|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
From the Dryden translation of Plutarch's Life of Caius Marius:
Marius is praised for both temperance and endurance, of which latter he gave a decided instance in an operation of surgery. For having, as it seems, both his legs full of great tumours, and disliking the deformity, he determined to put himself into the hands of an operator; when, without being tied, he stretched out one of his legs, and silently, without changing countenance, endured most excessive torments in the cutting, never either flinching or complaining; but when the surgeon went to the other, he declined to have it done, saying, "I see the cure is not worth the pain."
Bingley
Bingley
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
And not even a bullet to bite on.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,561 Likes: 1
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,561 Likes: 1 |
or a bottle of bourbon to ease his pain.
What did the Romans call what they drank? Was it all wine ("...one-half so precious as the stuff they sell...") or did they have any fortified beverages?
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I'm prettty sure that stills were not invented for over a thousand years. I can't think of any drugs they had that would have been worth using. Maybe Bulgarian anaesthesia, a knock on noggin with a mallet. The Delphic oracle is said to have inhaled gases with aome anaesthetic properties, but no way that could have helped Marius.
P.S. I found a site claiming Aristotle knew about distilling.Still don't think it could have helped our hero. "The process of distillation is old enough to have been mentioned by Aristotle—who lived from 384 to 322 B.C.—but Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23–79), a Roman, first described a still. At its most basic, a still consists of a retort, in which the liquid to be distilled is heated; a coil, called a condenser, at the top of the still, to cool and condense the vapor; and a receiver, a vessel that collects the distillate. Over the years, various elaborate industrial stills have been created, but they all consist essentially of the same three parts. "
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,561 Likes: 1
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,561 Likes: 1 |
...the Delphic oracle is said to have inhaled gases with aome anaesthetic properties
That's also in a very recent Scientific American! Last month's, I think
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,367
Members9,182
|
Most Online3,341 Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
0 members (),
581
guests, and
1
robot. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|