STONE AGE “CURES”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16471, 6 July 1921, Page 6

STONE AGE “CURES”

REMEDY FOR HEADACHE.

ANCIENT SURCICAL ARTB.

Difficult as it is to arrive at an accurate conclusion on the methods of surgerv in pre-historic times, yet Professor Ro” T j. Moody, of the University of Illinois, U.S.A.. has. ns a result of his study, issued the following statement :

Headaches are bothersome things. People have been annoyed bv them for a long time. 7000 vears at least, and probably longer. We are all unite willing. when afflicted with a headache, to agree with the people of the Stone A"e that a headache is a demon and we would be willing to do almost anything to get rid of it. The pain, whether due to a blow on the head, indigestion. nervousness, or other cause, certainlv reminds one of a and it is readilv understood how ancient man must have conceived the idea of releasing this demon which was bothering him. Ho devised a remedy which certainlv was an effective cure for headache, whether the pain was due to evestrnin. brain tumour, skull fracture or nervousness, although it must he ndmitted thnt his cure was worse than the r>ain. Primitive man devised his curative measures as a phase of his religions beliefs hence the. cure adopted for headaches was a religious rite. THE MEDICINE MAN.

The operation was performed hr a shaman or medicine man. in some remote fastness of his region, and here the patient remained until comnletelv recovered. This trentment consisted in opening the skull in a variety of wavs to relieve the pain, or, as the Stone Age men thought to let out the demon. Men in the Stone* Age phase of their culture whether in Peru. Mexico France. fCabvlia. or the South Sea Islands practised this method of relief, and it is Faid to be still employed in the highlands of Peru and Bolivia and in Northern Africa. This ancient surgical art. which forms the very beginnings of nre-historic surgery. seems to have been developed first in the region iust north of Paris near the Seine and Oise Rivers, some seven or eight thousand vears ago. _ In the dolmens or burial grounds, scientists have found the ancient skulls of people who had suffered headache and who had their skulls trepanned or opened to release the headache demon. “No special class of individuals seems to have been favoured, since the operation was performed on mail, woman and child, apparentlv without respect to either ace or sex. Its frequency is attested the great number of skulls exhibitin'-' the surgical openings. In one burial mound in France yielding the hones of 120 individuals. more than fortv showed the effects of trepannation.” WIDESPREAD FAITH.

This hints at a very early development, not onlv of the surgical art hut of a widespread faith in the skill of the physician, or medicino-man. As we read : “It isn't very pleasant to picture the torture undergone bv the_ ancient sufferer at the hands of the priest who cut. scraped, or bored the bone of the skull awav with a sharp niece of stone. Some relief from pain may have been had bv the application of a 'uiid of coca, a plant vieldino- aneesthetic substances which grows in Peru. But the worst thing about headaches is that thev recur, so the ancient -people, not deterred by one failure. submitted themselves to the operation again and again. A few ancient skulls reveal five cruel openings, which had nil healed. The patient bad survived them all. The equipment of the primitive surgeon was meagre. His knowledge of cleanliness was not keen. If he possessed a rough flint knife, a scraper, a few leaves of coca plant, and a piece of coarse cloth to bind the wound he was content. A mossv hank out in the woods served him for an operating table.”

Stone Age tools are said to he in use in Bulgarian hospitals to perform surgical operations. In the absence of anv steel instruments whatever with which to operate, the Russian surgeons in charge have taken a leaf from the book of their pre-historic ancestors, and have used chipped flints. Moreover, a freshiv-chipped flint hns an excellent cutting edge and possesses perfect immunity from infection. So crude but thoroughly septic operations are being performed with flint knives.