How did the southern colonies deal with illnesses?

Most sick people turned to local healers, and used folk remedies. Others relied upon the minister-physicians, barber-surgeons, apothecaries, midwives, and ministers; a few used colonial physicians trained either in Britain, or an apprenticeship in the colonies. One common treatment was blood letting.

What did colonists use for medicine?

Purgatives, emetics, opium, cinchona bark, camphor, potassium nitrate and mercury were among the most widely used drugs. European herbals, dispensatories and textbooks were used in the American colonies, and beginning in the early 18th century, British “patent medicines” were imported.

What was colonial medicine?

Colonial medicine is a thriving field of study in the history of nineteenth- and twentieth-century medicine. Medicine can be used as a lens to view colonialism in action and as a way to critique colonialism.

What was used to cure skin irritations in colonial times?

Even in the 1600s and 1700s, apothecaries were sophisticated in their knowledge of remedies. For example, they knew that calamine could be used to treat itchy skin problems and that heartburn could be cured with chalk (similar to modern-day Tums).

What diseases did the colonies have?

Many colonists also developed pneumonia, tuberculosis, and diphtheria. Beginning in the mid-1600’s, several epidemics of measles and smallpox swept through the colonies and killed large numbers of people. Measles and smallpox proved fatal especially to American Indians, who had no immunity to these diseases.

How did the colonists deal with illnesses?

Colonists relied mainly on home cures and folk remedies to treat diseases. They often borrowed African and Indian cures. Such treatments typically involved the use of barks, herbs, and roots.

What medicine did they use in the Revolutionary War?

Doctors used opiates as painkillers, but anesthetics had not been invented yet. Other common medicines included mercury compounds, lavender spirits, and cream of tartar.

What did colonial doctors do?

A colonial “doctor” was often physician/apothecary/surgeon — three professions in England. Housewives and clergymen doubled as doctors. Treatment was expensive. For illnesses, bloodletting or purges and herbal remedies might be prescribed.

What were some diseases in colonial times?

Dysentery was the number two killer of colonists. The next most fatal illnesses were the respiratory complaints: influenza, pneumonia, pleurisy, and colds. After that, the ranking would be small pox, yellow fever, diphtheria and scarlet fever, measles, whooping cough, mumps, typhus, and typhoid fever.

What plant was used for an upset stomach in colonial times?

Southern Wood was used for insect or moth repellent and to treat an upset stomach. Calendula was cultivated, dried, ground, and mixed with animal fat and placed on cuts. In order to cure sunburns, cramps, gout, plague, and remove freckles, women often used tansy.

What did a colonial gunsmith do?

Gunsmiths were Essential in Colonial America Colonial gunsmiths mainly repaired guns, axes, and other metal tools because most firearms were imported from England because they were cheaper. Colonists needed guns to hunt for their food, and if necessary, protect themselves from Native Americans (in frontier lands).