Doctor's Bag, Ca. 1880

[Professor Marvel]

The Gladstone, or General Doctor's Bag, generally had less than you might imagine.

The Doctor of 1880 did not regularly carry that much in the way of actual medicine beyond what he expected to use on the specific patient.

IN His Gladstone, You would normally find the following:
- Ear Trumpet or Stethoscope
- Folding Magnifying Glass
- Set of Lancets
- eyedropper;
- thermometer (depending on era and locale)
- Small kit of Scalpels
- Small selection of forceps and tweezers and scissors
- A small sewing kit, using "catgut" sutures
- Syringes and needles kit for injections
- Large Syringe for Lavage
- several sizes of Speculum
- Ear "spoon"
- Small kit of Probes
- Possibly one or more "cupping" devices
- Alcohol lamp
- Possibly small glass bottles or jars and/or slides to collect samples,
- perhaps several leather straps to use as tourniquets or restraints
- Small number of opiate or morphine based ampules.
     or ampules for "Cocaine and Adrenalin Solution"

Antiseptics and Antibiotics were not available until after ca 1900 or later.

Surprisingly you would not find bandages and the sort of things you see in a modern EMT kit. Bandages were far to bulky for a Doctor to carry, and he would rely upon the patient's family to provide them, often as rags. Cleanliness was optional, and Sterility was unheard of. Even up until the 1890's Doctors had to be vigorously encouraged to wash their hands between patients, and few bothered with alcohol sterilization.

Sphygmomanometers (Blood-pressure Cuff) would not appear until much later.

A great deal would depend upon the exact era, local advances in technology, and the Doctor's speciality - ie: A homeopath or Herbalist would most likely carry an assortment of their own manufactured medicinals- especially basics such as early herbal antibacterials, powdered herbs to make a variety of poultices (ie drawing agents, clotting agents, etc) pain remedies such as Willow Bark, "Medicinal Brandy", Laudenum, and Opium.

A portable drug kit typically held between 12 and 36 vials of perhaps 1 oz of a given powdered medicine.

In a Military Surgeon's Kit you would find a LOT of Opiate-based painkillers, lancets, scalpels, sutures, and an entirely separate kit of very large knives and saws devoted to amputations.

Doctors were not generally called in for birthings - that was handled by the Professional Midwife.

German Doctors (who made great advances in scientific studies and advances of medicine based on herbal remedies) or other Herbalists might have a separate "Portable Apothecary" or drug kit typically holding vials of various powdered medicines.

They may carry other various tinctures or powders of things like Sage, Rosemary, Thyme, Poppy, Wormwood, Mugwort, Cedar, Osha, Licorice, Blackroot,  various Mints, Elm, Cherry, the list goes on - it would be difficult to carry an entire Apothecary Shop on ones person, so each practitioner would choose for themselves.

One example I have found includes the following:
Soda-Mint;
Compound Cubeb;
Aloin Comp.;
Ferri Quinias et Strychniae Phosph.;
Ferruginous, Blaud's;
Pepsin;
Aconite Tincture;
Dry Thyroid Gland.
"ALOPHEN";
"ACONITE TINCTURE";
"GREY POWDER";
"PANTOPON";
"BROMURAL".

White willow bark as a strong tea or powder was a well known analgesic for centuries but was not produced as Aspirin ( acetylsalicylic acid) until 1899 by the Germans, and The first form of aspirin was in a packet of powder ( "take a powder") . "Modern" antibiotics were not available until 1928.

In case you have not noticed, Opium was the Panacea of the day from the 1800's until perhaps the 1930's. Opium was used for shortness of breath and cough in respiratory ailments such as tuberculosis, asthma and bronchitis.

Opiate Constipation was seen as a benefit, making it a major therapy in dysentery, cholera and any form of diarrhea. Opiate pain relief was sought for rheumatism and chronic pains, including neuralgia and sciatica and migraine. Its sedation and calming properties were used for sleep, hysteria(likely anxiety)and in some cases used to treat the mentally ill as it was seen as more humane than restraint or punishment. Opium's ability to reduce the amount of sugar in the urine of diabetics also made
it one of the only treatments available until insulin was discovered.

Cocaine was a common stimulant, and was even an ingrediant in early Coca-Cola until it was replaced by Caffiene.

Morphine was extracted from the opium poppy in 1806 and codeine followed in 1832. Commercially produced oral morphine appeared in the 1820s and was promoted for use in pain, and as a substitute for those addicted to opium.

The hypodermic syringe was introduced in the mid-1850s, giving the physician the ability to administer a rapid-acting, accurately dosed agent to control pain, cough, shortness of breath, diarrhea and anxiety. This gave the doctor more control over the body of their patient and over the dose they were administering.

Unfortunately Doctors were costly, and thus many people turned to folk-healers, self-taught or "native" herbalists, and the Patent Remedy Hawker... such as myself...

yhs
Prof Marvel

[kflach]

Was laudenum (sp???) an opiate?

And I noticed that 30 lbs. of Insurance Company paperwork wasn't on that list...
<grin>

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Kflach,

Laudanum was indeed an opiate ... and thought at the time to be non-addictive. Alot of Civil War vets came home hooked on it, and I believe Edgar Allen Poe had his problems with it ...

[Forty Rod]

So was paragoric, and my mother kept it on hand until I was maybe eight or nine years old.

[Professor Marvel]

Why yes indeedy-doody, Opiates all!

In the day, laudanum was a tincture of ground opium powder, one recipe states "about as
much opium ground to a fine powder in the mortar as will dissolve in one-half pint
of pure grain alcohol." A tincture is a solution in alcohol as opposed to water.

It is believed to have been originally developed in the early 1500's (by trial and error)
by an early German/Swiss herbalist and physician named Theophrastus Phillippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim but who went by the moniker Paracelsus. Born in Salzburg, and said to be a Renaissance physician, botanist, alchemist, astrologer, and general occultist.

Prior to this either straight opium or "the milk of the poppy" was used.

In those days qualifications for Physician was anyone who cured more patients than he killed, and most remedies were things like bleedings, leeches, purgatives, and trepanning.
Paracelsus challenged those ideas, and offered treatments based on observed curative
effects of herbs. He is referred to by some as the father of toxicology.

Laudanum was gernerally well known from the 1700 thru 1900's for pain relief, diareah, cough suppressant, and to induce sleep, in fact Lincoln's wife Mary suffered from migraines and depression and it is widely believed she was addicted to the substance.

While the addictive properties were fairly well known, Addiction to anything was generally considered a character flaw rather than a chemical condition, and there were few other options.

Paragoric, whilst technically an opiate, is a camphorated tincture of opium and while both are tinctures of opium, Ladanum contains about 10 mg of morphine per Milliliter, whilst Paragoric contains about .4 mg and in addition has glyceryn, camphore, anis , and benzoic acid, all of which work nicely together to stop the intestinal spams....

yhs
prof marvel
_{puveyor of the finest snake oils and patent medicinals}

[River City John]

The Stickney & Poor's from after the turn of the century.

[Professor Marvel]

AHhhh Thanks for the Historic Label, Monsieur John!

On the topic (near to all our hearts) of amputations, her we find

http://rosemelnickmuseum.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/19th-century-amputation-and-surgical-kits/

An excellent site which shows the excellent amputation tools available at the time, many of which are identical to a fine-cabinet makers tools. You can see large knives, much like a butcher's, arterial clamps, fine saws, chisels, and trepanning tools.

When a patient suffered severe, crippling headaches that did not respond to anything else, trepanning (boring a hole in the skull) was a last resort . It was often effective, relieving built up pressure from fluids or tumors, and a number of patients are recorded to have lived many years after the procedure. There is in fact historic archeological evidence of trepanning in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Inca. Based on the further bone growth, The patients survived many years afterward.

WRT cleanliness (or lack of it) In spite of Pastuer's proof that Germs existed and actually caused "bad things" in patients, there was great resistance to even simple washing. The Great Change to Cleanliness was championed by Dr. Joseph Lister a friend and colleague of Pastuer, inventor of (yes)

LISTERINE

"One hundred and thirty years ago, almost 50% of the patients undergoing major surgery died from infection. As the famous saying went, "The operation was a success, but the patient died."  In the 1870's, Lister was the first to treat wounds with dressings soaked in carbolic acid.  Lister, in agreement with Dr. Louis Pasteur, suggested surgeons wash their hands and sterilize their instruments before operating.  After significant resistance, British and American hospitals gradually adopted the sterile procedures promoted by Lister.  Lister and Pasteur were personal friends who supported each other when viciously attacked by the medical establishment.  When Pasteur was publicly honoured at age 70 by his medical peers,  he turned and bowed his head towards Lister, saying: 'the future belongs to him who has done the most for suffering humanity.' "

yhs
prof marvel

[River City John]

Some more fun stuff.

[Professor Marvel]

MMMMMMmmmmmm Sugar of Lead, a favorite of everyone!

It was literally about as sweet as cane sugar and often used by the wealthy early Romans (as in Julius Augustus) to sweeten their table fruit.

In the early 1700's and 1800's it was used medicinally for stomach pains e'en tho it was known to cause them in the malady known as painter's cramps. By the mid-to-late 1800's it was finally aknowledgeed to be poisonous as seen by Monsiuer John's labels.

Interestingly, the heavy metals were long thought to be theraputic.  Louis and Clark regularly dosed their crew with mercury for just about any malady :-(  It was one method that recent archeologists were able to confirm suspected L&C campsites: find the hole dug for the latrine and test the contents for mercury!

yhs
prof marvel

['Monterrey' Jack Brass]

Prof Marvel - Greetings again and well met. A pleasure to see your posts, as always most informative and a pleasure to read. I trust you're doing well.

RCJ - you are the period label king, I declare...!

Brass

[Professor Marvel]

Prof Marvel - Greetings again and well met. A pleasure to see your posts, as always most informative and a pleasure to read. I trust you're doing well.

RCJ - you are the period label king, I declare...!

Brass

Why Thank you Monsieur Brass, I have been following your scholarly posts as well, but I fear I have been remiss in providing such support as you have demonstrated here.

Yes indeed I am continually amazed at the labels provided and thank Monsieur John for his efforts! I have been downloading many of them and I think I had better cut a disk for posterity.

RCJ, do you have these archived anywhere on the world wide interweb? since the demise of the free geocities account I have lost my own "public" offerings....

yhs
prof marvel

[River City John]

Prof. Marvel,
At one time I had a thread going in Cas City featuring labels and suggestions for containers and, in general, a How-To article.
I do have lots of material stored on my 'puter, but no cyberspace storage as such.

Are you mainly interested in medical or related?

RCJ

[Professor Marvel]

Prof. Marvel,
At one time I had a thread going in Cas City featuring labels and suggestions for containers and, in general, a How-To article.
I do have lots of material stored on my 'puter, but no cyberspace storage as such.

I understand entirely - as the cost of storage plummets, I obtained a 300 gig usb drive. I am at a complete loss about how to fill it, and god forbid, back it up! I will investigate other pssibilites for web space on the net. I think google offers some, and I believe my isp does as well. perhaps we could leverage some of that in a joint effort to display "really good stuff"...

Are you mainly interested in medical or related?
RCJ

As far as labels go, I am slowly collecting many of what you have already posted.

I am slowly trying to put together a peddlars cart with a variety of items including ammunition,some consumables (coffe, tea. tinned products)  patent remedies (lydia pinkham's for instance) , medical supplies (empty boxes most likely), needles, thread, toiletries, sundries, and replica post cards.

It is rather distressing to my wife, but I am interested in nearly anything old, post 1800: old west,  victorian, oriental, fur trade, medical, retail, scientific, medical, quackery, snake oil, patent remedies, inventions, inventors, mad scientists, gunsmithing, engineering (especially steam engines, bridges, elevators, and early electrical experiments) ....

Once whilst babbling with friends we bandied about the topic "what frivalous personal use would you make of lottery winnings if you hit the powerball?"

I immediately responded that I would purchase a full section of hidden beautiful Western Colorado grazing land I have been watching (mineral rights and all) and set up a buffalo ranch and a tiny working village with a hardware store, coffee shop, blacksmithing/machine shop, bookstore, and art gallery. Tipi's to the right, Ranchouse to the left.

my thanks!
yhs
prof marvel

[santee]

Yes, put those labels on a disk! I've been doing a lot of living history as of late, and coming up with bottles, cans, saddlebag stuffers, etc. has been challenging.
All the posted labels I've seen on this forum have been great and so helpful. Thanks, all, for posting them.

[GunClick Rick]

And don't forget Geritol,wasn't it 25% alchahol?

Professore Marvel if you collect boottles,do i have a listerene bottle for you.Pm your address and i'll give it to ya if ya want it, it has a rubber stopper..Needs to go somewhere.

[Forty Rod]

I immediately responded that I would purchase a full section of hidden beautiful Western Colorado grazing land I have been watching (mineral rights and all) and set up a buffalo ranch and a tiny working village with a hardware store, coffee shop, blacksmithing/machine shop, bookstore, and art gallery. Tipi's to the right, Ranchouse to the left.
yhs
prof marvel

Been my "dream" for over 50 years.  Add a general store/post office/gun shop, a barber shop with all the old time stuff, and a livery/blacksmith/ saddler and you have a winner.

40 "The Empire Builder" Rod 

[Hair Trigger Jim]

Scum of the earth reported.

But he did pick a good thread to dig up!  I wonder if RCJ remembers which photos go here?

[Silver Creek Slim]

I deleted the post.

Slim

[Major 2]

" I wonder if RCJ remembers which photos go here?

I haven't look to investigate lately, but I recall John had many labels uploaded on the NCOWS Website.

[Professor Marvel]

John's labels are still there!

http://ncows.com/resources/rcjlabels.html

Prof grumblebunny