Category Archives: Medicine

1825: Frontier doc recommends oil of baked dog, frog and worms

Richard Carter was a Virginian-born physician who worked in frontier settlements in Kentucky in the late 1700s and early 1800s. In 1825 Dr Carter published a collection of the medical diagnoses, treatments and catch-all cures he had employed during his medical career. Some of his treatments were standard for the time, such as herbal concoctions for skin cancers and a strict dietary regime for tuberculosis. Others are more bizarre, such as his recommendation for cataracts of the eyes: burn the shins with a caustic solution. But none is more peculiar than Dr Carter’s recipe for a versatile oil rub, which could come straight from medieval Europe:

“Kill the fattest young dog that you can get, in the month of March or April. Clean him as you would a pig; gut him and stuff his belly with a pint of red fishing worms, a pint of red pepper, a considerable portion of the bark of sassafras root, and water frogs. Sew up the incision, roast the dog well and save the oil to anoint sores, gouts, weak nerves, etc.”

Source: Dr Richard Carter, A Short Sketch of the Author’s Life and Adventures from his Youth until 1818 in the First Part. In the Second Part, A Valuable, Vegetable, Medical Prescription, with a Table of Detergent and Corroborant Medicines to Suit the Treatment of the Different Certificates, 1825. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1561: Man suffers from glass buttocks delusion

In 1561, the Dutch physician Levinus Lemnius published an account of ailments and disorders of the human body. He devoted one chapter to mental illnesses, including the notorious ‘glass delusion’: a form of madness where the patient believed their body, or parts thereof, to be made of glass.

According to Lemnius, one of his patients believed:

“..his buttocks were made of glass, in so much as he darest not do anything [not] standing, for fear that if he should sit, he should break his rump and the glass might fly into pieces… This included the business of sitting down in privies for to relieve himself, the commission of which caused him great peril…”

The highest profile sufferer was French king Charles VI (reigned 1380-1422), who had intermittent episodes where he believed his entire body to be composed of glass.

Source: Dr Levinus Lemnius, De Habitu et Constitutione Corpori, 1561. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1590: Men without pubic hair inclined to impotence

Phillip Barrough was an English physician who practised in the second half of the 16th century. In his 1590 book The Method of Physick, Barrough describes the signs of fertility and impotence:

“A woman that is fertile ought to have a moderate stature and height of the body, breadth of the loins, buttocks sticking out, a handsome and convenient greatness of the belly, a straight breast and large paps… The hot distemper of a man is easily known by the abundance of hairs, especially black hairs, upon the genitals and the places adjoining, from above unto the middle thighs.”

Men with no hair about their testicles, writes Barrough, are more inclined to impotence:

“A temperament that is too cold is declared by the parts about the stones being bald and without hair… They that be of this temperature be not desirous [or] prone to carnal lust.”

Source: Phillip Barrough, The Method of Physick, London, 1590. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1895: Ladies, beware the intrusive axolotl

John G. Bourke was an American ethnologist who researched medical treatments and folklore among indigenous groups in what is now southern Texas and northern Mexico. Many of these ‘cures’ were reported to him by Maria Antonia Cavazo de Garza, a Mexican ‘wise woman’ in her early 70s. Bourke summarised some of these cures in an article written in 1895:

For dealing with epilepsy in children:

“Take a newly born pig and rub the naked child with this live piglet, from head to foot. The baby will break out in a copious perspiration and the pig will die.”

For the curing of asthma:

“Bake a tlalcoyote [American badger], bake it in the oven until dry, grind it up, mix with clean flour, add a stew made of Rio Grande jackdaw [a native crow], add a trifle of sugar. Put in the patient’s food and give in the first quarter of the moon… when the moon ends, the disease will end.”

And to assist with consumption, or tuberculosis:

“Take a black cat, kill it and extract all the bones. Rub the consumptive [patient] with the flesh from head to foot, and let him drink the cat’s blood mixed with warm water.”

Maria Antonia also told Bourke that women should be wary of the axolotl [Mexican walking fish]. This diminutive creature, she said, lived in the rivers and backwaters of the region, but was known to:

“..enter the person of the woman at certain times and will remain just as long as would a human foetus.”

One inside, the axolotl makes itself at home – while the unsuspecting female develops all the symptoms of pregnancy. Young girls going through puberty were particularly susceptible to this intrusion, so were warned to take care when swimming in ponds or rivers. The axolotl could apparently be forced out by drinking hot goat’s milk.

Source: John G. Bourke, “The medical superstitions of the Rio Grande”, 1895. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1686: Unnatural sex position leads to unnatural birth

Cornelis Stalpart van der Wiel (1620–1702) was an esteemed Dutch surgeon. He had a busy practice in The Hague that received well to do patients from all over the Low Countries. Stalpart was also a prolific writer, recording new illness, injuries and physical anomalies. His brother was also a physician.

Writing in 1686, Slapart describes the curious case of Elisabeth Tomboy, one of his brother’s patients. Tomboy was a Dutch housewife who in January 1678 gave birth to a normal and quite healthy baby daughter. However on September 27th 1677, 14 weeks beforehand, Tomboy had gone into premature labour. Attended by Dr Stalpart Jnr and a midwife, Mrs Tomboy gave birth to a stillborn puppy:

“..being a bitch, about a finger long and having all its limbs.”

Bestiality was the usual explanation for deformed births of this kind, however Stalpart, drawing on the investigations of his brother, offered an alternative explanation. He penned this part in Latin, to keep it from “common readers” and to spare Mrs Tomboy further embarrassment:

“Her husband was a coarse, crude drunk, shameless and utterly inhuman… from time to time he took her from behind, threatening her with clubs and iron pipe so that she would have to comply…”

Elisabeth Tomboy, Stalpart said, became so convinced that she would conceive a dog that she did. This story was repeated (though never corroborated) by other early modern medical writers, as evidence of maternal impression.

Source: C. Stalpart van der Wiel, Hondert zeldzame aanmerhngen, zoo in de genees-als heelkunst, 1686. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1704: English doctor solves large penis dilemma with a cork

Writing in 1704, English surgeon John Marten claimed that the “bigness of a man’s yard” seldom causes problems – “it very rarely happens that any woman complains of it”. Marten did report one case of marital sexual incompatibility, allegedly brought on by the husband’s excessively large penis:

“I knew a very lusty man that married a very small woman, and by means of yard being of almost the longest size, his wife could not suffer him… without a great deal of pain.”

The unhappy couple had been married for four years without painless intercourse or conception. They had consulted other physicians, who prescribed “styptic and astringent fomentations” to reduce the size of the offending organ, but these treatments had failed.

After examining both, Marten concluded that:

“..’twas the length of it that did the mischief… To remedy it I advised him… to make a hole through a piece of cork, lined with cotton on both sides, of about an inch-and-a-half in thickness, and put his yard through the hole, fastening the cork with strings round his waste (sic).”

According to Marten, his device worked perfectly: the couple reported a greatly improved sex life and conceived a child soon after. In 1709, five years after the publication of his book, Marten was prosecuted for producing obscene literature and trying to “corrupt the subjects of Our Lady the Queen”. The charges against him were dismissed.

Source: John Marten, Gonosologium Novum, or a New System of All the Secret Infirmities and Diseases: Natural, Accidental, and Venereal in Men and Women, 1704. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1598: Get rid of unwanted hair with drowned frogs

Christopher Wirtzung was a prominent German physician of the late 16th century. Wirtzung’s medical guide, The General Practice of Physicke, was written in 1598. It was translated into English in 1619 and subsequently became popular in Britain.

Much of Wirtzung’s medical advice is standard for its time. For example, Wirtzung attributes earache and deafness to “worms, fleas and little creeping things” that hatch and grow in the ears. To conceive a male child, Wirtzung suggests sprinkling one’s meat with a powder, made by drying and grinding:

“..the stone [testicle] of a bore hog being two years old, and the pizzle [penis] of a shag, shaven… two pairs of fox stones and 50 or threescore [60] sparrow brains… the pizzle of a bull and… cloves, saffron, nutmeg and rosemary.”

For women struggling with unwanted hair on the face or body, Wurtzel suggests the following homemade depilatory:

“Take a pint of wine, drown 20 green frogs therein, or as many as can be drowned therein, then set the pot 40 days in the warm sun… Afterwards strain it hard through a cloth, anoint the place therewith where you take away the hair…”

Source: Christopher Wurtzel, The General Practice of Physicke, 1598. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1884: Masturbators cured with electric shocks to the genitals

Dr Joseph Howe was a professor of surgery at New York University and one of many 19th century specialists in ‘self-pollution’. He claimed to have had success ‘treating’ habitual masturbators with a course electric shocks to the genitals. The Howe method involved an electrode inserted into the urethra while the other was held behind the scrotum.

In this extract from an 1884 book, Howe claims to have cured a 29-year-old book-keeper, ‘J.S.’. of the “foul habit” with electricity:

“He had indulged in onanistic exercises during his school boy days… His memory was not so good as in former years and his ability to endure mental and physical labour comparatively small. He received applications of electricity every other day for two months, took cold water sponge baths and tonics… He was discharged at the end of the period mentioned and entered the marriage state, feeling well and competent to perform all his functions properly.”

Despite Howe’s claims, he admits there are some ‘lost causes’ for whom masturbation is a daily occurrence; they are “nearly always beyond the reach of moral or medical treatment”:

“Use the baths, tonics and electricity for a few weeks, and then if there is no good result, the patient should be castrated without delay, and the penis, pubes and perineum covered with cantharadal collodion… If these measures fail, I see no objection to removing the whole of the external genital apparatus.”

Source: Dr Joseph Howe, Excessive Venery, Masturbation and Continence, 1884. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1852: Dr Beach on satyriasis or nymphomania

Wooster Beach was a New York doctor who pioneered the use of natural and herbal remedies in the first half of the 19th century. He was also a prolific author of medical guidebooks. In one of his texts, published in 1852, Beach describes the symptoms and effects of satyriasis or “uterine fury”, more recently known as nymphomania.

According to Beach, this affliction is most common among:

“Virgins who are ripe for husbands; women living in gratification of their lusts and in luxury; widows or those who are married to frigid old men.”

At its worst, this “filthy disease” produces women who are:

“..seized with fury; they solicit all whom they meet to venereal embraces, and attack those that refuse with fists and nails. [They are] perpetually handling their privates with their wanton fingers, until they become maniac and are forced to be confined with chains.”

Beach’s suggested treatment for satyriasis involves a bland diet, regular doses of laxative, avoidance of the opposite sex and ice-cold applications to the genitals.

Source: Wooster Beach, The American Practice of Medicine, 1852. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1743: Birthing tips from women in Greenland

In 1743, a Flemish explorer and writer, Hans Egedius, published A Natural History of Greenland, having spent time there some years earlier. Egedius begins with an account of Greenland’s climate, terrain, natural resources and fauna. He then turns his attention to its human inhabitants, mentioning their proclivity for wife-swapping:

“They have riotous assemblies in which it is reckoned good breeding when a man lends his wife to a friend…”

Egedius also records a list of bizarre medical treatments allegedly used in Greenland, such as this response to intestinal worms:

“When their children are troubled with worms, the mother puts her tongue up the [child’s] fundament to kill them.”

And their unique approach to childbirth:

“They hold a piss-pot over the women’s heads whilst in labour, thinking it to promote hasty delivery. They seldom [deliver] twins, but often monsters.”

Source: Hans Egedius, A Natural History of Greenland, &c., 1743. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.