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Showing posts from February, 2020

An 18th century cure for kidney stones.

    It's not often that medical details of ancestors from the 18th century come to light. Even with the commencement of death certification, causes of death must often have been nothing more than "best guesses". So I was delighted to come across this detail from the Northampton Mercury, published on 22 June 1772.  Francis Holyland was a farmer in Earl Shilton, Leicestershire. He was baptised there in  1729, married twice, and fathered a total of 16 children. From the description given in the newspaper letter, he suffered from stones in the renal tract ("the Stone and Gravel"). Treatment for stones in the 18th century sounds nothing short of barbaric; the only way of removing them was if they were in the bladder, when the patient was held down on their back, legs akimbo, and the surgeon cut up through the perineum (that muscular area just in front of the anus) and into the bladder. This was done without anaesthetic, and I can't imagine t