Summary of Simon Singh & Edzard Ernst, M.D.'s Trick or Treatment

By IRB Media

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#1 The boom in bloodletting started in Ancient Greece, where it fit in with the widespread view that diseases are caused by an imbalance of four bodily fluids: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Unaware of how blood circulates around the body, Greek physicians believed that it could become stagnant and cause ill-health.

#2 The practice of bloodletting was taken to America with the European colonization of the New World. American physicians saw no reason to question the techniques taught by the great European hospitals and universities, so they also considered bloodletting to be a mainstream medical procedure.

#3 On 14 December 1799, George Washington contracted a cold that would prove to be the greatest threat to his life. He had to be bloodlettenged multiple times, and even poulticed, but none of it helped. By the evening, it was clear that his powers of life were clearly yielding to the force of the disorder.

#4 The doctors who treated George Washington after he was wounded in the Battle of Yorktown were criticized for their bloodletting methods, but they claimed that it was a last-ditch effort to save the president’s life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822511385

IRB Media

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Insights on Simon Singh & Edzard Ernst and M.D.'s Trick or Treatment

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The boom in bloodletting started in Ancient Greece, where it fit in with the widespread view that diseases are caused by an imbalance of four bodily fluids: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Unaware of how blood circulates around the body, Greek physicians believed that it could become stagnant and cause ill-health.

#2

The practice of bloodletting was taken to America with the European colonization of the New World. American physicians saw no reason to question the techniques taught by the great European hospitals and universities, so they also considered bloodletting to be a mainstream medical procedure.

#3

On 14 December 1799, George Washington contracted a cold that would prove to be the greatest threat to his life. He had to be bloodlettenged multiple times, and even poulticed, but none of it helped. By the evening, it was clear that his powers of life were clearly yielding to the force of the disorder.

#4

The doctors who treated George Washington after he was wounded in the Battle of Yorktown were criticized for their bloodletting methods, but they claimed that it was a last-ditch effort to save the president’s life.

#5

The truth about bloodletting was decided in a court case in 1797. While Rush was a national hero, Cobbett was a foreigner, and the jury sided with Rush.

#6

Scurvy is a disease that results from vitamin C deficiency. It causes the body to disintegrate gradually and die painfully. The term vitamin describes an organic nutrient that is vital for survival, but which the body cannot produce itself.

#7

In 1746, a young Scottish naval surgeon named James Lind boarded HMS Salisbury. His sharp brain and meticulous mind allowed him to discard fashion, prejudice, hearsay, and instead he tackled the curse of scurvy with extreme logic and rationality.

#8

Lind’s trial proved that oranges and lemons were the cure for scurvy, but he did not publicize the findings. Six years later, he published his findings in a book dedicated to Commander Anson, who had famously lost over 1,000 men to scurvy just a few years earlier.

#9

The British Navy suffered from a lot of scurvy deaths during the Seven Years War with France, but in 1780, thirty-three years after the original trial, Lind’s work caught the eye of the influential physician Gilbert Blane. He decided that he would scrupulously monitor mortality rates throughout the