November 2, 2005

Medical methods change with the times

By Vickie Aldous
Ashland Daily Tidings

Every generation has its own staunchly defended home remedies.

It was no different in 1911, when the massive tome “Vitalogy: Encyclopedia of Health and Home” appeared in the United States, promising cures for nearly every bodily ill in its 970-plus pages.

The authors, Geo. P. Wood, M.D., and E. H. Ruddock, M.D., noted in the book’s preface that in “this age of education and progress, the Science of Health is no longer the exclusive possession of a profession, but is made an open book for those who have the wisdom to learn. ... These pages embody the wisdom and experience, and best results of years of practical observation, of prominent and enlightened physicians, upon the simplest and most effectual methods of promoting health, overcoming disease, and prolonging life.”

Some of the advice in Vitalogy stands the test of time.

But many of the remedies are harmlessly ineffective, or in the worst cases, must come with a warning: don’t try this at home.

Early experiments with x-rays convinced some doctors that sunlight could penetrate the innermost parts of the body and bestow its “healthful” benefits on internal organs and bones.

Vitalogy’s authors wrote, “That portion of our bodies where vital organs are located we treat from birth till death like the neglected plants growing in a cellar. Note how pale and puny is the growth of a plant deprived of direct sunlight.”

Since the morals of the day did not allow people to lounge about outdoors with few clothes, let alone in the nude, the authors urged readers to set up a “sun bath room” in a sunny room. There they could sit naked, surrounded by strategically placed mirrors to reflect the sun’s rays.

People who did not notice any healthful outcome from the sun bath were authoritatively reminded that “the effect is at first imperceptible, but it is going on nevertheless and will prove its health-giving power without fail if regularly continued.”

Readers suffering from insomnia were told that sleep can only occur when blood vessels supplying blood to the brain contract. If the vessels are not contracting sufficiently to slow the flow of blood to the brain and induce sleep, insomniacs should “arise and, standing straight, rise on tip toe to the fullest height a number of times in rapid succession until one feels the blood coming into the calf of the leg.”

Vitalogy warned that mental exertion “causes destruction of brain cells,” and also leads to baldness by generating “unnatural heat of the brain surfaces, thus causing the hair to drop off.”

One of numerous cures offered for baldness was to rub kerosene oil on the offending area.

Some people may have wanted their hair to fall out after reading that the color of their locks could reveal their character. Straight, flat hair indicated a melancholy temperament, while those with coarse, black hair that stuck up were unsociable, stubborn, sour and harsh. People with fine brown hair had a strong sense of “what is good and right, when unperverted.”

The authors reaffirmed the belief of the day that colds are caused by, well, cold weather. But they offered the “scientific” explanation that this was so because cold weather stopped perspiration.

Readers afflicted with vomiting probably found little relief from instructions to smear a mustard poultice onto the abdomen.

Anyone trying to aid a victim of snakebite was admonished to suck the venom from the wound, but also to administer alcohol until the patient showed symptoms of intoxication.

The authors reached their highest point of optimism that their cures could prove effective with their advice for victims of “apparent” drowning and starvation.

A man pulled from the water should be turned on his face to allow the escape of water from the mouth and throat, but “the barbarous practice of rolling a person over a barrel, or hanging him head downwards, to permit the escape of water from the lungs, has almost ceased, in view of the fact, now generally known, that no water can get into the lungs.”

People providing aid were offered illustrations on how to raise the victim’s arms over his head and then fold them over his chest in an effort to mimic respiration until the person had revived. The caption to the illustrations reads, “Persons who had been under water over two hours have been restored. Hundreds of supposed drowned people have been saved.”

Rescuers also were advised to put snuff up the victim’s nostrils or to tickle the throat with a feather in hopes of stimulating breathing.

Added on almost as an afterthought to the section on treatment for drowning victims is a short paragraph telling rescuers that they also might attempt artificial respiration by blowing into the victim.

Apparent death by starvation also could be overcome with the right treatment, according to the authors.

“Give repeatedly small injections of warm milk, and after a little while, add to the injections chicken broth or beef tea,” they advised. “When the patient begins to breathe, give a few drops of warm milk every few minutes, and as he revives increase to a teaspoonful every ten minutes.”

Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 482-3456 x 3018 or valdous@dailytidings.com.