Morbid Fact Du Jour for September 22, 2014

Today’s Frankish Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

In times of sickness, crusaders would often first pray to a saint’s toenail or some other body part to get well.  Relics were a prime cure-all, and each saint had his or her specialty: Saint Blaise for bones stuck in the throat, Saint Agatha to soothe sore breasts.  If that failed, they might turn to a local doctor.  Listen to this eyewitness account by a 12th century Arab doctor called in to consult with a European colleague.  (Remember that Arabs, who had preserved much Greek and Roman scholarship, were far superior in medicine and science at the time.)

They took me [i.e., the Arab doctor] to see a knight who had an abscess on his leg, and a woman with consumption.  I applied a poultice to the leg and the abscess opened and began to heal.  I prescribed a cleansing and refreshing diet for the woman.  Then there appeared a Frankish (European) doctor, who said: ‘This man has no idea how to cure these people!’  He turned to the knight and said: ‘Which would you prefer, to live with one leg or to die with two?’  When the knight replied that he would prefer to live with one leg, he sent for a strong man and a sharp axe.  They arrived and I stood by to watch.  The doctor supported the leg on a block of wood, and said to the man: ‘Strike a mighty blow and cut it cleanly!’  And there, before my eyes the fellow struck the knight one blow, and then another fore the first had not done the job.  The marrow spurted out of the leg, and the patient died instantaneously.  Then the doctor examined the woman and said: ‘She has a devil in her head who is in love with her.  Cut her hair off!’  This was done, and she went back to eating her usual Frankish food, garlic and mustard which made her illness worse.  ‘The devil has got into her brain,’ pronounced the doctor.  He took a razor and cut a cross on her head, and removed the brain so that the inside of her skull was laid bare.  This he rubbed with salt; the woman died instantly.  At this juncture, I asked whether they had any further need of me, and as they had none I came away, having learnt things about medical methods that I never knew before.

Culled from: An Underground Education