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History of MGHS  |
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CURES AND CONCOCTIONS FROM THE 1850'S In contrast to today's highly regulated healthcare industry, the quality of early UP medicine varied widely from town to town. Throughout most of the 19th century Michigan had few regulations regarding medical care. Any person, however ignorant, could set himself up as a doctor, treat patients, sign death certificates, testify as an expert witness in murder trials, and recommend commitment of people to insane asylums. The general populace had no official aid in distinguishing a good physician from a snake oil salesman. Care administered by "good" physicians was often of questionable value, however. Bloodletting (cutting into veins or arteries to remove blood) was a common treatment which contributed to the death of countless patients. Mercury, in the form of calomel, was one of the most commonly prescribed medications in the UP early this century. Used as a violent purgative, it also caused the destruction of jaw bones, teeth, and mouth tissues through mercury poisoning. These treatments were standard medical practices at the time that Marquette was settled. Working in a remote area with few resources, early Marquette physicians learned to rely on Native American and folk medicine cures. Various concoctions of local herbs and plants were used by citizens and physicians alike. Arbutus, sarsaparilla, golden seal, winter green, flowering dogwood, sumac, and willow bark were routinely used to treat a variety of ailments. The physician's pharmacy might also include drugs such as opium for pain relief, tartar emetic for intestinal parasites, quinine for fevers and malaria, and the universally used medications of calomel and castor oil. A favorite cough recipe used by Dr. Van Riper in Champion contained pine tar, cherry bark extract, alcohol, sugar, and laudanum (opium). Dried sphagnum moss was used as a sterile dressing, powdered rhubarb made a potent laxative, and sulfuric acid was used to burn off warts. Other common folk remedies were axle grease for treating burns, turpentine on a sugar cube for urinary infections, and a wad of well chewed tobacco packed into a wound as a disinfectant. Calomel and castor oil, as mentioned earlier, were by far the two most commonly prescribed drugs. Regardless of the presenting symptoms, many physicians would start with these potent medications, cleaning out their unfortunate patients "from stem to stern". This cured most patients, or at the least, took their minds off their other physical ailments. New physicians to the UP were often puzzled by the large amounts of castor oil demanded by their patients, until they realized that it was also used to soften and waterproof leather boots. Physicians routinely measured, mixed, and bottled the medications they prescribed. The doctor would often require his patients to return their empty medicine bottles, so they could be washed and used again. If the medication needed to be taken as a pill, the physician would carefully measure out and mix the necessary ingredients. A little water would then be added to form a paste of the mixture. This would be rolled out into a thick sheet, in the same way you might roll out a pie crust. The sheet would be cut to form small squares, which the doctor would pick up one by one, roll between his thumb and index finger into a round or oblong pill, and place onto a baking sheet. The sheet of newly formed pills would then go into a wood cook stove until the pills had dried and hardened. 1997
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Patient
Rooms Direct Dialing - (906) 225-3(Room#). Room #'s: 233-245, 374-390, 501-527, & 601-827 |
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