It was not at all uncommon for a plain and simple farmer, with no pretension to a knowledge of medicine or surgery, to acquire a reputation as a specialist in some particular branch of the profession. Perhaps in some emergency he would set a broken limb, with results so satisfactory that his services would be requisitioned in the next case of a similar character. His patients so successfully treated would proclaim his fame abroad, and with the little experience thus acquired he would, in the eyes of his neighbours, become an expert in this operation. Another may accidentally have had thrust upon him the distinction of being able to reduce a dislocated joint.
SPINNING FLAX
Dentists there were none, and extraction was the only reliable treatment for troublesome teeth. Some one in the locality would own one of those instruments of torture, a turn-key. If a molar had been demanding too much attention from its owner, and a hot fomentation had failed to overcome the pain, the man with the turn-key was paid a visit. Anæsthetics were unknown, and sterilization was not practised by the unprofessional. The victim was seated in a kitchen chair and grasped the rungs on either side. The operator loosened the gum from the unruly tooth with the blade of his pocket-knife, the hook of the turn-key was inserted, and with grim determination the two men faced each other. The one clung doggedly to the chair, the other twisted the key. I will draw a curtain over the further details of the operation. Brute strength in the end prevailed.
Such services were, as a rule, rendered gratuitously, and while we would not care in our day to be at the mercy of such amateur practitioners, yet they were a great benefit to the neighbourhood in which they resided, where it was frequently a choice of such aid as they could render or none at all.
Of an entirely different class were the "fakirs", who, with little or no knowledge of the diseases they treated and the remedies they prescribed, preyed upon the helplessness of their patients. With such the two great specifics were opium and mercury—in all cases of doubt a dose of calomel was administered. Bleeding, as a remedial measure, was a very common practice, and it was not considered at all extraordinary to relieve a patient of a quart or two of blood at a time.
The educational qualifications of the quack may be inferred from the following advertisement, which was posted up in a public place in 1817:
"Richmond, Oct. 17, 1817.
"ADVERTISEMENT:—This is to certify that I, Solomon Albert, is Good to cure any sore in word Complaint or any Pains, Rheumatick Pains or any Complaint what so ever the Subscriber doctors with yerbs and Roots. Any Person wishing to employ him will find him at Dick Bells.
"Solomon Albert."