A chilling article that gives actual excerpts from a medical handbook from nearly 300 years ago. Reading things like this make me shake my head at people who claim they dearly wish to have been born centuries ago. <br>
<br>22nd century doctors that still have human minds and emotions will recoil in horror at the crude techniques shown in our current medical tomes.<br><br>I consider myself to have been born too early. Anyone else?<br><br>
John Grigg <br><br><a href="http://www.livescience.com/history/090128-medical-history.html">http://www.livescience.com/history/090128-medical-history.html</a><br><br><h1>Book Tells Horror of 18th Century Surgery</h1>
<p>By <a href="http://www.livescience.com/php/contactus/author.php?r=rb">Robert Roy Britt</a>, Editorial Director</p>
<p>posted: 28 January 2009 11:18 am ET</p>
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widely circulated photograph is of a re-enactment of the first
operation under anesthesia on Oct. 16, 1846 in the operating room of
the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. Credit: Library of Congress</div>
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<dd>This
widely circulated photograph is of a re-enactment of the first
operation under anesthesia on Oct. 16, 1846 in the operating room of
the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. Credit: Library of Congress</dd><dt><a href="http://www.livescience.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?s=history&c=news&l=on&pic=rbritt-headshot-02.jpg&cap=In+The+Water+Cooler%2C+Robert+Roy+Britt+takes+a+daily+look+at+what+people+are+talking+about+in+the+world+of+science+and+beyond.+%5B%3Ca+href%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.livescience.com%2Ftopic%2Fwater-cooler%22%3EWater+Cooler+Archive%3C%2Fa%3E%5D&title="><img src="http://i.livescience.com/images/rbritt-headshot-01.jpg" alt="rbritt-headshot-01.jpg"></a></dt>
<dd>In The Water Cooler, Robert Roy Britt takes a daily look at what people are talking about in the world of science and beyond. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/topic/water-cooler">Water Cooler Archive</a>]</dd></dl>
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<p>
We all know medicine has come a long way in the past
century. Now a 300-year-old guidebook, recently found on a dusty
shelf, reveals how horrible things were way back then.
</p>
<p>
The book, written in 1712 and titled "Treatise of the Operations of Surgery," gives
advice on such horrific procedures as amputations — before anesthesia was
invented. The publication's discovery was <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1130463/Revealed-The-18th-century-guide-amputations-operations-medical-tips.html">reported today</a> by the <em>Daily Mail</em>. Here are some of the gory details within, according to the British newspaper:
</p>
<p>
<strong>On amputating a leg: </strong>"Cut quick with a crooked
knife before covering the stump with the remaining skin," French
medical author Joseph Charriere recommended.
</p>
<p>
<strong>On treating wounds:</strong> "If the wound be only in the
flesh you may bathe it with brandy and cover the part with a compressed
dip in a warm wine quickened with spir vini," Charriere wrote. "If the
wound is to the nervous parts you can dissolve sugar candy, camphire
and myrrh in it." (Charriere was kind of onto something: A study
in 2007 found <a href="http://www.livescience.com/health/070705_wine_mouthwash.html">wine kills germs</a> in the mouth and throat.)
</p>
<p>
<strong>On the best time for surgery:</strong> "Either Spring or
Autumn," Charriere advised. "In the Spring, the blood is revived with
greater heat whilst in the Autumn blood is calm."
</p>
<p>
Surgery was a last resort in the 18th century that often resulted in infection and death anyway.
</p>
<p>
"Having a limb sawn off without <a href="http://www.livescience.com/culture/081106-conscious-anesthesia.html">anesthetic</a>
is just unimaginable," Howard Ellis, professor of surgery at the
Westminster Medical School and author of "A History of Surgery," told the newspaper.
</p>
<p>
Things changed in 1846 with the use of general anesthesia and again
in 1867 when antiseptics to control infection came into widespread use.
(Interestingly, even today scientists do not fully understand <a href="http://www.livescience.com/culture/081106-conscious-anesthesia.html">how anesthesia works</a>.) Meanwhile, the <a href="http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/050519_morphine_200.html">harnessing of morphine</a> as a painkiller in the mid-1800s was a big relief, too.
</p>
<p>
"The book would have proved invaluable to surgeons in its day — it
would have been like a bible for them to use and refer to when
operating," said Charles Hanson of Hansons Auctioneers.
</p>
<p>
The book will be auctioned next month.
</p>
<ul><li><a href="http://www.livescience.com/health/050419_maggots.html">Maggots and Leeches: Old Medicine is New</a></li><li><a href="http://www.livescience.com/history/060405_neolithic_dentist.html">Yeeowww! Prehistoric Dentists Used Stone Drills</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.livescience.com/health/050525_music_surgery.html">Music During Surgery Reduces Sedation Needs</a></li></ul>
<p>
<em>Robert Roy Britt is the Editorial Director of <a href="http://www.imaginova.com/">Imaginova</a>. In this column, <a href="http://www.livescience.com/topic/water-cooler">The Water Cooler</a>, he takes a daily look at what people are talking about in the world of science and beyond.</em>
</p><br>