Barber/Surgeon Curiosa

 

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Instructions:

Print this page out and then cut off one curiosa item at a time to give to each team of apprentices when they come to you during the designated week for curiosa items. REMEMBER: Only hand out each curiosa item once.
 
 
 Bladder Stone
    A description of a man operating on himself before anethesia is depicted in Observationes Medicae by Nicolaas Tulp, a dutch anatomist. Apparently the dutchman, Jan de Doot, suffered the intolerable pain caused by a bladder stone. Not trusting the physician's of the day, he prepared to operate on his malady himself in 1651. He sent his wife to market and then cut into his own bladder through the perineum. He then enlarged the wound with his fingers and dug out the stone. Incredibly he survived to tell the tale.
    References:
    Newman, Art (1988). The Illustrated Treasury of Medical Curiosa. McGraw-Hill, Inc. New York, New York.
 
 
 Tobacco
    Tobacco recieved a mixed reception when first introduced into Europe. King James I vehemently opposed its use, even writing a Counterblast to Tobacco in 1604. In this paper, he called the habit "a custome loathsome to the Eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmfull to the Braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof neerest resembling the horrible Stigean smoke of the pit that is bottomlesse." In Russian, the czar decreed that tobacco users were to be whipped and exiled after having their noses slit. And in 1624 the pope threatened snuff takers with excommunication.
    References:
    Newman, Art (1988). The Illustrated Treasury of Medical Curiosa. McGraw-Hill, Inc. New York, New York.
 
 
 Panaceas
    The unicorn's horn was considered powerful medicine against many affictions, including epilepsy, impotence, sterility, the plague, smallpox and a host of other ills. The horn, undoubtedly the ivory of an elephant or norwhale, was dipped into fluids or ground into powder. When formed into a drinking cup, the horn was thought to impart its healing properties to water and wine. A German traveler to Windsor Castle in 1598 reported, "We were shown here, among other things, the horn of a Unicorn, of about eight spans in length, valued at about 100,000 pounds!"
    References:
    Newman, Art (1988). The Illustrated Treasury of Medical Curiosa. McGraw-Hill, Inc. New York, New York.
 
 
 Panaceas
    Anything associated with the gibbet was thought to impart medicinal value from the time of the Middle Ages through the end of the eighteenth century. As a result, hangmen profited by selling tiny lengths of the noose as well as scrapings from the skull of hanged criminals.
    References:
    Newman, Art (1988). The Illustrated Treasury of Medical Curiosa. McGraw-Hill, Inc. New York, New York.
 
 
 Chamber Pot
The first chamber pots, introduced in the fourteenth century, were developed from a medieval device made of glass. It had a funnel-like mouth and a narrow neck which allowed its user to do what was needful while remaining in bed. A similiar device called the bourdalone developed for use by the ladies. It was so named because of a verbose Jesuit, Father Bourdalou, whose sermons were unusually long. Proper ladies could answer the calls of nature discretly without interrupting the sermon's flow.
 
 
References:
Newman, Art (1988). The Illustrated Treasury of Medical Curiosa. McGraw-Hill, Inc. New York, New York.
 
 
 Chamber Pot
With the introduction of porcelein the chamber pot was elevated to a thing of beauty from the original plain earthenware of pewter variety. The porcelein models were decoreated with colored glazes and took on seemly shapes. Some even decorated the "target area" with a staring eye and the inscription,
"Use me well and keep me clean,
And I'll not tell what I have seen."
 
References:
Newman, Art (1988). The Illustrated Treasury of Medical Curiosa. McGraw-Hill, Inc. New York, New York.