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Author Topic: Medicine timeline  (Read 7395 times)
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Kelancey the Green
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« Reply #15 on: 23 January 2007, 06:37:44 »
Surgical Encyclopedia, Vol. I: Tools

  These are some of the surgical tools employed in 14th century Europe, listed here as a repository of stuff I'd like to adapt into Santharian-sounding tools.  I guess this also provides some idea of what kind of surgeries they were doing in the 1300's.

**CAUTION**
Some of this material may not be suited for younger readers (ages 12 and under).






•  Trephine—two-handed twist screw (imagine a hand crank on 1930’s cars) for boring a hole and removing a circular disc from the cranium; used to relieve pressure in cases of bleeding inside the skull.

•  Scalpel—very small but uniquely sharp knife, consisting of a handle a little longer than a palm span, and a small metal blade slightly longer than a thumbnail.  The principal cutting instrument in surgical procedures.

•  Razor—usually a straight razor, this handle is also a palm span in length, and the blade, almost as long as the handle, folds out from the handle.  Used for shaving hair at the surgical site.

•  Spatulae—an L- or J-shaped utensil, with varying lengths of handles, depending on the surgical site (delicate surgery used retractors smaller than one’s pinkie finger, and abdominal and obstetrical surgery required two-handed spatulae up to a forearm’s length).  Used by surgical assistants to open up the surgical field and allow for smaller incisions.

•  Curved and straight pincers—Shaped like modern-day scissors, with blunt teeth lining the opposing edges like an alligator’s jaw.  Again, to hold and retract skin or membranes.

•  Various needles—suture needles have an eye at one end and a sharp cutting point at the other.  Common shapes include long, straight, conical (like a cylinder if you look from the point to the other end) and thick (for closing thick skin, as on the thigh or abdomen); long, curved (like a semicircle) and rectangular prismatic (for suturing tough tissues, such as muscle); intermediate, curved, and conical prismatic (for closing average-thickness skin); and short, curved, conical prismatic (for delicate tissues, such as fingertips or the inside of the mouth).

•  Dilators—hollow or solid cylinders for widening openings.  These include urethral dilators for removing bladder stones, and assorted specula.

•  Wound-draining implements—ranging in size according to their function, the small lancets (imagine a metal case the size of a butane lighter containing a spring-activated tine or sharp wire) were used for scarification and bloodletting, and larger knives were used for draining abscesses and other uses.

•  Cauterization implements—another L-shaped instrument consisting of a wooden handle a little longer than a palm span, with a metal rod coming out of the handle another palm span or so, bending at a right angle, and ending with a metal implement looking something like a tiny battleaxe head.  When heated to searing hot over an open flame, this instrument was touched firmly but briefly to an open wound to burn (cauterize) bleeding vessels.
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Ta`lia of the Seven Jewels
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« Reply #16 on: 23 January 2007, 10:27:56 »
Wow, you are doing your research!
I didn't know they had such an amount of tools nor that they could open a scull without the person dieing (I knew only from the Incas that they were able to do that)

I doubt however, that all these things were used widespread, maybe just at some places where medicine was at its highest standard?
You should also take into account the history of the last 1600 years. It is not yet written out and makes probably not much sense for somebody who was not there when it was created (I have difficulties to piece it together as well), but it would show you when wars occurred , when the times were peaceful - no idea which time is better for medical progress.
You will find this preliminary timeline here

@ Drasil - he doesn't do a magical timeline and I don't see where the two intervine much. Magical healing will be always something only a mage can do and this mage could use profane methds as well, like the cleric, so where lies the problem? I don't see the need that he has to list all herbs we have so far, that sounds more like a teamproject.
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Kelancey the Green
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« Reply #17 on: 23 January 2007, 21:51:12 »
Holy cow, Talia!  You are a godsend!  thanx  I have yet more reading to do, it seems.

Please excuse my dumping information into the forum like this.  I meant it to demonstrate what was known as of a particular period in Europe which it seems might be roughly similar in accumulated academic advancement to Santharia 1667 a.S.

What I've read about Terran medicine of the 14th century is that it mattered more *who* was administering medical care rather than where.  For example, barber-surgeons taken into military camps at that time could drain intracranial hemorrhages and perform appendectomies, whereas ordinary town practitioners analyzed urine and offered advise about where to find the thief, among other baseless claims.

I think I'd better read the Santharian timeline before adding any new updates.  Thanks again, Talia.
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« Reply #18 on: 24 January 2007, 03:15:09 »
Talia, I was just giving suggestions as to what might be included in such an encyclopedia.  Also, It doesn't really seem like a team project seeing as one person could do all that research and prepare an entry in a solid hour.  On top of that, it doesn't really encompass all aspects of the world, and would only pretain to those working in the Herbarium
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« Reply #19 on: 25 January 2007, 09:20:17 »
The Anpagans are the ones who tend to love gadgets the most there was a Roman physician, whose name I can't think of, that made all sorts of advancements including a fancy apparatus with all sorts of gears and pulleys for setting broken legs. I think such a device would fit very well into Anpagan society. Perhaps their could be  an Anpagan based on him.

As for Ximax medicine that would be more magical magical healing items these would be great for front line soldiers to have. A king could have clothes worn by his soldiers given a healing enchantment before battle. so they could take more hits before they were killed
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« Reply #20 on: 25 January 2007, 09:58:52 »
Drasil, I thought on all the herbs mentioned in entries, not only the listed ones.

Xera - a good idea, but I think Santharia  should be the only focus for now.
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« Reply #21 on: 25 January 2007, 11:05:30 »
Some additions, possible Santharian names for the tools mentioned above:

  • Ráhaz'Estár could be a particular type of retractor with a very powerful “bite" for grasping thick skin or tissue.
  • A Sawis sweep, named after the curved rams’ horns, could be a curled spatula used for getting into hard-to-reach spaces.
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Kelancey the Green
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« Reply #22 on: 29 January 2007, 08:26:32 »
The Healers of 14th Century Europe

Physicians were skilled, well-trained university-educated practitioners who were largely unavailable to most of society except the wealthy and the nobility.  They had degrees in arts and philosophy in addition to their study in medicine, and devoted a good part of their practice to metaphysical and spiritual remedy.  The prevalent diagnostic methods of that era involved analysis of stool, urine, blood and phlegm to assess the balance of humours in a patient.  Illness was ascribed to an excess of one of these humours, and thus medical healing involved diet, medicines and the wildly popular leeching.

Folk healers were trained from apprenticeship to mastery by another master, though little formal education or theoretical knowledge was passed down from one to another.  They had common knowledge of herbal remedies, but little diagnostic skill, and were not trained in performing surgical or dental procedures.  They also had no certification of their skills, and as such lost popularity as university education of physicians gradually became a requirement to practice in many cities.

Monastic medicine was a readily-accessible means of health care in medieval Europe, as poor and chronically ill patients came for free care and shelter in monastery-affiliated hospitals.  Routine prayer and communion services were an essential part of the care provided, and were probably just as therapeutic as the medical services provided at that time.

Saints who were canonized offered miracle healing, often in times where folk healing and monastic care had failed or seemed of little avail.  Non-canonized saints offered their "services" as well, though such soothsayers were often ostracized or banned in areas which had access to the genuine article.

It is worth noting that medieval Europe had no restriction regarding the gender of a physician; in fact, some of the most respectable works on surgical and obstetrical medicine were composed by women.  Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, in 1160, wrote the Liber simplicis medicinae (Simple Book of Medicine), detailing urine analysis and theory behind herbal remedies.  The Italian physician Trotula gained much esteem in 13th century Europe for her writings on women's ailments.
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Ta`lia of the Seven Jewels
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« Reply #23 on: 29 January 2007, 09:42:39 »
Kelancy, your research is great!
I'm looking forward to your submissions!

Maybe you have to spilt up and describe one of these levels of medicine first, (not all together) otherwise the entry gets too long and needs a long time till it is finished.
Or restrict yourself first to what is possible now or was developed in the last 130 years. You can always add more!
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Kelancey the Green
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« Reply #24 on: 30 January 2007, 23:19:53 »
  Talia, thanks again for your ongoing support and advice!  You make a good point:  I think I'll start with just proposing medical practices in present-day Santharia, intentionally ignoring other parts of the world to start with.  The timeline, well, I'll save that till after the present knowledge has been summarized.

  I think I'm stuck for the moment.  The Herbarium gives a good overview of medicinal plants; I might propose a couple of medicinal preparations, like treacles or plasters.  I can't see much use in describing every medical treatment available in Santharia, since most won't really be useful in this environment.  After all, how many characters will develop tuberculosis or ringworm in an RPG setting?

  I would like to include the European theory of the four humours, to adapt to the Santharian setting.  That might spawn some suggested treatments for ailments of each humour, such as leeches for sanguine ailments, expectorants for phlegmatic, etc.

  Anything you could think of that this forum would need?  Any suggestions would be very welcome!   noidea
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« Reply #25 on: 31 January 2007, 00:08:22 »
First of all, Kelancy - don't think at the RPG-board in the first case if you are developing something. It should not be the guideline for developing.

The development side is the main site and you are doing your stuff to add to the world here, to complete it, to fill it out.


If something nice comes out the RPG-board can use it is fine. (Of course we have done things for it..)

So, to your question. It is fine if you start with a status quo - from there you can always go back. Your intentions should be to show the main line - the most important achievements , maybe exemplarily with a few main items. The last 130 years were quite peaceful, before there was a age of havoc. currently we have an era of "renaissance" under a great king. The war may have caused things to be invented as the peace afterwards - a lot to consider, but you surely will get around.

I personally let such things sit for a few days, sometimes even weeks and then I know how to write it...

These four humours sound fine, if you can twist them so that we don't have it 1.1.
I know about what you are speaking, but can't recall all details just now. Maybe you can alter the number or connect them back to something else...
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« Reply #26 on: 31 January 2007, 00:30:49 »
As a trivia: Did you know that in English law (tort of negligence: psychiatric injury) we still refer to a reasonable person of 'customary phlegm'? One of the really famous law lords coined the colourful phrase after the medieval humours and the name stuck :P
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« Reply #27 on: 31 January 2007, 01:05:07 »
@Coren--That's great! lol  I don't wonder what someone of 'uncommon' or 'noteworthy' phlegm might seem like. crazy

  I'd like to present an idea to the assemly for some feedback, please.  In medieval Europe, we had yellow bile for what is today's bile; black bile for stool; sanguine for blood; and phlegm for, well, phlegm.  The adjectives for those are not uniquely used for the Four Humours... As in, someone with too much yellow bile was 'bilious'.  Too much black bile made you 'melancholy'.  An excess of blood made you 'sanguineous', and 'phlegmatic' came from having too much phlegm.

  Could we have a Posit of the Five (or Six, whichever) Bodily Constituents?

Posit of the Six Bodily Constituents
Bile--Possessed of a sullen, dark mood or somber character.

Phlegm--Torpid, slothful, plodding.

Sanguine--Feverish, passionate, inflamed, incensed.

Choler--Violent, ill-tempered, wrathful.

Excreta--Fickle, changing, protean.

Ichor--Cerebral, remote, abstruse.

Each bodily constituent is derived from a different bodily organ (all of which were known in medieval Europe):
Bile (stool), from the intestines.
Phlegm (sputum), from the lungs.
Sanguine (blood), from the heart (in this setting, I'm proposing the Santharians believe that the blood is made in the heart, and is pushed around through the veins.)
Choler (green bile), from the gall bladder.
Excreta (urine), from the kidneys.
Ichor (spinal fluid), from the brain.

  Look acceptable?
« Last Edit: 31 January 2007, 03:10:37 by Kelancey the Green » Logged
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Kelancey the Green
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« Reply #28 on: 31 January 2007, 02:06:07 »
  As an afterthought, or a "Yes, and...", each constituent could be influenced by a duo of the 12 Gods & Goddesses.  Thus,

Bile--Possessed of a sullen, dark mood or somber character.
  Urtengor (Earth), God of the Forge
  Seyella (Water), Goddess of Destiny

Phlegm--Torpid, slothful, plodding.
  Arvins (Earth), God of the Hunt
  Eyasha (Wind), Goddess of Peace

Sanguine--Feverish, passionate, inflamed, incensed.
  Etherus (Fire), God of Excess
  Jeyriall (Water), Goddess of Harvest

Choler--Violent, ill-tempered, wrathful.
  Armeros (Fire), God of War
  Queprur (Earth), Goddess of Death

Excreta—Fickle, changing, protean.
  Baveras (Water), Goddess of the Sea
  Grothar (Wind), God of Weather

Ichor--Cerebral, remote, abstruse.
  Foiros (fire), God of the Sun
  Nehtor (wind), God of Healing
« Last Edit: 31 January 2007, 03:11:14 by Kelancey the Green » Logged
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« Reply #29 on: 31 January 2007, 03:01:31 »
I LOVE these sorts of lists and associations!  This should merge naturally into our Alchemy theories, not to mention the various philosophies, deity associations,  superstitions around gemstones, and so on -very very medieval....

I might add that you need both positive and negative qualities:  for example Phlegm should also have the qualities 'calm', 'soothing' and 'thoughtful' along with your torpor and slothfulness!

And somebody actually used 'protean' in a submission!   (hugs Kelancy)

Mine.  Mine mine mine mine... (gives her fellow compendiumists a seagull look)  MY apprentice!  (looks smug)


More detailed comment later - supper is burning!
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