ancient medicine (cures for the common cut)

[J.C. Bell]

Does anyone have knowledge of ancient medicine? It doesn't necessarily matter what culture, I’m basically wondering if there was a standard method for dealing with flesh wounds (cleaning, cauterizing, stitching . . . etc.) Seems like even now, a wound that isn't careful cleaned and disinfected can easily become infected and fester. Did everyone simply die every time they took a minor cut, or was there a method of sterilization before the dawn of modern medicine? I’m looking to incorporate a ‘healer’ character into my novels but would like his knowledge and skills to be somewhat comparable to a medieval time-frame.
Thanks again for all your help,
J.C. Bell

Infinite Limits

 

[CupofJoe]

there were a lot of good folk remedies [using the right herbs and Mosses [sphagnum moss has wound healing/cleaning properties, but I've never had the need to try it...], sluicing out wound with sea water etc.], but to put it crudely, yes... many [but not everyone] died of even the smallest injury if it went bad...
To some extent this was true right up until penicillin [okay sterilisation of equipment and clean water was helping but still the death and infection rates were amazingly high to our eyes].
In a military context I think it was the Crimean War where for the first time more people survived their injuries than died of them, because they were treated and cared for "properly". It was a mixture of numbers, proximity and time. What might work for a village healer or wise woman just couldn't be done on campaign when facing hundreds of injuries without the right organisation.
Books like Culpepper's Complete Herbal will show you want people thought could be done with different plants. And it is really pretty to look at and read.

 

[wordwalker]

Herbal healers are a fun subject. The concept's always trying to overlap with village "witches" and doctor/alchemist/assassin figures, because of a couple of things:

• Most herbs that can heal are strong enough to poison someone in some way, in less careful doses. And there are always people willing to pay you for a poison or a "curse," and they might be more insistent than the ones who want healing.
• Every time you can't save someone--or someone dies from something they don't understand--you're an easy person to blame.

--I'm not trying to hijack the thread, exactly. It's just that conflicts like this are another effect of how advanced the world is about healing. The more of a strong tradition of "ethical healers" it has, and the people around them have some understanding that they can do so much and no more, the less healers will have to cope with problems like that. And the more exotic and superstition-ridden the knowledge is, the more often it shades back into the nastier side.

 

[KC Trae Becker]

Alcohol was a ready source of disinfectant, but in general people died a lot for "unknown" reasons.

Also immune systems were stronger back then because they had to be. What ever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. We are the offspring of the people with the stronger immune systems. Brutal, but true

 

[Lunaairis]

Well ancient Egyptian's used penicillin long before the rest of the world realized what it was. Doctors would prescribe "moldy bread" to be used on cuts. We still have documentation about this.
Ancient Egyptians used penicillin | Matter Of Facts

This deals with more historical practices with mold and medicine.
http://www.fungi4schools.org/Reprin...Post-16/Medical/V03pp021-023folk_medicine.pdf

 

[Guy]

I believe honey has some antiseptic qualities. Seems I've read of people putting it on wounds.

 

[Hawkmoon]

Another point to note is that beer / mead was drank in preference to water as water was contaminated and more often than not the cause for sickness. So most cures did not involve water unless, as mentioned previously, saltwater.

 

[ALB2012]

Spirits were used as a battlefield steriliser too. And aneesthetic.

 

[ALB2012]

I believe honey has some antiseptic qualities. Seems I've read of people putting it on wounds.

Yes this is true. Some places still use it. Clever things them bees.

 

[ALB2012]

Cauterising was used, tar/pitch sometimes. Honey, herbs (lots of those). And of course the less successful ones, like prayer, puppy brains and worm amulets.

 

[Terry Greer]

one of the best low tech solutions that has been used (even for severe wounds) is putting maggots in the wound.
A good brief account of it can be found in this wikipedia entry:
Maggot therapy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Terry Greer]

In a similar vein ants have been used as wound 'stitches' to good effect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK65_PpEVzA