Cherokee Cure - An Unfailing cure for Gonorrhea -cures in 1 to 3 days and all the diseases of the Urinary Organs Medicine was still by guess and by God. No regulation of prescriptions or any drug combination existed. There was little science to even base a cure on. Louis Pasteur in France had not yet published any ideas that bacteria could cause disease, and when published in the 1860s, it was not universally known or accepted until almost 1900. A few modern medical procedures were known—vaccination against smallpox, eating fruits and vegetables to prevent scurvy. Beginning in 1850, chloroform as an anesthetic came into wide use. Imbalance in “humors” or “biles” was thought to be the agent of illness.   “Bleeding,” whether by cutting a vein or applying leeches, was often thought to be a cure. Yellow fever and malaria were believed to be caused by “foul miasmas” arising in the night air, particularly in low lying areas. One doctor even developed a completely logical ...

  From Harper's Magazine--Yellow Fever strikes. I t was summer when the dying started. The source outright lied, insisting there was no problem and left quarantine. Some authorities failed to report the disease or did not recognize the problem until it was too late. It was contagious. It was not contagious. Many people hardly knew they had been infected while fifteen percent of the infected died horrible deaths, insane with fever, spewing black vomit and gasping for breath.  The immigrant poor, stuffed twelve or more to a room, suffered disproportionately. Dozens of doctors and nurses died while tending the sick. Cemeteries and grave diggers would have been overwhelmed if coffins had not been in short supply. Physicians tried all manner of treatments. Nothing worked. Masks and quarantine proved to be no defense at all. Businesses closed so the remaining healthy population ran short of supplies. Banks closed, so the living had no money. News outlets ceased operatin...