Do or Die, A Physician in the Kings' Army
By Jeff Glass, field surgeon in the mid-1700's, as told to Gail Lang

I'm a neurologist by trade, so coming into this living history group as a physician enabled me to actually talk the talk and fully understand what I was saying.

The tools of a physician in the 18th century help to demonstrate the different mind set between then and now. We're a very comfort-oriented culture. In the 18th century, if I had a rotten tooth, I'd let them drill out the cavity, with no more than a slug of rum to numb the pain. It was a horrid, painful procedure no matter how it was done. Today, we would allow our teeth to fall out before enduring such pain; but they didn't do that. You simply endured the pain of life. There was no alternative. That was how life was. To the people of that time, pain was a part of life. People often forget how things really have changed and progressed over the years.

I have some extraordinary tools here to show. If I might have a willing patient, I could show how they were used. Most of the surgical instruments on the table were used for amputating an arm or leg. The capital knives were used for cutting through the flesh to get to the bone; the larger one was used for the thigh and the smaller one for the arm. If a soldier were shot through the hand, missing the bone, it would only need to be cleaned, wrapped and treated as a flesh wound. But if it had shattered the bone, they had no way to set a shattered bone so they would have to amputate. After the patient consumed a bit of rum (if he were lucky enough some was available) to help numb him, he would then be given a bullet to bite on and we would begin. Some bullets have actually been found with teeth marks on them from some Revolutionary soldier undergoing an amputation.

Now, for those stout enough to continue, the young soldiers arm must come off! The tourniquet is tightened to control the bleeding. Then (slowly reaching for the smaller of the capital knives), we would use this knife to cut the meat down to the bone. The ligament knife is used next. It is similar to a steak knife and is used to clean off the bone.

Jeff demonstrates the procedures of amputation. Click the images to see larger views

This all sounds horridly graphic, and I don't mean to overwhelm you, but it was medicine in the 18th century: full of pain, and not all patients survived. Fortunately, we've progressed over the years.

Looking at other things on my table, we have a few items that are still used today.

• Ipecac - to induce vomiting.

• Rhubarb - a mild diuretic that also makes a great pie!

• Honey and Vanilla - Without any particular healing powers of their own but used to sweeten the medicine. Honey was also used in certain poultice recipes.

• Mercury is an interesting item. It's a poison and also notably heavy. It's a metal that happens to be liquid at room temperature. Mercury was used for treating syphilis. Mixed with oil, you could hold it in your mouth and it would cause you to salivate. At least that's what they tell me, I've never tried it myself though.

Mercury was also used in the felting process. One of the common areas of felting was the making of men's hats. Over the years hat makers got mercury in their blood stream. It's a neurotoxin and would cause them to go insane. That's where the expression "mad as a hatter" came from. They really were crazy, from the mercury used in hat making.

The elemental form of mercury is quite safe, while the organic form is very deadly. If the elemental form were dropped to the ground, over time, it would seep into the ground, mix with the organic matter and become organic, poisoning all that it came in contact with. Third-World countries today use mercury to leach out gold. If you were to drop a gold ring or other gold into mercury it would turn to liquid immediately. It dissolves gold. They filter mercury through tons of dirt, get the dirt out of the way and burn off the mercury leaving the gold behind. The problem is this releases mercury vapors into the atmosphere.

This only goes to show that historically people weren't always right in their methods any more than we are now. But by studying history we can learn from their mistakes.