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Doctors and Diseases on the Oregon Trail
"Granny Medicine" Remedies
Burns
The most effective traditional approach to treating burns was to coat the burned skin with egg white, as this provided a sterile seal for the skin and helped keep the wound from drying out. Some folks on the Oregon Trail had to use axle grease, instead, which was made of rendered animal fat and perhaps a bit of beeswax thinned with turpentine.
The Common Cold
A few drops of camphor in a glass of water (as hot as the patient can stand) was recommended, and for a sore throat tie a piece of bacon sprinkled with black pepper around the patient’s neck.
Cough Syrup
"Take of poplar bark and bethroot, each 1 lb.; water, 9 quarts; boil gently in a covered vessel 15 or 20 minutes; strain through a coarse cloth; add 7 lbs. loaf sugar, and simmer till the scum ceases to rise."
– from the Family Hand Book, 1855
Diarrhea
A standard treatment was an hourly spoonful of water in which blackberry root had been boiled. Some folks didn’t treat diarrhea unless it was very severe, however, as they thought it was helping to cleanse the patient of unhealthy Humors.
Snakebite
Rattlesnake bites were often treated just like you see in old westerns: somebody would slice open the bite wound and suck the poison out. This was actually fairly effective if done right away. In one case we have record of, the victim (who was a child, incidentally) was given a shot of whiskey and a tobacco poultice to bandage the wound.
Syphilis
The standard heroic treatment for centuries was mercury, usually in the form of calomel. Long-term use was thought to be dangerous by many people, however, and grannies (and by the mid-1800s, some doctors as well) often recommended arsenic as a safer alternative.
Tuberculosis
The settlers had many treatments for consumption, none of which were effective. Among them were smoking tobacco, drinking cod liver oil, and eating a thick, boiled-down onion stew.
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