Lice

Since this blog is about medicine in the time of John Wesley (1703-1791) and the beginnings of Methodism, let’s begin with information about ordinary health. We’ll start with the really creepy stuff. Lice. Lice bite to suck blood. Since people seldom took full baths and most often simply washed their faces and hands, lice stayed with you. They were found most in crowded places like military camps, hospitals and prisons, but they could also infest the most aristocratic homes. Wooden bedposts were prime breeding grounds. You could even get a job as a lice catcher. They were so bad in hospitals that they stuck to walls, beds, and even physicians’ clothing. Patients at Chelsea and Greenwich Hospitals raced captured lice against each other. Lice did have one redeeming attribute however, if you wanted to treat yourself for jaundice, you ate nine live ones. Yuck! (Olsen, Kirstin. Daily Life in 18th Century England (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999), 267-68, 133, 265, and 273.)