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Christmas Holidays at Sea in the Golden Age of Piracy, Page 5

The Ship's Surgeon's Christmas

Patient Consultation, from Medizinische Annalen
fur Aerzte und Gesundheitliebende, Frontispiece,
by Johann Gottlieb Frietze (1781) What would a pirate surgeon's journal be without some reference to doctoring on Christmas? Illness doesn't take a holiday, after all. On pages 98-101 of his book The Sea-Surgeon or the Guinea Man’s Vadé Mecum, Thomas Aubrey gives an account of just such an emergency surgery - a real corker, in fact! I'll let him detail it in full with a few paragraph breaks and notes thrown in to explain the less clear bits. (It's very Christmassy, featuring things like a goat's broth enema.)

I was sent for on Board a Liverpool Man the 25th of December, being Christmas-Day in the Morning, to visit the Commander who had been ill of the Cholick (by Fits) for the space of three Days. [Colic is some sort of blockage in the excretory organs - referring here to a biliary colic.]

His Surgeon told me he was seized at first with great Gripes [Sharp, spasmodic pains in the bowels], Vomiting, Contractions of the Hands and Feet, Rowlings of the Eyes, &c. and that he had blooded him [let him blood], and given him a Clyster [enema], which he rendered just as he took it in about five Minutes.... He gave him afterwards Liquid Laud[inum] in two Spoonsful of Aq. Cinnam. [Cinnamon Water] which gave him ease; but some Hours afterwards, it seized him again rather more violently than at first, for which he gave him another Clyster, and some few Drops of  Ol. Anis. [Anise Oil] in Aq. Cinnam.

Artist: Maurice Sands
To Cure What Ails You,
from Oeuvres Completes
de Moliere (1669)

He [the patient] rendered the Clyster, and some few hard Excrements, which eased him very much, and afterwards he drank betwixt while a little Aq. Junip. [Juniper berry water] which he thought had cured him, till about Mid-night before he sent for me in the Morning he was taken very ill again, and he was really extraordinary bad, when I came to him, his Hands and Feet contracted, his Eyes wild, had a Fever, and raved betwixt whiles:

I ordered the Surgeon to breathe a Vein [let him blood], and give him the following Clyster.

Rx. Juscul. Carnis Caprin. {pound}j. [goat broth] Conserv. Violat {ounce}j. [conserve of violets] Bals. Capayb. {dram}v. [This could be either a balsam made from the oil of the tropical Copaifera langsdorffii tree or an onion extract.] Peruv. {scuple}ij. [Peru Balsam - an aromatic resin extracted from the Myroxylon balsamum pereiraem tree] m. f. Enema. [Made into an enema. This is essentially a goat's broth enema. I'd like to thank Denice Suriner & Rachel Siegel for helping decipher this concoction.]

He retained it almost half an Hour and tender'd it with a great Quantity of hard Excrements, and in a quarter of an Hour he called his Boy to aid him, and had a very copious Stool, the greatest part of which was yellow viscid Jelly, which gave him great ease, but he complain'd he was very thirsty; I bid the Boy give him a little of the Goats Broth Milk warm, of which he rank a hearty Draught, and in about half an Hour he had another Stool, which consisted of pretty laudable Excrements, and a little white Jelly, he made also a great Quantity of Urine very high coloured.

Photographer: Alupus
The Beauty that is the Mangel-wurzel Beet

I ordered him the following Julap.

Rx. Aq. Cinnam. hord. {ounce}ij. [Barley Cinnamon Water] Theriac. fact. {ounce}ij. [A complex mixture of ingredients first created by the 'ancient' Galen] Sacch. albiss. {half-ounce} [probably sugar of the mangel-wurzel beet] Bals. Peruv. {scuple}j. [Peru Balsam] m. f. Julapium. [Made into a julap.]

Of which he took one half that very Moment, and kept the other for Night. I desired he might take nothing save some of the same Broth that Day, unless he fancied some Gruel, in which was boiled a little Mace [a spice, similar to nutmeg], and so left him to the Surgeon's Care.

The Day following in the Afternoon he sent me a Present [The only mention of a Christmas present in this article!], and thanked me, and withal prayed me to visit him the next Morning, altho' he hoped he was perfectly cured, but only fatigued, and weak. I visited him according to his Desire, and found him very cheerful, but notwithstanding persuaded him to take the following Mixture, which would purge him very gently, and that he should repeat it again in two or three Days.

Photographer: Harvey Bennison
The Baobab Tree, from which Cream of Tartar is derived

Rx. Crem. Tart. {ounce}j. [Creme of tartar] Solve in Aq Font. {half-pound} [mixed in spring water] adde Conserv. Violet. {ounce}j. [Conserve of violets] Cola.

It gave him four Stools, and he repeated it again the second Day, and was very healthy afterwards. It is very probably he got the Cholick by eating frequently after Dinner Pine-apple, for a Digester (as he called it) but he promised me never more to be guilty of the like Folly.

You need only follow this Method in the Cure of the Cholick, and you will scarce ever miss your end, for this was the most terrible one that ever I saw upon the Coast, for which Reason I thought it very proper to pen you down the Observation.

So the moral of this story is that if you don't want a goat's broth enema for Christmas, you should not eat Pineapple frequently after dinner. Good? Good.

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