From East to West, and further south than usual, the country has been blanketed in snow in recent days. Imagine if you were crossing it on foot, by canoe, on horseback, in a wagon; a settler, a pioneer, a frontiersman — and you got hurt, became ill.
The medicine of the American frontier was rough and ready — and often required for snake bite, bear slash, bullet wound, broken bone, fever. In deep woods and mountain pass. When doctors were rare – and sometimes more dangerous than the snake.
This hour, On Point: Wild stories of American medicine — native and otherwise — on the American frontier.
You can join the conversation. Does your family lore include tales of wagon-bed surgery? Medicine on the hoof? Fever and ax-wound and frontier survival? Would you have the grit to go mano-a-mano with a bear … tend your wounds … and press on?
-Tom Ashbrook
Guest:
David Dary, professor emeritus at the University of Oklahoma, where he ran what is now the Gaylord College of Journalism for eleven years. He is the award-winning author of more than a dozen books on the American West. His new book is “Frontier Medicine: From the Atlantic to the Pacific, 1492-1941.”
Read an excerpt from “Frontier Medicine.”
Tags: American history, books, history, medicine
Oh my god, this makes a Stephen King book sound like a disney film yikes
Posted by Sam E., on December 23rd, 2008 at 11:29 am ESTBrimstone = sulfur!
Posted by monica s, on December 23rd, 2008 at 11:35 am ESTTansy = a daisy-like flower
Posted by Lorna M., on December 23rd, 2008 at 11:36 am ESTTansy is a common rayless yellow daisy that grows wild in roadside Massachusetts, bitter in taste and highly scented like pyrethrum. and ferny leaves. Tanacetum is the genus name.
My kid says that brimstone refers to sulfur!
Posted by Jooanie MacPhee, on December 23rd, 2008 at 11:38 am ESTMy grandmother’s sister lived outside Watertown NY but was from Canada; part Native American and French. When we were pretty young she took us into the woods and covered our arms and legs with the juice from poison ivy. The theory was since we weren’t afraid of it we would never get it. And, I never have.
Posted by Sadi Hut, on December 23rd, 2008 at 11:41 am ESTI collect vintage and antique cookbooks. Almost without exception there is a section on home remedies. To me it is obvious that the first course of treatment for a burn, fever, bug bite etc. was the family cookbook. The pages appear to have been well used. I’ve tried a few, and they work.
Posted by Marianne, on December 23rd, 2008 at 11:58 am ESTTansy can be toxic(contains the same volatile oil found in absinthe), but has been used to treat gout and other joint ailments & as a vermifuge. Also to repel insects.
Posted by Julie Summersquash, on December 23rd, 2008 at 12:02 pm ESTThis sounds like a fascinating book. Of course, the writer knows that many modern pharmaceuticals are based on indigenous medicines derived from plants. Brimstone is indeed sulfur and is was used for congestion and indigestion among other things. Tansy, an herb of the aster family is still popular with herbalists for its wide range of benefits. Tansy is used internally to relieve of indigestion and can be used externally to relieve swelling a skin lesions. Good stuff!
Posted by Suzanne Coffin, on December 23rd, 2008 at 12:05 pm ESTHerbal medicine has been staging a come back in the past few years. Harvard Med School at one point around ten years ago, started contraction herbalists to teach a class to aspiring doctors. I’m not sure if they still do this.
My father practiced medicine in rural VA and East Tn for 35 years. He ran accross many bizarre remidies- some did more harm than good. He was facinated by them and kept records of them. He’d always remind me that, while many were rather odd, asprin was orignally derived from pine bark tea. Perhaps these remidies should be further studied?
Posted by steve, on December 23rd, 2008 at 12:07 pm ESTMidwives are “experts in the normal”. The profession is pronounced ‘midwifery’ with a short second ‘i’. This program has been fascinating and I look forward to reading Prof. Dary’s book. However, I hope no one is misled by his account of the history of medicine and midwifery.
For example, in Massachusetts midwives were excluded from the medical establishment in 1909 with the conviction of Hannah Porn of practicing medicine without a license. She was a Finnish midwife from Gardner, MA who had better mortality statistics than the doctors. In contras, midwifery was included in the medical establishment in England in 1902 with creation of the Central Midwives Board.
Gov. Dukakis made midwifery legal in Mass in 1978 and most hospitals now have midwifery services. Dr. Fredrick Frigoletto (later President of the ACOG) restarted the OB service at the Massachusetts General Hospital (closed since 1951) in 1994 with midwives as an integral part of his very collegial service. They have their own case load and consult with, or refer their patients, to physicians as appropriate. Midwives see patients of all economic strata though, as in many cities, they particularly care for immigrant and low income patients in the outlying clinics.
Posted by Mary Eliot Jackson, CNM (Pat), on December 23rd, 2008 at 12:20 pm ESTWonderful, fascinating program.
Posted by Diane Q. Forti, on December 23rd, 2008 at 2:08 pm ESTI grew up on Long Island, and my grandmother (born in 1890) swore by her “balsam-apple salve” as a remedy for skin injuries of all kinds. As a child with a badly scraped knee, I remember her binding a piece of balsam apple over the gravel-filled wound to “draw out the grit.”
I still have two jars of her homemade concoction in my medicine cabinet, although I suspect it is no longer safe to apply. It smells strongly of camphor. I wonder whether any of the other listeners have ever heard of this strange salve.