http://www.livescience.com/history/0...l-history.html
I can't imagine what it was like to get your leg cut off with a hacksaw before they used general anesthesia. Yow!
Quote:
On amputating a leg: "Cut quick with a crooked knife before covering the stump with the remaining skin," French medical author Joseph Charriere recommended.
On treating wounds: "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 wine kills germs in the mouth and throat.)
|