A quack? Not my doctor in 1700s England.
A true medical professional, Doctor Ronnie Baran was a man of science. He did not take anything for granted, instead asking questions and seeking evidence. While apprenticing in a teaching hospital, Doctor Baran observed that bloodletting, started by the Egyptians over 3,000 years ago, did not benefit, but harmed the patient. He could not be bullied into performing the popular treatment which required either a handheld fleam or leeches.
Likewise, he did not believe in the ancient Greek theory that disease was caused by the imbalance of the four humours in the body: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. Nor did he believe that the miasma theory of bad air from decay was the cause of cholera, chlamydia, and the Black Death. In fact, Doctor Baran was intrigued by the germ theory proposed in 1546 and expanded in 1762. Hmm, buying a microscope should be on his bucket list.
Doctor Baran’s medical practice was not the typical part-time position combined with another job such as innkeeper, musician, dyer, or tailor. He read journals and savored medical discussions, especially with the apothecarist, Mr. Lo, his young nephew, Logan, and niece, Blair, a young healer. Apprenticing aboard a ship under his physician brother-in-law, Ronnie and William learned from sailors that oranges and lemons cured scurvy. Most doctors scoffed, but those two witnessed that citrus fruit turned sick sailors into well ones. Scurvy caused thousands of needless deaths because the English navy, ship doctors, and quacks alike ignored the evidence.
As for Doctor Baran’s bedside manner, he wasn’t exactly a cold fish. He listened, eased patient’s fears, and imparted information while diagnosing the problem. The kind of doctor I like to visit. Some of the herbal remedies used for his patients remain folk remedies today. Warning: the mustard seed poultice prepared in Book 4, The Icelandic Book Smuggler, from the Sailing the High Seas series is not scientifically proven to help breathing so, please, do not use it. This poultice was a common remedy applied back then.
Knowledge about specific germs causing specific diseases was in the future, yet Ronnie persisted in asking questions and researching the best treatment for his patients. Read Searching for Dad: Lost at Sea and discover why Ronnie Baran became a doctor.
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