.  The Romans were mad with blood lust, driven by revenge.  With no means of escape, men, women, children and pack animals were killed.  Tacitus gives the number at 80,000.  The Romans lost 400.

Realizing defeat, Boudica poisoned herself and was buried secretly with great honor.  Famine, devastation and slavery was the lot of the remaining Iceni.

The Romans remained in Britain for another four-hundred years.


My comment:  It’s ironic that the Romans considered the Celts as culturally backward.  It was they (the Romans) who held their bloody shows in the arena, when gladiators fought each other to the death, or battled wild animals.  Think of Nero’s persecution of the early Christians, when even young children were burned to death.

For that matter, it was the Celts who invented soap (sopa.) while the Romans applied oil and scraped it off their skin.)


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