Salt-Production in the Roman Fenland

Abstract

NOTES and secondly, to perform important medical and surgical functions-as a counter-irritant, a bloodless knife, to destroy tumours and to produce haemostasis. Hippocrates advised, however, that the cautery should only be used as the last resort: 'What drugs will not cure, the knife will; what the knife will not cure, the cautery will; what the cautery will not cure must be considered incurable. 17 This reluctance to use the cautery before other forms of treatment had been attempted (medication, diet and surgery) was evident in Roman medicine. As a knife the cautery was less favoured than the scalpel, scalpellus, because, '.. . flesh which has been divided by a cautery heals less quickly than a knife'. 18 The iron cautery was, however, applied to destroy tumours and to produce haemostasis, thereby preventing tissue from being stained and allowing an accurate dissection. For the amputation of a breast tumour, the cautery was first applied to cauterize the incision around the tumour to prevent bleeding, and secondly to destroy the tumour. 19 In dealing with wounds, when other methods of stopping bleeding had failed, such as pressure and ligature, the blood vessels could be cauterized with a red hot iron. 20 Although literary sources often cite the cautery, they unfortunately give few descriptions of it; although they must have varied in size and design to perform their specific medical and surgical functions. 21 For diseased limbs 'broad-ended' cautery irons were used to produce a brine drip. 22 In an operation for discharge of the eyes a 'fine, blunt cautery' burnt the blood vessels of the temples, 23 while a 'spearhead-shaped' cautery was skimmed over deeply split lips. 24 In the removal of varicose veins '.. . a fine, blunt, hot iron' was used at intervals of four fingers' breadth throughout the length of the vein. 25 A 'sword-shaped' cautery was utilized as an alternative to the surgical excision of the sac for treating hydrocele, 26 and for recurring dislocation of the shoulder, 'cauteries which are not thick not much rounded but of an elongated shape'. 27 The iron cautery continued in use throughout the Medieval period to treat trauma, epilepsy, ulcers, cancers and became the standard method of producing haemostasis. In the mid-seventeenth century, the use of ligature to prevent bleeding, practised by the Romans, but abandoned in the Medieval period, was revived. The iron cautery, however, remained in use and was commented upon by William Clowes, Queen Elizabeth's surgeon: 'The iron is most excellent but it is offensive to the eye and bringeth the patient to great sorrow and dread of the burning and the smart.' 28 Iron cauteries fell out of general use by the early eighteenth century, but were still in evidence within the medical profession right up to 1868.

Think global, act local: multi-scalar connections of iron age communities in Poole Harbour, Dorset, England

“…Elsewhere in Iron Age Britain, salt extraction appears to have been a seasonal activity, perhaps tied to the agricultural calendar (Bradley 1975) varying according to local conditions (Foster 1990;Gurney 1982;Kinory 2012). Poole Harbour's position at the end of several freshwater river catchments means that, along with the effects of tidal penetration, salinity levels probably fluctuated, possibly influencing both the timing and location of extractive activities (Maltby 2006).…”