Misson

Wow! I can't believe you typed all that in! Thanks so much for the fantastic list! You even have quantities which is really helpful. I know I need a bigger chest to be accurate. Woodall's book, The Surgeon's Mate suggests 281 different remedies to be made from the contents of the chest. In fact, the surgeon's chest was probably about as large as a seaman's chest. To give you an idea of its height, according to some sources, it was used to hold up one end of the operating table. (That will be expensive to fly to Key West if I make one. We damn well better have a whole surgeon's show at that point. )

Got this one today: From: Cottrell - Subject: Get a large penis scar free And I'm thinking, 'As opposed to what? Paying for one?" Or are the youths today into some new fad that I hadn't heard about?

That's really interesting. Notice all the women's and children's clothing they had. (Probably from looting with an eye towards later sale. Actually, stuff for kids in the chest would be a marvelous idea.) It sounds like an interesting book - is there anything on surgeons in it?

Well, that's a photo of an actual period device, so the rust is from age. However, sterilization was not actually appreciated as a medical concern until the late 19th century. During the GAoP, 'bad air' was largely believed the transmitter of disease, not dirty medical instruments. So surgeons did not concern themselves with cleaning their instruments between patients. [More detailed and potentially boring history follows] One of the first surgeons to suggest that antiseptic procedures would reduce disease was Dr. Charles White. He figured out that puerperal (childbed) fever infected women who had just given birth. Epidemics of puerperal fever raced through hospital births attended by doctors resulting in high maternal death rates. In 1773, White recommended that "the patient should often be supplied with clean linen; for cleanliness, and free, pure, and in some cases cool air..." (Not knowing about micro-biology, he still believed that bad air contributed to the disease.) In a later edition of his book in 1784 he added that "good effects I have experienced from emollient or antiseptic injections into the uterus, by means of a large ivory syringe or an elastic vegetable bottle." He further said, "Whenever a patient has recovered from this fever and is removed into another room the bedding and curtains should be washed, the floor and woodwork should be cleansed with vinegar, and it would still add to the salubrity of the apartment if it was stoved with brimstone." (This procedure was sometimes used on Naval ships during the late 17th and early 18th centuries to prevent "ship's fever." In fact, White felt puerperal fever was an extension of ship's or gaol fever. However, White was largely ignored. Because the link between cleanliness and puerperal fever was so obvious, physicians continued to suggest anti-septic procedures for childbirthing. Scottish physician Alexander Gordon advocated hand and clothes washing for obstetricians in 1795. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes (the father of the celebrated Supreme Court Justice) suggested the spread of puerperal fever was by unwashed doctors in 1843. The Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweiss made the same discovery in 1847. However, it wasn't until Joseph Lister, drawing upon Louis Pasteur's work wrote a paper suggesting antiseptics were needed to clean physician's hands and instruments to prevent the spread of infections in 1867. He was largely reviled by doctors of the period and his theory discounted for awhile. Anti-septic procedures didn't really begin to take hold until about 1870. They weren't widely embraced until the 1890s. So that's the long story of why an instrument wouldn't be cleaned during the GAoP - or even until long after.

Maybe he's practicing. Say, I used to make severed heads. Perhaps it's part of the career path. (I made them for haunted houses. If for some odd reason this interests you, you can check it out on my webpage.)

They actually use fancy stainless power drills to trephine people. I've seen 'em on eBay. The skull is a pretty touch nut, so to speak. Most of the pain in such an operation occurs in cutting through the scalp. The brain's surface has no pain receptors. This is why people can be awake while brain surgery is occurring - working on the brain itself doesn't hurt. Some of what little they know about the location of various things in the brain have come from reports from conscious patients on the affects of probing around in there.

That may look like a dagger in someone's head, but it is actually a type of trephine - a sort of saw used to bore holes into the skull to relieve pressure on the brain. This may or may not sound less painful (and probably wasn't at all), but it's not like there's a point sticking in that person's head. (I bought my trephine last month. ) Here's a better view of the actual device:

Brilliant! One of my favorite movies quotes of all time! You know, I don't think I have a favorite movie quote. I like movie quotes that seem appropriate to whatever context I happen to be in. Although, certain movies always come up in my mental review because they have such great quotes. Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, Animal House, Austin Powers, The Witches of Eastwick, The Road Warrior, Batman (the first one - maybe the second one), The Mask (the one with Jim Carrey), Beetlejuice, any given Marx Brothers movie & The Sting all come to mind. "He's not as tough as he thinks!" "Neither are we." What a great quote! It can put your whole life into context, a quote like that. (It's from The Sting, that's not for guessing.) They aren't even necessarily great movies (well, some of them are), they just have great quotes. Well, for my experience they do.

Actually, from my experience and observations, they broadly showed the way various kinds of people actually do behave in relationships. (And, also from my experience, no amount of shaking people seems to get them to think or behave any differently until they themselves decide to do so. )

Yes, actually. (A fine movie. Although one wonders why Milwaukee is full of so many girls with southern accents. Ah, those Brits and their stereotypes...)

Hmm. It keeps dying. I guess no one could get your movie, MadL. (Perhaps we should encourage hints when the topic dies. I like to give them, particularly when no one's nibbling. It keeps the game going.) Invoking the guideline we made up about not letting the topic go for more than a couple days without a guess, I cheated and looked it up and it's from Santa's Slay. Curiously, Netflix has never recommended this movie to me. This should be easy for anyone who's seen this movie. (Now no cheating! This one's too easy!) "Exciting news!" "What?" "I've bought a ticket to the States. I'm off in three weeks." "No!" "Yes! To a fantastic place called Wisconsin." "No!" "Yes! Wisconsin babes, here comes Sir Colin! Whoo hoo!" "No, Col! There are a few babes in America, I grant you, but they're already going out with rich, attractive guys." "Nah, Tone, you're just jealous. You know perfectly well that any bar anywhere in America contains ten girls more beautiful and more likely to have sex with me than the whole of the United Kingdom."

Patrick's emancipated kitty! As for people trafficking...that's not nearly as interesting as the term "Immoral Trafficking." Picture the trafficking of immorals... On another economic note, I found this article quite interesting and well thought out on the topic of environmentalism and trade. It's not nearly as exciting as arguing that such and such industry should be punished for their behavior. Instead it actually makes some financial sense. Cheers to that. (The comments about tariffs and solar panels I found particularly interesting. Then again, I don't think there should ever be tariffs, so I guess I would find that interesting.) http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.a...293669042232122

I actually had no idea that wasn't your real hair, Iron John! Nice work! Well, she got back in touch with me last night, so all is well with Madame Joan. Seemed like a nice woman. Not knowing your relationship, I asked after you Blackjohn, but she didn't recognize your name. She did ask me to thank you for referring her, though. Now I must get to cutting off a bit of my hair in the back so the queue matches and send it to her. I'm going to go with a leather tie. It'll match my leather apron. (Mary/Donna, I have found a solution to the wig issue! A nice easy one, I think.)

What I wonder is...what is "immoral trafficking?" It seems like such an odd marriage of terms. Morality itself is like so many other things - consensus driven. Kind of like the economy, actually. (Thus we close the circle.)

Ah, thanks. I did go to the catalog page, but the book wasn't listed there and there aren't any further pages - either that or it is and I couldn't find the link to them. His other book, The Coyote Trilogy, was listed. [edit] Huh. Now it's there. Someone heard me.

Well, I called and left a message...but no response. If she calls back, I'll let you know.

That's really cool. Could you post a direct link to the book, Mungo? I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get to anything other than the reference on the home page on wildshorepress.com which appears to have no link or price.

PITA Pacific International Trapshooting Association PITA Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association PITA Palestinian Information Technology Association PITA People for the Intelligent Treatment of Animals PITA Pipeline Integrity Technology Associates PITA Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act (India) I like that last one.

Ah! The queue! Est parfait!

No... Nothing can do that that I've seen. I mean, it was fun and everything (If only they had had Nicholson or Connery play the pirate captain...yeah, yeah yeah!) but to say it can best TPB? It can't be done in my Poindexter little world...

Ah, yes. Good annotation really helps those of us not completely steeped in the times in which a book was written. I have taken to searching out any possible annotated medical book that I can lay my hands on, even when I have to spend to get it, over the free .pdfs of medical books from the GAoP. They can be quite confusing otherwise (not to mention hard to read).

Yeah, I hope so. Actually, I was so pleased with finishing Yonge's Journal that I just picked up another period-related medicine book called The Age of Agony: The Art of Healing, 1700-1800 by Guy Williams. So far it has some pretty good material on bleeding and fevers, but I'm only a few chapters in. It's more about medicine in London and the surrounding countryside than sea medicine, but the diseases and treatments are relevant to my purpose. It has some horrific stuff on medicine as it relates to birth and child-care for those who are interested in period land medicine. I also see it has a very long chapter on quacks which is probably interesting to period research (although it's so long that I may skip it as it's not that relevant to my purpose.)

I started to read that and never finished it. It seems like it was oddly written...very disjointed or something. (It's been a long time, so I don't precisely recall what I was troubled with at the time.) Maybe I missed something? What do you like about it?

True. There is a fine line between continuing to purchase and spending foolishly. As you say, "We live on a strict budget, so we can be comfortable and afford things that are priority to us." That about sums it up. Of course, other people choose differently and they get themselves into their own financial situations, which it is then their responsibility to budget (as you do) and get themselves out of that particular result of bad choices. "I believe every right implies a responsibility, every opportunity an obligation, every possession a duty." -John. D. Rockefeller, Jr.

All of which, like the place you live, are choices on some level. As Hurricane said, if you look closely at the spending choices you make, you can uncover a plethora of ways to cut costs. (If your job is that shaky, start looking for another now. It's much harder to find one when you don't have one because you have to explain why you're not working. It's that perception thing.)