Bleed, Blister, Puke, and Purge: The Dirty Secrets Behind
Early American Medicine by J. Marin Younker, (Zest Books, 2016)
Remember how I say that children’s books make me smarter?
Sometimes they totally gross me out WHILE making me smarter. Bleed, Blister,
Puke and Purge definitely fills
requirements in both categories (making this a PERFECT YA book!)
Want to get that reluctant reader who loves all things
ghoulish interested in a book? Get
them to read the first paragraph about Union soldier Corporal Quick who was
shot behind the jaw. It wasn’t the bullet that killed him (directly), it was
the treatment. First they told him to rest and poop (cuz the jaw is connected
to the intestines?), when that didn’t work, they tied off his carotid artery
(he was awake for the procedure), which of course, killed him. It took nine
days (miserable, horrible days for Quick) but he finally died.
Or about John Hunter who wanted to study STDs so he
knowingly infected himself with syphilis (this may be an urban legend). Hunter wanted to document the symptoms
of syphilis, in order to be able to separate its symptoms from those of
gonorrhea. Unfortunately the
sailor he got the syphilis from (by taking, ugh, pus, from the sailor’s penis
and putting it on his own, had both diseases. I also learned that Goodyear (yes, GOODYEAR) started mass
producing rubber condoms in 1885.
I wonder if they also sold retreads (rimshot).
We also learn that women and minorities were blocked from
studying/practicing medicine (SHOCKED, I’m SHOCK…. Wait, no I’m not). Many of the women burned at the stake
or drowned for being witches were actual healers and midwifes. Women doctors still earn about
$20,000/year less than their male colleagues according to a 2016 study. This may be because many women doctors
are in the ‘female side’ of medicine, pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology,
which often pay less (don’t get me started on how we place less value on things
that affect women and/or children).
Want a fun fact to share with your teen readers? Well, you can serve them Graham Crackers
and let them know that the original purpose for these was to “restrain sexual
appetite, improve digestion, and cure insanity” Yup, Dr. Sylvester Graham
believed in clean living which apparently included “curbing lust” or, as the
book states, “The common phrase of the Graham movement was: (no pun intended
re: digestion) “If it feels good
then don’t do it.”
We learn about how insanity was seen and often used
(especially against women) to keep people in their “place” Such as Elizabeth
Packard, whose husband had her committed, essentially for disagreeing with him
and his very conservative and controlling religious views. Or, the heartbreaking story of John
Rush, who was institutionalized for 27 years, after he tried to commit suicide
(probably suffering from PTSD, not a known diagnosis in 1810) His father, Dr. Benjamin Rush, was
known as the “Father of American Psychiatry” but he could not help his own son.
Bleed, Blister, Puke, and Purge is
informative and HIGHLY entertaining.
It’s 105 pages of text (so it works for those teachers, who, for
whatever reason, require that a book be more than 100 pages) and great
graphics. The cover displays
various, TERRIFYING medical ‘tools’
Additional Reading:
Breakthrough (reviewed on May 16, 2016) and Fortune’s
Bones by Marilyn Nelson
