How to Treat a Stroke in the 17th century — The Treatment of King Charles II of England.On Feb

How to Treat a Stroke in the 17th century — The Treatment of King Charles II of England.On February 2nd, 1685 King Charles II of England suffered a fit of apoplexy (had a stroke) while being shaved by his barber.  He fell into convulsions, at which point the court physician was called immediately.  The court physician quickly performed the emergency treatment for a man who had just suffered a stroke.  He took out a penknife and bled out 16 ounces of blood from King Charles to “balance his humors”.  After the bleeding he was given an enema, which was re-administered 2 hours later.  When the King came to he was weak and could not speak.  Upon word of his stroke, 14 of the finest physicians in London arrived to treat and cure the kings illness.  Each doctor had his own theory of medicine and his own special treatment for stroke.  The following treatments of King Charles II are well recorded, and closely details the methods and methodology of 17th century medicine.As well as the 16 ounces of bloodletting at first, King Charles was bled another 8 ounces daily.“To free his stomach of all impurities”, he was made to drink strong emetics (drugs that induce vomiting) containing heavy metals such as antimony and zinc sulphate (both are poisonous).His head was shaved, and covered in blistering agents such as mustard and camphor.  The theory behind this was that the blisters would force bad humors lower into his body where they could be bled out.  A red hot poker was also applied to encourage more blistering.He was given daily enemas containing “sacred bitter power, cream of tartar, syrup of buckthorn, rock salt, and orange infusion of the metals supplemented by antispasmodic julep of black cherry water”He was made to sniff sneezing powders made of cowslip flowers and spirit of sal ammoniac.  It was thought the sneezing would relieve pressure on his brain.He was given numerous laxatives.A mixture of pigeon droppings and burgundy pitch were applied to his feet.He was given a tonic containing 40 drops of the essence (ooze) of a human skull “from a man who had died a most violent death and was never buried.”He was fed powder from a crushed stone taken from the stomach of a goat from East India.On February 6th, 1685 King Charles II of England died of the age of 54. -- source link

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