Turns out I have a (likely non-critical or progressive but permanent) disease. The standard treatment is blood-letting. Well there are agravating and expensive ways that's done but I'm wondering where I might tale the alternative (and equally effective) methods of cupping or leeching. I once saw a nice little spring-loaded gadget that flashed nine or so razor blades narrowly through the skin. I think it was followed by cupping but I'm not sure.

If you ever read Jail Keys Made Here you saw one sign, "Yes we have leeches." I remember the drug store it was in the window of in North Beach, San Francisco. All the photys in the book were from S.F. I kinda doubt the store's still there, though.

Any idea where I might get something like that machine or some leeches in Florida? I haven't Googled yet.

This got me to thinking about disease in folksong. It's a topic that's been visited in several threads (and Mr Offer may wish to combine, I don't know.)

I made a bit of a chart for our amusement. Most of it from me head & a quich DigTrad search & much from a whizz through the threads I found (sorry not to attribute the comments). Likely there's many more.


Medical Conditions as Discussed in Folksong

Amputaion (traumatic)
        Admiral Benbow, Kerry Recruit (wound is dressed)
        And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Cold (the disease)
        John Brown's baby had a cold upon his chest, (camphorated oil)
Dust Pneumonia
        Dust Pneumonia Blues [Woody Guthrie]
Fever (unspecified)
        Unfortunate Miss Bailey (bed rest)
Food Poisoning
        Found a Peanut (either cure by surgical extraction or death)
Hematocolpos (tentative diagnosis)
        She was a Rum One (Perforation of the hymen)
Spanish Flu
        Influenza (no effective available treatment)
Insanity
        Mad Tom of Bedlam (Incarceration)
        Bold Fisherman (no treatment mentioned)
        Riley's Courtship (Incarceration)
        Fair William and Lady Maisry –[Child 70] (no treatment mentioned)
Jake Leg paralysis [from drinking Jamacian ginger extract]
       Jake Bottle Blues (Lemuel Turner, 1928), Jake Walk Blues (Allen Brothers, 1930), Jake Leg Wobble (Ray Brothers,
       1930), Jake Leg Blues (Byrd Moore, 1930), Got The Jake Leg Too (Ray Brothers, 1930), Jake Leg Rag (Narmour
       and Smith, 1930), Alcohol and Jake Blues (Tommy Johnson, 1930), Jake Liquor Blues (Ishman Bracey,
       1930), Jake Leg Blues (Mississippi Sheiks, 1930), Jake Leg Blues (Daddy Stovepipe and Mississippi Sarah,
       1930), Jake Walk Papa (Asa Martin, 1933), Jake Leg Blues (Willie Lofton, 1934) [from North Carolina Moonshine]
Plague
        Bubonic:
                Bessy Bell and Mary Gray [Child 201](treatment is isolation. They died.)
        Unspecified:
                The Flying Cloud (no treatment – death results)
                The Revel [Bartholomew Dowling – "We meet 'neath the sounding rafter"]
Poisoning
        Lord Randal (eels and eels' broth)
Pregnancy/Birth – too common to list
        My God How The Money Rolls In (Abortion)
        Tamlin (Abortion – Janet picks abortifacient plants)
PTSD
        And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Scarlet Fever
        The Shanty Boy on the Big Eau Clair (The doctors tried, but all in vain)
Sickly
        Cod Liver Ile (Dr Dearjohn's Cod Liver Oil)
Smallpox
        Bound Down For Newfoundland (untreated – results in death)
Tuberculosis
        TB Blues [Jimmie Rodgers]
        TB Blues [as blues – different song from above (?)]
        TB is Whipping Me [Ernest Tubb]
Venereal disease - too common to list but a few:
        All
                Coming Down with Old VD [by Mark Cohen] (no specific treatment)
        Gonorrhea (or "the Pox")
                Fireship (no treatment offered)
                Liverpool Judies (no treatment mentioned)
        Syphilis
                The Unfortunate Rake and all its relatives (pills of white mercury)
                British Grenadier

Treatments

Abortion
        Tamlin, (Janet picks abortifacient plants to cure Pregnancy)
        My God How The Money Rolls In
                My grandpa makes cheap prophylactics
                He punches their heads with a pin,
                My grandma does quickie abortions
                Oh Lord how the money rolls in.
Bed rest
        Unfortunate Miss Bailey (Unspecified fever)
Camphorated oil
        John Brown's baby had a cold upon his chest (a cold)
Dressing the wound
        Amputaion–
                Admiral Benbow, Kerry Recruit
Eggs and marrowbone
        Eggs and Marrowbone (to cause blindness – not intended to be effective)
Incarceration
        Mad Tom of Bedlam (insanity)
        Riley's Courtship (insanity)
No treatment:
        Remissing
                Fireship, eg (Gonorrhea)
        Death
                Bound Down for Newfoundland (Smallpox)
        Not mentioned
                Fair William and Lady Maisry –[Child 70] (Insanity)
                Bold Fisherman (Insanity)
Panaceas:
        Cod Liver Oil (especially, Dr Dearjohn's)
                Cod Liver Ile
        Lydia Pinkham Vegetable (later, 'Herbal') Compound ("for nutritional support
                         for women during all stages of life." It's still available)
                Ballad of Lydia Pinkham
        Langolee (especially for "female disorders of every degree")
                Langolee
Perforation of the hymen
        She was a Rum One – (Hematocolpos - tentative diagnosis)
Pills of white mercury
        The Unfortunate Rake (Syphilis)
Poison:
        Eels and eels' broth
                Lord Randal (for his True Love to poison him)

Also see:
Songs About Disease
Folk songs appropriate for medical students
Looking for song lyrics about health