Bonesetting

Silly me, I thought bonesetting meant setting broken bones. Since I’ve just snapped one of mine and wondered how in the name of heaven anyone in past times could deal with the frustrating complications, I started researching—only to learn that bonesetters did far more than set bones. They were medieval chiropractors, acupuncturists, and more.

I can’t type well enough yet to sort through all the conflicting details. Samuel Homola claims one of the first written mentions of bonesetting was from Friar Moulton, of the order of St. Augustine. He wrote the Compleat Bonesetter, which was revised in 1656 by Robert Turner. Apparently Turner says the book was intended to be a guide for "the use of those Godly Ladies and Gentlewomen, who are industrious for their talent God has given them, in helping their poor sick neighbors." But the guide isn’t just about setting bones. It’s about “the use of manipulation as a method of setting fractures, reducing dislocations, and restoring mobility to an injured or diseased joint.” Homola concludes that bonesetting was a woman’s job, which doesn’t ring quite true to me, especially in the Middle Ages.

So I looked a little further and learned that in the European Middle Ages, there was an entire guild of bonesetters who worked closely with physicians. As I suspected, the guilds were all male. Perhaps Turner’s book was a kind of housewife’s manual for people too isolated or poor to call on a bona fide bonesetter. But the guild apprenticed only boys, keeping them for seven years. Training was “derived from the Roman and Greek ‘skeleton men,’ and the ancient Egyptian ‘men of the hands.’” They actually had university training four hundred years before medical practitioners. Again, this was as much massage and chiropractics as fixing broken bones. Need your spine popped? Call a bonesetter.

For many reasons, political and religious, Napoleon destroyed the bonesetter’s guilds. Today, only nine large volumes about the craft remain, most of them written in Greek, Latin, and Gaelic. Maybe the little emperor feared languages he couldn’t read—or people smart enough to read them. Or perhaps the guilds had become little more than superstitious cults that defied the growing interest in science.

In Eastern families and communities, bonesetting was also learned in conjunction with acupressure / acupuncture.

So naturally I had to check out Regency England, from which my prejudices evidently stem. Yes, they had women bonesetters in England in the 18th and 19th centuries. There was even one so skilled at reducing dislocations, setting fractures, and bandaging, that mobs would follow her to the theater. But she apparently specialized in fractures, as I assumed, and of course, true physicians—all male—disdained her abilities.

This is all fun to know but doesn’t tell me how people functioned with broken bones. (My cast is fiberglass and still seems to weigh a thousand pounds. My right hand is good for nothing except finger wiggling. Try buttering toast that way!)


I learned from Wikipedia that the earliest methods involved splints. The Ancient Egyptians used wooden splints made of bark wrapped in linen and stiff bandages that were probably derived from embalming techniques. A form of Plaster of Paris was available, but it wasn’t used for bandages. The ancient Greeks also used waxes and resins to create stiffened bandages and the Romans used starch. Arabian doctors used lime derived from sea shells and albumen from egg whites. “The Italian School of Salerno in the twelfth century recommended bandages hardened with a flour and egg mixture as did Medieval European bonesetters, who used casts made of egg white, flour, and animal fat.” But mostly, bed rest was the required treatment—months of bed rest, argghhh!


War, naturally, created the need for more mobile treatment. A surgeon in Napoleon’s army (here comes real science!) studied the effects of transportation on amputated limbs and concluded immobilizing the limb instead of the whole person was sufficient for healing. Yeah, science! Of course, he resorted to the tried and true camphorated alcohol, lead acetate and egg whites for immobilization.

Various surgeons operating at Waterloo and the continuing wars thereafter eventually developed a method that foreshadows modern Plaster of Paris casts. From Wikipedia: “The limb was initially wrapped in wool, especially over any bony prominences. Pasteboard was then cut into shape to provide a splint and dampened down in order that it could be molded to the limb. The limb was then wrapped in bandages before a starch coating was applied to the outer surface.” Better than total bed rest but that had to itch like the devil after a few weeks. And it still doesn’t tell me how women and children with their weaker limbs endured the weight. My bet is on bed rest, for the wealthy at least.

Unfortunately or not, I don’t have the luxury of lounging about while my cook prepares the meals, my maid cuts them into bite size pieces, and my man of business pays the bills. I’m on a 30-day blog tour for LURE OF SONG AND MAGIC and I’m typing revisions to my urban fantasy with one hand. Oh, and let’s not forget that I’m supposed to be promoting my new reissue of SMALL TOWN GIRL and putting together the final touches on next month’s reissue of SWEET HOME CAROLINA.  If I mention any more of my current projects, my head will ache as well as my hand. I think I shall hie me to the fainting couch. (That's my new svelte black cast--goes past the elbow. The Mexican original was hot pink and twice the size. I should have taken a picture!)

What experiences have you had with broken bones? Mine was set in a Mexican hospital, another blog all of its own. (which reminds me—I had to start a new Facebook Page. Stop by and Like me, please, and admire photos of my Mexican adventure!)

Comments

[Anne Gracie]

Pat, hugs on the broken wrist. I've never (touch wood) had a broken bone, so I can't imagine the pain. But I have had injuries with serious inconvenience and that can get very frustrating.
Pain and inconvenience = not fun.
Take care.

[Patricia Rice]

Thanks, Anne. I imagine your wrist problems are more painful and every bit as in convenient as this cast. It's mostly the weight and the awkward angle that are my biggest annoyances. If I could just turn my elbow to reach the keyboard!

I'm just glad I live now and not a hundred years ago!

[Liz]

Goodness. Hope you heal soon and good luck with your tour.

[Patricia Rice]

Thanks, Liz!

[Beth Elliott]

It sounds very frustrating as well as painful. I hope everything heals quickly and you manage to get through all your commitments. From some of the pictures you put up, I'm VERY glad to be living now and not in past centuries, arghhh.

[Susan/DC]

I've only had broken fingers and toes (so far), and the resulting inconvenience was minor. Best wishes for a speedy recovery -- here's hoping you may soon be able to reach the keyboard.

[Jenny]

Hope you survive the cast and the inconvenience Pat. I have only had broken toes (try not to bang them dear said the doctor) but they were a real pain. Not the sort of breaks for a cast. Not the sort of breaks for crutches (but I could have done with some). Just the sort that made everyone laugh as I hobbled around. So I hope you recover well.

[LouisaCornell]

Ouch, Patricia! That had to have been painful and now I assume it is sincerely annoying!

I have never TOUCH WOOD broken anything, so far as I know. I would imagine I had broken toes via a few misadventures with Suffolk punch and Shire horses who trod on my foot and refused to move for quite some time, but I never actually had those looked at, merely hobbled and suffered.

How in God's name I have lived this long and done some of the things I've done and NOT broken anything I'll never know. I've been thrown from horse, stepped on by them, went over the handlebars of my bike at a high rate of speed, fell multiple times learning to ski in Austria, fell into orchestra pits (while rehearsing thank God - not during a performance) I've fallen out of trees and off of lighting trees backstage. Of course I was much younger when all of this happened. If it happened today I'd be in a body cast!

[Sherrie Holmes]

Sherrie here. Louisa, I'll bet most of our blog readers have never heard of a Suffolk punch, let alone know it's a draft horse, not a special boxing move. *g* Love those big beasties! I once owned a half Clydesdale/half Morgan gelding.

Pat, sympathy on the broken wrist! Your cast is awesome. Black. Wow. I've never seen a black cast--it looks very sinister. I can't imagine a worse injury for a writer. You poor beebee. Not the best thing to happen when you're on a blog tour. Or vacation.

BTW, I am *loving* THE LURE OF SONG AND MAGIC. It is my new favorite Patricia Rice book. The writing (and story) is pure magic.

Sherrie, snowed in and with frozen water pipes in the wilds of rural western Washington State

[Patricia Rice]

Totally sympathize with the broken toes. (Don't kick solid oak doors!) As Mary Jo told me--some of us are sturdy ponies and others are fragile-boned thoroughbreds who break bones with a sneeze. Fortunately, I've never been physically active enough to break bones beyond toes until now. So most of my griping is because I'm not accustomed to doing at less than a full out run.

Sherrie, I hope you have some form of heat to go with those pipes. That storm looks like misery!

[Diane Sallans]

Ouch! Knock on wood I've never broken a bone. I'm just so glad to be living with todays medical community. If I'd lived over 100 years ago I probably wouldn't have survived my burst appendix.

[Marie]

Hope you heal quickly and can get to running soon :)

[theo]

Pat, I'm late to the party but wanted to tell you, I LOVE the black cast! Very sophisticated and so much better than the standard hot pink, lime green or county road truck orange I see so much.

I spent 7 weeks in a straight-legged cast from hip to ankle after knee surgery to correct a shattered knee from a bicycle accident. Five of those weeks, the cast was plaster. I worked on the second floor of a building with no elevator and very steep stairs so the first few weeks, my husband (boyfriend at the time) would pick me up in the morning for work, carry me up the stairs and then one of the guys I worked with would carry me back down in the afternoon when my husband picked me up after work. A pain, but very romantic in a way. Of course, I also weighed less than the cast. Now, it would take a fork lift through the window.

Good luck with the healing, a PITA when you're one-limbed ;o) , and your deadlines.

[Patricia Rice]

Wow, Theo, I shall never whine again! No wonder you married the guy! That's true love and an example for all characters!

I came home from Mexico with hot pink and nearly groveled in gratitude when I was offered black or white after the original had to be cut off. I wear black in winter, so thought I'd go for sophistication!

[Kathleen Lynch]

My bones are fortunately (touch wood) in their original number of pieces -- but I have had a joint replacement with six weeks of cast-wear. My doctor considered my age and dignity, and wrapped me in a bright purple cast! When it was replaced in due course, I kept the color -- it goes well with black.
My handy hint for cast wearers: Love your vacuum cleaner. When your skin begins to itch under the cast, never try to scratch it. That's extremely dangerous. But what you can do which ends the itch is hold the vacuum hose close to the cast -- it pulls air through. Oh, the relief!
Good healing to you, Patricia!

[Patricia Rice]

Kathleen, what a great idea! Of course, since my cast is now off, I also advise keeping a vacuum handy for dead skin. ewwwww....