Inglis Lamont, a member of the Stewartry U3A, gave a talk to the March meeting of members on stories from medical history, describing it as” a scamper down the ages”.
He started with what could be the earliest evidence of major surgery – Neolithic skulls with holes drilled into them which could have been made while the people were alive or post mortem. Moving rapidly on he told of Hippocrates and his school of medicine and how he had established the Hippocratic Oath which had applied down the centuries although with amendments over the years.
In the Middle Ages medicine was based on the four humours and treatment was designed to keep these in balance such as by taking blood with leeches. The Monks in the monasteries specialised in healing, studying the urine of patients and by taking their pulses. They also used herbs from their herb gardens in their treatments. On the other hand astrology was thought to be important in medicine such as by the Doctor of Physics referred to by Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales. Apothecaries had developed from grocers who dealt in spices while surgeons developed from barbers who had sharp instruments!
At one time it was illegal for men to be present at a birth but Inglis amused members by pointing out that this changed when one of the French kings had men deliver the children of his mistresses!
There were many advances in medical knowledge in the 19th century with inoculations against smallpox, the study of microbiology and containment of bacteria. It was recognised in the cholera epidemic in Soho in 1854 that the disease was water borne but this had not been appreciated when cholera struck Dumfries earlier in 1832.
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