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 that many people would have survived the almost inevitable subsequent wound infection. Of course, this did nothing to tackle any other stones that were still in the kidney. A little later, the fashion arose for removing stones in the bladder via the urethra (the "tube" that carries the urine away from the bladder, down which we pee!). This didn't involve cutting but of necessity had to be done "blind" - there are reports of surgeons passing a long nail into the bladder then using a hammer on the nail to fragment the stone so it could be passed when the patient urinated! (1)
It is easy to see why people would try anything other than surgery to relieve the pain of stones. How thankful Francis must have been to find a "cure"! If only we could discover what it contained!
Francis lived another 28 years after this letter was published, and was buried in the graveyard at Earl Shilton in October 1800, age 72. I hope he remained free of his renal stones!
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