tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post512375414457178800..comments2024-03-28T18:32:05.933-04:00Comments on bensozia: Franz Schmidt and the Profession of ExecutionerJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-15885718752040596112019-08-26T07:03:31.708-04:002019-08-26T07:03:31.708-04:00@G
The evidence does not show that pre-modern doc...@G<br /><br />The evidence does not show that pre-modern doctors did any good on average. Obviously this is a really hard question to get at, at least before the 19th century, but what we do know is not encouraging. <br /><br />For example, in the early 19th century when women started going to the hospital to give birth under a doctor's care their death rate went way up, which we know about it because some doctors called attention to this as part of the crusade for sterilization. <br /><br />Roman doctors, or at least Galen, knew something about sterilizing wounds, but many surgeons of the 1700s and 1800s worked in very unclean ways and no doubt killed many patients through infection. President Garfield was almost certainly killed, not by an assassin's bullet, but by bad medical care.<br /><br />If you don't know the book Shadow cites I highly recommend it; Keith Thomas is one of the very best historians.<br /><br />JohnJohnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-1350451170159500522019-08-25T22:02:55.569-04:002019-08-25T22:02:55.569-04:00@Shadow
"I can't think of another profes...@Shadow<br /><br />"I can't think of another profession than doctor back then that resulted in more deaths."<br /><br />Oh, <i>please</i>.<br /><br />Pre-modern doctors weren't morons. They tended to know all sorts of valuable information about common day-to-day ailments and practical treatments for them, and they saved plenty of lives.<br /><br />People like to fixate on the more outlandish procedures and operations that have since been proven quackery, but those were the exceptional cases where more traditional remedies proved insufficient. Far overwhelmingly more common were tasks like the cleaning and dressing of wounds, the reduction of fevers, the treatment of digestive problems, the delivering of babies, etc - all things which, left wholly untreated, carry a not-insignificant risk of death or severe complications.<br /><br />It's easy to ridicule the more absurd historical medicinal practices, but the vast bulk of them were perfectly sound and did immeasurable good, particularly given the ignorance of the times and the conditions of living for the common folk.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-54817464502379079772019-08-25T15:25:23.466-04:002019-08-25T15:25:23.466-04:00And why shouldn't the executioner moonlight as...And why shouldn't the executioner moonlight as the town doctor? I can't think of another profession than doctor back then that resulted in more deaths. Makes perfect sense.<br /><br />"Thomas Sydenham, the greatest physician of the 17th century, thought that it would have been better for many patients if the art of physic had never been invented, remarking that many poor men owed their lives to their inability to afford conventional treatment."<br /><br />"I have heard the learned and pious Dr. Ridgeley. m.d. say," recalled John Aubrey, "that if the world knew the villainy and knavery of the physicians and apothecaries, the people would throw stones at 'em as they walked in the streets."<br /><br />-- Religion and the Decline of Magic<br />-- Keith Thomas<br /><br /><br />Shadowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05353532874773316117noreply@blogger.com