Well dictionary.com lists this as the 3rd meaning:
It’s not the preferred or primary meaning, though. Enormity usually has a negative connotation.
Ok, so what? In the context of the sentence it made perfect sense.
I would love to read the 2900 AD version of this thread…
I think it was in City on the Edge of Forever that Doctor McCoy, while still under the effects of the baloneum drug, moaned about medical people in the twentieth century “sewing up their patients like garments.”
OTOH, in the Deep Space Nine two parter Past Tense, (In which the DS 9 principles get thrown into the early 21st century), Doctor Bashir complains that the slum residents he’s encountering have treatable illnesses. “Maybe in our time, Doctor,” says Sisko. “No,” said Bashir, “with the medications of this time.”
As with the discussions of sanitation upthread, it’s not just what we don’t know that’s a problem for our health, it’s what we know but don’t do. That means no second dessert for me tonight, darn it!
"You’re not going to believe this, but they used antibiotics grown from fungus and vaccines cultured inside other organisms! And not only that, they found them by trial and error…that’s right, they didn’t even design them to attack the infectious agent; they just streamed through thousands of different strains until they found one that was effective! Their treatment of cancers and chronic disorders was nothing short of medieval; it was a race to see whether they could poison the malignancy to death before the patient succumbed. And they knew almost nothing about the mechanisms of aging and the function of mitochondria in cellular metabolism. They actually died of ‘old age!’ Don’t even get me started on organ transplantation. What a barbaric process that was before we could culture organs in vitro. And they actually left chromosome selection up to random chance and did only the crudest prenatal screening for genetic illnesses, then engaged in massive debates over aborting unwanted or defective fetuses, or indeed, tampering in any way with so-called ‘natural’ processes.
“Fortunately, in 2079, all bioethicists were rounded up and sent to a camp in the Sandwich Islands, and the United States managed to elevate itself to second-rate status in the areas of bioscience and molecular engineering…”
Stranger
Stranger On A Train, a hijack I know, but you seem to have a lot of knowledge in fields like this. I’m sure its been covered in some other thread, but what is it exactly you do?
If you achieved any stature you’d also be conspired against by all the loony “healers” who believed in heavy metal purgatives, bleeding and other therapies of the time. You’d be a threat to their public standing and income.
If a modern doc transplanted to ancient Greece played his cards right, he might do quite well. But in medieval times, look out. If the quacks or the Church didn’t get you, you’d likely die of the plague or similar pestilence. Makes dealing with managed care look trifling in comparison.
As a family physician, I’ll wade in here with a different perspective. Much of what I do, 'tis true, has to do with drugs and technology - sending me back in time would indeed limit that. But, there is much to healing that has nothing to do with technology. While diseases of modern day require the drugs and technology to manage, there is no substitute for the ancient art of medicine - what’s that you say? Listening to the whole story given by the patient, taking the time to understand the symptoms as they exist for the patient, putting the pieces of the puzzle together before dashing off to order the latest diagnostic study. There is a lost art to physical exam skills (percuss for a pleural effusion, listening for a friction rub, having a patient valsalva to accentuate the murmur of outflow obstruction, setting a patient’s urine sample out for the bees to check for diabetes, recognizing the appearance of a women’s cervix with pregnancy). In fact, diagnosis of many medical states doesn’t require the customary CT scans/MRI/biomolecular lab studies. We are slaves to the technology, but don’t need to be. A little secret here - much of our common every day medical problems will heal themselves, those that don’t will either kill us or make our immune systems stronger. Send me back to the 13th century with my current state of medical knowledge, and I will be able to tell you which of those will likely kill you, and which of those will make you stronger. And, although I won’t be able to swoop in and order your cardiac catheterization, or prescribe your statin to reduce your cholesterol, or order your mammogram to find your breast cancer early, or order your IV antibiotics to treat your pneumonia, etc. etc., I will still be able to understand your plight as a human being, suffering with illness that frightens you, baffles you, and threatens your life. And with that, I will be a healer of your spirit - don’t discount how important that really is. And, oh yes, I will still be able to perform a tracheostomy when your throat closes off from allergy to a bee sting, I will be able to provide rotating tourniquets when you are drowning in your own pulmonary edema, I will be able to deliver your baby and breathe life into her when she doesn’t take her first breath as she is supposed to do, and I will be able to amputate your gangrenous limb before it claims your life. Still lots of important things we can do…
I, too, suffer from the same malady. I commiserate.
OslerKnew–well said! So much of the ART of medicine (and nursing) is in listening to the patient (hell, identifying the patient-sometimes the pt is accepting of the condition and I’m actually doing more to help the family cope!), and providing emotional and phyical support/presence for the pt.
Clean linen/clothes; consistent handwashing; adequate nutrition and lack of quackery will take any HCP far in the 13th century. I also think so much has been lost with our dependence on diagnostic tests and lab draws (that’s a whole other thread)
Stranger on a Train writes:
> . . . in 2079, all bioethicists were rounded up and sent to a camp in the
> Sandwich Islands . . .
Hawaii is going to revert to its old name of the Sandwich Islands? Forget about medical advances. This is a more interesting prediction than anything medical.
One thing I might do is “discover” a lost book on medecine by Hippocrates. Claiming that the knowledge came from the greeks would go far in convincing folks to accept it.
If I managed to get a practice going, I’d have all the apprentices I could. And I’d make sure they knew all about battlefield surgery and send them after the armies. Soldiers notice when your patients have 10 times the survival rate as other surgeons. And that can go a long way towards establishing the new old learning. AND getting your competitors to adopt your methods.
Crop rotation was one of the things the middle ages did have.
Never mind. Didn’t read through the entire thread.
[Maxwell Smart]
Sorry about that, Chief
[/MS]
How about a twist to the story in which the hero inadvertently makes things worse with his knowledge?
However, although they did pretty well know all off the good useful herbs, they also “knew” just as well scads or harmless or even harmful herbs. Don’t think that a Medieval herbalist is someplace you’d get decent healing from, although I imagine it’d likely be better than a medieval Physician. 
Medieval “medicine” was some varied that IMHO I think any “Physician” could set himself up and treat dudes without being stoned or burned at the stake. What’d you’d have to be *really *careful about is religion. In certain areas and times, you’d be bound to make a mistep and off to the Inquisition with you! Do you all knwo the right prayers- in Latin? :dubious:
Another alternative history series where this is looked at is S M Stirling’s Island in the Sea of Time trilogy. In one of them (I think the third *On the Oceans of Eternity * ) there’s a whole sub-plot on the attempts of the 20th century protagonists to deal with an outbreak of plague in 13th century BC Babylon.
This covers a lot of the issues addressed in this thread: technical possibilities, religious acceptance, conflict with the existing world view, the possibility of making things worse, etc. The third book isn’t the best but the whole series is well worth reading.
He is a rocket engineer. He fooled me previously though, and I actually work with molecular biology.
Even the “helpful” herbs can be deadly if not administered properly (digitalis is one example). Preparations likely varied so widely in strength that patients were playing a form of Russian roulette by taking them (not to mention the likelihood of interactions between the multitudinous ingredients thrown into these cures.
Still a problem with herbal mixes today.