Columns

This week, public health goes on a real rollercoaster ride.

June 2, 1692: Quite unfortunately for her, the first suspect in the Salem witch trials went to court. Records say that she was suspected of witchcraft because she wore black clothing and “odd costumes” and had a coat that had been “awkwardly cut or torn in two ways,” whatever that means. Apparently these constituted an un-Puritan lifestyle, which was essentially code for hanging out with the devil, and did not end well for her (she was found guilty). The witch trial debacle is one of the more notorious cases of mass hysteria, ending up with about 70 people being accused and tried. Presumably, they were all innocent. For one, the majority of presented evidence was something called “spectral evidence,” which is probably not admissible any more.

May 27, 1907: In a spectacularly anachronistic fashion, an outbreak of bubonic plague started in San Francisco. It had been carried on ships from Asia and Hawaii in fleas and rats, as usual. Debris lying around the city from a recent earthquake provided a very conducive environment for transmission of the disease between the local rats so, unsurprisingly, the plague took hold and caused everybody a great deal of stress. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to control the outbreak before a campaign was implemented that just involved killing all the rats. It actually worked – the guy who ran it became president of the American Medical Association.

June 1, 1947: The Heimlich manoeuvre was first published, to the reported detriment of many. It’s effectively an artificial cough meant to expel any object lodged in the airway by forcefully bringing the diaphragm up, but it’s the forceful part which has caused some problems. The manoeuvre was recommended by the Red Cross for almost 20 years, but has fallen into disrepute because it turned out to be likely to cause internal injuries. You can fracture someone’s sternum or ribs if you do it hard enough, and all those vital organs near the diaphragm are a little bit delicate. The inventor of the manoeuvre actually dislikes its other name, “abdominal thrusts,” because he thinks the term abdomen is too vague and might cause people to apply pressure in the wrong place. He is also a proponent of the use of malaria to treat cancer and HIV, another fairly controversial medical technique, so his opinion seems of about as much value as the procedure named after him.