Sherlock Holmes and The Curious Case of The Scalded Feet, Part Two©

 

 

This is the exciting conclusion of “Sherlock Holmes and The Curious Case of The Scalded Feet©”, for Part One, go HERE. – Authors Note

 

Last week, we wrote about how George Rogers Clark and John Gabriel Jones, while journeying from Harrods Town, Kentucky to Williamsburg, Virginia on June 6, 1776, developed what they called “scald feet”, a common affliction that was also known as, “scald foot” or “scalded feet”. 

 

Photograph by the Author

The investigators notebook...

 

What exactly was this ailment and what would a modern doctor call it today and how would they treat it today?  So, let’s lay out our clues and unmask “Scalded Feet”, the culprit behind this “Shocking Complaint”!

 

During the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries you would prevent scalded feet by taking off your moccasins and sleeping with your feet towards your fire.  It was necessary to dry out and warm up your feet at night, while you slept.  Drying out your feet for about 8 hours, out of the 24 hour day, was important.  During the early stages of their journey George Rogers Clark and his companion were unable to build a fire, because of the possibility that the fire would attract the attention of hostile Native Americans, and so were unable to prevent a case scald feet from developing.

 

During the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, if your feet became scalded, you could cure them in a few days by washing them with an “ouse (ooze) made of oak Bark”, or by using a salve made of pounded and boiled slippery elm bark, and then by rubbing them with oil.

 

Scalded feet is likely when your feet have been constantly wet for three to four days, or 72 to 96 hours.  If your feet are wet for too long, they become shriveled, or macerated, and the outer layer of skin, the epidermis, can separate from the dermis, the inner layer of the skin.

 

A symptom of scalded feet is a burning sensation, as if the skin of your feet were too hot, and will it become too painful to walk or put a weight on your feet.

 

Doctors of the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries thought scalded feet was a type of “rheumatism” and was thought to be brought on by “wet feet, wet clothes, &c.” and by “damp weather” and it shared symptoms of swelling, feelings of heat without a fever, and a “pain of an acuteness surpassing description”, with rheumatism.

 

It was well above freezing, in fact the temperatures in early June 1776 would have been between a high of 75^o to 82^o F (24^o to 28^o C) and a low of 56^o to 65^o F (13^o to 18^o C). 

 

So, whodunit?!

 

The culprit behind this “Shocking Complaint”, known during the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries as “scald foot”, “scalded feet”, or “scalded feet”, has now been unmasked as one of the members of the immersion foot gang!

 

Because the temperatures during George Rogers Clark and John Gabriel Jones’ journey from Kentucky to Virginia, were likely to have been higher than 32° to 59°F (0° to 15°C), we can safely assume this mystery ailment was not frostbite, which is a malady that only occurs when temperatures are below freezing, or “trench foot”, which is a non-freezing cold injury (NFCI).

 

And, because the temperatures during their journey were likely to have been between 75^o to 82^o F (24^o to 28^o C) for a high, with lows between 56^o to 65^o F (13^o to 18^o C) and because their feet were constantly wet for three to four days, or 72 to 96 hours, the pain and burning sensations that George Rogers Clark and John Gabriel Jones’ suffered from, and knew as “scald feet”, would like be diagnosed today as “warm water immersion foot” (WWIF), or, possibly its second stage form, called “tropical immersion foot” (TIF). 

 

So, now we know what caused that “Shocking Complaint”! and “The Curious Case of The Scalded Feet” has been solved!  That common affliction known as “scald feet”, “scald foot” or “scalded feet”, today is known as “warm water immersion foot” (WWIF), or “tropical immersion foot” (TIF)

 

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Survival Rations … 1962 Civil Defense Style, Three Years Later!©”, where we will talk about making survival cereal bars, how well they keep, and more importantly how they taste, three years later!

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Notes

 

¹ Lt Col. Alfred M. Allen, Internal Medicine in Vietnam: Skin Diseases in Vietnam, 1965-72, Vol. I, Office of the Surgeon General and Center of Military History, Washington, D.C., 1989, page 115-117

 

² Ibid, page 111

 

³ Ibid, page 117

 

 

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