Southern Medicine and Southern Medical Botany of the 19th Century

[Guest guest]

Yo Anya,

 

> Well, I've tried to send this twice to Butch, but we know superonline.com

> is screwing him up bigtime... then I realized the 'herbs' part of this

> would be appropriate to share with this group:

 

Got it .. first on this list .. then later it came in to my inbox. :-p

 

> Hi butch

>

> Someone posted a link to the Porcher Medical Botany book, a Southern

> classic. I thought you'd like to see it, so here's the link:

>

> http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/porcher/porcher.html

>

> Full of historical ethnobotanical info I'm sure you'll love.

 

Its very interesting .. and I hope to have time to skim the entire

thing. Thankee for posting it.

 

Herbal medicine was important during that period cause the concept of

antiseptic surgery was unknown .. and mortality rates for amputations

(which was what surgery was about due to the wounds caused by miniballs)

was high .. up to 85% for limbs amputated close to the body. That and

the fact that battlefield surgery was a new thing to begin with. Troops

were left to fend for themselves as far as finding some kind of medicine

to stop infection or gangrene. I've read they would stuff any kind of

grass they could find around wounds hoping to save their lives.

 

But even then they were the lucky ones cause at least they had a chance.

Those with head, belly or chest wounds almost always died .. they

weren't even given priority by the surgeons.

 

Shortage of medicines resulted in a lot of research and substitution

going down in the South. Witch women and Indian healers were used as

often as they could be found .. or pressed into service and they were

generally more successful than the doctors in saving lives.

 

Both sides had few trained surgeons .. they learned on the job. The

North had roughly 11,000 surgeons during the entire conflict .. but only

500 or so had performed surgery prior to the conflict .. the South had

less than a third of that number and far fewer who had performed

surgery. But back then medicine was practiced by those who could heal so

training was more apprenticeship than anything else. But on the

Northern side its written that there were a a heckuva lot of politically

appointed doctors who had NO MEDICAL TRAINING OR EXPERIENCE!

 

But .. these fellers worked 2-3 days without breaks .. twas necessary.

And they learned their jobs.

 

There is an INTERESTING article at this URL .. a paper presented to the

American Pharmaceutical Association in 1898. Herbalists will enjoy it a

lot cause it covers the whole range of wild and cultivated plants used

by the South for various ailments during that period.

 

http://www.civilwarhome.com/drugsshsp.htm

 

One thing I might have mentioned before .. I did on one list .. was that

while in Vicksburg, Mississippi .. I went through the Confederate Museum

on the hotel grounds. They had medical tools and such but the thing

that caught my eye was two different types of Pennyroyal .. a salve and

a box of powdered leaves. I knew Pennyroyal was a old-time local cure

for a number of ailments .. and before white man came the Cherokee had

named the area now known as Land Between the Lakes .. twixt Cumberland

and Tennessee Rivers, what was later translated into English to mean

" Mint Meadow " cause of the great amount of wild Pennyroyal there. I was

told that Pennyroyal was used for skin lesion and stomach problems as

well as colds and female problems .. and that it was a fairly common

household item back then.

 

And then while out in the mountains of New Mexico I came across an old

store in Mogollon that had a sign in it .. took photos of it up close ..

says " License for the sale of untaxed opium " and the fee printed on the

license was $1. Old feller there told me a lot of good stuff about the

history of that town and the epidemics of this and that in old times.

 

Something that will kick off next year and probably last for a couple of

years will be the Bicentennial Celebration of Lewis & Clark's Corps of

Discovery journey. During that period, Meriweather Lewis had the main

mission of identifying and cataloging new critters and plants .. and if

possible, learning of the medicinal properties of the plants from local

tribes. All in all they discovered 122 animals and 178 plants that most

white men had never seen .. obviously, some trappers who had been in the

areas had seen them but they'd not been recorded. Louisville Zoo has

long had an exhibition on this .. and special attention is given to a

giant Osage Orange tree on the path cause it was from cuttings they sent

back to President Jefferson that we find so many in the East today.

 

There's supposed to be quite a few exhibitions kicking off late next

year

and from one article I read, there will be a lot of emphasis placed on

the wild plants they discovered.

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

 

PS .. on that question below on tonics .. when I was growing up we were

fed a lot of tonics .. and though most of them didn't taste so good the

effects were good cause they were mostly made with whiskey. ;-p

 

> Here's the entire post from the herbalist:

>

> Whoo-hooo....I am so excited. Maybe I am the last person to discover this

> resource, but I just found Porcher online!!! I have always wanted to get a

> look at Porcher because so many other more recent herbals reference his work,

> and because he is talking about MY plants for once! I have read about half of

> it now and it is fascinating. While Porcher is still practicing in the time of

> medical mercury and bloodletting, he focuses here on botanical remedies for

> the confederate troops in the field. Lots of malaria and dysentery, but

> some gems as well. For example, his discussion of black cohosh is

> excellent. I am still confused by his use of the term " tonic " -- it

> appears that he uses it mostly to refer to astringents?