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June 19th, 2008

05:02 pm - removing an arrow from someone's face in 1403 In 1403 rebel forces led by the Percy family clashed with those of King Henry IV in the Battle of Shrewsbury. Present was the King's sixteen year old son the Prince of Wales and future Henry V, who had the unfortunate luck of opening his visor at an inopportune moment and taking an arrow to the face.  The shaft was cut off but the tip remained lodged beneath Henry's left eye until a surgeon named John Bradmore was able to extricate it using custom made tools. Fortunately for those of us who enjoy these curious antectodes, Mr. Bradmore took extensive notes on the procedure:  And it should be known that in the year of Our Lord 1403, the fourth year of the reign of the most illustrious King Henry, the fourth after the Conquest, on the vigil of St Mary Magdalene, it happened that the son and heir of the aforesaid illustrious king, the prince of Wales and Duke of Aquitaine and Lancaster, was struck by an arrow next to his nose on the left side during the battle of Shrewsbury. The which arrow entered at an angle (ex traverso), and after the arrow shaft was extracted, the head of the aforesaid arrow remained in the furthermost part of the bone of the skull for the depth of six inches. The aforesaid noble prince was cured by me, the compiler of this present Philomena gratie, at the castle of Kenilworth – I give enormous thanks to God – in the following manner. Various experienced doctors came to this castle, saying that they wished to remove the arrowhead with potions and other cures, but they were unable to. Finally I came to him. First, I made small probes from the pith of an elder, well dried and well stitched in purified linen [made to] the length of the wound. These probes were infused with rose honey. And after that, I made larger and longer probes, and so I continued to always enlarge these probes until I had the width and depth of the wound as I wished it. And after the wound was as enlarged and deep enough so that, by my reckoning, the probes reached the bottom of the wound, I prepared anew some little tongs, small and hollow, and with the width of an arrow. A screw ran through the middle of the tongs, whose ends were well rounded both on the inside and outside, and even the end of the screw, which was entered into the middle, was well rounded overall in the way of a screw, so that it should grip better and more strongly. This is its form. I put these tongs in at an angle in the same way as the arrow had first entered, then placed the screw in the centre and finally the tongs entered the socket of the arrowhead. Then, by moving it to and fro, little by little (with the help of God) I extracted the arrowhead. Many gentlemen and servants of the aforesaid prince were standing by and all gave thanks to God. And then I cleansed the wound with a syringe [squirtillo] full of white wine and then placed in new probes, made of wads of flax soaked in a cleansing ointment. This is made thus. Take a small loaf of white bread, dissolve it well in water, and sift through a cloth. Then take a sufficient quantity of flour and barley and honey and simmer over a gentle heat until it thickens, and add sufficient turpentine oil, and the healing ointment is made. And from the second day, I shortened the said wads, soaked in the aforesaid ointment, every two days and thus within twenty days the wound was perfectly well cleansed. And afterwards, I regenerated the flesh with a dark ointment (Unguentum Fuscum). And note that from the beginning right up to the end of my cure, I always anointed him on the neck, every day in the morning and evening, with an ointment to soothe the muscles (Unguentum Nervale), and placed a hot plaster on top, on account of fear of spasm, which was my greatest fear. And thus, thanks to God, he was perfectly cured. Ironworker Hector Cole reconstructed Bradmore's extraction device, which suggests to me that in addition to be an innovative surgeon, Bradmore was the inventor of the modern wine-cork remover: When I was about 11 I left in a pair of stud earrings too long and one of my earlobes grew around the back of the earring, sealing it entirely. My mother took a knife to it herself and cut open my ear to remove the backing. It was excruciating. I can't imagine how anyone could endure the above. The only thing more painful and horrifying than having a frakking arrow in your face at the age of 16 must have been someone sticking a wine-opener in your head. Tags: fascinating, pictures

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