Myth Into History, Week 11: Give Credit Where It's Due [Thurs/1st Period, Danger Shop]

[drjcovington.livejournal.com]

The Danger Shop was set up to look like the interior of a cramped, dusty temple today, with chairs set up in a circle around the altar.

"Don't set foot outside," Janice said lightly once everyone was seated, as she passed out handouts to everyone. "It's a war zone out there. You're in the healing temple of Asclepius, right in the heart of the ongoing war between the Mitoans and Thessalians. And you're here today to find out where a few of the medical techniques we still use today came from."

She pointed at the altar with her well-chewed cigar. "See, the priests of Asclepius believed they had to put their patients on this altar and pray for the knowledge and skill to heal whatever wounds they had to heal." The roll of Janice's eyes said very clearly what she thought of that idea. "Only problem is, well -- war zone. One altar. And a hell of a lot of patients. What do you do? Common sense says that you sort out who needs treatment the most and take care of them first, right? That's what we know as triage. Then there was the amputation of ruined limbs to prevent gangrene from setting in. Again, common sense, at least under more primitive conditions. And Caesarean-section delivery of babies -- what, would you want to give birth to a centaur the natural way?"

"This is the thing," Janice continued. "All of these techniques were blasphemy to the priests of Asclepius, at least until this war, when a young novice recorded these revolutionary techniques and wrote a treatise on medicine as being something completely separate from philosophy and religion. His name, by the way, was Hippocrates. And an early version of the Hippocratic Corpus mentions a mysterious warrior woman who came to this temple and taught him these things. Give you one guess who that was."

She waved a hand around the temple. "Set up at various stations in here, you'll find perfectly ordinary items that could be used for first aid in wartime conditions. Don't try and think about how sterile they might or might not be. Just see if you can figure out what you could do with them, if you had to use them to treat war wounds."

[OOC: Class Info Post. I'll try and ping in as much as I can today, but I'm still playing catchup at work. I demand to know why I can't get paid to RP. ;) OCD is up! Clues to the activity in the episode transcript. Mwahaha.]

Comments

Hands-On: Around the Temple

[drjcovington.livejournal.com]

In the appropriate subthreads below . . .

- Station 1

[drjcovington.livejournal.com]

There's a statue covered with cobwebs here. Really thick cobwebs. Almost like cotton.

Re: - Station 1

[joxertehmighty.livejournal.com]

"We can use the statue to... intimidate the sickness away!"

Re: - Station 1

[janet_fraiser]

"It's the cobwebs. They're for bandages," said Janet dryly. "Or packing a wound, if necessary. You can't just intimidate a patient into getting better."

She should know.

Re: - Station 1

[joxertehmighty.livejournal.com]

"Are you sure? Because sometimes, my dad would yell at me for crying when I hurt my leg, and it usually made me not worry about my leg anymore," Joxer said.

Re: - Station 1

[janet_fraiser]

"Then your leg wasn't seriously injured, now, was it?" asked Janet. q

Re: - Station 1

[l1ttle-billy.livejournal.com]

Part of billy's training had been first aid. However he completely overlooked the cobwebs at first.

Re: - Station 1

[chasingsnitches.livejournal.com]

Cedric's seen bigger webs and, thus, bigger spiders. Examining this web close up is really no trouble.

Re: - Station 1

[twohalvesofaphd.livejournal.com]

Zack went to pick up a wad of webbing to examine it.

The webbing stuck to his fingers. Pity it also stuck to the statue.

- Station 2

[drjcovington.livejournal.com]

A large broadsword rests next to a shield on the floor here, as well as a pile of broad leather thongs probably used to repair or patch together armor. Nearby, in a bracket on the wall, a torch burns.

Re: - Station 2

[dbiers.livejournal.com]

D'anna didn't really want to think about it but after a few moments, "...I'm glad I'm not from then or there, ew."

Re: - Station 2

[bookyeve.livejournal.com]

Evie blinked around, then nodded vehemently. "I mean, the torch is good, because that would mean cauterization, but still. I'm so very glad ether was discovered. As well as germ theory. Lord."

Re: - Station 2

[dbiers.livejournal.com]

"I have a feeling that perhaps the cure was worse than the original wound." D said, nose wrinkled up in disgust.

Re: - Station 2

[l1ttle-billy.livejournal.com]

"Make a splint from the broadsword and thongs, or a tourniquette from the thongs, and you could use the torch to cauterize a wound.

Re: - Station 2

[chasingsnitches.livejournal.com]

"Shield and leather as a splint," Cedric said. "Perhaps the torch could be used to sterlize? Painful but it would work."

- Station 3

[drjcovington.livejournal.com]

Several hollow reeds and a bladder from a freshly-slaughtered pig rest on a pedestal here. Ew . . . the bladder is still bloody. But very squishy.

Re: - Station 3

[janet_fraiser]

"Is anyone aware of how completely unsanitary this is?" asked Janet.

Re: - Station 3

[joxertehmighty.livejournal.com]

"Un-sani-what now?" Joxer asked.

Re: - Station 3

[janet_fraiser]

"Unsanitary," said Janet. "Filthy. Though I suppose that if you're concerned with reinflating a lung or performing an emergency tracheotomy, you're worrying about the patient's life first, and infection control later."

Re: - Station 3

[l1ttle-billy.livejournal.com]

"Apparently Xena hadn't gotten around to inventing sterilizing stuff yet." Billy said dryly.

Re: - Station 3

[janet_fraiser]

"I was also talking about what could be transmitted in the here and now," said Janet. She tried not to roll her eyes too obviously. Who're we kidding? She so rolled them obviously. "But I'm sure you're right. I wouldn't place a bet on whether or not Xena's responsible for discovering germ theory too."

Re: - Station 3

[likethegun]

"I think we're supposed to ignore that aspect, for the sake of the assignment. Not that that makes this less gross," Sam said.

Re: - Station 3

[janet_fraiser]

"Actually, I don't find it gross at all. Just unsanitary." Janet grinned. "Or maybe I should say that the gross stuff is the fun stuff."

- Station 4

[drjcovington.livejournal.com]

Several lit candles are on a small table, flickering in an almost mesmerizing way.

. . . what the hell could you do with these?

Re: - Station 4

[sensethevisions]

Phoebe? Staring into the candles.