Historical Extras…

Warning! This page is not for the faint-hearted. If you are squeamish do not continue reading.

Valen’s surgery, in Cut From The Same Cloth, was based on authentic practices of the period. Napoleon’s battlefield surgeons kept copious records, some are available to us today.  Want to see some leeches? Or maybe you’d like to take a peek at actual surgical equipment used during the Regency era? Or learn where you can read French battlefield surgical journals?

MEDICAL EQUIPMENT IN THE 1800’s

If you want to know more about historical surgical practices Kings Press sells reprinted copies of actual manuals from the day.   Kingspress.com

I couldn’t resist purchasing, Marine Practice of Physik and Surgery, Including the Nature and Treatment of Gunshot Wounds, by Dr John Ranby, esquire; surgeon general to the British Army, circa 1776.  Kings Press also supplied me with a manual on the treatment of Wounds and Fractures, from the same time period.  Interesting reading for medical history buffs.

Here are a few pictures of the surgical equipment physicians used during the Regency era.

Drums up a little appreciation for our local hospitals, doesn’t it?  For some nifty websites with more goodies you can follow these links:

http://www.collectmedicalantiques.com/military.html

http://www.thackraymuseum.org/collection.html

And now for my favorite…nah, just kidding.  But you gotta love leeches.

These slimey things were approved for marketing by the FDA in 2004.
And you’ll love the irony of this…a French firm is the first to begin marketing leeches as a medical device.  Leeches are amazing little creatures, and for some applications such as plastic surgery and limb reattachment they are amazingly useful.

An interesting historical note is that most of the casualties from the Napoleonic war were due to complications AFTER the battle.  Small wonder, considering the method used to stop bleeding was to slap a couple dozen of these little suckers on a soldier’s wound.  If he’d already lost a lot of blood he was in trouble.  Leeching was so common in this era that doctors were often referred to as leeches. Oh, that and saw bones.  Nice!