By Mark Squibb | Oct. 8, 2020
As part of the Colony of Avalon’s annual general meeting, Barry Gaulton and other staff typically give a short presentation highlighting recent archeological finds.
Due to COVID-19, the Colony of Avalon did open for the season, but, this year, no archeological excavation was undertaken.
In lieu of presenting the year’s archology finds, Gaulton, the Colony’s chief archaeologist, gave a presentation titled ‘Health, Hygiene, and Disease Prevention in 17th Century Ferryland,’ highlighting some of the Colony’s medical practises and beliefs.
“One of the very first letters written by Captain Edward Wynne, Ferryland’s first governor, to Sir George Calvert in 1621, requests that a surgeon be sent to the Colony,” said Gaulton. “And a surgeon, in 17th century parlance, is a someone who is trained, by way of an apprenticeship, in the methods and practises of medicine.”
Wynne’s suggestion was taken seriously; the census of the following year listed a surgeon among the Colony’s residents
Wynne also wrote letters to Calvert, claiming that “the air is very healthful, the water both clear and wholesome.”
Another resident, Nicholas Hoskins, wrote to Calvert to tell him “I never smelt any evil savor in the country,” and that he, “drank from a sweet brook of running water that quenched his thirst as well as any beer.”
Despite the fresh air and beer-sweet water, people in the 17th century still got sick and needed the most up-to date medical treatments. At the time, physicians adhered to the ancient Greek system of humours, which contested that for someone to be healthful, the four ‘humors’ (blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm) needed to exist in the body in perfect balance.
“So, medical practitioners, whether they were trained physicians, or surgeons, or local healers, they all considered the balanced of these four humors to be an essential part of medical treatment,” said Gaulton.
And one way to balance out those humours?
Bloodletting.
“So, if a person was running a high fever, or was frequently flushed, or hot, they were seen to have an abundance of blood in their system, and, so, they were sometimes treated by bloodletting, so as to drain an excess amount of blood out of their system in an effort to maintain balance,” explained Gaulton.
Archeologists have uncovered ceramic bleeding bowls, as well as iron lancers and straight razors in Ferryland, indicating that the practise was common in the area during the 17th and 18th century.
Doctors also had an interesting cure for overexposure to damp, cold environments —common in Newfoundland— which were also believed to throw the humours out of balance.
“This imbalance could be countered by the consumption of products that were thought to warm and dry the body,” said Gaulton. “The 17th century solution in many cases was simply to drink spirits, which had a warming effect, or smoke tobacco, which was considered to have a hot and drying affect on the body. In the 17th century, tobacco was considered a panacea, or a cure-all, for many diseases and common aliments.”
Their medical use may explain the abundance of pipes found in Ferryland. To date, archeologists have catalogued over 400,000 clay tobacco pipe fragments in Ferryland.
“Representing, hands down, the single largest collection anywhere in North America,” Gaulton said. “We have ample evidence that Ferryland colonists were concerned with personal hygiene, overall cleanliness and grooming.”
Chamber pots and bed pans, along with bottles that once contained ointments used to treat everything from headaches to venereal diseases, have been uncovered on the site.
A trusty multi-tool discovered near the Mansion House, and likely to have belong to a member of the Kirke family, was used to clean tooth, pick dirt out from underneath fingernails, and remove ear wax.
One end was used as a toothpick and fingernail cleaner, while the other, spoon shaped end, scooped wax out the ear.
“And hopefully the ends weren’t mixed up too often,” joked Gaulton.
Gaulton said that Ferryland also used an intricate, underground drainage system which carried waste from the colony.
Human waste would be flushed into a privy and held until the rising tides flushed out the waste twice daily.
Soil samples were sent to the University of Toronto in the early 1990s, and it was estimated that per a gram of waste there were about 30,000 intestinal parasite eggs, including tapeworm, whipworm and roundworm.
“I find this to be particularly interesting, because all of the written histories of sanitation and waste management in North America clearly state that this kind of village or City-wide wastewater planning did not occur until 1757,” said Gaulton. “Yet, 130 years, the archeology in our small town of Ferryland seems to strongly suggest otherwise. And in my opinion, this is once again another opportunity to highlight the importance of our ongoing research as a way to shed light on the actual activities and events surrounding this truly exceptional 17th century colony.”
The Colony of Avalon currently boasts over 2 million artifacts.
“For those who don’t know, our archeological staff uncover artifacts every time they dig on site,” said Gaulton. “And all the artifacts go through a conservation process, and are then catalogued and put into storage for future research.”
