The official sign of the Guild of Health Workers:
A splinter in a glass jar, surrounded by healthy flowers
Injured bodies
Injured bodies (broken bones, wounds of all kind, etc.) should be repaired. It is a doctor or a surgeon who can do this. Injured bodies do bleed and the healing of it is always very difficult. Bodies that are too much damaged, won’t live very long.The surgeon is the one who will actually do the cutting, the breaking and the other dirty work. The surgeon has to be strong and brave, and has to do what the doctor tells him/her. Surgeons make their own instruments.
A doctor is the one who examines the body. The doctor should do a lot of reading and studying, and is close related to the chemists.
Doctor and surgeon usually work together. Every town has its own doctor/surgeon pair. The examining work is done in the house of the doctor, but the actual cutting up is done in a “Cutting Room” in a hospital.
Surgeon and doctor get their fee from the government and should come with the army when a war breaks out.
A special surgeon is the dentist. The dentists does not need a doctor. Dentists travel the country and do not have a place to work other than their tilt-cart. Dentists get paid by their patients. They also keep the teeth they pull out of mouths and reuse them or make teeth strengthening powder out of it.
Illnesses of the body
Any illness of the body that is not connected to any wound, has to be cured by a herbalist. All pains are included here, and all things like coughing bloody slime, common illnesses as cold and flu, etc. The herbalist will know what to do. Every community has at least one herbalist. The herb garden of a community is kept by the herbalists, but the government pays for it.The sick and the ill who can not stay at home can stay in a hospital. Every city has a hospital. Only the rich have to pay to stay in the hospital, but they got better rooms for it.
Illnesses of the mind
Any illness or unease of the mind is taken as a serious illness. If a herbalists can not cure the patient, a priest of shaman can be consulted to mend the splinter. The very ill of mind are kept in houses where they can not harm themselves or others.Those who are born with a flaw...
As long as they can live, those who are born with a flaw (deaf, blind, missing a limb, etc.) can live just like any other in the Dalethian society. Some will have some extra training for a job, other just pick a job they can do with their handicap. When one is not able to work, the family should care for this person.There are no special treatments or institutes for the disabled.
Baths and Spas
Baths are in the first place build to cure people. The sick and the ill went to bath on medical advice. Cold and warm baths had their effect on the ill.Only once a week the average Dalethian civilian would pull out the clothes and go to bath. The bath was used by the whole family. After taking a bath, the clothes were washed in the same water.
Things have changed since then. The Dalethian civilian bathes more often in a fresh bath, washes the clothes in clean water, and goes sometimes to the local bathhouse to get really clean. Houses now have their own bathroom (be it a small one in many cases) with their own supply of water (usually a pump).
Cunning merchants and scientists invent many things that make life more healthy and comfortable every day.
Only the very poor never have a proper bath, but they do swim in lakes to clean themselves and were nice smelling flowers to cover their foul body smell.
Spas are places where the water is said to be especially healthy. Swimming pools and health centres are build there, but the quietness of the place is also important. One can take a sun- or moon bath, sit along the shore and breath the good air, drink the healthy water, or have a nice, quiet conversation with other spa guests. The Spas are very popular with the rich, and in the famous spa of Lazulameir they have build palaces to enjoy the spa more often. Between the palaces, many guest houses are build for those who could not afford a palace.
Soap and perfumes
Not long ago, the smell of the average Dalethian body attracted flies like a latrine. But since the countries beyond Wythviz were discovered and the people of Daleth got the name “Stinking Idiots” down there, the soap and the perfumes were introduced and imported. It was highly fashionable to have perfumes with one in a bottle that was visible, and to bathe with soap. The rich do have their own brands of perfumes and/or soap, so friends can smell who enters a room.Soaps and perfumes are a good gift for any occasion. Especially the perfumes, in their artistic bottles, are popular. Essences, giving away a nice smell, are vaporised in houses. Clothes are washed with nice smelling soaps.
The poor don’t have perfumes, but a mix of water and perfume. They do have soaps though.
Barbers
Barbers do not only cut moustaches and beards, they also wash and cut hair. Because they use it for their profession, many a barber will sell combs, brushes, knives, razor blades, scissors, soaps, perfumes and other things for good hygiene in a little shop.The barbers are found in every settlement. Some barbers travel along the country, and others are the personal barber to a rich person. The barbers are very eager to know the latest fashion in hairdressing and beard cutting. Some barbers even use their skills as a way to perform Art.
Some barbers double as a surgeon or dentist.
Old age
All uneases that come with old age can not be cured, but can be eased. If people are old and can no longer help themselves, they can move to special houses for the aging. These houses are quiet places, but close enough to the city centres to make life not boring. The elderly people can stay here and live under the care of specially trained men and women.Midwife
A midwife is very important to every woman in Daleth. Not only with childbirth is this medical woman important, but also in every female illness and unease. The midwife is the doctor for babies and little children, and for pregnant women. Women can always consult a midwife for any problem faced by them. This gives the midwife a certain power.Midwifes can also take away unwanted, unborn children.
Quack
Anyone who pretends to be a person with medical knowledge, but actually is not, is a quack. It is prohibited to perform medical operations when one is not allowed to do so by the government.There are several kinds of quack:
- Those who do have medical knowledge, but are not allowed to do any operations. They usually help where ever they can, but try to stay out of trouble. Some can be very good at their job, but they hardly ever ask a fee.
- Those who pretend to be a medical expert, but are not, and make fun of it anyway. They can be found at foors where they entertain the audience and come up with creatures like “The boy who is cut in half and has been repaired by me”, or the “girl with the eyes of a cat, implanted by me”.
- Those who say they are allowed to do medical operations, but are not. They are a danger to the public. They are found in every medical profession, but mostly in the profession of healing the ill of mind. They usually ask a lot of skatts for their job, or they sell expensive potions and ointments that never have cured a patient.
Related topics: