John Woodall,Surgeon General of the East India Company. Part II: A Consideration of the Provision Made for Treating Injuries and Diseases at Sea

Woodall J . The Surgion's Mate. London: Edward Griffin for Laurence Lisle, 1617: plaster box, forceps, spatulas, and scissors, pp 25–6; small probe, stitching quill and needles, lancet, burras pipe, pp 27–32. Woodall is The supporting the importance the Company placed on the barber in maintaining the good appearance and hygiene of its employees; cf Pepys S. Samuel Pepys' Diary London, Dent, 1936: 364 (9 May 1663) stressed “the pains of keeping my hair clean is so great”.

Ibid: list of plasters, p 25; Stipticum invented by Paracelsus, pp 40-1; Diacakhitheos (cf Scribonius Largus Conpos 150, 153; his “Conpositiones Medkamentorum” contained almost 300 formulae, several quoted by Galen. Gale T, 1507–87, military surgeon, author of Certain works of chirurgerie; de lapide calaminari, “best incamative” plaster p 43; Contra ignem of Johann Wecker, 1528–86, at Basle, writer of an early pharmacopoeia, p 48.

Ibid: Diachilon magnum & parvum also Mellilotum per Splene and Simplex, all four of Mesues the Younger (tenth century Arabian physician and writer on pharmacy, pp 41–2, cf Cael Aur Acut II 18+29); Oxkroceum of Nicolaus Alexandrinus, thirteenth century physician, author of “Opus Medkamentorum” p 42; Wecker's Callidum, p 43.

Ibid: The salvatory; p 25; Basilicon: Apostularum ascribed to Avicenna of Baghdad (980–1037 AD; famous doctor and author of over 150 works), p 44; Linamentum (of Franciscus Arceus 1493–157?), a renowned wound cure, p 51; Aureum of Joseph du Chesne (1544–1609, French doctor, follower of Paracelsus), p 45; Diapomphligos (cf Plin N H XXXIV 13.36 (128)), p 49; Populeon, Culpeper N. Complete Herbal. Ware: Omega Books, 1985: 229; unguentum populneum, p 47.

Ibid: Barber's case list, page unnumbered. External parasites afflicting sailors included Pediculus vestimenti, which laid eggs in the seams “of shirts”, and crab lice, which clung tenaciously to the short body hair. London was a centre for soap making. Gardner B . The East India Company, London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1971: 29. The Company recruited “marines, able men, unmarryed”.

Ibid: “I never used eye-drops” p 138 - he preferred to apply plaster on the lid. Woodall praised the King for raising the army surgeon's medicine chest allowance to £17 (Company allowance not given); the Apothecaries sold and transported chests abroad as required (1639 edn, p 281 + To Benevolent Reader”).

Ibid: essences, pp 66–7; cordials, pp 54–62: “cheefe” “aqua vitae”, p 317; Dr Steevens' (sixteenth century French doctor) water for scurvy, p 55; juices and syrups, pp 88–9, 78–80; julep, p 240; Culpeper N. op. cit. note 4: 318; Arabic “pleasant potion” (cf gift to Pepys S. op. cit. note 1: 75 (22 June 1660), “case of good Julep”; pills (turpentine for the “stone”), pp 89–90; trochees, pp 93–4 (Culpeper N op.cit. note 3: 35; tragacanth from astragalus tree); p 326 Confectio Hamech/Humeske (Arabian), Electuria Diacatholicon: Theriaca Andromachi, Mithridate Damocritis (first century, both quoted in Galen de Antid I.6+Plin N H XXIV 28+XXV.4), 83–4; “stronger Treakells” used for gangrene; Diatersson/“poore man's Trekell,” made with four simples.

Ibid: conserves, pp 80–2 (Culpeper N. op. cit note 3: 322–3, pulping sieve and preserves); opiates, pp 226, 228, 231, 86–7 (Theban from ancient Boeotia, Plin N H XIX 8.39 (126)). Company monopoly made Indian opium more available to sea surgeons; fine scrapings of bezoar were used although it was cheaper after American exports broke the Asian monopoly.

Ibid: guaiacum officinale/lignum vitae also treated rheumatism and tonsillitus and cortex and guaiacum were specific for gonorrhoea, p 98; herbs, pp 119–121. Culpeper N. op. cit. note 3: 263, advises against internal use of savina.

Ibid: sal gemmae, p 69; Cambogiae, p 96; “philosphers' stone,” p 75: scorpion, p 73; Benedicta and Arthriticus pp 91–2, 199; dried wormwood, p 184. Sloane H. Voyage to the Island, Vol I, London, 1707. Introduction, p XCIX, visiting a tertian sufferer in Jamaica said “she had by her several cordials”; Wellcome Museum, London, A23856, medicine chest maker Richard Guille.

Seventeenth century paintings - de Witt, National Museum of American History in the Smithsonian Institute; Tenier Junior, Budapest Museum of Art.

Kirkup JR . Facsimile edition of The Surgion's Mate , Bath: Kingsmead Press, 1978: Plate I, facing p xiv; below the chest is a salvatory box among five various types of hinged forceps (two uvula with toothed jaws); Woodall J. (ed.), To the Benevolent Reader, 1639 stated that he had put company chests “into an order … never undertaken before” (i.e. each item in its own special place).

Wellcome Museum, London: medicine chests A23903 + A641515, see Burnett J . The Giustiani medicine chest. Med Hist 1982; 26: 325–33 (Appendix. List of drugs, no 23, “crystallized rhubarb” (a preserve) purge noted by Woodall also). Woodall J. op. cit. note 1, was disgusted at the “great secrets” and “prized treasures” that surgeons crammed into their chests before he had authority to check for “fraudulent” nostrums.

Mudie R Mudie C . Story of the Sailing Ship, London: Marshall Cavendish, 1975: 105–6. Khan SA. East India Trade in the XVIIth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1923: in 1618, the Company had 45 galleons (2000 tons) “built for war”, with 200 men each. Wilkinson T. Two Monsoons, London: Duckworth, 1976: 74 regulations; attack on personnel at Onore Factory after a “fine English bulldog” killed a sacred cow, pp 208, 214; by 1670 there was a cemetery convenient to Surat Station.

Woodall J . op. cit. note 1: powder-burns, pp 145–6; fractures and dislocations, pp 160–171; amputations, pp 172, 176, 137; cf Pepys S. op. cit. note 1: 415–7 (19 October 1663): “famous Ned Mullins'” broken ankle festered; amputation of leg “by all the great surgeons” “but basely done”. Ned died after four days; in spite of analgesics (e.g. laudanum) patients suffered considerable shock. Teignmouth Museum and Historical Society. Wreck on the Church Rock, Teignmouth, 1988: 18, 21–2. Round-bottomed bronze cauldrons, 2′ in daimeter by 30 “high, from a wreck from the late sixteenth century off the South Devon coast, contain animal and fish bones; one has caulking pitch. Woodall J. op. cit. note 1: 145-6.

Kirkup JR . op. cit. note 12: scurvy, p XXII. In 1601 Commander Lancaster of the First East Indian Fleet recorderd a substantial reduction in cases of scurvy after extra lemon juice was given to the crew. Woodall J. op. cit. note 1: “careful providing”? — allowance of lemon juice was not generous, “only enough for every man as necesary in scurvy”, pp 180, 185, causes, p 180; “evil-aire”, pp 241–2 (Hippocratic theory of air provoking illness); “main cure lemon”, p 185; occurrences of outbreaks, p 179; citrus fruits, tamarinds, wood-sorrell (herb of Cape area), pp 184, 81, 196; quality and freshness of rations was of concern — was sufficient money spent on food itself? cf Pepys S. op. cit. note 1: 502 (16 July 1664) got a handout by procuring a “navy meat” contract for friends, 494 (30 June 1664); meat was hung to tenderize but often too long, and guests with Pepys' parents complained “it stinks”.

Woodall J . op. cit. note 1: iliaca passio, pp 232–6; tenasmus and lapsus ani, pp 242-7; “melancholy” the final stages of scurvy, extreme exhaustion and morbidity (Dampier W. New Voyage Around the World, vol I (4th edn). London: James Knapton, 1699: p 449 patients made their wills and “piked off in a day or two”); captain to be warned if an epidemic likely, and ship fumigated with amber vapours, pp 183, 108.

Ibid: fluxes, pp 202–32; “slimy flux” and “glutinous matter adhering”, pp 211, 93; English doctors' problems, p 205; callenture, pp 247–50. Wilkinson J. op. cit. note 14: typhoid was not identified until the nineteenth century, pp 7, 13, 181; cholera, pp 85, 13, 171–3; John Mildenhal died of “poison” in 1614; Portugese doctors declared the disease incurable, p 173; Danish settlers survived cholera, keeping drinking “water sweet” by stirring with a redhot crowbar, p 134.

Ibid: treatises on sal, sulphur, mercury, including “certaine Plaine Verses in praise of Salt”. In praise of sulphur, In Laudem Mercurij, pp 250–291, 292–6, 298–306; “Seven principall metalls ascribed to the Seven Planets”, “Characters & the tearmes of the Art,” “Certaine Chemicall Verses” and Epilogue: Index (“the Table”), pp 308–48 unnumbered; p 123–4 (incorrectly numbered 131), sources listed and mention of seven noted in the text; astrology, pp 137, 229; bad air, pp 211, 241–2, 233, 236, 274; “vapours”, p 76; professional conduct, pp 212, 214, 236, 2, 10; hygiene, pp 9, 18, 20; rest and aromatherapy, pp 224–5, 193; proven remedies, p 198.

Kirkup JR . op. cit. note 12: Preface, p vii; journals extant e.g. BL Sloane MSS, John Cox 49 and Lionel Wafer 28079 (secret report). Wafer L. A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America, Oxford, printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1934: 4–6, 112–3, 18–9, 157, 66–7 (soldier-insect oil “sovereign cure” for contusions and sprains), 63 (tobacco smoke as fumigant and sedative), bezoars, p 118.

Ringrose B . The Dangerous Voyages and Bold Assaults of Captain Barth. Sharp (Part IV of Adams PG John Esquemeling, New York, Dover, 1967: 412); drunken doctors; Cox J. op. cit. note 20: Dampier W. op. cit. note 17: surgeon, p 373, illnesses, pp 502–3, 225–6, 76, 501; diet and water and scurvy, pp 524–6; Cape of Good Hope and St Helena, pp 529–42, 548; Mindanao, pp 297, 330, 398; Wm Williams' wooden leg, p 374; Wilkinson T. op.cit. note 14: 76. As late as the nineteenth century there were still complaints from India about medicines “Being far-fetched and long kept-produce small or contrary effects”.

Woodall J . op. cit. note 1: shortage of time, pp 178, 348, 300; “Certaine Chemicall Verses”, p 337; humour, pp 58–61; dictum, p 11; Woodall J, ed. op. cit. ref 12, opposition of “the surgeons in generali”; Lowe P. The Whole Course of Chirurgerie, London, 1597, Dictionary of National Biography vol. XII: 196. Wilkinson T. op. cit. note 14: 643 - Gabriel Boughton, surgeon on the Hopewell, won duty-free trading in Bengal for the Company after successfully treating a royal lady of the Moghul Court in 1643.