MEDICINE IN COLONIAL AMERICA By: Sabrina Muhanna ID4

DO YOU EVER WONDER WHAT MEDICINE WAS LIKE IN COLONIAL TIMES? Well, I do! Medicine was sort of, weird in the Colonial Times. They treated illnesses much differently then we do now! There were also many diseases that unfortunately, could not be treated. Now lets get on with the INFORMATION!!

WHAT WERE SOME OF THE DISEASES? There were many diseases back in the Colonial Times. One of the major diseases was smallpox. Smallpox was known as the colonial plague of the eighteenth century. It was very contagious. Symptoms included a fever, vomiting, and formation of pustules all over the body. It was GROSS!

HOW DID SMALL POX LOOK? Smallpox gave some sort of rash all over the body. It was pretty nasty to look at. Luckily, I found a picture that wasn’t as nasty as the others.

NASTY RIGHT?! Well unfortunately many people had this disease. There is no cure to smallpox but however, there is a vaccine. Dr. Zabdiel Boylston inoculated his six year old son and two slaves. He inoculated 150 more patients. This is how the smallpox vaccine started. Only if he discovered this sooner!

ENOUGH ABOUT SMALLPOX!! Smallpox was a horrible disease, fortunate for us it is extremely rare in our times. I will now discuss other illnesses that were common in colonial times. Lets talk about something simple. FEVERS! Oh how I hate fevers. I’m sometimes cold then hot. My body’s so fickle! (only if Mrs. Rubin was here) But how did people in Colonial Times treat fevers? HMMMMMMMMMMM (:

SO HOW DID PEOPLE TREAT FEVERS? When people had fevers, the physicians thought that the patient had too much blood in their body. Weird right? Since they thought there was too much blood, they cut open the patients vein and drained out some blood. Sometimes this worked, but other times this weakened the patients. Sometimes it even killed them! Thank god we have Tylenol!

WONDERING WHAT THIS IS? Well I’ll tell you (: You know how nowadays we have drugstores? (Ex: Rite Aid, Duane Reade, you get the idea:) Well back in Colonial Times they had apothecaries! They sold many things to cure illnesses. Chalk was sold for stomachaches, bark was also sold as another treatment for fever, and other potions were sold to heal sick people. What an interesting pharmacy!

WHAT IS BERIBERI DISEASE? Beriberi was another common disease in Colonial Times. It is caused by the lack of vitamin B1 in the body. The function of vitamin B1 in the body is to help convert food into energy. When a person suffered from Beriberi, the first symptoms to arise included fatigue and loss of appetite.

WHAT WAS THE TREATMENT OF BERIBERI? Vitamin B1 is most commonly found in foods such as, rice, eggs, meat, beans, and spinach. People with this illness were treated by eating more of these foods. Symptoms would go away quickly.

WELL THAT’S ALL PEOPLE! Even though medicine in the Colonial Times was different, we should appreciate what these people went through. People risked their lives to find cures for people with these diseases. They didn’t have the technology and equipment that we have today. We should all be thankful for the modern ways of treating illnesses and diseases today. Besides, if they didn’t have cures for illnesses, we wouldn’t be able to come to our AMAZING SCHOOL! (;

GO DOCTORS!!!!!!!

WRITING! ! American Eras The Colonial Era by Jessica Kross Medicine In Colonial America by Charlie Samuel

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