Mission

See?! See what I'm working with here?! Optimism...

Here is a recipe for liquid laudanum from Sydenham's book. This is indicated for use in the Bloody Flux and he suggests several doses based on the particular symptoms as well as the particular patient - particularly in regard to their age, constitution and humoral type. These are scattered throughout several pages of his text, which I have not entered into my notes, so you'll have to make do with the preparation which I am typing in directly for your reference here. As I recall, it was between 10 ounces for children and 30 something ounces for some adults. (I still amazed at the clarity of his recipes. Why didn't the surgeons follow his lead in their books?) "The liquid Laudanum, which, as I said, I used daily, was prepar'd according to the following plain manner: Take of Spanish Wine, one Pint; of Opium, two Ounces; of Opium, two Ounces; of Saffron one Ounce; of the Powder of Cinnamon and Cloves, each one Dram: let them be infus'd together in a Bath two or three Days, till the Liquor comes to a due Consistence; strain it, and keep it for use. I do not think this Preparation has more Virtue than the solid Laudanum of the Shops; but I prefer it before that for its more commodious Form, and by reason of the greater Certainty of the Dose; for it may be drop'd into Wine, or into any distill'd Water, or into any other Liquour. [Note that 'liquor' here seems to have a much broader definition than what we think of today and can even include non-alcoholic beverages.] And truly I cannot here forbear mentioning, with Gratitude, that Omnipotent G O D, the Giver of all good Things, has not provided any other Remedy for the Relief of reached Man, which is so able either to quell more Diseases, or more effectually to extirpate them, than opiate Medicines taken from some Species of Poppies. And tho there are some that would fain perswade credulous People, that almost all the Virtues of opiate Medicines, especially of Opium, principally depend on their artificial Preparation of it; yet he that shall make Experience the Judge, and shall as often try the simple Juice, as it comes by Nature, as the Preparations of it, if he be careful in his Observation, will scarce find any difference; he will certainly know, that those admirable Effects which it produces, proceed from the native Goodness and Excellency of the Plant, and not from the Skill of the Artificer. And so necessary is this Instrument in the hand of a skilful Man, that without it Physick would be very lame and imperfect; and he that rightly understands it, will do greater things than can be well hop'd for from one __ Medicine: For surely he is very unskilful, and little understands the Virtue of this Medicine, who only knows how to use it to promote Sleep, to ease Pain, and to stop a Looseness [Diarrhea]; whereas it may be accomodated, like the Delphick Sword, to many other uses: and it really a most excellent Cordial Remedy, I had almost said the only one, which has been hitherto found amongst the Things of Nature." (Sydenham, p. 123-4)

I think you were the one that said that. (Actually, it was something slightly different, but I've forgotten the proper wording.)

Happy birthday to my bestust occasional on-line pal I will never meet.

So I decided to read Sydenham's book (The Whole Works of That Excellent Physician Dr. Thomas Sydenham) and I found some recipes related to narcotics, which are quite clearly stated; much more so than most surgical manuals. But they do not give a recipe for Laudanum itself; he appears to recommend a purchased version. (Thinking on this, it makes sense. Most physicians wrote prescriptions to be prepared by apothecaries.) However, he does give a dosage: "The Narcoticks, which I frequently give, are either London Laudanum, from one Grain to one Grain and a half, or the following: Take of Cowslip flowers one handful, boil them in a sufficient quantity of Blackberry water, dissolve half an Ounce of Diacordium, and half a Spoonful of the Juice __ of Lemons, in three Ounces of strained Liquor; mingle them. Or, Take of Blackberry water one Ounce and a half, Epidemick water two Drams, Liquid Laudanum sixteen Drops, Syrup of Gilliflowers one Dram; mingle them." (Sydenham, p. 28-9)

Every so often you come across editorial comments like this that make reading worth your while. This is from Charles Allen's Curious Observations in that difficult part of Chirurgery Relating to the Teeth (or, more commonly called, The Operator for the Teeth): "But these treble ones [teeth with three roots - molars] usually vary very much in time of growth, for it is but rarely that they all come forth in the same year, the four last of them seldom coming out before the one or two and twentieth year of our age; for which reason such Teeth are called by some, Teeth of Wisdom; because that by that time, we should have a full use of our rational Faculty, thought God knows how often it proves to be true." (Allen, p. 32)

Actually it sounds like a Java error on the web page to me. Although why you see it and I'm not makes no sense. It might be worth your while to run a virus scan on your computer. I also like to use Spy-bot from time to time to check for ad software. (Although I don't think that would cause this.)

I use IE 8 on one of my computers so I checked it out - it works fine for me. It might be your virus software or something like that blocking it for some reason.

OK, that's all fixed. If anyone else sees anything else, feel free to let me know. Thanks!

I dunno if giving Lob a blade is a good idea. He will probably miss his opponent and stab himself.

What version of what browser are you using?

Actually, thanks to that description, I figured out that those are just blacksmiths nippers and they're quite easy to find on eBay for cheap. Another surgical tool acquired.

That's odd, it works fine for me. Try searching Google for Madam Joan's Wee Wiggies.

I'd have to say Bo's got it right, then. It is the wrong shape for one surgical instrument and the wrong size for the other. One of the definitions for cuchilla is generic ('blade') and the other is very specific (large knife; cleaver) according to my The New World Span/Eng and Eng/Span dictionary. I seem to have mis-remembered the finger amputation woodcut from Woodall. I know chisels were used and he shows them surrounding the finger, but his image is actually of a pair of cutters:

I'd guess many of these knives are for butchering or cooking. (Using my bits of Spanish larnin', pequeñas means 'small' in reference to a female object. Cuchilla (a female noun) is probably used here as a generic term for knives.) I suspect, like many archeological digs, these things are very broadly classified by function and may not necessarily all go together. Note, that black and white thing at the bottom is a rule. The markings are probably in cm, which would make those knives around 4" - 5" long by my estimation. Based on that and the shape of the cleavers, I'd guess they were for food preparation. (I have never seen a cleaver listed as a surgical instrument in the etchings I have from surgical manuals and can't imagine what it would be used for except digit amputation. Since I have a very graphic representation of a chisel being used for this purpose, I'd go with kitchen cleavers for them.) The curved knife might be a surgeon's scalpel. I don't know if there is a similar knife used in butchering, but the blade is most likely sharpened on the inside of the curve, based on the shape and wear evident from this (tiny) photo. However, the blade is awfully long for a scalpel (a precision instrument) and reminds me more of a amputation knife - except it's far too small for that. If the black and white rule at the bottom were in inches (which would make no sense since metrics is the official unit of measurement in Panama), then I would definitely classify it as an amputation knife. However, then the word 'pequeñas' would make no sense as the thing would be about 12" long.

Oh, I thought you were telling me that Corey Lefkowicz was Ed's character name. I got that name from someone's photo on Facebook. (Although I may have spelled it two or three different ways.) I will have to go back and change it when I add the group photo to the fourth page. I wish I'd have had Kate's photos before. There are some I'd like to have used now that I've seen them. (I'd go back and add them, but I am sort of tired of writing it at this point. I don't think I'll post them one chapter at a time in the future as it somehow gives me an excuse to take longer to finish them.)

Somewhere I read an account by a surgeon who was decrying the deplorable treatment of the slaves on the ocean voyage. (I believe it may have been John Atkin's book A voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies; in His Majesty's Ships the Swallow and Weymouth. Whatever book it was featured a whole chapter on the care and treatment of slaves.) He indicated that if they were fed and treated better, more of them would probably survive the voyage and be salable when the ship reached the Caribbean islands. I didn't copy much of it into my notes as most of that isn't relative to my topic (Pirate Surgeons), but it seems to me he said something as many as 1/3 of the slaves died on many voyages. I also have the idea (although I'm not sure where I got it) that the slaves were auctioned at the destination(s) and the ones not sold were likely the most weak and sickly and thus the least desirable to those purchasing. So if the majority of the slaves on that ship were sold previously, the remainder may not have been of much interest to any but the most desperate buyers and thus would not have been of great value as readily salable 'plunder' to pirates. OTOH, any sale of stolen slaves would be worth their trouble if it could be made quickly enough. (This is all just conjecture, of course.)

Uh...which name? (I don't recall what you're talking about. The only name I recall getting wrong was Lilly's.)

Thanks!

Here is a link to the latest Pirate Surgeon's Journal for the Santa Maria event last month.

I'm not saying it didn't exist, only that I don't recall reading about it in any of the period Journals I've read. For a list of such, you can check my Zotero Library.

You know, I don't believe I have never seen reference to this in any of the period sailor's accounts I've read. The only place I can recall seeing it was in Master and Commander.

Here's to a fine blacksmith!