Hannibal Lecture would have been a great doctor in the 19th century.

            Today as we visited the Cabildo and it was a very enlightening experience. The building was stunning and I find it so incredible that the historic buildings in the city are still being used today as museums or even for the exact same purpose it was built for back in the day. I had a few favorite exhibits at the Cabildo, they were the slavery, pirate, and medical displays. Slavery has always been an interest of mine. I know it is a morbid subject and can be a downer but it’s a historic part of our country and needs to be addressed. I love that we still teach the youth in school about slavery. I feel as if it is important to talk about it so we know what not to do in the future and how to prevent future racial disparities. Okay guys I have a confession, I do not understand this whole pirate thing. I’m not into fiction or Syfy stuff so the pirates just don’t speak to me like other people. I picture Captain Hook mixed with the Somalia pirates from Captain Phillips.

I. Just. Don’t. Get. It.

So to increase my knowledge I decided to watch this short film in the museum about the pirates and how they came to be an important part of the New Orleans culture. I learned that they are popular in the city because of it being surrounded by water this was a centrally located place for them to be. They were also known for crime and famous enough to have an alley named after them that is quite the tourist attraction for couples getting married. There is a legend in New Orleans that if couples get married or take engagement pictures in Pirate’s Alley they will be together till death and then find each other in the after life. The medical display in the Cabildo was so interesting; it was a surgeon’s bag and tools from the 1800’s. It was scary to say the least. I’m very glad that I live in this century and not that one because the tools were heavy and rusty, they were not sterilized before use, and looked more like torture devices than medical instruments. The bag with all of the instruments was kept inside a large trunk along with other medical devices and medicines, such as potions and herbs. The surgeons did mostly house calls for people needing medical care, but also cared for soldiers at battle. I can’t imagine having to lug around that huge trunk everywhere with me. I also can’t imagine having to practice medicine on people with unsterile instruments and no anesthetic. The medical professionals back in the 19^th century were not required to have licenses and just tried their best from past experiences (I don’t know about the rest of ya’ll, but that is not the kind of surgery I want to have). My absolute favorite poster I saw in the Cabildo today was one about how New Orleans is made on different cultures. I love how the city is so open to every kind of person, no matter what; it made me fall in love with New Orleans.

A 'Medley of Cultures' is a poster displayed in the Cabildo explaining how numerous cultures are responsible for the exotic and amazing town of New Orleans. 

            Today was the day that I have been looking forward to. We went to the first practicing pharmacy in New Orleans that has now been made into a pharmacy museum. It was by far one of the coolest experiences I’ve had in my entire life. It was shocking to see what medicine was like back in the day and what they thought would work to cure disease and illness. A lot of people actually died from treatment rather than their illnesses because the medicines used were so harsh on a human body. For example, a lot of lead and mercury were used to try and cure sickness. As we, thankfully, know now mercury and lead are not supposed to be ingested into a person’s system. Mercury was used as a medicine to cure Syphilis and Gonorrhea and after a person ingested mercury they obviously became violently ill, people at this time thought this was what was supposed to happen because they thought it was getting the toxins out of their body. This theory is very logical if you think about the knowledge that they didn’t have. A lot of the medical instruments, such as the needles and syringes, which went into the body and skin, were made out of lead. One thing that completely made me cringe was that needles were invented after syringes were so if a person needed a medicine injected, they were given an incision and then the doctor just shoved the syringe in the freshly made incision and shot the medicine in… ouch. My body was aching at the thought of having any medical procedure done in these days without the use of anesthetic. Another interesting exhibit in the museum was upstairs and it was the original child birthing room of that surgeon’s medical practice. I’m wishing I were already a mom because after seeing what I saw today, the chances of me ever having children decreased drastically (Sorry Mom). I know times have changed but the sight of how morbid the birthing table and tools used to extract the fetus are burned into my brain forever. One fact that I learned was that the first time a Cesarean Section was performed was in 1610, but no surgeon actually completed a successful C-Section until 1764. Every single woman and baby that was in need of a Cesarean dies in that time span of 154 years. This was shocking but not shocking at the same time. The thought of what tools were used in 1610 to surgically remove a baby is baffling my mind because a C-section is aggressive and painful in modern times. If surgery was not needed for the mother or baby, usually a midwife and not a doctor were the ones present at childbirth. It only cost $5 to register as a midwife in the 1800’s after you passed a written test. It was sad for me to think about all the lives lost during this time period where they didn’t have the knowledge, technology, or resources to successfully treat people.