Read Online The Midshipman Prince by Tom Grundner - Free Book Online

physicians. Helping also was the fact that the field of medicine itself was not terribly complicated.
     
           To the physician of the time, all disease was caused by one of three factors. The first possibility was that the patient was simply predisposed to the illness because of occupation or station in life. Everyone knew, for example, that Walker’s seamen were predisposed to pneumonia, scurvy, diarrhea, and dysentery. Why? Because they were seamen.
     
           The second possibility was that the patients symptoms were caused by “antecedent causes.” either miasma’s or contagions. “Miasma’s” were invisible disease causing particles that were produced by rotting animal or vegetable matter; and “contagions” were similar particles emitted from other people who had the disease.
     
           The third possibility was that there was a disturbance in one or more of the “six non-naturals.” These were air, quality of food and drink, sleep, exercise, and mental state.
     
           While all disease was considered the result of one of those three factors, the classification was not of much help in knowing what to do about the problem. Diseases were not classified and treated according to their causes. At that time, the symptom was the illness and no further inquiry need be made.
     
           Nevertheless, some standard procedures did evolve. For example, in the case of a fever, it was noticed that the patients usually had a rapid pulse. So, obviously, the first thing a competent physician would do is to reduce the “irritability of the heart” by inducing vomiting. This helped to rid the body of whatever it was that had upset its “balances.” Failing that, he might give the patient a tonic to strengthen the heart and arteries. This, in turn, would also speed the removal of whatever factors were causing the imbalance and thus the illness. In short, the chief task of the physician, Walker learned, was to restore the normal balances of the patients’ humors, the tensions within his circulatory system, and/or the body’s acid and base levels.
     
           Fortunately, seamen were, in general, a healthy lot. Over 50% of the illnesses reported by the men were colds, flu or pneumonia. Another 25% was accounted for if you added diarrhea and dysentery. He knew that with most of those diseases people would recover no matter what he did—or if he did nothing at all. Add to that syphilis, gonorrhea, and scurvy (about which neither he nor anyone else could do a thing), and these illnesses would account for about 80% of his “practice.” It was the other 20% that worried him. While colds and flu might account for 80% or his patients, injuries accounted for 80% of the deaths and disabilities, and that scared the wits out of Walker.
     
           Injuries were a fact of life aboard any sailing ship. You have several hundred men, working in a very confined space, under almost impossibly dangerous conditions; so, of course, you’re going to have accidents—lots of them. Fortunately, Susan Whitney and her wealth of practical experience came to the rescue.
     
           She showed him how to apply olive oil to burns to keep the air away and to keep the skin soft while healing; how to manipulate a loop of intestine back into the abdominal cavity and how to design a truss that would keep the hernia closed; how to cut and drain boils and abscesses; set broken bones and even how to pull teeth—at which Walker eventually got to be quite good.
     
           In return, he taught her everything he knew about anatomy, chemistry, and biology. Together they were forming a close-knit team, and Walker found himself very much enjoying the time he spent with her. He couldn’t quite explain it, but he found himself… comfortable... just being around her.
     
           However, there was one area that neither one of them wanted to bring up—combat injuries. Susan didn’t mention it