The Death Of An Earl,

the 11th Earl of Kent,

Anthony Grey, on a warm August afternoon a man in his fifties is enjoying a game of bowls in the affluent English town of Tunbridge Wells, He suddenly passes out and falls to the ground, apparently dead, if this scene were unfolding today, an ambulance would probably arrive in a few minutes, and paramedics would attempt resuscitation before whisking the poor man off to hospital for urgent treatment, but what might have happened three hundred years ago? well the good news was that at the time doctor Charles Goodall, pictured above, was staying with friends in Tunbridge Wells when his professional services were unexpectedly requested,

thanks to an extraordinary document in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, reproduced in the Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal in 1846, we have a pretty good idea of the good doctors administrations, ‘neither pulse nor breath’ seems pretty final: respiratory and cardiac arrest, He was bled immediately on both arms to the quantity of ten or twelve ounces, slightly more than half a pint, the fact that they were able to extract so much blood suggests that total cardiac arrest had not yet occurred, in the meantime the doctor put up the strongest snuff and spiritus salis armoniaci into both nostrils, and ordered two ounces of vinum benedictum to be brought with all speed, the apothecary (Mr. Thornton) sent for three ounces, which he poured down his Lordships throat, not spilling one drop, ‘Spiritus salis armoniaci’ is sal ammoniac, a crystalline form of ammonium chloride, an expectorant, ‘Vinum benedictum’ is antimonial wine, wine adulterated with the toxic metal antimony and used as an emetic, the doctor hoped to shock the earl back to life by provoking an extreme reaction: sneezing, coughing or vomiting, next his Lordship’s shoulders were cut with deep scarification, a mild form of bloodletting: small incisions were made in the skin, and the cupping glasses drew out a small amount of blood through suction,

'When I found myself thus unhappily disappointed, I ordered his head to be shaved, and a large blister to be applied to capiti raso, as also another to the breadth of neck and shoulders'.

a blister was just what it sounds like: a harsh inflammatory substance was applied to the skin, usually on a plaster, in an attempt to provoke blistering and force toxins out of the body. The doctor also administered several spoonfuls of buckthorn syrup, a laxative. He was then joined by a colleague, one Dr Branthwait, who had heard the news and hurried to offer his assistance. He suggested giving the dying man a ‘proper julep’ (a refreshing infusion of herbs), then Doctor West came, who advised a frying pan made red hot to be applied to the head, His Lordship was then rushed home, put into his warm bed and several pipes of tobacco thoroughly lighted were to be blown up the anus, which was thought might be of use, when the doctors could not have the advantage of tobacco glysters,

a ‘glyster’ is an enema, tobacco enemas were widely used at this date in resuscitation – the standard treatment in cases of drowning. So although blowing tobacco smoke up a dead man’s bottom may sound eccentric, it was perfectly orthodox therapy, after this was done, upon a suggestion of Sir Edmund King’s, the bowels of a sheep killed in the house were applied to his Lordship’s stomach and belly, but alas after all of this medical help the Lord was declared dead, and the good doctor? a few years later would be elected President of the Royal College of Physicians, it just goes to show how medical help has changed so much in the last three hundred years, for the full story have a look here.