Thursday, July 17, 2003
A WONDERFUL BEDTIME STORY: I picked up a book at the thrift store called An Underground Education by Richard Zacks (do the Amazon thing, trust me; it's great stuff), and found a story worth repeating about medical practises in the time of the Crusades. This is an artful paraphrase of the original, in the interest of fair use doctrine.
This story was told by a 12th century Arab doctor, and it's worth noting, as Mr. Zacks does, that during the European Dark Ages, the Arabs had kept alive the Greek and Roman scientific theories that the Europeans had conveniently forgotten. This will become very obvious in a hurry. Anyway, the Arab doctor was consulting with his European colleagues, and treating a knight with an abscess on his leg and a woman with consumption. He put a poultice on the abscess, resulting in it opening and starting to heal, while he put the woman on a "cleansing" diet. Then the European doctor showed up.
Doctor European declared "THIS MAN DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO CURE THESE PEOPLE!" and proceeded to dispense what is referred to as "Heroic medicine", literally kill-or-cure. Do you remember the joke about the guy whose complaint about his headache got him a sharp kick in the shins ("Made you forget about the headache, didn't it?")? Amplify that a thousand times; that was "Heroic medicine".
SO ANYWAY, Doctor European turns to the knight and asks him if he wants to die with two legs or live with one, and the knight tells him he'd prefer to be alive with one. Dr. Europe calls for a strong man with a sharp axe, and when the man arrives, says "Strike a mighty blow, and cut cleanly!" The guy chops once, then chops again (since he didn't get a clean cut the first time). The result an instantaneous change in condition--dead knight.
Now comes the fun part. Dr. Europe turns to the woman and declares that a devil is in her head in love with her, so she is shaved bald and put back on her garlicy regular diet. Her condition turned bad again, so Dr. Europe cut a cross on her head with a razor, scooped out her brain and rubbed the inside of her skull with salt. Again, instant death.
At this point the Arab doctor (remember him?) asks if they had any more need for him, and when they said they didn't, he went on his way, marvelling at the interesting things he had learned about medicine that day.
Again, Mr. Zacks' book is entertaining in places, startling in others, but always a great read. Check it out if you can.
This story was told by a 12th century Arab doctor, and it's worth noting, as Mr. Zacks does, that during the European Dark Ages, the Arabs had kept alive the Greek and Roman scientific theories that the Europeans had conveniently forgotten. This will become very obvious in a hurry. Anyway, the Arab doctor was consulting with his European colleagues, and treating a knight with an abscess on his leg and a woman with consumption. He put a poultice on the abscess, resulting in it opening and starting to heal, while he put the woman on a "cleansing" diet. Then the European doctor showed up.
Doctor European declared "THIS MAN DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO CURE THESE PEOPLE!" and proceeded to dispense what is referred to as "Heroic medicine", literally kill-or-cure. Do you remember the joke about the guy whose complaint about his headache got him a sharp kick in the shins ("Made you forget about the headache, didn't it?")? Amplify that a thousand times; that was "Heroic medicine".
SO ANYWAY, Doctor European turns to the knight and asks him if he wants to die with two legs or live with one, and the knight tells him he'd prefer to be alive with one. Dr. Europe calls for a strong man with a sharp axe, and when the man arrives, says "Strike a mighty blow, and cut cleanly!" The guy chops once, then chops again (since he didn't get a clean cut the first time). The result an instantaneous change in condition--dead knight.
Now comes the fun part. Dr. Europe turns to the woman and declares that a devil is in her head in love with her, so she is shaved bald and put back on her garlicy regular diet. Her condition turned bad again, so Dr. Europe cut a cross on her head with a razor, scooped out her brain and rubbed the inside of her skull with salt. Again, instant death.
At this point the Arab doctor (remember him?) asks if they had any more need for him, and when they said they didn't, he went on his way, marvelling at the interesting things he had learned about medicine that day.
Again, Mr. Zacks' book is entertaining in places, startling in others, but always a great read. Check it out if you can.
|| Eric 11:11 PM#
