The Horror of 18th Century Surgery

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

That reminds me of the Franklin Expedition stories in the 1800s. Canned food was considered somewhat of a luxury, but it was also tainted with leached metals. The officers on the crew ate so much canned food that they became poisoned. As a result, they because mentally fatigued and lost some cognitive abilities. Then when the officers started dropping, the other crew member ate the same tainted food.

The irony was, apparently some of the Inuit who lived in the area found them and offered them food, such as; whale and seal blubber, but the crew thought that it was a trick and that the natives were trying to poison them.

It wasn't the quantity of canned food nor the fact that canned food was invariably tainted with leached metals. It's because the expedition sold out to the lowest bidder and as usual when you do that, something goes wrong (like NASA and Hubble but that's another story...). They went with the lowest cost bidder to provide them with cans and the company that did it had insufficient manpower and facilities and decided to rush production and sealed the cans very sloppily with lead solder. It's this lead that led to the poisoning of much of the crew. Even that however, would not have been so lethal had not Franklin steered the two ships into a southward ice floe during a period of global cooling and both ships were trapped for 2-3 years leading to reliance on the dwindling canned supplies and the failing of stored lemon juice (vitamin C broke down) and therefore the onset of scurvy...as well as frostbite and all the usual things. For some reason, when the crews abandoned ship to walk out of the arctic circle, they brought along all these useless Victorian relics like silverware and pictures and books and generally useless items that weighed tons. It's not known why they brought all those affectations along with them. Perhaps they provided an emotional tie to civilization or perhaps they were mentally disturbed due to high lead levels in their tissues. That in itself reminds of Robert Falcon Scott's expedition to the South Pole which doomed itself by dragging sledges of rocks and equipment and other victorian items across the snow. They died of hunger and froze to death as well.

What can I say, I'm a junkie of tragedies in history...the more morbid the better......

[ken0042]

OK, I can understand bringing silverware and art along with you- you might think it has some trade value or even sentimental value. But rocks through the Antarctic- WDF?

[tete]

What amazes me about historic surgery is the fact that people lived through this kinda of stuff. There's been skulls found centuries old with holes in them - in order to take the pressure off the skull (or release the spirits), a hole was drilled, called "trephination". And the scary thing abou this is many skulls have been found with new bone grown back in - so that means they had their skull cracked open, and lived for many years afterwards.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by tete

What amazes me about historic surgery is the fact that people lived through this kinda of stuff. There's been skulls found centuries old with holes in them - in order to take the pressure off the skull (or release the spirits), a hole was drilled, called "trephination". And the scary thing abou this is many skulls have been found with new bone grown back in - so that means they had their skull cracked open, and lived for many years afterwards.

Trepanning is more than centuries old, it's found in prehistoric skulls of the earliest human ancestors from 6500 BC. Maybe some guy had a migraine couldn't stand it anymore so he had his buddies drill a hole in his head?

It seems to be generally survivable (and a real medical procedure still to this day). Life was rough in that era. Nasty falls, battles with nature, or the usual brutal fighting and warfare with other humans usually led to blunt trauma to the head and bones. Life expectancy was like 25 years.

[tete]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Trepanning is more than centuries old, it's found in prehistoric skulls of the earliest human ancestors from 6500 BC. Maybe some guy had a migraine couldn't stand it anymore so he had his buddies drill a hole in his head?

It seems to be generally survivable (and a real medical procedure still to this day). Life was rough in that era. Nasty falls, battles with nature, or the usual brutal fighting and warfare with other humans usually led to blunt trauma to the head and bones. Life expectancy was like 25 years.

Sorry, when I said centuries old, I meant what you clarified - wasn't paying attention as I typed.

[Daradon]

Reminds me of the old SNL skit with Bill Murray as a barber/surgeon (which wasn't far form the fact in those days) curing everyone with a bloodletting.

Last guy comes in, having been hit by a carriage, bleeding profusely...

'You'll feel much better after a good bloodletting!'

'But I'm already bleeding!'

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Reminds me of the old SNL skit with Bill Murray as a barber/surgeon (which wasn't far form the fact in those days) curing everyone with a bloodletting.

Last guy comes in, having been hit by a carriage, bleeding profusely...

'You'll feel much better after a good bloodletting!'

'But I'm already bleeding!'

Oh man, I wish I could find that episode somewhere. Barber-Surgeon makes me LOL

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Oh man, I wish I could find that episode somewhere. Barber-Surgeon makes me LOL

Haha, yeah I looked for it to post here, but older stuff much harder to find then youtubing something from 2006.

Circa 1978. I was a fetus then, lol.

[burnin_vernon]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Reminds me of the old SNL skit with Bill Murray as a barber/surgeon (which wasn't far form the fact in those days) curing everyone with a bloodletting.

Last guy comes in, having been hit by a carriage, bleeding profusely...

'You'll feel much better after a good bloodletting!'

'But I'm already bleeding!'

You mean Steve Martin

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/77/77rtheodoric.phtml

[LChoy]

The use of leeches and maggots to clean open wounds and remove dead tissue is making a come back in modern medicine. Not for the squemish though