Forgotten medical instruments

While browsing old local newspapers, I discovered a reported theft of a urinometer. I wondered whether it did what I thought it did – it didn’t, it actually measures the specific gravity of urine, from which doctors claimed they could assess kidney function.

This did set me wondering whether there were other obsolete medical items and what they did – read on….

Trephines were used for making holes in the skull, the process known as trepanning.

Ecraseurs were used to strangle tumors, particularly in the uterus or ovary. It worked by tightening a wire loop around the base of the tumor.

Surgical guillotine was employed for urgent amputations, where surgeons decreed creating a flap of skin to fold over the wound would delay the procedure to an unacceptable degree.

Brass scarificators were considered a big step forward – we might view something which replaced leeches in the practice of blood letting rather differently.

Spinal saws were used for removing bone after fractures or deformities were diagnosed.

Surgical hammer – must have been of some use, and afterwards you can call a toffee hammer.

Skin hooks were obviously used to hold back the skin while playing around inside – but they do seem quite terrifying.

The Crying Game

For writers it is useful to have a number of synonyms and idioms to describe the same thing. It strikes me that the many terms for ‘crying’ are particularly useful as it gives the reader an idea of the emotional state of the individual.

Grizzle is British slang – the term has always meant ‘greying’ – and is normally used to describe the crying of an infant over a trivial matter.

Weep was not used in this sense until the end of the 16th century, prior to that it was used as a synonym for ‘shout, cry out’.

Tears is not used in the crying sense until the middle of the 14th century.

Sob is found from the early 13th century – although we had to wait until 1911 to hear our first sob story.

Wails were not heard in the crying sense until the 14th century.

Bawl really means to ‘howl like a dog’ or ‘to reprimand loudly’, the crying sense seems to have evolved as a misunderstanding.

Howl has been used to mean ‘cry aloud’ since the 14th century – and likely came to refer to crying when describing loud weeping.

Snivel really refers to a runny nose, and came to be used for crying as one without the other is unlikely.

Whimper has been used for crying since the early 18th century.

Whine is another transferred word, initially associated with the sound made when crying quietly.

Squall has been used to mean cry aloud since around 1630.

Mewl is correctly the sound made by cats, clearly transferred when considered to be a similar noise when crying.

Blubber has been known since the early 15th century.

Keening has only been used as a synonym for crying since 1811.

Turn on the waterworks originated in the 19th century. It is from a theatrical reference to a mechanism simulating tears on stage and eventually used as an expression.

Piping your eye is rarely used these days, but is an archaic phrase so old it is impossible to know how it originated.

The Black Hole of Calcutta

As with the last couple of posts, my interest in the Black Hole of Calcutta story came when I stumbled on some contemporary(ish) reports when researching a completely unrelated subject. A reported 23 out 146 survived from the Black Hole of Calcutta incident – we know the names, can we find out what happened to them?

The night of June 20th 1756 has gone down in history and even become part of the English language - most will have heard it's 'like the black hole of Calcutta in here' to describe stygian darkness.

After the fall of Fort William to Bengali forces under the leadership of Siraj-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, surviving British soldiers, Indian sepoys and Indian civilians were imprisoned in a dungeon measuring 18 x 14 feet (5.5 x 4.3 metres) at 8pm and left until 6am next morning without food nor water.

And now the tale gets complicated. Most stories state there were 146 prisoners in that small space, of which 123 died overnight. But that is all based on the report from one survivor: East India Company employee John Zephaniah Holwell. However, later historians doubt that figure and speak of 64 imprisoned and 21 survivors, and another that only 18 died (although the latter does not give a total number of prisoners).

It is claimed the Nawab only learned of the suffering after their release, although this was disputed. The survivors were subsequently treated as prisoners of war.

The Nawab was punished for his part, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Clive retook Calcutta in January 1757 and Siraj was executed.

Named survivors, courtesy of Holwell, are - John Holwell himself, of course. A surgeon in the British East India Company, he studied at Guys Hospital but achieved much in his reports on such as the inoculation again smallpox in India, and went on to succeed Robert Clive as Governor of Bengal in 1760, then being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1767. Yet possibly he is best remembered for being the first British person to study and write on Hinduism.

A person named Court is cited, but we have no idea of this person’s first name and thus no clue as to their gender.

Secretary Cook’s subsequent life proved quite normal. Returning to England, he and his wife Mary had no less than eleven children while he worked as a clerk in London.

Henry Lushington came from Tamworth, after surviving the Calcutta ordeal he was later murdered by a German aged just 26. There is a memorial to him at St Mary’s, Eastbourne.

Burdett, like Court, has no other record of his life.

Ensign Edward Walcot’s family came from Walcot in Shropshire. Born in 1738 in Croagh, Ireland, he died soon after his release.

Bowes Walcot, younger brother of Edward, was a Captain in the 3rd Regiment.

Mrs Mary Carey continued to live in Calcutta until her death on March 28th 1801 at the age of 60. Buried in the Portuguese churchyard in Calcutta, her grave was marked by a plaque until the burial ground was cleared when the church was enlarged.

Captain Mills is given as a survivor, yet there is good evidence to show he was never actually in the dungeon. Records show he and a Mr Grey escaped and sent to Chandernagore, arriving on July 2nd.

Captain Dickson is another of which nothing further is known.

Mr Moran, likewise, is subsequently unrecorded.

Similarly John Meadows has nothing to show other than his survival.

Twelve military and militia (blacks and whites) are unnamed and thus, unsurprisingly, have nothing to say on them.

The Second Titanic Murderer

William Mintram was a fireman stoker aboard the Titanic when it was hit by the iceberg. While Robert Hitchens’ accusations came after the sinking, Mintram was gaoled in 1902.

Married to Eliza since August 1886 – they had five children, their daughter Rosina married Walter Hurst, also a fireman stoker on the Titanic - a row between them in October 1902 (he complained his wife had pawned their son’s shoes to pay for her drinking) he stabbed her in the back. In court he gave evidence saying he was drunk at the time and remembered nothing other than her rushing at him.

Sentenced to twelve years after being found guilty of manslaughter but was released after three and joined the ill-fated maiden voyage along with his son-in-law. Mintram did get his hands on a lifejacket, but when he saw his son-in-law Walter without same, he passed across his lifejacket thus helping to save his life.

The First Titanic Murderer

Much interest in the Titanic of late with release of the computer-generated images of the wreck - and, of course, through a certain editing job recently completed – which reminded me of a few notes I made when researching something completely different.

The name of Robert Hitchens probably isn’t well known to most, but shortly after the vessel sank the man was notorious. No less than seven quartermasters were aboard the vessel, 29-year-old Hitchens being just one. Indeed, it was he who was at the ship’s wheel when the liner hit the iceberg. But it was for his subsequent actions he hit the headlines.

Put in charge of Lifeboat No.6, he refused to return to the sinking vessel after launching, for he feared the boat would be sucked under with the wreck or swamped by the large number of people in the water. For this he was charged with murder.

His unpopularity wasn’t helped by reports coming from those he did rescue having heard several comments. These included referring to the bodies in the water as ‘stiffs’; critical of those manning the lifeboat’s oars; ordering his charges to keep rowing to keep warm when the Carpathia arrived to ‘pick up the dead’; and at least two survivors later accused him of being drunk.

Suggestions he should be charged with murder were never anything but speculative as a result of the enquiry, he was exonerated as he was simply obeying orders given by Captain Edward Smith and second mate Charles Lightoller. He did serve four years for the attempted murder of Harry Henley from 1933.

In the 1998 film – never bothered watching it, I know how it ends – Hitchens is portrayed as a tall, slim cockney. Hitchens was a stocky 5.1/2 feet tall Cornishman. However, he did die at sea – aboard a ship at anchor off Aberdeen in 1940, the result of heart failure.

Sheer Madness

So many ways of saying ‘crazy’, so let’s take an etymologist’s look at their origins. (I must be mad….)

Crazy originally meant ‘diseased, sickly, when first seen in the 1570s, by the following decade the use had changed to ‘broken, impaired’, and the modern ‘of unsound mind’ first appears around 1610.

Berserk, or more often berserker, referred to a Norse warrior around 1835, having been introduced by Sir Walter Scott in The Pirate in 1822. It is derived from the Old Norse and originally meant ‘a warrior in a bearskin’.

Mad has had the modern meaning since the 13th century. It originated from Proto-Indo-European mei ‘to change’.

Insane, first seen in the middle of the 16th century, is older than the opposite of ‘sane’ which doesn’t appear until 1721.

Bonkers dates from 1948, derived from the idea that a ‘bonk’ (on the head) would render one senseless. Note from 1957, ‘bonkers’ was British naval slang for ‘slightly drunk’.

Out to lunch is first seen in 1955, the idea being to convey that a person ‘wasn’t there’.

Fruitcake is used to describe one of questionable sanity from 1952. Nutty as a fruitcake predates the shorter version, appearing in the 1930s. Confusing, but correct for traditional fruitcake contained fruit and nuts.

Unstable is first seen at the beginning of the 13th century, when it was used solely to mean ‘liable to fall’.

Lunatic appears in the late 13th century, coming from the Latin luna as the moon has long been related to questionable sanity.

Barking, an abbreviation of ‘barking mad’, first appears in 1925 and alludes to an association with mad or rabid dogs.

Non compos mentis first appears in English law in 1607 in the writings of John Cowell.

Mad as a March hare is likely to have first appeared in the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer in 1368, but did not gain widespread popularity until the publication of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Mad as a hatter appears in 1829, much earlier than Lewis Carroll’s work in 1865. Hatters used mercuric nitrate to process fur for felt hats, this known to cause neurological problems at times.

Batty appears first in 1899.

Stark raving is attributed to playwright John Beaumont in the 1640s, but popularity had to wait until 1734 and Henry Fielding’s The Intriguing Chambermaid

Doolally is British slang first appearing in 1917, correctly doolally tap this being the Urdu for ‘fever’ in the military camp of Deolali near Bombay, India established in 1861.

Not the full shilling first appears in the 1970s, which is also the time the shilling became decimalized as five pence.

Away with the fairies became popular in the late 19th century, but had been in use in Scotland since 1636 when appearing in a poem as ‘dance with the fairies’.

Out of one’s tree has been used since the mid 1960s, when it also referred to intoxication.

Gaga appears in 1920, coming from the French meaning ‘senile’.

Bananas is used in this context for the first time in 1968 – earlier, since 1935, it described sexual perversion.

Loco is American slang from 1844, coming from the Spanish with the same meaning.

Insults

Having been called a ‘wazzock’ recently – purely a friendly barb, I can assure you – I wondered about its etymology and if there were other regional insults which might prove of interesting derivation.

Wazzock may be a contraction of ‘wiseacre’, one who thinks himself wise. There is also the theory it refers to an instrument used to remove royal excrement from a window – which hardly seems likely as it is surely far too specific.

Lummox is a word originating around East Anglia, first seen in 1825, it is most likely a derivative of ‘lummock’ meaning to move heavily or clumsily.

Numpty began in Scotland, this from an older term ‘numps’ meaning ‘fool’.

Plonker is a term first seen in 1862, when the reference seems to suggest extraordinary substance or depth – ie ‘thiock’.

Git is first seen in 1946, a variant of Scottish get ‘illegitimate child or brat’, itself first recorded in 1706.

Prat is suggesting someone has the intellect of a buttock – for that is exactly what ‘prat’ meant, although today we only use ‘pratfall’.

Tosspot is first used in the 1560s when it referred to a heavy drinker.

Berk is an abbreviation of ‘Berkshire hunt’, an example of rhyming slang.

Muppet, coined by Jim Henson for his famous characters including Kermit and Miss Piggy, said to be a combination of marionette and puppet. He trademarked the term on 26th September 1972, although the term had been used in November 1956 – a sketch saw Kermit in drag singing I’ve Grown Accustomed to Your Face to a skull in a Hamlet spoof. As a derogatory term it is possible the modern ‘muppet’ is simply from ‘moppet’, used to mean ‘rag doll’, ‘baby’, ‘girl’ in various periods of history.

Wally seems to have originated in Scotland where, from 1969, it described ‘an unfashionable person’ before becoming a more general insult.

Doughnut seems to have begun in the London and southeast of England in the early 1970s. One strong possibility is this came from the children’s television series The Double Deckers, where the character named Doughnut was seen as rather overweight and of limited intelligence.

Pillock, as an insult, can be traced to 1967. However, the term comes from much earlier and is seen in the 13th century as a surname. Mr and Mrs Pillock might not have been overly happy about this, as the term comes from Middle English pillicock or ‘penis’.

Dipstick was first used as an insult in the 1920s, although ‘dip’ was at least as common as ‘dipshit’. Dipstick is yet another euphemism for ‘penis’.

Nutter is first used as an insult in 1958; earlier a ‘nuttery’ had been a slang term for a ‘mental hospital’ from 1931.

Wobbler is derived from ‘wobble’, suggesting someone is unstable, and has been used as an insult since the early 18th century. Certainly going to be using this term as it really needs to make a comeback.

Turnip has been used by two of England’s greatest literary figures – Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare. (I’m so tempted to suggest I could make it three - you turnip!)

Pudding is to refer to someone as overweight, although it is not overly clear when it came into use. What is clear is Virginia Woolf considered referring to a dessert as a pudding to be the ultimate insult.

Thick was originally thick-skulled, suggesting it was difficult to get much in there, and thick-skinned was also used the same way shortly afterwards during the 16th century.

Daft has been used as an insult since the early 14th century; a hundred years earlier it had been used to mean ‘mild-mannered’ or ‘gentle, becoming’. The word later was seen as daffe meaning ‘fool, idiot’.

Dense was not used as an insult until 1732.

Gormless has been used since 1746 to mean ‘stupid’. Of course we don’t use ‘gorm’ to describe anything; but gome was used to mean ‘understanding’ from around 1200.

Dimwit is US college slang from 1922.

Pea brain seems to have come into being at some point after the Second World War.

Div is a shortened version of ‘divot’, itself from ‘clod’, and has been used as an insult since the 1960s.

Nitwit is fairly easy to as a compound word, it is thought to have been coined by David G Phillips in his writings published in 1910.

Plank is solid and unyielding, much as a person who fails to grasp an idea, and seems to have appeared around the start of the 20th century.

Bugger is thought to have originated in the Bogomils, an heretical sect founded in Bulgaria.

Twit was first used as an insult in the 1920s, but the word is much older having appeared in the 1520s when it meant ‘to blame, reproach’.

Nincompoop has certainly been around since 1680 – seen as nincompoop, nincompoop, nickum-poop - and appears in the 1699 Dictionary of the Canting Crew when it is defined as ‘a silly, soft, uxorious fellow’.

Sod is first used in print in 1818, it’s an abbreviated form of ‘sodomite’.

Nob began as an insult in the early 18th century, as we would expect it is a reference to male genitalia.