GAOP medicines, tools and treatments

[Red Dog]

I've read many accounts of pirates taking a prize and as a first order, they raid the surgeons quarters for medical equipment and cures. What sort of compounds, tools and misc. equipment were available at this time. I know about mercurial and sulfa drugs but what did they do and what was the procedures for different ailments. I'll limit my inquiry to common shipboard ailments such as syphilis, colds, flu's and the such.

[Maraudin Sparky]

I'm not quite sure what they'd do on ships, considerin even if they did have the equipment would they know how to use it?

But if you want to know the state of medical knowledge at the time, then you could do worse than starting here:

Medical History

Of course, leeches and blood-letting have been used for centuries, with leeches even coming back into use in hospitals now. :)

Though I'm not sure if they would have kept them onboard(?).

[blackjohn]

What you need is John Woodall's book The Surgeon's Mate...

lookee here:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~mosmd/surgeonchest.htm

ps - Sparky, I'm stealin' your sig to use for my email sig!