8 Oct 2008
Medical Instruments - Not for the Faint-Hearted
An exhibition at Caerphilly Castle shows some of the not so nice aspects of the Middle and Early Modern Ages: medical instruments. Some of them might look more like torture devices, and if you consider that anaesthesia was pretty much inexistant except for the rare and expensive case of access to opiates from the East, treatments like amputations or later, the extraction of a bullet from a wound, must have been a horrible experience for the patient. Nor do those enema syringes look invitating. *grin* Enema and bloodletting were pretty common due to the theory of humorism which requiered the four 'humors', the body fluids blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile to be in an equilibrum, and that many illnesses were caused by one of them dominating the others. Hence the purges.
Another view of Caerphilly Castle
As I already mentioned, the day I visited Caerphilly Castle there were fencing demonstrations, archers and musketeers in the yard, but entertainment was also going on in the great hall. The time was Civil War, not really Medieaval, but it was very interesting. Too bad I forgot to grab a flyer of the reenactment group.
The Great Hall, interior
One lady made butter (tasted yummy), another showed how to card and spin wool, a third made soaps and scented lotions, to name some examples. One of the guys was a surgeon, and he brought some tools of his trade. Ouwie.
The omnipresent enema syringe, and bullet removal tongs
In the foreground are tongs for removing bullets from a wound. The surgeon would first poke around with the lancet and when he found the bullet, he'd insert the tong which worked a bit like a reverse screw driver. The bullet was caught and drawn into the metal stick and dragged out that way. No aneasthesia in sight except for filling the victim up with wine or stronger spirits. Mwuhaha. Chance that the wound channel would get infected was pretty strong.
Amputation knives
Amputations were common since often severe infection or gangrena would set it, and in case a limb was afflicted, cutting it off was a chance to save the patient's life. For some reason, the survival rate of an amputation was a bit higher. The knives were used to cut through skin and muscle down to the bone.
Bone saw
The really nasty part. Sawing through a bone hurts worse than hell, as anyone who'd had a broken bone can attest (I can't *knocks on wood* and I don't want to try; my love for research has its limits, lol).
So I rewrote the end of the innibränna scene to give the treatment of Thorgil more realism, and all scenes with Roderic after the torture in the dungeon of the Avodrite have been rewritten, taking into account he's left with several stiff fingers from the thumb screws and problems with his left shoulder due to the strappado. Which makes for a lot of fun if he tries to use a sword. Evil, me? Nooo. ¶ October 08, 2008
An exhibition at Caerphilly Castle shows some of the not so nice aspects of the Middle and Early Modern Ages: medical instruments. Some of them might look more like torture devices, and if you consider that anaesthesia was pretty much inexistant except for the rare and expensive case of access to opiates from the East, treatments like amputations or later, the extraction of a bullet from a wound, must have been a horrible experience for the patient. Nor do those enema syringes look invitating. *grin* Enema and bloodletting were pretty common due to the theory of humorism which requiered the four 'humors', the body fluids blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile to be in an equilibrum, and that many illnesses were caused by one of them dominating the others. Hence the purges.
As I already mentioned, the day I visited Caerphilly Castle there were fencing demonstrations, archers and musketeers in the yard, but entertainment was also going on in the great hall. The time was Civil War, not really Medieaval, but it was very interesting. Too bad I forgot to grab a flyer of the reenactment group.
One lady made butter (tasted yummy), another showed how to card and spin wool, a third made soaps and scented lotions, to name some examples. One of the guys was a surgeon, and he brought some tools of his trade. Ouwie.
In the foreground are tongs for removing bullets from a wound. The surgeon would first poke around with the lancet and when he found the bullet, he'd insert the tong which worked a bit like a reverse screw driver. The bullet was caught and drawn into the metal stick and dragged out that way. No aneasthesia in sight except for filling the victim up with wine or stronger spirits. Mwuhaha. Chance that the wound channel would get infected was pretty strong.
Amputations were common since often severe infection or gangrena would set it, and in case a limb was afflicted, cutting it off was a chance to save the patient's life. For some reason, the survival rate of an amputation was a bit higher. The knives were used to cut through skin and muscle down to the bone.
The really nasty part. Sawing through a bone hurts worse than hell, as anyone who'd had a broken bone can attest (I can't *knocks on wood* and I don't want to try; my love for research has its limits, lol).
So I rewrote the end of the innibränna scene to give the treatment of Thorgil more realism, and all scenes with Roderic after the torture in the dungeon of the Avodrite have been rewritten, taking into account he's left with several stiff fingers from the thumb screws and problems with his left shoulder due to the strappado. Which makes for a lot of fun if he tries to use a sword. Evil, me? Nooo. ¶ October 08, 2008
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Ow ow ow!
That bone saw looks pretty mean. Oh, it's so going to suck for Aelius when he comes to have his foot taken off. Ouch...
That bone saw looks pretty mean. Oh, it's so going to suck for Aelius when he comes to have his foot taken off. Ouch...
I started shuddering when I saw the knives but the bone saw really made me go, "ew!"
I really enjoy the displays they have for making things. It helps keep the old arts alive. We used to make butter when we were kids. We had a hand butterchurn. I remember having a sore arm before the cream turned to butter!
Thanks for the link.
I really enjoy the displays they have for making things. It helps keep the old arts alive. We used to make butter when we were kids. We had a hand butterchurn. I remember having a sore arm before the cream turned to butter!
Thanks for the link.
Wonderful pictures :)
I love medieval castles and I hope someday to visit more of them. For now my travels were limited in this particular field.
I hope to see more of them ;)
I love medieval castles and I hope someday to visit more of them. For now my travels were limited in this particular field.
I hope to see more of them ;)
Hey, that's my castle! At least..my dad used to play in there when he was a kid and I have often visited it. My dad lived just up the hill from the castle on Windsor St. I still have cousins living nearby.
Interesting display of old medical instruments.
Interesting display of old medical instruments.
Shelley, the old stuff is interesting, isn't it? Very usuful for a writer of historical fiction, too.
Hi Dark Wolf,
thanks for visiting my blog and your kind word. I'm glad I can help my readers travel back into the past a bit. :)
Wynn,
no wonder you became a writer of historical fiction, with such a family background.
Hi Dark Wolf,
thanks for visiting my blog and your kind word. I'm glad I can help my readers travel back into the past a bit. :)
Wynn,
no wonder you became a writer of historical fiction, with such a family background.
Love the pictures of Caerphilly! Hopefully I should be able to go and see the place for myself before Xmas! I can see a Despenser shield on the wall too :-)
And thanks for the blog link - it sounds really interesting. I have a rather morbid interest in illnesses etc - although not in actually having them, I hasten to add!
And thanks for the blog link - it sounds really interesting. I have a rather morbid interest in illnesses etc - although not in actually having them, I hasten to add!
That shield's been put there especially for you. :)
Ari's blog is great. She can't post that much because she's very busy working as nurse, but there will be articles about PTSD and field amputation soon, and I'm sure she has more goodies in store. ;)
Ari's blog is great. She can't post that much because she's very busy working as nurse, but there will be articles about PTSD and field amputation soon, and I'm sure she has more goodies in store. ;)
Those instruments look tortuous, though not as bad as those found in dungeons.
Thanks for posting these to provide further insight into writing about the past.
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Thanks for posting these to provide further insight into writing about the past.
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