Essay On Colonial Medicine

Practitioners with a lack of formal education did medical care in the 17th century. Many women and laypeople in that time had lots of expertise in herbal medicines and folk antidotes to cure colonists. The first curer people would turn to if they were sick would be a neighbor or a family member. However, there was a new type of physician in the 18th century. This was usually a young man from a wealthy family who went to an elite university who didn 't see himself as a doctor, but more as a scientist. The new physicians learned anatomy through dissection, assisted researchers, and helped with medical experiments. They also observed surgical procedures, and sat through lectures about new advances in the department of medical science. Alongside the scientists, there were also surgeons. The military was where many surgeons

The Greeks went even further, introducing the concepts of medical diagnosis, prognosis, and advanced medical ethics. The Hippocratic Oath, still taken by doctors up to today, was written in Greece in the 5th century BCE. The germ theory of disease in the 19th century led to cures for many infectious diseases. Public health measures were developed especially in the 19th century as the rapid growth of cities required systematic sanitary measures. Advanced research centers opened in the early 20th century, mid-20th century was characterized by new biological treatments, such as antibiotics. These advancements, along with developments in chemistry, genetics, and lab technology led to modern medicine. Medicine was heavily professionalized in the 20th century, and new careers opened to women as nurses and as physicians. The 21st century is characterized by highly advanced research involving numerous fields of science.

During the 19th century, medicine was not very advanced, and when it came to treating slaves, the treatments were even less developed. Slaves were viewed as property during the 1800’s, causing the healthcare of the slaves to be considerably less advantageous than that of their slaveholders. Slaves often lived and worked in unhealthy environments, resulting in a greater susceptibility to disease (“In the Letters Written by Slave Owners”). Many slaves were overworked, malnourished, and left to drink excrement infested water. With little access to physicians, slaves frequently treated one another back to health. When slaves would treat one another, they would more than likely use herbal remedies. These herbal remedies included, “snakeroot, mayapple, red pepper, boneset, pine needles, comfrey, and red oak bark” (“Slave Medicine”). If slaves were not being treated by one of their own, “the responsibility for the health of slaves often fell to

The logic and principles of medieval medicine shaped those of Modern medicine. Never was there a more efficient method perfected, so much that it remained through history through so many hundreds of years. Today’s concepts of diagnosis, relationships with the church, anatomy, surgery, hospitals and training, and public health were established in the Middle Ages.

In the Elizabethan era, medicine was incredibly simple and led to the death of millions.

The medicines and medical techniques used during the Civil War were very primitive for their time. Extremely little was known about germs and the dangers of infections. In Recovery, it is stated that, “Treating wounds and illnesses with medication had become common—opiates, stimulants, sedatives, diuretics, purgatives, and more were widely available and used. The first pills had been made in the early 1800s. The stethoscope and the

Appalachian folk medicine is a system of healing made up of beliefs and practices that are transferred by oral tradition through families and communities. It was developed in response to a lack of access to modern medical care and combines homemade remedies with superstition and religious beliefs. A general definition of folk medicine is a collection of cures that are handed down by oral tradition and other similar means of heritage and are considered outside of mainstream medicine. Appalachian folk medicine sprung up from the need for health care. In pre-industrial Appalachia, doctors and modern medicine were rare and inaccessible as well as expensive, so people relied on traditional home remedies and superstitious practices to alleviate pain and to cure disease. Practices such as using turpentine and brown sugar to cure worms and the use of magnetism to stimulate the body to heal itself are common for many minor illnesses. The most common aspect of Appalachian folk medicine, however, is the widespread use of herbal and homemade medicines that are believed to have healing powers. It relies on local roots, flowers, fruits, bark, leaves, and seeds that could be gathered and then combined or treated to make them suitable for healing.

Many traditional Native medicines and healing practices were discouraged with the advent of Western medicine, but now there is a movement to return to traditional ways (Zubek, 1994, p. 1924). Modern Western medicine treats the symptoms to cure a diseased state when the body is out of homeostasis. Native American healing traditions do this as well with herbs and plants suited to the purpose. These Native healing traditions also include sacred rituals, chants, and purification rites to help bring the spirit and mind of the afflicted back into balance. In effect, treating the whole person, not only the disease. A blending of these two healing practices could bring about better prognoses for today's patients. The purpose of this paper is

During the Civil War, they had to have many medicines, operations, and surgeries done to themselves or others in order to survive (Jenny Goellnitz, Paragraph 1). Some of these medicines we still use today. Medical technology and scientific knowledge have changed dramatically since the Civil War, but the basic principles of military health care remain the same. The deadliest thing that faced the Civil War soldier was disease. For every soldier who died in battle, two died from disease.

At first Europeans were skeptical of the medicine that the Native Americans used. Medicine men and women used new medical techniques that the Europeans never have seen before, they prayed to spirits and had ceremonies to heal some patients. Native American healers highly believed in spiritual healing that Europeans were not accustom to and did not believe in. However Europeans went crazy over the way Native Americans could use plants and herbs in healing. Native Americans doctors would go into the forest often not far from their homes and find plants, berries, barks, and roots that would be used in healing, although they have been known to go on trips for several days to collect materials too. Many herbs that Native Americans used in early colonial America are still used today like ginseng and bayberry. With the Native Americans knowledge of herbs and natural remedies many colonists were beginning to think that Native American medicine men and women were better doctors than their own educated European doctors. Natives Americans came along way from being savages.

Native American traditional medicine and spiritual healing rituals go back for thousands of years, these traditions often focus on different variations of alternative medicine. This knowledge is passed on throughout generations, many of the tribes learn that by mixing natural plants such as herbs and roots they can make remedies with healing properties. It is believed that being healthy is when people reach a state of harmony not only spiritually, mentally but physically. To be able to overcome the forces that cause illness people must “operate in the context of relationship to four constructs —namely, spirituality (Creator, Mother Earth, Great Father); community (family, clan, tribe/nation); environment (daily life, nature, balance); and self (inner passions and peace, thoughts, and values)” (Portman & Garret, 2006, p.453). In this research paper I am going to show evidence of the tremendous influence that Native American medicine and spiritual healing have over modern medicine in the course of healing

In order to heal a fractured, sprained or dislocated bone, the natives would form a padding of wet clay or rawhide to form a cast around the injury. This restricted movement, thus allowing the bone to heal properly. In another method, used by the Ojibwas, they washed the fractured arm with warm water, then greased it, applied a warm poultice of wild ginger and spikenard to ease the pain, covered it with cloth, and bound the arm with cedar splints (Vogel 215). This procedure resulted in a sling that allowed the broken bone to heal correctly. When someone broke a bone, it was crucial that the bone be able to heal properly as the injured person was needed to return to work as quickly as possible. Some Native Americans often used specific drugs to suppress ovulation and control the menstrual cycle (Vogel 5). This drug's success started researchers on the road that led to the pill, a common form of birth control today. This demonstrates that many of the needs of the people of the past are similar to the needs of the people today. In 1536, an Indian chief, Domagaia, treated an abundant disease, scurvy, by boiling the leaves and bark of a 'magical tree' and then placing the dregs upon the legs of the people that had been exposed (Morsette 5).

There were doctors in Colonial America. When a doctor visits a patient to check upon the sick person's health, their pay will be in anything but money such as chopped woods, vegetables, et cetera for the poor people. The poor people did not have money as stated in A Visit to a Colonial Times Doctor’s Office. They usually rely on their farming to feed their families and things such as money were scarce. Those who are of the contrary to the low income and the rural settings have better access to health and opportunities as written in Colonial Medicine (5). They can pay their doctor on the spot and can even request their choice of doctors. In modern America, a new change to the health care business is arriving. With the currently new healthcare, everyone shall be able to hopefully

The health care profession during the 18th century, before the advent of scientific practices, wasn’t fire-walled for quackery. An unclean wound or childbirth could habitually lead to fatality. Medicine was more or less a trial and error practice. Medical professionals at that time wore black garb. Towards the end of the 19th century, after Joseph Lister and his work with antisepsis, modern medicine emerged with a new sense of optimism. Antiseptics, and later antibiotics saved millions of lives. Doctors now felt proud aligning themselves with scientific practices that could assure reproducibility and beneficial results. Health care professions now passionately embraced the white lab coats worn by scientists. Today, the white coat represents

Since modern man took his first steps out of the caves and began the long and arduous process of forming a society, health and wellness of the community has been a constant concern. From the earliest witch doctors and shamans, all the way to our present day surgeons and general medical practitioners, humans have sought the care of those who claim to hold healing elixirs, remedies, medicines, and cures for whatever ails us. During mankind’s earliest days, many of those practices and potions were passed down via the oral tradition; telling a student or family member what to do, how to do it, and when. This practice worked well enough and lasted until humans worked out how to put ink to paper and began maintaining a written record around the practice of healing. Yet, in most cases, these early incarnations of written medical issues revolved more on the processes of healing and less on those afflicted and cured by them. In focusing more on the illnesses and less on the patient’s histories, medically speaking, the healers were guilty of missing the forest for the trees. It wasn’t until the late 17th century that medical practitioners recognized the value of understanding and tracking the health of each individual patient from birth to death so that data (medical and personal) could be studied, understood, and leveraged in the event said individual needed medical care.