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Australian Doctor
August 11, 2006
Risky life at the cutting edge of medicine
IN the Middle Ages reading medical hagiology was as much a part of
treatment as antibiotics are today. Every illness seems to have had
its saint, most of whom met gruesome ends for tending the sick.
Perhaps the most famous are the twins St Cosmas and St Damian, still
the patron saints of surgery. They lived in Cilicia, the ancient name
of southern Turkey, in the 3rd century.
Arabian by birth, Christians by faith and physicians by training,
they travelled extensively, preaching Christianity and curing the
sick. So far so good, but then fantasy takes over with their most
spectacular - some say miraculous - cure.
Allegedly they amputated the cancerous leg of a white man and
replaced it with the limb of a black man who had conveniently died at
the right moment. For centuries the dramatic scene was to fire the
imagination of countless artists and is usually portrayed showing
amazed penitents viewing the one black and one white pair of legs.
However, such altruistic works did not fit with the ethos of the
Roman Emperor Diocletian, so he condemned them to death. Drowning was
the chosen method, but allegedly an angel rescued them, whereupon the
story has it they were burned, stoned, crucified and sawn in half.
They survived the lot, until beheading finally did it. With such
resilience it is little wonder they were made saints and for years
have been part of the heraldic design of barber surgeon companies.
St Blaise was really the patron saint of veterinarians, but the
ancient surgeons used to invoke his name when removing foreign bodies
from the throat. The obstruction had to be first respectfully asked
to come forth "as Lazarus emerged from the grave or Jonah from the
whale". If this failed, probably most of the time, forceps could be
applied and St Blaise's help canvassed.
Blaise was an Armenian bishop of the fourth century who opposed the
use of wild animals in the Coliseum. For his squeamishness he was
skinned alive with wool combs and then beheaded.
St Margaret of Antioch is the patron saint of childbirth. It seems
that when out walking she met a dragon who swallowed her whole. As
she entered the stomach, Margaret had the presence of mind to make
the sign of the cross, the sign materialised into a real cross that
expanded until the dragon burst open and out popped Margaret.
St Roche, born in Montpelier in the 14th century during the Black
Death, devoted his life to caring for plague victims. He caught the
disease, but an angel cured him. He was so emaciated he was not
recognised on returning to Montpelier.
Regarded as a spy, he died in prison but not before writing a letter
to those afflicted by plague telling them to use his name, along with
that of St Sebastian, in their prayers. Sebastian had died on the
orders of Diocletian in AD288, first by being unsuccessfully shot by
arrows, as seen in many paintings, and then beaten to death.
Dr Leavesley is president of the WA Medical Museum and a retired GP.
Reference
The Illustrated History of Surgery. Harold Starke, London, 1989.
August 11, 2006
Risky life at the cutting edge of medicine
IN the Middle Ages reading medical hagiology was as much a part of
treatment as antibiotics are today. Every illness seems to have had
its saint, most of whom met gruesome ends for tending the sick.
Perhaps the most famous are the twins St Cosmas and St Damian, still
the patron saints of surgery. They lived in Cilicia, the ancient name
of southern Turkey, in the 3rd century.
Arabian by birth, Christians by faith and physicians by training,
they travelled extensively, preaching Christianity and curing the
sick. So far so good, but then fantasy takes over with their most
spectacular - some say miraculous - cure.
Allegedly they amputated the cancerous leg of a white man and
replaced it with the limb of a black man who had conveniently died at
the right moment. For centuries the dramatic scene was to fire the
imagination of countless artists and is usually portrayed showing
amazed penitents viewing the one black and one white pair of legs.
However, such altruistic works did not fit with the ethos of the
Roman Emperor Diocletian, so he condemned them to death. Drowning was
the chosen method, but allegedly an angel rescued them, whereupon the
story has it they were burned, stoned, crucified and sawn in half.
They survived the lot, until beheading finally did it. With such
resilience it is little wonder they were made saints and for years
have been part of the heraldic design of barber surgeon companies.
St Blaise was really the patron saint of veterinarians, but the
ancient surgeons used to invoke his name when removing foreign bodies
from the throat. The obstruction had to be first respectfully asked
to come forth "as Lazarus emerged from the grave or Jonah from the
whale". If this failed, probably most of the time, forceps could be
applied and St Blaise's help canvassed.
Blaise was an Armenian bishop of the fourth century who opposed the
use of wild animals in the Coliseum. For his squeamishness he was
skinned alive with wool combs and then beheaded.
St Margaret of Antioch is the patron saint of childbirth. It seems
that when out walking she met a dragon who swallowed her whole. As
she entered the stomach, Margaret had the presence of mind to make
the sign of the cross, the sign materialised into a real cross that
expanded until the dragon burst open and out popped Margaret.
St Roche, born in Montpelier in the 14th century during the Black
Death, devoted his life to caring for plague victims. He caught the
disease, but an angel cured him. He was so emaciated he was not
recognised on returning to Montpelier.
Regarded as a spy, he died in prison but not before writing a letter
to those afflicted by plague telling them to use his name, along with
that of St Sebastian, in their prayers. Sebastian had died on the
orders of Diocletian in AD288, first by being unsuccessfully shot by
arrows, as seen in many paintings, and then beaten to death.
Dr Leavesley is president of the WA Medical Museum and a retired GP.
Reference
The Illustrated History of Surgery. Harold Starke, London, 1989.