17th Century Medicine by Katherine Pym

Coming in a couple of days, a new blog on Medicine during the 17th century.

Meet My Main Character

I’ve been tagged by Linda Root & Anita Seymour Davison to tell you about the main character in one of my writing projects, but I really can't do that. I finished The Barbers, and my WIP is now just being born. Instead, I'll tell you a little of my 'Plan'...

Back in the day (a Texas colloquialism great grandparents used) I found Samuel Pepys. Upon reading his journal I realized it was a discussion of local mores, slang, and his life saturated in current events that were so minute, so abbreviated, I couldn't make heads nor tails of it. My understanding of the mid-17th century was nil, and what Mr Pepys wrote in his journal felt like jumping into a whirling chasm filled with bits and bobs only the locals of the time understood.

So, I had to learn of what his journals said, i.e., the life of one living in the 17th century who'd endured the English Civil Wars, and the Restoration, the 1st & 2nd Anglo/Dutch Wars, the death of King Charles II and subsequent exile of James II, then of course, the insane Titus Oates escapade.

I studied London City and its Liberties. I packed my library with all sorts of historical texts filled with random pieces of information my heirs will most likely give to used book stores, or the Goodwill. I mean, not many care about the history of beds or shoes and Livery Companies, the microscope Robert Hooke had made, or that he felt veins and capillaries meant something important. 

For The Barbers I found lovely 17th century published texts that helped my story roll along the foggy lanes of London, on medicine and science, even an experiment on a dog. It was soooo exciting.

My Plan, therefore, is to write of the volatile 1660 decade until London burns to the ground. Each novel will take place in London during one year due to the amazing amount of current events. So far, I’ve managed to write the years 1660-1663. 

My birthing project (Chapter 1 is always painful) is of London 1664. That manuscript has yet to take on a personality of its own. In the interim I’ll tell you of The Barbers, and my protagonist, how she deals with life in general.

 What is the name of your character? Is he/or she fictional or a historic person?

My character's name is Celia Barber, a fictional person. She apprenticed as a barber under her father, and enters the guild (Barber-Surgeons), but as a woman she will never be licensed. (There are some documented cases of women holding licenses outside the 7 mile radius of London, but not within the city proper.) Celia shares a shop with her father who snips hair & shaves chins, while she heals. It is against the guild to be a barber and do the work of a surgeon or physican. King Henry VIII separated the barber/surgeon job functions, which weren't often adhered to, but I digress.

When and where is the story set?

The story is set in London 1663.

What should we know about him/her?

Celia Barber is very interested in science and medicine, and she chafes at the restrictions set against women.

As religious strife settles down, the great brains of England begin to explore medicine and science. Celia strives to see a dissection in the Hall of Surgeons, and an experiment in the Royal Society, but her dreams far outreach reality.

Celia's sister works at the Palace of Whitehall and introduces her to Viscount Deeping, who takes an immediate 'shine' to Celia. He enjoys her quest for knowledge, her dreams to see an experiment at the Royal Society. He takes her there as his lackey where Celia is thrilled to meet Robert Hooke, who created so many tools for the scientist, and wrote theses for the physician.

What is the main conflict? What messes up his or her life?

Her mother is narcissistic, and as a toddler ignores Celia. Finally, when she is about three or four, her mother casts Celia to the streets with a pronounced slam of the door. Her father rescues her, but the rejection takes its toll. Celia never trusts anyone; she'd rather keep to the shadows with her thoughts and dreams, which were many, but life intervenes. She loses one brother, than another, and she can't save them.

What is the personal goal of the character?

To heal people the best she can with local herbs and the latest science, but her goal is sidetracked when her impudent sister sees an inkling of treasure, and the intrusive viscount.

Is there a working title for this novel? And can we read more about it?

The title is set in cement, and the work published. The Barbers, a Tale Most Curious & Rare. 

When can we expect the book to be published?

It’s on the cyber shelves as we speak, paperback and ebook, on amazon, almost all countries. 

Many thanks to Linda and Anita for inviting me on this trip of how my historical fiction develops of itself (after tons of research, that is).

Please click on the links below for The Barbers
USA
UK 

For my other novels, see amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Katherine-Pym/e/B004GILIAS

Barber-Surgeons Guild

Well, my story of The Barbers has published, and dedicated to my good friends across the pond, Jim & Sue Barber. I figured Jim's ancestors were barbers, and that my friends would like to know what their forefathers did for a living, but first, I needed to do a bit of research. I wanted factual data without it being textbook, but had no idea the amount of research it would take, or how unbelievable the health practices were at the time. 

In order for the reader to accept some of what I wrote, I included an example of my resources at the end of it under the heading: Afterward. I reckoned no one would believe me otherwise. Most of the texts were published in the 17^th century, which is apropos due to the fact The Barbers takes place in 1663. Only two sources were published after 1663, one in 1667 and one in 1904 around which this blog is centered.  

Now, for a bit of history…

King Henry VIII & the Company of Barber-Surgeons 1540

In the old days, prior to King Henry VIII, barbers/surgeons shared job descriptions. They both sheared hair, made wigs, shaved faces, trimmed beards, bled, cleaned wounds, and healed the sick. The guild was then known as the Barber’s Company.

In 1540, King Henry changed it to the Company of Barber-Surgeons, and new rules applied. Barbers could only barber and pull teeth, while surgeons did everything else, but these laws were not often followed. Barbers continued to ply their surgical skills, and surgeons snipped mustachios and hair. It filled their coffers with extra money.  

In Early Modern England records indicate a few women barbered and did ‘pyhsik’ (doctoring). These women where allowed into the guild through their fathers or a male relative to apprentice and subsequently go into trade. They could do almost everything a male surgeon could, except see a male dissection, which would cause their womanly desires to flare. They could not witness a female dissection either. This would expose the men digging about in a female’s lower anatomy, trying control a woman’s breeding.

Women became barbers or surgeons, but rarely, if ever, could they be licensed. There is reference to a couple of women licensed to ply their surgical skills, but she could only practice seven miles outside the City limits. (Seven miles outside London seems important, for open Roman Catholicism was included in this distance limit.)

Female barbers were more accepted in the 17^th century, their hands considered calm under pressure. They could shave a man very nicely whilst in a coach rumbling along a cobbled lane.

Pulling teeth

Barbers had long days. During the reign of Henry VI, an edict was cast down that “’…no barber open his shop to shave any man from 10 o’clock at night from Easter to Michaelmas, or 9 o’clock from Michaelmas to Easter, except it be any stranger or any worthy man of the town that hath need (what? Isn’t this contradictory, or does it apply to the less wealthy?): whoever doeth to the contrary to pay one thousand tiles to the Guildhall.’”   

Early barbershops had red rags lining their windows, to show they could let blood, and inside rotten teeth were strung on a string. This meant the barber could shave, draw teeth, and “breath’d a vein” (bleed someone). In the 17^th century, while customers waited for his barber’s expertise, he strummed a gittern (early guitar).

There were certain things a potential customer could not say or do while in the barbershop, or he’d be forced to pay a forfeit. Examples of offences: a customer handling a razor or fiddling with the barber’s tools, speak of cutting throats, or call hair-powder flour.

Barbershop

Here’s a story re: barber-surgeons.

A duke entered a small barbershop to find the barber not in. He regarded the young apprentice and said, "Can you shave without cutting?" The apprentice said, "Aye," and the duke sat in the chair. After a few pleasantries, the duke patted his brace of pistols and said, "Of course, if you cut me, I shall shoot you dead." The youth thought a moment, then nodded. "I'm not afraid, sir." In quick strokes the lad pleased the duke by shaving him very well. The duke stroked his clean jaw. "Why were you not afraid, then?" With a shrug, the lad answered, "Before you could draw your pistol, I would cut your throat."

Ha! Well said.

For more reading on the barber/surgeons, please see my new release, The Barbers, now on amazon worldwide. Not very expensive, either. 

US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I6KOKL6

UK:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I6KOKL6 

~~~~~~

I want to thank the following for the quotes and information found in this blog: Andrews, William. At the sign of the barber's pole, Studies in Hirsute History. Cottingham, Yorkshire J.R. Tutin 1904

The Barbers

Well, I've finished my 4th installment of stories in the decade of 1660's, The Barbers, a novel of science, medicine, and superstition in 1663. It was a long and arduous process, especially since, during this writing adventure, we drove across country and built a house on a pretty piece of property we own. That, with the heat of Texas, living in a new town so we could be near the build process, in a teeny condo where you had to go through the bedroom to reach the bathroom, I researched, wrote, deleted, re-wrote, and edited a novel of almost 95,000 words. (sigh - as beads of sweat pop on my forehead)

In a previous blog on another blogspot, I tickled the reader with my at the time work in progress. I spoke of research and how it affected the story. I would have loved to use Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle. She is considered the first to have written science-fiction with her novel, The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing World where her heroine is kidnapped from a beach by an admirer, and put aboard ship. The ship blows off course and jettisons to the arctic where all the men die. (Hmm, did she dislike men?) One would think the ship careening through time and space would be the start of science-fiction, but no. The ship continues through a crack in the ether to a new dimension, which is where the science-fiction truly begins. You can still find this novel on amazon.

Early Edition

This book was not published until 1668, and my work is written within the confines of 1663. Margaret was also the only woman to be allowed to visit the Royal Society. If I could have, Celia (my heroine) would have palled around with her, and gone to the Society for a lecture or see an experiment. As it is, I have Celia dressed as a lacky, who accompanies a viscount, to see an experiment regarding the blood/oxygen flow through the heart and lungs of a dog. This experiment actually took place, and is documented in The History of the Royal Society published in 1667. I admit to fudging a bit here, but to compile and publish a good size tome takes time. The experiment did not document a date, so I decided the experiment on the dog could have taken place in 1663.

Research was the biggest part of the process, but it always yields good things. Whoever said reality is better than fiction was correct. Little tidbits of information lead to more detail, and in reality (ha, pun intended), it can make a good story.

For instance, I ended up having to hang someone in The Barbers. This started with a comment re: a silken halter for a quicker kill instead of hemp rope, and could be used by a man or woman of wealth. This led to the study of the justice system in Early Modern England. Did you know someone convicted of murder did not have a proper defense? No lawyers entered the courtroom during a murder trial unless they were in the gallery - watching. The guilty party was forced to show innocence, and the witnesses or the victims had to show the culprit's guilt. It made the courtroom a free-for-all. Then, of course, hanging was jolly fun where a great portion of the local populace watched while they drank and ate, and cheered those on the hanging tree, dancing the Tyburn Jig.

Are we not a blood thirsty species?

 

Child fastened to womb

There was a great deal of superstition and astrology linked to doctoring, so that took a good bit of study. The Barbers-Surgeons Guild changed policies during the reign of King Henry VIII, but by the mid 17th century, wherein barbers could not heal, and surgeons could not barber, it was not too keenly heeded. Of course, a barber did not broadcast before the guild he healed, or that a surgeon snipped hair and mustachios to supplement their income. Women could apprentice to become barbers or surgeons, but they were never allowed a license to practice in the city. Women were well known to have a steady hand to the point a gentleman bragged on a woman who barbered him very well while in a coach, trundling down the lane, but I'll talk more on that next time.

If you are interested in my other works, please see: http://www.amazon.com/Katherine-Pym/e/B004GILIAS

1660’s London

My work in progress (WIP) is titled The Barbers, a historical novel set in London 1663. Due to the current events of the 1660's, my goal is to write a novel per year until 1666. So far, I have released stories that mark each year 1660-1662. This means that if something of interest occurred in 1663 that I wanted in my novel of 1660, I could not use it.

During this time, if you and I walked those narrow lanes of London, and knew of an event that took place in the future, we’d be considered witches, followers of sorcery, or worse yet, of the gypsies who were never to be trusted.

At the time of The Barbers, if Queen Elizabeth I drifted from the Heavens to earth, she’d recognize most of London’s landmarks with its timbered buildings, the old and new exchanges, St Paul's with portions of a lead roof, and Baynard's Castle, once the home of Anne Boleyn. If Queen Bess ventured to London after September of 1666, she’d recognize nothing within the city walls. The great fire of September burned to the ground over 13,000 homes, 93 churches (including St Paul’s), and all government and financial buildings.

When the smoke cleared, timbered buildings were a thing of the past; to avoid such a calamity of ever happening again, reconstruction of the great city consisted mainly of brick.

My stories take place before the great fire.

The early 1660's were marvelous years, and a vibrant time. The government went from dark and dreary to colorful and lively. England, and in particular London, burgeoned with awareness. After several decades of religious infighting, three civil wars, and Cromwell’s Protectorate, a Renaissance of sorts took place. Men and women pulled up their bootstraps, and looked to the sun rising in the Eastern sky. They took a deep breath and smiled.

Despite its odoriferous smells, and coal smoke with particulates that settled gritty on everything, London burst from the confines of a bud to a flower in full bloom. In 1662, the king married Catherine of Braganza and gained ports of call in the East and West Indies. The race was on to import valuable goods, take new nations, conquer old nations. The Royal Society was born, and brought to it great minds.

The Barbers is a novel of medicine and science, the Royal Society and its experiments. I would have loved for Isaac Newton to take part in my story, but he was still young and at Cambridge. He did not come to the Royal Society until 1671. If I am to maintain date/event dignity, it would be impossible for him to be older and romp through my novel (math and science only, of course).

Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle

Another person who will not be mentioned is Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle. She is considered the first to have written science fiction with her novel, The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing World where her heroine is kidnapped from a beach by an admirer, and put aboard a ship. Due to the heinousness of the crime, our Lord created a tempest. The ship blew off course and jettisoned to the arctic where all the men died. The ship continued through a crack in the ether into a new dimension. Margaret’s heroine is honored, and becomes queen of this new world. With this newfound power she sends her minions on journeys, their mission: To seek answers for the phenomena of the Universe. 

Some of her questions are really quite amazing. She asks about light, how it’s made which brings discussions of atoms: “Motes of sun [are] streams of very small, rare and transparent particles.”

What of colors and complexions? She questions their makeup: “made by the bare reflection of light, without the assistance of small particles; or by the help of well ranged and ordered atoms, or by a continual agitation of little globules, or by some pressing and reacting motion.”

Margaret continued into dimensional thought with this: there could be a world within a world. An earring is made up of dimensions that house other dimensions.

It bummed me out I could not use her, for her thought processes were extraordinary.

Margaret certainly lived during the 1660's, and by 1663 she had written of philosophical matters, but her works I would have used were not published until later, 1666, so I am out of luck. If I want to have the reader feel he or she walks the dank city lanes during this time, they would not have known any of this.

Then of course, my stories deal with the common man. Reading and writing, arithmetic were in more use during this time, even by women, but life was a struggle. Not many had the money to purchase books from stalls in Paul’s Yard, or the energy to sit by oil lamp, lanthorn, or a candle made of animal lard and tallow (which dripped horribly and stank), to read after dark.

So, what can I use?

Nicholas Culpeper

Since The Barbers deals with Galen’s medicine, I can use this one: Culpeper’s Complete Herbal. Due to its length, I did not include all of the title (listed below). Its content is telling, and begins with a long diatribe against the local medical profession, followed by a letter to his wife, Alice Culpeper.

Nicholas Culpeper was vexed by the arrogance of physicians and apothecaries. They used Latin, never really told their patients anything of value, and overcharged them (apothecaries especially) upward to 300%. Culpeper’s herbs were of local plants that a housewife could pluck from the ground and use. He explained which herb worked the best with astrology and its degree of heat. [Explanation: Heat in the 1^st degree opens pores; heat in the 2^nd degree thins fluids; heat in the 3^rd degree warms, and the 4^th burns.]

Culpeper gave instructions how to use his book. He wrote: “…herbs, plants, etc. are now in the book appropriated to their proper planets. Therefore, First, consider what planet causeth the disease; Secondly, consider what part of the body is afflicted…the flesh, or blood, or bones, or ventricles. Thirdly, …what planet the afflicted part…is governed [by]. Fourthly,...oppose diseases by herbs of the planet, opposite to the planet that causes them…Fifthly, there is a way to cure diseases…by Sympathy, and so every planet cures his own disease…”

Easy? Hmm, I don’t think so.

A housewife would have to read and have some concept of astrology to help cure loved ones. She’d need to recognize which plant did what, along with the planets, and to what heat degree.

Within its walls, London was very crowded with people, buildings of all sizes, and too many churches. Coal smoke and dust covered everything; there were few places in London where plants would likely thrive. You’d have to leave the city and its Liberties (suburbs) to obtain the herbs, a lengthy and expensive ordeal. How far would you have to go, and where, to find what you sought?

So, people relied on barbers or surgeons to assist them. Hopefully, you found one who looked kindly upon you, your loved ones, and your pocketbook.

During King Henry VIII’s reign, the Barber-Surgeon Guild took a separate direction. Barbers could no longer do surgery, and surgeons could no longer barber, but over the years, this line diminished, and each performed the other’s procedures to make a little extra coin.

Physicians learned their craft at University and typically worked with the more affluent, while surgeons and apothecaries were apprenticed. In the medical hierarchy, physicians came first, then surgeons, then apothecaries. Barbers did not really count. Besides plucking hair from ears and noses, squeezing pimples, and styling head and facial hair, they were allowed to pull teeth, assist in births, and sometimes, when no one looked, bloodletting.

My protagonist in The Barbers is a woman. I’ve named her, Celia Barber, spinster.

Women in London were allowed to do surgery or barber, and be in an apprenticeship, but there is not much data to show how many followed these vocations. I did find a note of a few women licensed in surgery in the 17^th century, but they were outside London by several miles. Most women who followed this vocational path were daughters of barbers or surgeons in good standing with the guild.

Celia Barber is part of a hodge-podge family, whose father belongs to the Barber-Surgeon Guild, but prefers the barber side of the business. Celia runs the surgery end in a shop they share. She is bright, and filled with questions. She is like Margaret Cavendish, but as a woman, Celia cannot march into the Royal Society to hear a lecture, or see an experiment. Women weren’t allowed. They can’t watch a dissection (of hanged felons) at Chirurgeon Hall, either, especially if men dug around a woman’s reproductive organs, searching for a way to prevent pregnancy. This was not done for the benefit of women, but to have more control over women.  

Being a writer has its perks. I created a fellow who helps disguise Celia as his lackey, and takes her to Society meetings. They see experiments, listen to lectures, and see Robert Hooke’s fabulous air machine. She has access to William Harvey’s The Anatomical Exercises which is a study of the blood as it runs through veins. She hears a lecture by John Evelyn on the damaging effects of smoke in and about London. She sees experiments on dogs, where scientists try to understand the function of the lungs and heart.

All this was available by 1663, the year of my novel.

Early modern England in the 1660’s flowered with life and the quest for knowledge, to strike out in tall ships and cross the seas for goods and spices. English men and women looked beyond the norm, sought answers to their questions at home and abroad, and to make it English.  

For more reading during 1660's London (& one French Revolution novel) see:  http://www.amazon.com/Katherine-Pym/e/B004GILIAS

~~~~~~~

I thank the following sources:

Nicholas Culpeper, Culpeper's Complete Herbal, to which is now added upward of One Hundred Additional Herbs, with a display of their Medicinal and Occult Qualities; Physically applied to the Cure of all Disorders Incident to Mankind. Originally published by Nich. Culpeper Sept 1653

John Evelyn, Fumigugium: Or, The Inconvenience of the AER, and SMOAKE of London Dissipated. Together with some Remedies humbly proposed by J.E. Esq; To His Sacred Majestie, and To the Parliament now Assembled. Published by His Majesties Command. Originally presented to King Charles II May 1661

Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle. The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing World, published 1666.

William Harvey, The Anatomical Exercises, De Motu Cordis and De Circulatione Sanguinis in English Translation, Translated to English 1653