However, this past November, I was graced with new leeches* from the same individual (thank you to Miss Nelson for them, and for Mr. Miller for delivering), and now have 2 beautifully happy leeches in a nice tank, living a very happy life.  Sippy and Glugger (yes I repeated names), like their counterparts, however, needed to eat as well, and so this time around I did some better homework.

Thanks to Miss L, who used to work at the Mercer Apothecary in Fredericksburg, VA (who has a ton of leeches), I was able to find out that they should just be given what they know best- blood.  So off I went to the best place I knew to get blood- the local butcher.  To their credit, Hemp’s Meats in Jefferson, MD didn’t flinch when I called asking when they were butchering in order for me to get some blood for my little guys.  They actually were rather interested in the idea of me using the blood for something like this!  So yesterday afternoon at lunchtime, I was able to procure several ounces of blood for my little suckers, and let them fill their gullets.

Lunchtime!!

As you can see, both leeches were very happy with the arterial blood that Hemp’s provided, and each earned their name respectively.  Glugger finished his meal in about 30 minutes of continuous writing and sucking, and Sippy took his time, hiding in a different area of the bowl for about 2 and a half hours before filling himself full of the tasty ooze.  To see what it looks like when they eat- you can click here.  Yes, it really is that fascinating.

After glugger was finished, I put him back into his water tank to start working digesting and working off that meal.  He had easily tripled in size, looking less like a small snake, and more like a vienna sausage now.  You can see video of him trying to move around the tank here.  He’s kinda waving to me almost in this video, which is kinda cute, in an “I think slimy things are neat” kinda way.

After some coaxing, and some moving around in the tub of red, Sippy finally found his favorite spot of the meal, and gorged himself as well.  Once he started doing that, it only took him another 20 minutes of feeding before he too was as big as Gulpy.  I put him back as well, and of course got a picture of them side by side in the tank.  Note: their tank is only 1 gallon, so while it is impressive that they’re stretched out the whole way across, its also kinda small.  According to my research on them, however, they can get pretty big, about 8-10 inches long at full growth.

All told, I estimate that the pair of leeches ate about 1-1.5 ounces of blood from the container, which isn’t bad!  On average a leech will eat around 5-15ml of blood, so these guys are slightly on the overachiever side.  The gang will need to be fed every 90 days or so.  I’ve already warned the butcher that I would be calling again for more in the spring, and I may actually invest in more leeches.  They’re actually very fascinating to have in the tank as pets (watching them dig in the rocks at the bottom of the tank is truly fascinating!), and it would be nice to start my own collection of leeches to bring to events.  As it stands currently, I only bring out one at a time, in order to keep track of them and to make sure they’re not all traumatized at once.  If I had a small pack of leeches (like 8 or so), then I may be more inclined to bring more in the future.  But again, I can only really bring them out in the spring and fall, or in places where I’m air conditioned, so it may not be the most ideal thing to do.  I’m debating whether or not Sippy or Gulpy will be making the trip to my first event of the season- Military Through the Ages in March.

Yes, this post isn’t really about 18th century medicine other than it has leeches in it, and the leeches were used in 18th century medicine.  But alot of people at events have asked me if I have leeches, and if so, what I feed them to keep them sustained.  Other people have offered themselves up to feed the leeches, and while I appreciate the sentiment, I am unable to take you up on that offer.  Leeches can carry blood born pathogens (just like mosquitos carry West Nile, etc.)  In this day and age when sometimes inquisitiveness becomes “hands on experimentation,”  I want to make sure that these little guys can’t really do any damage if they were to attach to someone by accident.  I personally take universal precautions when pulling them in and out of the tank for feeding and transport to events (rubber gloves etc so I don’t let them have me for lunch.), and keep them in their jar at events to swim around and look “cute” for everyone.  Plus, it can occassionally take 48 hours or more for a leech bite site to cease bleeding because of the hirudin (the anticoagulant), and there’s a slight risk of an anaphylactic reaction to it as well, and no one wants that.

I think the most interesting thing for me is seeing how they’re going to shrink back down from their hugely engorged states.  I’ve seen Glugger stretch out a couple of times, and parts of him are skinny when he does that, but there’s still a fair amount of blood in there for him to digest.  But for the time being, they’re my little green sausages, and I’m very content in the knowledge that they fed well and will hopefully continue to grow and thrive as members of the entourage.

*Author’s side note: I was given 3 leeches by Miss Nelson, but only have 2.  The general consensus is that Gulpy has run off to run for public office.  Vote Gulpy in 2012.

Just prior to this at Ligonier, I had been given several new books, and I continue to intensely read Samuel Sharp’s Treatise on Surgery with great excitement, so I sat them all at my dining table, along with 2 lanterns, some more candles for extra light, a notebook and pen, and a glass of good scotch.  Looking at it in the dim light, I couldn’t help but think about those studying, or even working by candlelight as apprentices or students of Medicine, and how difficult that must have been.  I know that for my eyes to see the small writing and not have the book right up against my nose, and at times I had to find unique angles in order to keep the shadows from darkening important words.

This night, I had finally gotten the opportunity to really study in depth the process of Amputation in Sharpe’s Treatise on Surgery.  I had skimmed it several times, but being able to take in the full process, and the personal notations that Sharpe puts into his treatise.  Sharpe’s illustrations of his tools in his treatise are also very good (you can see the tools for removing the stone in the candlelit picture on the right.

Amputation in the 18th Century , was called the Capital Operation, and its easy to see why.  It had the largest tools, had the largest mortality rate, and in many ways was the most technical surgery that a surgeon would perform.  In some cases, this surgery was why surgeons were commonly called Sawbones, because that’s effectively what they were doing.  But when you break down the procedure, its significantly more involved than the typical person would ever anticipate.  Within a few short minutes, a surgeon is required to cut off circulation to the limb, divide the skin and muscles down to the bone in 2 slices, have their assistant pull the skin and muscles back to expose the bone, cut the bone in half, and then either cauterize the arteries and veins, or reach into the muscles to pull out and tie off all of the bleeders.  And of course, your patient, even though they’re being held down by 4 of their closest, and strongest friends, is screaming and more than likely attempting to thrash about.  I would have to think that out of all the surgeries studied, this would be the most traumatic and painful, which is probably why many patients died from shock during the procedure.  (As a note: The fastest Pre Anesthetic amputation is attributed to Robert Liston, who could remove a limb in approximately 30 seconds, but the average was a minute to 3 minutes.)

Yeah I wouldn't want someone coming at me with those either.

Sharpe has many bits of information about the procedure of amputation, but a lot ofhis own unique ancedotes regarding the subject are divided by the different types of amputation he’s discussing.  While the procedure is basically the same regardless of which limb, each area for amputation has its own caveats.  For example, “There are in the Armies a great many Instances of Gun-shot Wounds of the Arm near the Scapula, which require Amputation at the Shoulder; but the Apprehension of losing their Patients on the Spot by the Hæmorrhage, has deterred Surgeons from undertaking it.”  At the end of this statement he does believe that it is possible to do this procedure based on a tale of a miller who had his arm ripped off by the grist mill, but he doesn’t have the answers as to how to do it effectively yet.

Sharpe also speaks on when amputations should be performed in the cases of Gunshot Wounds, compound fractures, and all sudden accidents requiring amputation.  He states that they are attended “with the best success” if immediately performed.  He also alludes to the fact that amputation is somewhat an art, in that you have to have experiences to understand where best to cut for the best success of an amputation in cases of mortification (limb death.) Other tips that he gives the aspiring surgeon for amputation are to use silk thread to sew, and to apply a bit of Barley water or warm milk to the dressings to aid in healing.  Whether or not either of these actually aids with that is unknown.

Reading these entries in the dim candlelight and trying to envision the procedures in my head as Sharpe described them, I can only imagine the difficulty, and the truly great skill that the surgeons would have had to have to perform the Capital Operation. I could not even imagine being a freshly released surgeons mate or young surgeon having to perform this operation the first time, or even assisting the first time. Then again, I’ve read current accounts of surgeons going to amputation, and dreading it as well.  Perhaps even with the advancements we have today, this procedure is daunting and as scary in the bright lights of an operating room, than the dim lights of a house, castle basement, or flying hospital.

This past year saw a lot of development and many events for this surgeon reenactor.  I lectured, I was invited to new sites, and gained many new friends, and many new pieces to add to my collection and to my knowledge.  I also was met with many challenges, both personally in pushing myself to keep learning, and in proving myself to others.  Fortunately I’ve met these with the zeal I typically do, and have succeeded in continuing to improve my impression.  I’ve learned more French in the past year than I thought I would, and I’ve even had the opportunity to sing in French with some members of Quebec units.  For that I am extremely grateful.

I’ve travelled up to Ogdensburg again, and as far south as Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina.  In doing so, I’ve gained new friends, and new lessons in packing and planning, in developing the impression to be more pointed to different aspects of the same period in history, and even in speaking to different people on many different aspects of what it is that I do.  One of the most interesting moments I’ve had this year was at Fort La Presentation, where a French Canadian lady thought that I was just a “Sage-femme” or Midwife, and wanted to know how I would use an amputation saw in Midwifery.  It took some time, but Iwas able to convince her that I was more than just a Sage-femme, but I did get to teach her about some aspects of Midwifery I had picked up over time.  Trying to find the proper words for Honey, and Flour, was definitely a challenge, but later on, she brought a friend back and even passed on the information to her!  I had succeeded, and was very happy to have taught someone some good information.  Because that’s what its all about, isn’t it!

One of the things that I have always strived for is the acceptance and respect of the units that I am a part of and associate with regularly. Sometimes this can be tough, because you’re a new person trying something that they haven’t seen before, or that they never thought of needing, or any number of factors.  This year, I was honored by my French Unit, Compagnie Dumas, with gifts from some of the elders of the unit.  My friend J gave me 2 original physic/surgery manuals from 1761 and 1791 respectively, and B, one of the founders of the unit, gave me some documentation on Frater-surgeons, and a copy of the first Encyclopaedia Brittanica (its a reprint that was published in the 1970′s during the bicentennial).  Both of these were majorly humbling to me because the showed me one thing- I’m doing something right.

J’s comment to me when he gave me his gifts was that I’m doing so well with what I’m doing in my impression, and that it was so wonderful to see it.  B is not a man of many words, and was absent when his gift was given to me, but the fact that he passed them onto me is enough to know how much what I’m doing is impressing him.  Other friends have given me books and other items for surgery (M, S, K, R, P, and C to

name just a few), and I am eternally grateful for these things.

So what does 2012 have in store for Doctor Clift?  Well I have already started building my calendar for the year, and I’m happy to say it is just as busy as last year, if not more-so.  I’m very excited by this.  In doing more events though, I want to keep my skills and knowledge up to the pace that I’ve kept in the past. So I am planning on spending more time in study and research mode.  In 2011, I was gifted with a new job, which should allow me more time to do so, and I plan on committing one night a week to studying medicine.  My first focus of the year will be on the doctors of the Jacobite Rebellion, so look forward into hearing a little more about that.  I also plan on getting more french vocabulary together.  It seems as if the majority of my events next year will be French, so it will be good to know the french terminology for medical items.  Plus, I have 4 books currently on French-Canadian medicine during the 18th century which are exclusively in French, so its going to be impossible to escape.

I also promise that I will be more diligent about posting here in my blog- though it may be more about what I’m learning and less event recaps than I had originally intended.  Writing things down helps me retain what I’m learning, I’ve found, and so writing to educate everyone will help a lot.  So I’m aiming for at least 2 posts a month.  And since I have some back articles sitting in drafts, I think I can do ok with that.  If not, feel free to help me by pushing me about it.

So that’s basically it from the Doctor’s Desk at the moment.. except for one thing.

THANK YOU.  Yes, YOU!  For listening to my geeking out about medicine in a long past time period, for giving me books, or leeches, or information, or ads from the Maryland Gazette, for inviting me to events, for helping me with setup and teardown, and for being there to listen to my rants, or for just reading my blog.  Know that I am eternally grateful for all of you, and appreciate every little bit that you do.  So in 2012, my hope for you all is that you have as much fun and acceptance and knowledge as I did in 2011.  And that I see all of you at events in 2012.  Happy New Year!!

Quackgrass is very common to everyone, as it grows in every grassy yard I’ve ever seen. The plant that has the blades of grass that peel off a reed in your yard, is quackgrass.

This stuff.

Quackgrass, in the 18th Century, was used by French apothecaries and more than likely Sage-femmes (midwives), as a dieuretic and for its antiseptic properties.  As we know, most herbal remedies and other medicines of the perdiod are truly not effective, either at all or for what they were originally indicated for, but in this case Quackgrass does have some efficacy.

It is highly used for its effect on the kidneys, and when your dog/cat is digging in the yard and eating a certain grass for upset stomach, Quackgrass is what they’re eating!  Apparently it does work for them!  More information on how quackgrass can be used can be found here: http://journeytoforever.org/edu_quackgrass.html.

But this got me thinking about other things that are considered weeds in our yards today that were used or can be used for medicine today.  Another prime example is dandelion.

Dandelion, while typically described as a weed as well, has had an expansive history of use.  Culpeper’s Complete Herbal describes another name for these

Just in case you didn't know what "piss-a-bed" looked like.

flowers as “piss a bed”, and states that the French and the Dutch eat them frequently in the spring.  Culpeper states that it can be used for issues of the liver, as a dieuretic, and that it also helps with rest and sleep, among some other ailments.

You can enjoy Dandelion greens even today as a nice salad, fried even, and I know of several wineries make Dandelion Wine, which is quite tasty.  Medicinally, western herbalists use dandelions in a similar way of Culpeper, the French, and the Dutch, as a diuretic, and for treating liver diseases, such as  cirrhosis and hepatitis.

So the next time you’re about to mow the lawn, take a few minutes to scope it out for Dandelion and Quack-Grass.  You never know when you may need either.

This year at Ogdensburg, I lectured on 18th Century medicine.  Anyone who has seen my setup, read my blog, or had a conversation with me about this topic knows that I can speak at length, and then some, but for this engagement I had a 45 minute interval in which to impart my knowledge in.  So what was important to discuss?  What information did I want them to take away from the presentation?  How much information is too much information?  Should I focus on the French perspective, or do British as well?  Do I use props? So many questions to overthink!

Lecturing seems different than just talking to a bunch of students for 25 minutes, with all of my tools in front of me.  I felt as if I had to impart as much generalized information instead of the specifics on what this tool did and what that tool did, or how that medicine was used for x,y, and z.  I had to show the different types of caregivers, and their educations, backgrounds, etc.  And even as we worked on an outline during the drive up, there was still so much information that I was continuing to have to cut out of my presentation.

When you’re passionate about a topic, it seems that there is endless stores of information you want to disseminate to the public, to attempt to make them as passionate as you.  When there are half truths and plain out fabricated facts as well, you want to make sure to give people the right information.  And you also want to make it interesting so that the audience isn’t falling asleep.  So you have to pick and choose wisely.  Stick with the basics and add little gems of information when you can so that you make people perk up, and make their eyes get wide.  I kept using cues from one lady in my audience who’s eyebrows would raise when I would state a new fact that she didn’t really know about medicine, which was extremely encouraging for me.

In the end, my talk ended up being about 40 minutes out of 45.  I only added a few props, and I did my best to stick to the outline, though I did stray once or twice.  I received excellent feedback, from both the individuals at my presentation and the organizers.  So I suppose I had just enough information to pass on! Hurrah!

Me about to start the presentation, I think. Many thanks to Beth C for the picture!

Some of my new aquisitions

Another Market Fair has passed, and lots of money has exchanged hands for goods.  My list of aquirements is fairly extensive, and I am happy to report that the majority was related to improving my surgeon’s impression.  However, this year seemed to be less about surgical tools (which was primarily because I’ve bought almost everything Godwin makes related to surgery), and more about  incidental supplies, and some apothecary items.

Look! Someone's making tooth powders from period recipes!

Deborah Peterson’s Pantry was in attendance as usual, and this year, I saw items that caught my eye to add to the apothecary collection that I am amassing- cochineal, hartshorn, salt petre, and gum arabic, which excited my mind to the area of medicines.

While the Apothecaries and Surgeons were primarily different people in different shops, there were cases of Apothecary-Surgeons in the colonies in the 18th Century.  This was mainly because there wasn’t a true market in many small towns and cities for multiple apothecaries and surgeons.  So in my impression of 18th Century health and wellness, I also have an extensive collection of bottles full of herbs and a copy of the 1737 “Poor Planters Physician” which I bring out to discuss.  The “Poor Planter’s Physician” was kind of a Ladies Home remedy book, which most families took with them into the wilderness to self diagnose and to grow herbs for curing the illness they diagnosed.

Many people were unable to afford an Apothecary, or were even close enough to a town to use their services, so in many cases, the family would raise a medicinal garden, and carry lancets with them for their own operations of bleeding to realign the humours. The book is very concise, which makes it easy to carry and in many cases, to memorize what herbs were used for what purpose.  Its been great, but, the rabbit hole beckoned again for more.

See, short and sweet!

When I first started going through google books, looking for the ever elusive primary source documentation, I came across a 1747 Pharmacopoeia- a fairly extensive book of preparations, potions, salves and other items for alleviating symptoms and curing illness.  But in addition to the instructions for these various things, there’s a whole section on understanding why medicine works, and the different ways to prepare the medicines.  This section is almost like a chemistry book, in explaining how crystallization and other processes work, except that it really does show you that for the most part, medicine is a philosophy, not a true science.  The first four chapters of this part of the book are on the four elements and how they play into our health and how they play into the medicines.  It provides great insight for how they were deducing why certain medicines would  work for certain illnesses, but for those of us who have had modern chemistry, and have an understanding of modern medicine, it does make your head hurt at times.

For example- in the chapter on Fire, it basically states that fire is everywhere and no where at the same time, and yet while there are ways to identify fire, they aren’t really true ways to identify fire because other things can be identified in the same way.  Its fairly esoteric, and I found that I could only really read about 20 pages at a time in order to not have a major mental conflict with how wrong I felt these principles were. That also helped me to not be overwhelmed with the reality that this book was almost 1,000 pages to read and comprehend.

Why yes, I did print out the whole book. Its huge!

So in purchasing the new ingredients, I needed to refer back to this manual for some receipts that included them. Fortunately, googlebooks also has a search function for within the books it has in its collection, which made it quick and easy for me to find these.  For New Market Days this past Saturday, I ended up writing them out in quill and ink, but of course, its led me back to the massive book that is the pharmacopoeia.  In just doing a general search to test its functionality, I found 70 references for Mercury alone!  I want to try to understand some of these medicines more, to explain to people more of why they used what they used.  I like having an understanding of what they were thinking and how they were thinking of these issues of health, and I think that even though its going to be a feat and a half, the dispensary will be extremely beneficial for that.  Additionally, its great to be able to show people how Tums and other antacids came from a compound of Oyster Shells, gum arabic, nutmeg, chalk, and sugar.

Yes from this!

TO

So don’t be surprised if one night you find me just curled up in a corner rocking slowly, because I can’t comprehend how we didn’t know that oxygen was important for survival, or how it got to the rest of the body from the lungs, or how fire is in ice!  Because I’m really just preparing for the one day I’m sucked into a time warp and become a character in a Diana Gabaldon novel.

Coming soon- making kids pass out, and experimentation with the new tooth powders!

(Special thanks to Tad Miller for my new syrup of roses jar, Laura Carpenter and Billy Myers for my new delft jar in which I put my hartshorn, Katie of Ageless Artifice for making tooth powders, and of course Deb Peterson for having her awesome sutlery of unique items for cookery, which I’ve bastardized into using for apothecary work.)

While the majority of denizens of DC were staying up late to find out if they had jobs on Monday morning, I was prepping on Friday night the 8th of April preparing to be in the service of General Braddock at the lovely Carlyle House in Alexandria, Virginia.

I had been asked to play a nurse assistant to Charlotte Browne, who was the sister to the apothecary on Braddock’s Campaign to Fort Cumberland, and later, towards Fort Duquense. Charlotte was the matron of the hospital at Fort Cumberland, and later would become the first woman to be listed on the Military rolls and take a commission.  I chose a family name, Fannie, and took my herbs, my bloodletting implements, and a few other display items.  It was a much sparser layout than I’m used to, but it was a different role than I’m used to as well.  Dressing as a lady is not one of my regular 18th century activities, and I had figured that I would only use a small amount of the vast knowledge I have on 18th Century medicine.

A Potentially "accurate" depction of hospital life per Hogarth

Nursing in the 18th Century was considered the lowest of the low professions.  In the hospitals in London, most of the nurses were criminals or prostitutes, and instead of performing the actual duties of a nurse, they would take money from the patients to procure them liquor from the local pub, or to provide them that special comfort that a lady can offer a gentleman. Actual duties of the nursing staff would include changing bed linens, washing bed linens, feeding patients, cooking for patients, and occasionally changing bandages as ordered by the Matron, or head Nurse.  On the military campaign, the nurses were the wives of the soldiers who came with their husbands on campaign.  Ladies were expected to earn their keep by laundressing, or cooking, or nursing, and in some units, it was a rotation that every lady was expected to take their turn at.  However, having such a lurid history, it was not a duty the ladies enjoyed, and most did poorly at it.  Charlotte Browne actually describes this in her diary- the uselessness of her own assistant.

The other disadvantage to having the wives of soldiers as the nursing staff for any military campaign was that if their husband was wounded, the wife would then want to only dote upon their husband.  If he died, they would in many cases, leave the military unit behind to return to the city.  During Braddock’s Campaign in 1755, after the massacre at the Monongahela, many women left Fort Cumberland to go to attend to their husbands there, while many also left to return to civilization as well, leaving Charlotte to attend to many of the patients by herself, while seriously ill!

Having these bits of information within my head, as well as other facts about women with Braddock’s Army {Braddock ordered all the women checked for Venereal Disease (gonorrhea and syphilis) twice during the campaign (which was less than a year, mind you)}, I left my house early Saturday morning to head to Alexandria.

The Grandest Congress was a meeting held with several Colonial Governors, including Dinwiddie of Virginia and Sharpe of Maryland, with General Braddock, to discuss his campaign to oust the French from the area of what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Also in this discussion, they tried to make a decision on who would be paying for the campaign, as the King had decreed that the Colonies should try to fund some of it.  Braddock’s troops were also quartered in Alexandria as well at this time, and he would end up leaving 50 ill troops behind before continuing the march to Cumberland.  We had all of our governors, servants, Mr. and Mrs. Carlyle, Charlotte Brown, General Braddock, laundresses, kitchen hands, a town Doctor, myself as nurse, and several troops  in attendance.  I even had one patient to care for!

Why yes, I can wear a dress once in awhile, and look Fabulous!

There wasn’t a lot of visitors, but the visitors who did attend asked great questions and hung around for a fair amount of time.  They inquired upon my patient, and upon the herbs and such on my table, and my responsibilities, and asked questions about the menu for the patients I had laid out.

Thanks to another Doctor friend, I had a general menu for the hospital patients, and many people seemed to be really interested in the day to day meals of the men, and it just so happened they were in for a suprise.  The fabulous cook had made me some water gruel.

Now, what, you may ask, is water gruel?  Make some oatmeal, and then strain out all the oats, leaving just the pasty looking water.  Then, if you’re feeling particularly generous, add a pat of butter while its still hot.  It truly is quite the delectable treat!  Just look at my patient!

Yummy yummy!

I will admit to tasting it, and then begging General Braddock that if I should be taken ill, to not be served it.  Literally, Elmer’s Glue and butter.

But all was not lost, as the cook had made us an amazing meal consisting of fantastic potato soup, fish, meat pies, and seedcake.  We were even given tastes of some of the food that the Governor’s supped on as well, including a fantastically roasted chicken.

All in all, I found that I did end up pulling from my knowledge of surgery of the time, as well as my knowledge of the actual engagement that was about to follow a lot more than I had anticipated.  It was truly a great day, and I can’t wait to do it again next year!

Notes: Many thanks to Jane Pease for the pictures from the day and for being a Lovely Charlotte Brown, and to Kimberly Walters for the Water Gruel and for letting me know about this event.  And last but not least, a great Thank You to Dan McMahon for the “reviving victuals” for any patient that arrived at the hospital for treatment.

I think all reenactors share this excitement and dread that February and March seems to bring. The excitement that soon, you’ll be out in the tent, in the rain, singing with friends, enjoying every aspect of the hobby. The dread that soon, you’ll be out in the tent, in the rain, wondering where your spare pair of socks are, or why your gown is now soaked through and laying on your cot/bedding. The excitement that you can use what you’ve learned and done over the winter to interpret your position to the public. The dread that you squandered the winter away and all you have is one little project finished, with 100 new ideas for projects. The excitement of traveling everywhere to get away for the weekend. The dread of gas prices, and having to pack the car.

This is really like 1/3 of what I have lined up to read.

For me, the dread is always there in some aspects. There’s always more to read, more to learn, more to experience. It seems that almost daily I find a new rabbit hole for my research to go down. Like Alice, I fall down these holes, and grow and shrink depending on what I find. Just writing about the leeches last week has opened a whole new hole to jump through to learn more about how and why the leeches were used, and the most effective procedures that are still in use today. Then it jumps to a reference to a book within a book I’m reading, which leads me to pulling a pdf copy of that book off of google, so that I can add it to the never ending pile of books to read. This all leads to changing interpretations, changing information, and adding equipment, or removing equipment asneeded.

Additionally, this year is the first year I’ll be doing 3 time periods- Jacobite, French and Indian, and American War of Independence. This also means I have to keep the different periods in line, and what information is relevant for which. Granted, the major fundamentals during these times did not change, but the devil is always in the details.

I suppose its something I thrive on- the continuing education of portraying a surgeon. Like my forefathers in the 18th century, I too, am constantly learning. They by experimentation, me learning about their experimentation. There’s always another stone to be upturned, another herb to learn about, another grand procedure and the information therein. My bibliography and my knowledge grow regularly, and I want to share all that with as many people as I can.

But I have to temper that enthusiasm with the knowledge that there are only so many weekends in a summer, and that I do have to take time for myself. Failure to do that and I burn out and never want to open a page again about this wonderful world. So I am trying to limit myself to 2 weekends a month. Whether or not I’ll hold to that remains to be seen, but its looking promising.

So here I sit tonight, putting together my schedule for my unit commander in Dumas, and thinking about all the things that I need to get done before March. My first event is scheduled for the weekend of March 11, and I do want to make sure I’m going to do my best. Additionally, the weekend after is Military Through the Ages, which I need to bone up more on my Jacobite herbals and my history. Not a light task, but one that I’m going to work on daily by trying to read 3 herbs a day, and look through a timeline of 1745, so that I’m a little more knowledgeable about what may have been available to me. I also want to start making another oil of cloves, as mine previously worked so well that it has absconded to another person with a toothache. Success for the 18th century apothecary!

Seriously, it is a hot saw!

And so I continue rambling here. I’m trying to post a blog entry a week, and some may end up being more about what goes into reenacting the surgeons, apothecaries, matrons, etc, than procedures, tools, etc. But that may be for the best, because it would get boring just listening to me talk about how awesome my Capital Saw is. Though it is totally awesome.  Ok, I promise, next blog post will be about amputation.  Promise.

Sippy!!

Gulpy!

Glugger!

Around Christmas, a fellow reenactor gifted me these handsome creatures- leeches!  A teacher he was doing an interpretive class day with had purchased them for the class to learn about, but was just going to dispose of them.  Knowing someone who would surely love to have these fabulous creatures, he took them home and placed them in a mason jar with a lid made of cloth to allow air to get to them.   Another reenactor friend delivered them a few days later.

Leeches were used in the 18th century for bleeding patients in the hopes of readjusting the 4 humours (black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood.)  If any one was out of joint, a myriad of tasks could be performed to realign these to balance, including enemas, emetics, and bleeding as the top 3 options.  It is seen that bleeding is one of the primary ways to re-balance the humours.  Leeches would be tempted to bite the body with sugar water or a smear of blood, and once their teeth dug into the skin, they would pull “bad blood” out of the body, which in some cases was was a better way of bleeding than the typical lancet or blister application (cupping.)  For bleeding children, leeches were regularly used.

Leeches do have their downside- you never know how much blood they will take.  When colonists found medicinal leeches in lakes and streams here in America, they were very excited, especially due to their size (up to 9 inches long!).  However, and perhaps it was due to not being bred to the task for centuries, the American leech would take less blood.  It would regularly take 6 American leeches to draw an ounce of blood, whereas a single European leech could take that and keep going.

Because of their tempramental nature in keeping leeches alive, it seems to be uncommon for these to be used on military campaigns or long travels. Local physicians and Apothecaries would have a leech container in their shops, and would have a small travel case for short trips for home visits. Leeches are most comfortable in temperatures between 45 and 70 degrees farenheit, and need to have their water changed regularly, very much like fish in an aquarium (25-25% per change, every week on average).  They do not need to eat regularly- every 45-60 days is sufficient, and they can actually go up to a year without eating.  As my leeches are not getting a diet of human blood, I provide them a chicken liver to pull the blood out of approximately every 50 days or so.  They love it.

In the 18th Century, the same leech would be used for its entire lifespan (upwards of 6 years) on various patients for various ailments.  They were particularly efficient in removing blood from hematomas in sensitive areas (eyes, mouth, nether regions, etc), but could be used for any illness the physician saw fit to use them for.  Today, with the understanding of germs, bacteria, viruses, and bloodborn pathogens, Medicinal leeches are a single use item.  Like Mosquitos, they can carry disease from one person to another if used in that manner.  I currently have a volunteer to demonstrate the use of leeches, but if I were to do that, they would become X’s leeches. So it may not happen.  I’m still debating.

The Idiots guide to leeches!

The amazing thing to me is the fact that leeches are still used today in modern medicine.  While not used to actually remove significant amounts of blood, they are actually used for their saliva’s anticoagulant properties.  Once the leech has finished its activity, the anticoagulant will continue bleeding at the bite location, for up to 6 hours afterwards.  This is beneficial, according to my handy dandy leech guide that came with my leeches, for venous drainage- after digit reattachment, reconstructive, or plastic surgery.  My guide also tells me that leech therapy today is typically used for 3-7 days until the venous drainage is complete.

And the book also has some fabulously gross case study photos, that I may end up keeping out at events just because they’re so fabulous.  I may just bring them out for presentations and lectures, however.

And the coolest thing that I learned from this book, is that you can get a leech mobile home!

Maybe I should have named them variations on Bubba

For only $139, I can get a specially designed container, called a Leech Mobile Home, to carry my leeches and allow for easier care!

And there are 2 sizes, regular and mini…so its like a singlewide and doublewide!

I have to admit, it is really neat to see them swim around, and use their suckers to move from one part of the jar to another.  Its also awesome to see them suck the blood out of the chicken liver.  Two Hours and that thing went from pink to grey, and my leeches were happy happy!!  I can’t wait to feed them again!

Sadly, I don’t think they’ll make it out to many events, because of their temperature specifications.  Air conditioned events and early season events (March/April) will be their main appearances.  And I do need to get a period leech bowl for them, so I don’t get the “I didn’t realize Mason Jars existed in the 18th Century!”

I also need to come up with more period correct names.  While I think sippy, gulpy, and glugger are perfect names, I should come up with something for during presentations that are more  appropriate.  That being said, I could use some suggestions.

This time, however, I’m not going to set it up so that I’m only doing the first person notes.  I’ll do the first person notes in italics, but a lot of this is going to be my own musings on 18th century medicine, history, and experiences.  Charlotte will still have her teas and balls and such to attend and talk about, Doctors Clift and Marcadent will still post when I feel them, but since a lot of who they are is my research, and I love sharing what I’m learning with everyone, it will mostly just be me.

That being said, please check out my bibliography and calendar, as both are updated regularly too, as I hope this blog will be.

If you have any ideas for what I should write about, or things you’d like to know more on , etc, please comment and let me know.  I would love to know that 1- people are reading, and 2- there’s an interest in it all!

I think that’s it for the moment- I have a bunch of ideas on things to write, but I want to make sure I have  them all together in my head first!