Misson

Interesting. That seems at odds with the necessity for speed that several authors talk about. Speed of amputation seemed to be required during battles because of the number of wounded and to save patients from unnecessary pain. (Such saws were made long before anesthesia.) What's the source of that quote? It sounds like it might be a useful resource... How is that at odds with speed? Wouldn't that little screw thing be much like the same little screw thing on today's hacksaws? Enabling the user to choose the tension of the blade and/or possibly replace the blade. My first guess about the loops was something akin to what Hurricane said. I was thinking they were perhaps for guiding or maybe pulling if the blade got stuck. Makes me shiver to think it. My thought is that you would start the cut with the handle and then have to switch to the thumb grips (or whatever you call them). Then you would have to re-align the blade in relationship to the cut and all that. However, if you started with the thumb grips, I suppose the speed and re-alignment would not be issues. Still, it would seem to me to require more precision (and thus time) when starting the first cuts into the bone. If the patient was squirming (and I sure would be) or the ship were moving (as it frequently was) that might make alignment take longer. Or you might get really good at it, as mastery of all tools requires, and I could be all wet. It's just my gut level reaction to the thing - I'd use the handle as it seems faster. In his book The Evolution of Surgical Instruments; An Illustrated History from Ancient Time to the Twentieth Century, John Kirkup makes no mention of the thumb grips from my notes. As I recall it, none of the saws he shows have them other than the Woodall drawing featuring them, making me think they were not that useful to the surgeon. Of course, evolution is a chancy thing and they might have disappeared for other reasons. It's really just conjecture on my part. One does wonder why a saw with no handle and nothing but thumb grips didn't develop for amputation if this method was superior. Curiously, the quote I had in the back of my mind when I first started considering this is somewhat at odds with what I thought it said. (If you look back, I was talking about ornamentation): "Later, decoration became excessive, and in 1684, Solingen complained that many instruments were worthless, not only because of inferior iron, brittle steel, and a lack of vital proportions, but because they were ‘welded with such awkward angles, corners and unnecessary ornamentation. Solingen proceeded to improve and streamline manufacture, much as Woodall had anticipated in his instrument illustrations in 1639.” (Kirkup, p. 158) Extrapolating from this, Kirkup seems to be suggesting that the loops may have indeed been useful because Woodall left them on in his "streamlined" design. (I had thought he was complaining about Woodall's designs being too ornamental, but hadn't looked up the quote to verify that.) Still, they did disappear from surgical saws between the time of Woodall's publishing of that picture (1639) and the late 18th century. (lest I belabor that point ).

Cool. That would be dead useful to a blacksmith... I wonder if it's available on EEBO?

"Lust awakens the desire to possess. And that awakens the intent to murder." -Old Monk, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring (A beautiful movie.) Jill, you're up!

Interesting. That seems at odds with the necessity for speed that several authors talk about. Speed of amputation seemed to be required during battles because of the number of wounded and to save patients from unnecessary pain. (Such saws were made long before anesthesia.) What's the source of that quote? It sounds like it might be a useful resource...

Its a by-product of making linen. it looks like unraveled rope. You can still get it from some Sutlers for cleaning your musket the old fashioned way. Jas. Townsend sells it, but they say it's unspun flax.... http://jas-townsend.com/product_info.php?p...products_id=364 Ah! Thanks large, Pat!

I found something like this today, I believe. This one looks pretty basic, but has some nice slice of life home remedies in it. It is from 1633: Helps for suddain accidents endangering life: By which those that live farre from physitions or chirurgions may happily preserve the life of a poore friend or neighbour, till such a man may be had to perfect the cure. Collected out of the best authours for the generall good by Stephen Bradvvell. physition From the introduction (printed as it reads): "Times footman ranne not so fast on their sandy arrands, as mischances in full careers rush upon us. All the Ioyes we possesse by day (if they hold it out) vanish with the day. All our Gloryes are Sunne-beames but of a waterish shining. Our Clocks of Health seldome goe tru; those of Death, more certaine than beleeved. We are the owners of no content but sleepe; and yet even that blessing is subject to distraction: for our very Dreames doe often prove Diseases, and affright us." (p. A2-A3) It's like prose poetry about illness. I think I will enjoy reading this book, stupid 'f's' for 's's' and all. Oh, this one is rich (from the table of contents)... "Chap. X. The Biting of a MaddeDogge" Ay, Captain?

It would almost certainly have been iron or steel. As for the top loops, I couldn't say. They are what I like about it, though. It doesn't shed much light, but the description for the saw reads thusly: "A very early capital amputation saw from Jacobean England. The saw is impressed with the H mark of Robert Hobbs, London, fl. c. 1606-1621. Instruments by Hobbs are believed to be the earliest extant English maker-marked surgical instruments. John Woodall, The Surgeon's Mate, London: 1639, illustrates an identical Dismembering saw in a plate titled: Instruments for the East India Company's chest. 25" long. The instrument comes from the estate of an elderly New England couple who were interested in early American ironwork, and it is believed that the saw has been in North American since colonial times. This is precisely the surgical saw that one would expect to have been used by Giles Heale, a member of the Barber-Surgeon's Company and the ship's surgeon on the Mayflower, and by Samuel Fuller, the surgeon of Plymouth Colony. No other example of a Hobbs saw is known to exist in any American collection. 25" long." Here is the web page. There are several more pics, including close-ups of the loops: http://antiquescientifica.com/archive46.htm Notice the pitting in the close-up pics? Other large period bone saws do not show the things on top, so I can't quite understand where it would serve a practical purpose or they probably would have continued to make them that way. Surgeons did have to perform amputations very quickly (several resources suggest in under two minutes from first cut to ligature (tying of silk cords to the now exposed veins), so one might make the argument that the loops would allow for faster cutting if a surgeon had help. Of course, most of the help would have been employed in holding down the patient according to various books on the topic from the time. The loops may have been a mark of the maker or some such. In his book, The Evolution of Surgical Instruments; An Illustrated History from Ancient Time to the Twentieth Century, John Kirkup notes that earlier surgical instruments had more ornamentation than later instruments. I'm guessing that this may have been to designate them as something other than what they really were...pirated carpenter's tools. Kirkup even notes that in a pinch, say if the surgeon was out of blades, he would sometimes use the ship's carpenter's saw. (A saw is a saw...unless you want to show it off at PiP. ) Actually, I'll bet I could sell a handful of them on eBay if they were priced right. Or maybe not. Hard to say.

Well, there was the Bubonic plague in the late 17th in London and environs...that was called the Black Death. Still, I don't think they did as much research as they think they did. As I noted previously, very few people (as a percentage of all the people) would have died from bullet wounds. If they died in battle, it would have probably have been from infection (from various battle wounds) or splinters. Yet we've seen more lead poisoning than any other cause. (Either that or people keep entering different names until they like the result they get.) "George Lake. (Plague.) Sir George Lake (Dysentery.) Sir William of Thackery (Too much snuff.) Black William of Thackery (Syphalis). Damn!...Um... William the Black (Burned at the stake. Get it?) Pirate Sam (Powder magazine blown up by rabbit.) Sam Black (Lead poisoning from bullet wound.) Ah!"

Ooh...this is beautiful. An ivory handled surgical set. Apparently it was for show, according to the description on the website selling it. http://antiquescientifica.com/surgical_set...e_full_open.jpg

Really? How much? How will you make it? Sandcast?

...surgeon's needs. I want a saw like the one Woodall shows. Woodall's drawing: http://antiquescientifica.com/saw_amputati...s_Mate_1639.jpg An actual saw like this: http://antiquescientifica.com/saw_amputati..._wb_overall.jpg Can anyone make that?

Jack, I missed the jam session on Sunday night last year , although I heard you were nothing short of fantastic. (Those of you who are coming to PiP, plan not to leave until Monday at least and don't plan to sleep much Sunday night - I hear I missed some really great stuff by heading out early.) So Jack, what instruments do you play? I see you mentioned the tin whistle and harmonica and I heard about some impromptu drum work on...something unique that I don't exactly recall... But didn't you have some other period instruments with you last year? Just curious.

That was one of the neat things I remember about going to the parade on the bus. They started singing some absurd Christmas song and different people would pick up the verses and (it seemed to me at the time) make up something that fit. They did that with "Drunken Sailor" too. It was sort of neat. Bilgmunky recorded some of that while we were standing on the bus...I wonder what he did with it? That reminds me of something else...I was watching It Happened One Night recently, much of which takes place on a bus. A group of military guys in the back of the bus...I think they were sailors, but I'm not 100% sure...were singing songs, also taking turns at the verses. Ah, the things that happened before TV and computer became the passive entertainment venues of choice... As I said, really neat.

A lot of people seem to be dying from bullet wounds. This little program must not be very well based in history, at least regards pirates and seamen, as this was not a common way for such people to die. During battle, it wasn't usually bullets or cannon balls that caused most of the carnage, either. Far more seamen died from disease than ever died in battle, though. Much is contained in the various naval records about disease - usually referred to as fluxes or fevers - from the period but not many statistics. Reliable record counts don't appear until about the mid 17th century, but the treatment and understanding of diseases changed little from the 15th through the early 18th centuries, so the following data is probably indicative of mortality by disease among seamen. For actual deaths occurring at sea during the GAoP, the most prominent killers seemed to be scurvy, followed by yellow fever, malaria and dysentery. In fact, I have not come across a single incident of death by lead poising yet. Although they may not have known to account for it that way.

Apropos of nothing... "So, you're the new managing director of Empire Chemicals?" "Yes." "What happened to Williamson?" "Williamson? Oh, yes! He died rather suddenly poor chap." (My mind is just a tangled series of useless cartoon and movie quotes...)

What is tow in modern terms?

You made it past the childhood diseases, the religious wars, the epidemics, and your neighbors' sheep dogs. Die peacefully in your bed.

Aha! I have found evidence to the contrary. The reference is from John Moyle's book Chirurgus Marinus: or, the Sea Chirurgion first published in 1693. This quote which uses that reference is actually from John Keevil's Medicine and the Navy 1200-1900: Volume II – 1640-1714: “Omitting nothing practical, [John Moyle] advised the novice to buy square glass containers, ‘for those will fit the partitions in your Chest better than others’, and to wrap them in tow if the chest was not lined with baize; in conclusion, he added, ‘And let your Surgery Chest be fast lashed that it may not over-set in bad weather by the rowling of the Ship.” (Keevil, p. 158)

Oh yes, the singing...that's the best part of the pub. (And the mead. That was good too.) I missed Silkie's song in the pub. I heard great things, though... As for Amanjira...you slacker. If you'd just put a little time in on some PiP projects, it'd really make a difference.

Gacky? Gacky. (I like it. Gacky!)

I occasionally wear the really cool pirate bracelet that Rumba Rue gave me in the Pirate Plunder exchange. (What happened to that, anyway?)

I wonder if any hot air balloon is wieldy? They should have a Sir Topham Hatt balloon. And a flying pig to go with the flying cow...

I can actually appreciate Michael's & Kate's concerns, as I wondered the same thing last year. Having seen this crew in operation, let me just comment with something the wonderful Mrs. Diamond told me in advance of last year: whatever efforts you make to on behalf of your character are appreciated. That's exactly the way I experienced it, everyone appreciated the scant research I had done and the (very misguided) efforts I made to play at accent on rare occasion. (Bilgemunky and I had a conversation about the inevitable self-consciousness you feel at trying to affect an accent. Both of us tried...I don't know about him, but I had a few shining moments...and far more moments of recourse back to the midwestern nasal twang.) Some people were in character all the time, many were not. Also, you can pretty much come and go as you like. You can even miss entire battles if you tarry at lunch over conch fritters. You will only receive the better part of a full day of good-natured ribbing about it when you're the second officer of the ship. (As a surgeon on the battlefield, I sort of felt like Eli Wallach in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. There was a scene where he and Blondie went down to the bridge over the river with the wooden stretcher full of dynamite and they ran into some genuine surgeon's mates going the other way with a wounded man on another stretcher. To make a good show of it, Blondie grabbed the wrist of a (presumably) dead man lying by the river to check his pulse and Tuco grabbed his ankle. That's me, grabbing some dead guy's ankle, trying to pretend to know what I'm doing... )

Not having read the storyline, I have no idea what Lilly McKinney is. However, since we are encamped near the town of Port Royal (albeit a Port Royal that existed 40 years before our encampment - if I recall rightly, they're doing 1681 this year) and the fort is run by a (very) ragtag group of British soldiers, methinks anyone of any job could have decided to join the camp for their own reasons. (Provided they had a time machine, of course. Too bad I sold my DeLorean...) Willie Wobble was from Port Royal, but he served as sometime camp cook for the Mercury and Archangel. As for staying in character for an already challenging role of remembering a presentation without the aid of PowerPoint aback of me...we shall see what we shall see. I hope my book is done by then. (I am up to 120 pages of notes with several books and scholarly article yet to read - and I have my eye on a few more... If I haven't started writing the book proper by late June, please feel free to shoot me. With a period correct gun, of course.)

Well, it's kind of like this... There is no camping allowed at the fort normally. During PiP, however, we re-enactors are sort of given permission to be there and set up campsites. That's why there are not likely to be hookups for an RV.