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Vinegar and laudanum
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Author:  Sylvia [ Thu Jul 24, 2008 2:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Vinegar and laudanum
In one of the Hornblowers episodes a sailor is flogged. The wounds caused by the flogging on his back were treated by putting paper or cloths soaked in vinegar on them. Was this a usual treatment for flogging wounds?

In another episode a midshipman is flogged on his bottom/behind. He was given laudanum by the ship’s doctor, to ease the pain. Did every flogged men receive laudanum to ease the pain? Did the use of laudanum affect the ability to work? I think laudanum is a mixture of alcohol and opium.

Did every flogged member of the ship’s company had to go back to work the same day. It must have been very painful, having a shirt rubbing over the wounds by/with every move made.
Sylvia
Author:  tycho [ Thu Jul 24, 2008 2:18 pm ]
Post subject: 
Sylvia:

a poultice made by soaking paper in vinegar (usually with some sage in it) was often used as a remedy for bruises and swellings in olden times. Vinegar is a disinfectant so might have prevented sepsis. But it stings horribly on open wounds or grazes so it couldn't have been a pleasant treatment.

There is an old English nursery rhyme we sang when we were children that reminds us of the old remedy:

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.
Up Jack got and home did trot
As fast as he could caper.
He went to bed to mend his head
With vinegar and brown paper.

I grew up in Lancashire where there was a strong tradition of herbal medicine. Sprains were often treated with comfrey which Lancastrians used to call 'knitbone' because of its healing properties.

Opium was used by naval surgeons (or should that be physicians?) to to treat lockjaw which is a symptom of tetanus infection caused by open wounds. (See the post on the 'Hospital Ships' thread.) I don't know whether opium was actually a preventative, or could only be administered as a treatment to relax the muscles which tetanus causes to go into spasm.
Author:  Devenish [ Thu Jul 24, 2008 4:30 pm ]
Post subject: 
Sylvia/Tycho,

By a strange coincidence, yesterday I visited Jack and Jill Hill in Kilmerston, Somerset, near where my sister lives. It it has quite a steep path up a hill (naturally) with standing stones every so often bearing a couple of lines of the nursery rhyme, so that by the time you reach the top, you have read all of it. At the top is a school with the well, where Jack was supposed to have filled his pail with the water.

Although local legend has it that this is the place where the rhyme originated, there are many other claimants - one even being French and that the Jack and Jill referred to are King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, he losing his head first and she then 'tumbling after' by losing hers!

The only one hurt on this outing was my nephew, whose name is Josh by the way (close, eh?) who didn't break his head, but stung his leg on a stinging nettle!


Kester
Author:  Sylvia [ Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:12 pm ]
Post subject: 
Thank you Tycho and Kester for your answers.
Tycho, I heard about the existence of the Jack and Jill verse, but I never read it before. Some lyrics in songs are revering to them.

Kester, my sons suffered several times the stinging-nettles, when they took the family dog for picnics in their self build hut, when they were younger, so I can imagine the unpleasantness your nephew must have had.

One of my friends taught me to put Dock leaf on the stung place, to ease the itching pain.
Sylvia
Author:  Devenish [ Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:41 pm ]
Post subject: 
Sylvia,

Dock leaves are used in England too (universally?) for putting on nettle stings, and I believe they actually do grow together. However, on this occasion, could we find any? No, of course not! So we resorted to picking other large cool leaves, which helped somewhat and he stopped crying.

I know I shouldn't say this, but actually for us adults his getting stung was a blessing in disguise - since he went from being very boisterous to being very quiet afterwards!

Kester
Author:  tycho [ Fri Sep 26, 2008 10:18 pm ]
Post subject: 
It wasn't only Jack and Jill who used vinegar and brown paper for injuries. I have just come across this amusing story, told by Mrs Charles Bagot to 'Blackwood's Magazine'. Mrs Bagot was the daughter of Admiral Percy who served as a midshipman under Nelson.

'Two Spanish captains had asked to come aboard ship to meet the great Nelson. Despite muttering to Hardy, 'What in the world is there to see in an old withered fellow like myself?' they were permitted to do so.

'Lord Nelson always wore short breeches and silk stockings, and at that moment his legs were bound up at the knees and ankles with pieces of brown paper soaked in vinegar and tied on with red tape. This had been done to allay the irritation arising from mosquito bites. Quite forgetting his attire and the extraordinary appearance he presented, Lord Nelson went on deck and conducted the interview with the Spanish captains with such perfect courtesy that his singular appearance was quite obliterated by the charm of his manner, and the Spaniards left the ship with their high opinion of him thoroughly confirmed'.
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