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American Morning
Supervisor of Apothecary in Colonial-Themed Williamsburg, Virginia, Discusses 18th Century Medical Treatment
Aired July 04, 2001 - 10:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The story of American independence comes alive in Williamsburg, Virginia. More than 200 years ago, the Colonial village helped spawn the U.S. political system, and today, it serves as a larger-than-life lesson on the budding republic's history.
Our Jeanne Meserve joins us with a look at health care in Colonial times.
Jeanne, good morning.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.
With health care being the raging debate in Washington right now, it seemed appropriate to look back at health care and medicine in Colonial Virginia. There were eight doctors in the town of Williamsburg; half of them were apothecaries. That's roughly equivalent to our modern-day pharmacist.
Joining me now is Robin Kipps, who is the supervisor of the apothecary here in town, assisted by Annie Good (ph).
Robin, you have some things to show us. Let's say I broke my leg. I fell off my horse and broke my leg. What is the prescription?
ROBIN KIPPS, MASTER OF APOTHECARY: The prescription we would be visiting you wherever you are staying and gently feeling the bones to determine which way they broke -- bandaging and splinting, and unfortunately, no traveling for you for the rest of the summer, eight weeks in bed.
MESERVE: Eight weeks in the bed -- my goodness!
KIPPS: We are not warning you about blood clots and pneumonia.
(CROSSTALK)
MESERVE: It looks hot and uncomfortable to me.
KIPPS: It is.
MESERVE: You have some other tricks in your basket here.
KIPPS: Well, if you had other scrapes and injuries when you fell off of your horse, we have some oil with turbine, which is actually in your professional British pharmacy books, to stop bleeding, and we know today that it can kill germs. We don't worry about those yet in the 18th century. Some calamine is a wound dressing.
MESERVE: Which we still use today.
KIPPS: Which we still use today.
MESERVE: For poison ivy and the like.
KIPPS: That's right. Incidentally, this doctor here in Williamsburg takes cash and credit, because we need to repay our supplier in London. So we'll need to check on your credit account.
MESERVE: That's where you got the supplies.
KIPPS: Our syncona (ph) bark comes in from Peru through London, and we're using it in July of 1776 for treating malaria.
MESERVE: Quickly, I want to do the bleeding.
KIPPS: Some of the fevers, we are not using syncona bark; we are doing bloodletting. Based on your pulse, strength, age, and symptoms, we will determine how much blood to remove. So we'll put a little bandage around your arm, and using a thumb lancet, using one of the nice veins that we can see, we make a little incision, believing that by removing blood, we can slow the motion and cool you a little bit of your fever.
MESERVE: Thank you very much -- and I am very glad I live in the 21st century.
KIPPS: I am too.
MESERVE: One of the remarkable things in Colonial Williamsburg is the first mental hospital ever built in the Americas. It opened in 1773.
Here's a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTHA KATZ-HYMAN, DEWITT WALLACE MUSEUM: The whole idea of mental health as we know it was completely foreign to our 18th century predecessors. Before the hospital opened, in 1773, the mentally ill were taken care of by their families. They could be confined to jail, which was infinitely more terrible than being in an institution of this type. Some wandered the streets and were not taken care of at all.
The tranquilizer chair looks to us today like an instrument of torture, but it really wasn't. As its the name says, it was for tranquilizing people. There was no Prozac in those days.
The straitjacket was invented in the 1700's. It was used in the early years of the hospital. The electrostatic treatment was in the 18th century a cutting- edge treatment.
Moral management began in Europe and came here in 1836. This was a cutting-age treatment. The whole idea of not confining patients to their cells nearly 24 hours a day, of giving them employment, of giving them recreation activities, was really quite revolutionary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: So there's a look at health care.
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