- The ARC - California Edition -

Healing During Colonial Days

As we look back on it today, the medicine as known and practiced in this country before and during the civil war left a lot to be desired. If you were writing a medically oriented newsletter during that period, you probably would have written about some very major breakthroughs.

Typical subjects being written may have been about the detection of disease, the spreading of germs, the causes of disease, and the way patients and doctors went about healing.

Today, it takes a lot of research to determine the probable cause of why a person living in colonial times died. You often must read histories of the era, and newspapers, and public records, but likely the most productive would be getting access to family letters and diaries.

But even with a lot of effort, reviewing history usually only reveals the large catastrophic reasons, such as plagues, epidemics, fatal accidents, or similar events. And even with all this knowledge, did you really learn anything about the cause of the illness?

Quite often “fever” was reported as a cause of illness during colonial times. In the early days, the cause of fever was claimed to be related to the conditions of over-crowding, and the lack of adequate food. As we define it today, there were a large number of specific causes of what we think of as “fever”.

Second as a possible cause, was “humor”. This had been defined by Hippocrates to be four health influencing fluids within the bodies: Yellow Bile, Black Bile, Phlegm, and Blood. If you did not have the right mix, you were in trouble.

Bad blood itself was considered to be another big cause of sickness. If it wasn’t fever, and it wasn’t humor, then it had to be inferior blood. Solution: bloodletting! This therapeutic measure dates back to the 4th century and was considered during the colonial period to be capable of relieving tension, or “boiling blood”. Blood letting was considered to be mandatory in order for any cure to be effective. Our first President George Washington was reported to have been bled to death.

Who were the healers of these colonial days?

I am sure you remember that Paul Revere was a goldsmith, but he also was a dentist on the side. The tinkers, who made and mended pots and pans, also included dentistry as a second profession. Barbers went one step further and did medical healing work as well.

Midwives most often were used to assist mothers with the birthing of their babies, but they sometimes applied their limited knowledge about herbal medicines. This was a tricky combination as if things went amiss, the midwife might get accused of being a WITCH!    

Degree-holding medical doctors were seldom found in America during these early times, and usually settled down and set up “practice” for the people living in the larger port cities. These professionals often charged large fees which further restrained their use. Apprentice physicians were more numerous and accessible. The most frequent “doctor” available was of the self taught variety. Their training was normally obtained through the popular “folk medicine” healing books of that day, and the various remedies reported in the newspapers.

No matter who delivered the healing procedure, it was often opined that the cure was worse than the disease. Beside bloodletting, blistering was the application of irritants to the body so that internal disease could be brought from the deeper, diseased organs to the surface and dispelled.

Tonics, including arsenic, were remedies that were given to strengthen the body. Snakeroot was used as an expectorant to cure breathing problems.

Yes, those were the good old days.