Tag Archives: Florence Nightingale

An Old Standby Treatment

FLorence Nightingale Suffered from Crimean Fever, Taking to Her Bed at Age 38 But Not Dying Until 90

Florence Nightingale Suffered from Crimean Fever, Taking to Her Bed at Age 38 But Not Dying Until 90

Many of us refer casually to hypochondria as a condition in which a person thinks he’s ill when he’s not. Though the victim’s friends or family may see perfect health, the hypochondriac constantly fears or suffers feelings of illness. Hypochondria has afflicted people through the ages, but alienists in the twentieth century differentiated its degrees of seriousness.

The first stage of hypochondria was entirely mental: the person thought he was ill when he was not. The second stage began when he started to act ill and displayed symptoms consistent with the particular problem he believed he had. The third stage occurred when the person started to suffer from the actual condition; as one alienist noted, “Real disease, is, therefore, induced.”

Jacobus Schroeder van der Kolk

Jacobus Schroeder van der Kolk

Dr. William A. Hammond recalled a woman who believed she had suffered a disease of the tongue which caused it to fall off. Of course,the tongue was still there, but Hammond could not persuade her that it really was. Eventually, he decided to treat her with an aloetic purge, which he had seen recommended by a European alienist, Jacobus Schroeder van der Kolk. This purge consisted of a succotorine aloe (a medicinal aloe from Africa), castile soap, and a simple syrup, along with whatever else a doctor might choose to mix in. It was essentially a harmless concoction, but fell right in with the era’s belief that a good purge could do a world of good.

Aloe Succotrina

Aloe Succotrina

The purge dislodged “large quantities of hardened fecal matter” and restored the woman’s menstrual cycle, and within a month, “she was entirely free from all perceptional, intellectual, or emotional derangement,” said Hammond. To his credit, Hammond didn’t clash wills with the patient, but instead worked in a way that accommodated her illness and caused her the least harm.

Nursing the Insane

Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale

Nurses fill a vital role in caring for patients in any institutional setting, and today’s nurses are trained, skilled, and professional. That was not always the case. In the late 1800s, attendants were typically male, and often incompetent or uncaring. Florence Nightingale set the bar higher for nursing when she went to Crimea in 1854, but twenty years later, medical men were still lamenting the lack of qualified and willing people to help the insane.

One problem the profession faced was a lack of systematic instruction for attendants or nurses. Except for the religious orders, there were no permanent schools to train people for nursing even as late as 1880. Some medical superintendents tried giving lectures on nursing care, but they were often attended by just a handful of people. Alienists (early psychiatrists) understood that they could help the situation by attracting women to nursing.

Stewards and Nurses, Brooklyn Navy Yard Hospital, Detroit circa 1890-1901

Stewards and Nurses, Brooklyn Navy Yard Hospital, Detroit circa 1890-1901

 

Group of Male Attendants, 1890s, Spring Grove Hospital

Group of Male Attendants, 1890s, Spring Grove Hospital

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