I have noted that the fish people chop up humans to juicey long pig steaks. Problem is that they get carried to the stockpile and eaten, even when there is other food around. Without being sure, I suspect some became stew. Should at least been changed to pie. Dos the Devil barber of fleet street ring any bells?
The trick to a really tasty meat pie is to grind the meat extra fine. *nods* Also... barber surgeons would be a nice addition to the game. (Provided of course the whole state of being wounded becomes a little more interesting than just low health numbers and an unhappy thought.)
Let’s make it authentic, leeches, bloodlettings leaving the poor sod close to death, (I mean, how logical, a soldier been close to bleed out on battlefield, naturally draining him for a pint or four will save him.) gangrene, amputation saws. And what about a Doktor Robert Liston, that was able to kill 3 people during one single leg amputation? When it comes to long pig pie, i think coriander is the secret and some garlic naturally.
Did he actually got wrong twice whom he had to operate or what? If all what we would gain from surgeons are more dead soldiers I think we would restrain them from working. Perhaps they could do a full treatment with both useful treatments like wound dressing and harmful things like leeches. We would be historically accurate, make surgeons overall useful and leave us room for freak accidents dued to hilariously obvious malpractices.
I'd think from a game play point of view a barber shop could serve as a moral boost (Got a Lovely Dapper Haircut Recently) and a way to remove more persistent illness and/or injury. (Embedded urchin spines, malaria, purple toe rot, etc.) Of course that's assuming your local barber is sane. Nothing like watching someone cheerfully give your citizens spare organs donated by the local fish men. "Oh, I assure you, it's Perfectly Safe and it will give you such added Vim and Vigor that you will feel like a whole new person! Maybe even several new people!" (Extra health in return for extra cult leanings?)
Clockwork Empires is NOT set in modern time, hence do i refere to the treatment in historical settings. Doktor Robert Liston amputated a leg in under 2 ½ minutes, an absolut good thing in the pre general anesthesia days and seen as an ideal. But in this case, the patient died from gangrene, they were not big on hygien back then. So fast was his knife that he at the same time cut of some of his assistants fingers, this man also died from gangrene, he also cut through the coat of an distinguished surgical spectator that dropped dead from fright. (I can tell you exactly how an amputation was performed back then). Ah, the topic bloodletting. One of the things they believed it could cure was fever, no wonder, the poor patient most likely went in to circulatory failure. Now let us look at one case; A French sergeant was stabbed in the chest during single combat. (lucky for him no Pneumothorax.) he passed out from the blood loss. When he arrived at the hospital, he was bleed twenty ounces (570 ml) "to prevent inflammation". During the same night; 24 ounces (680 ml), early next morning; 10 ounces (285 ml). during the next 14 hours he was bleed five more time. 82 days and 72 leeches later he was discharged. Total according to his physician they had bleed the poor sargent of 170 ounces [nearly eleven pints] (4.8 liters), leeches estimated drained him of [another two pints] (1.1 liters), then you can add what he lost from his wound that made him pass out. It was not uncommon that thirteen pints of blood could be bleed from a person during a month. Now, can you figure out an additional problem with bleeding some one up to several times a day others that the blood lose? By all means people, GIVE BLOOD, its good for you, but not more than a unit every third month. Even on single unit can save a life. While you’r at it, register in the bone marrow register and fill out that donor card. Nor should we forget that Ignaz Semmelweis was ridiculed for suggesting that the doctors should wash their hands when moving from morgue to birthing women. Other doctors was deeply offended by the suggestion. How ever, the washing of hands brought mortality down from 18.3% to 1,2%. Now this also tell us how dangerous it was giving birth, especially after the doctors took over and pushed out the midwife from the birthing chamber. Ironically was that the quarantine rules for ships in was way ahead of what they did on land. Like when doctor came onboard to check the crew for illness, he had wash his hand in vinegar or chlorinated lime between every sailor. Even the ships papers was doused in vinegar and smoked in a special oven before it was delivered with forceps to the harbour authorities. When it had been illness onboard, it was common to scrub the ship down with vinegar or chlorinated lime. In Scandinavia a captain that hid that he had contagious illness onboard could be sentence to death. In field hospitals it was not uncommon with mortality close to 70%. Pre 1900 open surgery had an 80% mortality rate. Syphilis was treated with mercury up to 1910. (one night with venus, rest of life with mercury). Due to the nature of Syphilis, it was not uncommon that the patients face was destroyed and other parts of the body - naturally, not to mention that it turned their brains into swiss cheese. Early plastic surgery tried to replace the missing bone of the nose with animal bones, including duck. Anyhow, it would not been safe to leave the bandaging and leeches to bad doctors anyway, it was a hygiene problem and every open wound was a risk. Imagine danger of tetanus when the doctors did not wash their hands, horse manure was everywhere on the street, the doctors most likely had handled a horse on his way to work. Not to mention that an district doctor could double as a veterinarian. Nor was it until 1854 Dr. John Snow realized that water carry cholera. Now if any of you should end up in a area with cholera, to filter the water trough a well used piece of polyester cloth prevents cholera. I warmly recommend the books. Strange Medicine: A Shocking History of Real Medical Practices Through the Ages by Nathan Belofsky and Kill or Cure by Steve Parker. And the documentary series; Blood and Guts - A History of Surgery. And you will understand that I do not refer to isolated cases, but the general practice through ages.
I seem to remember that we during a CoC game sacrificed some human blood, ok, was a whole bucket of it, to open a portal. (oki, we had to rolle sanity on that one, due to that the bucket came from one single person, but I swear, he was a really bad person) Now imagine all the blood a barber surgeon could get his hands on, thats a whole lot of portal opening.
This topic inspired me to do a quick* drawing. *For various somewhat low values of quick given that I couldn't resist doing some simple flat coloring on it.
