1700s syphilis treatment equipment

[Bharpring]

Could this be part of some medical equipment to treat syphilis in the 1700s?

 

[A2coins]

Looks. like a spout oil can my uneducated guess lol

 

[Toecutter]

ouch!! not sure but if so ouch!!!

 

[Tony in SC]

Looks like a dipstick tube for an engine.

 

[Organicseekers]

Looks a bit like the bottom end of Grants golf tee . https://www.pga.com/pga-of-america/golf-buzz/how-dr-george-f-grant-went-african-american-dentist-golf-tee-inventor

 

[G.A.P.metal]

If it is wash your hands lol !

 

[GaRebel1861]

If it is wash your hands lol !

I was going to say the same thing!

Put some gloves on!

 

[Bharpring]

If it is wash your hands lol !

Ha Ha. That’s funny. I actually had a friend of mine who is an experienced detectorist look at some pictures last night. He mentioned that it looked like part of the apparatus that the English used in the 17th and 18th centuries to treat syphilis. I then remembered watching a video on mudlarking on the Thames River in England and showed someone that found the entire apparatus and here I am asking the question. This piece was found near downtown Savannah, GA.

 

[GaRebel1861]

If I'm not mistaking after this was inserted, mercury was poured in?

 

[Plug N Play]

... might get a little messy ... putting on gloves.

 

[G.A.P.metal]

If I'm not mistaking after this was inserted, mercury was poured in?

Well i guess after that dating would be out of the Question !

 

[Bharpring]

Well i guess after that dating would be out of the Question !

Ha Ha! So funny. Yeah they would use mercury. I would think that almost any activity would be tough after that.

 

[Lunch Bag]

Bharp -

Will you PLEASE stop finding things.

Every time I see your new finds I get more depressed that I’m finding so little.

 

[Joe-Dirt]

Ouch is right!!!! Let that be a lesson kids, if you’re going to jump out of a plane, wear a parachute

 

[DCMatt]

If I'm not mistaking after this was inserted, mercury was poured in?

Correct. Mercury was used to cure many diseases, including syphilis, for centuries. Back then they called it 'quicksilver' and it was commonly sold by street vendors. The calls and cries of the street vendors and the mercury salves they sold lead people to call them "quack salvers" - sort of an onomatopoeia for quicksilver.

That's where we get our modern term for fake medicine - quackery.

 

[A2coins]

That's why life spans were a lot lower back then. Remember the Dentist needles those were Harpoons. It took 3 of em to carry it in and they would say this is for the pain. I would scream that is the pain. But for consolation heres a plastic dinasour

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

When I was a kid our dentist charged $7 ($8 if you needed a filling - done right then). He NEVER used pain killer. I recall one front tooth he drilled just above the gum line when I was a teenager and I pulled the cushion arm right off the bracket on the chair. God, that was torture.

Matter of fact, I still have that and other fillings he put in. Those used a mercury/silver amalgam that a little machine would heat and shake up before he packed it into the cavity. I'll give him that - his work lasted.

I never had Novocaine until after I was married and had my wisdom teeth pulled. And I had a LOT of cavities as a kid. That which does not kill you makes you stronger.

Pain makes man think
Thought makes man wise
Wisdom makes life endurable

 

[DCMatt]

Charlie - Was this you?

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

 

[A2coins]

That's hillarious!!!!!lol