First Aid/ Medicinals on the Plains

[Professor Marvel]

I've Been Sliced

First Aid on the plains depended upon who you were and where you were. Most often it was very "rough-and-ready"
and often the last resort was to "cauterize" with a heated blade or iron.

If you were the average Anglo, you had no clue regarding cleanliness. Only women and dandies washed.  If you got sliced open somehow it probably went like this:

- if you were "smart" you splashed some whiskey over the cut. if not....expect festering ( and wonder why)
- if the cut is small you just tied a rag over it to try to stop the bleeding
- if the cut is large and you can reach it, fetch out your Housewife ( sewing kit ) , and thread a large sharp needle with a length of sinew and start sewing, then tie the same (probably dirty) rag over it.
- deal with the infection as it occurs after the fact

If you had a bottle of "patent medicine" and were lucky, it was mostly alcohol and some flavoring and coloring. If applied
directly to a wound it would at least act as an antiseptic. Most of the patent painkillers were little more than cheap whiskey and laudenum.

If you were unlucky the "patent medicine" included such rememdies as "rattlesnake venom" or strychnine or mercury ....

If You had some "education" from a midwife, "doctor" ,  healer , herbalist, or medicine man you might
- clean the cut as taught - fresh clean water, soap if available, clean urine if nothing else
     (it was actually documented in a 17th century European battlefield letter)
- clean the needle and thread with water
- sew up as reqd
- apply the herbal pack/poltice of choice using direct presure and tie in place.

Poltices were common amongst healers, herbalists, midwifes, "old wives", medicine men and curanderos. The type of herb used was often determined by what was available,  trial and error, and the knowledge passed down - oft' verbally. Even clay or mud packs, taken from clear-running streams were used to good effect.

Some often used poltice materials were various mosses, yarrow, elderflower, comfry, prarie sage leaves,  ground cedar leaf, inner bark of slippery elm or white or black willow, and goldenseal . There are many others , most of which are region-specific.

Other drawing Poultices were used  to "pull out putrification" or infections such as cabbage leaves, onions, and other sulphur-bearing vegetables.

The concept of "clean bandages" being an absolute necessity did not come about until long after the Civil War and Dr Lister.
Prior to Dr Lister, bandages were often reused... and the festering would occur.

more later
yhs
prof marvel

[Professor Marvel]

Intestinal issues on the Prairie

In the day, you basically had two complaints: Can't Go or Can't Stop.

These days We normally are not so worried about Can't Go, but in the day one could get bound up and if  not cleared, it can turn into an intestinal blockage followed by fever and death. Most cures were fairly simple: a dose of oil, a dose of "the salts" , or even a dose of keroscene! I'm sure most of us are aware of the effects of All of the above.

Can't Stop is a less common but often more lethal issue. The causes can be anything from poor hygene, bad food, bad water, to Typhoid or Cholera.  

The causes of The Colorado Quick step can be bacterial, amoebic, allergic, parasetic, or a simple irritation casued by "unfamiliar" foods or foods that are "too spicy/hot/oily/fatty/ etc" . If caused by a bacterial, viral, or amoebic infection, the basic plan is to keep the patient from dehydrating whilst the body fights the infection. In all cases the hydration is paramount.

The workable cures were herbal.

Unfortunately the "scientific" cures could kill you. The Louis and Clark Expedition carried a medicine chest with such cures as
Calomel, ( a mercurous chloride compound) - the mercury content causes hair and teath to fall out
Tarter emetic ( Antimony potassium tartrate) - tiny doses of this poison induce profuse sweating and vomiting
Zinc Sulfate  and Sugar of Lead - these poisons would be taken internally for a variety of maladys, or combined to make a
           topical salve of dubious use.
Laudanum  
Opium


In Lewis's defence, these were the 'best scientific" cures purchased on a Doctor's advice from the best Philadelphia Quaker Druggist! The common "modern" theories were cures based on "balancing the humors"  through "purging":  bleeding, sweating, puking, or pooping .

Unfortunately the "purging treatment " actually killed Sergeant Charles Floyd -he died of a ruptured his appendix near present-day Sioux City after a number of "purging treatments".

To Lewis' credit, he also obtained some actual useful herbal remedies such as
Epsom Salts
Powder Jalap Root ( a more mild purgative, still in use until ~ 1965 )
Cinchona Bark ( effective against fevers, as it contains quinine)
Borax ( a topical antifungal)
Calamine Ointment (who woulda thought?)
Essence of Peppermint ( good for stomach pains and nausea)

yhs
prof marvel

[Mogorilla]

Great stuff Professor!   I would toss willow bark as a remedy for feever as well.  contains salysylic acid (aspirin).

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[Professor Marvel]

Why , thank you Mogorilla - you have selcted the Next Topic:

FEVERS on the Prairie

"Fever" like the ubiquitous "Colic" covered a lot of territory... there are several categories of "fever" that I can think of:

Comon Fever; Malarial Fever (Ague); True Influenza; Brain Fever; Typhoid; Cholera;

- COMMON Fever
Therre was (as today) the ordinary fever that accompanied a cold or "flu" (not influenza - we will cover that later) or any other bacterial or viral upper respiratory infection. This is actually a desirable thing, as it is the bodies natural response to defend itself. Most common bacteria or virii have a narrow range of parameters in which it can survive - temperature is one factor; alkalinity is another. If the body can raise it's temperature thru fever or change the the body's balance of acid/alkaline level it can kill off the intruder. Thus the fever.

Most  of this type of "common fever" are like a common cold in that if one "does nothing" they resolve themselves in a week or two. However, if you got it wrong, the patient could die...

"The Old Wives" had the right answer - for these fevers you want the patient to "sweat it out" - increase the body temp to kill off the invader - keep the patient warm under a pile of blankets, force hot fluids such as herbal teas or hot lemonade, lots of water,  a dose of Saltpetre (which causes sweats), or diaphoretic herbs (herbs which have sweat-inducing properties) such as  angelica, elderberry, rosemary, yarrow, or prairie sage, taken as a hot tea infusion.  These are attempts to "flush the toxins" and "break the fever" whilst keeping the patient hydrated. Discomfort during the process is a given.

Thus a few days of discomfort whilst "Breaking the fever" is preferable to 2 weeks of suffering all the while trying to determine if the patient has something worse!

Whilst out on the Prairie one of the easiest and most versatile herbs one can find is "prairie sage" . The tea infusion is good for fever, infection, diarhea, and the moistened leaves are an excellent antibiotic and antifungal when topically applied.

-------------------------
If one cannot "break" the fever in a few days, one has to consider the possibilty that the malady is more serious, and one needs to try to assertain the type and the appropriate treatment. As Mogorillo pointed out, the inner bark of the White Willow is an excellent pain and fever reducer; and Quinine as found in Cinchona Bark of South America is another excellent fever reducer and the only thing available for Malaria symptoms for years  ( hoorah for otherwise harmless alkaloids! )

 - I found it noteworthy that when chemical pharmacology was in it's infancy one of the first drugs produced chemically was Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) in 1897 by  Felix Hoffmann working for Bayer in Germany.

yhs
prof marvel
 

[Tsalagidave]

Great stuff Prof. You really nailed some fantastic remedies here. The only thing I'd clarify on is that people then were very hygiene orientated because the direct correlation between filth and disease was well known. The notion that people shunned bathing as "unhealthy" is a complete fabrication perpetuated by H.L. Mencken in the early 20th c. (which he unapologetically admitted to later). In fact, he did it so well that it has been repeated to the point of being accepted as common knowledge. Actually, bathing and cleanliness dates back to ancient times. All of my period books on medicine and home health care that I have in my collection (ca. 1830-60s) all emphasize the importance of cleanliness. (I'll cite the sources in my article comparing period cures to the effective methods of modern medicine.)

Unfortunately for people on the frontier, being dusty and dirty is just a fact of life when on the march.  My experience from over 25 years of trail riding, road marches and campaign events is that you get very dirty and there is little you can do about it unless you are near a water source in which to bathe. The use of a poultice was very effective in reducing the harmful effects of infection and was still practiced in my rancher family well into the 20th c.  For deep wounds, I could find no references to splashing alcohol into the laceration. My guess is that they figured out then what we know now. Alcohol and iodine work great on scrapes and cuts, but introduction into a deep wound causes massive cell death resulting in necrosis that will likely turn into a lethal infection. The period medicine books focused more on rinsing all foreign particles from the wound with cool water before closing it with sutures. A poultice may then be introduced to draw fluids and help fight infection. The modern treatment under field circumstances is similar except the final flush is with about a liter of antibacterial water solution before closure and treatment over the stitches with an antiseptic ointment followed by dry bandages.

More to come here but I really enjoyed the remedies and hope I can write something half as interesting but your article will be a tough act to follow.

-Dave