From Dede's Perspective:

Only a nurse would write this:

Still lock-bound awaiting floods to recede, so decided to be a "land tourist"! Visited Fort Stanwix in Rome, NY.

For thousands of years the ancient trail that connects the Mohawk River and Wood Creek served as a vital link for people traveling between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Ontario. Travelers used this well-worn route through Oneida Indian territory to carry trade goods and news, as well as diseases, to others far away. When Europeans arrived they called this trail the Oneida Carrying Place and inaugurated a significant period in American history-a period when nations fought for control of not only Oneida Carrying Place, but the Mohawk Valley, the homelands of the Six Nations Confederacy, and the rich resources of America as well. In this struggle Fort Stanwix would play a vital role.

In a room such as this photo, the fort surgeon would have diagnosed the sick and treated the day-to-day illnesses of the garrison. The main illnesses were muscle strain due to the constant hard labor needed to run the fort, and the infectious diseases contracted in the crowded and unfavorable conditions prevalent to the fort.

Treatments were agonizing and dangerous: a common treatment for all ills was "bloodletting," which was thought to rid the body of disease.

A description of "Bloodletting:"
Place patient's hand in hot water to swell veins.
Tie a cloth tape at the pulse area of the wrist.
Patient opens and closes hand two or three times to increase swelling.
Patient's hand is stretched open and the vein is pierced lengthwise with a small knife/lancet.
The patient's hand is dipped in hot water to make the blood flow freely and the cloth tape is loosened to allow the "impure" blood to escape!

Stay tuned...