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Astros lead way with 6 All-Stars; Dodgers among clubs with 4

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Future planned for Luzerne County-owned Wyoming Valley Airport

<p>FORTY FORT &#8211; Imagine a time when you were prescribed lead as medicine, given a mercury pill to cure an ailment or shed up to two pints of blood to ease the flu.</p><p>That was the case for thousands of settlers here in the Wyoming Valley and beyond during the Revolutionary War, Jeffrey Smith said to a group outside the Nathan Denison House on Sunday.</p><p>Smith, a member of the 24th Connecticut Militia Regiment who specializes in 18th century medicine, stood behind a table filled with more than 70 medicinal tools of the time while answering questions from attendees about medicines, surgical items and more.</p><p>The informal question-and-answer setting hosted by the Luzerne County Historical Society set pace for Smith to cover a large array of topics during the hour-long period.</p><p>During the time period, Smith said that many doctors weren&#8217;t taught in a typical educational setting. In fact, out of 3,500 doctors practicing in the Continental Army during the era he said only about 500 were medically trained through a university.</p><p>At the time, a single medical professional would serve as a doctor, surgeon and dentist.</p><p>&#8220;What was the average lifespan during that time?,&#8221; a woman asked from the crowd.</p><p>Pulling out a document chronicling the life expectancy of London residents from 1771-1772, Smith said that if someone was able to survive past the age of 10 they had a good shot at life. More than 9,000 children under two died that year.</p><p>&#8220;So between 10 and zero you&#8217;ve buried half of your population that died,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Problems like the flu, smallpox and even tonsillitis were reasons of death, he added, even though at least one vaccine was already available to the public.</p><p>Moving toward a collection of more than 50 glass jars, Smith began explaining uses for several of the plants, oils and medicines that were inside them.</p><p>One jar holding a collection of small, circular capsules in a light blue were called blue mass pills. During the era, the medicine was used to treat everything from depression to constipation, adding that even Abraham Lincoln himself used them.</p><p>&#8220;They could be liquid, or they could be solid. But they were still called blue mass pills,&#8221; he said as he showed off the bottle. &#8220;Everybody had their own little concoction (of the medicine), but they all started off with opium.&#8221;</p><p>While many of the ingredients used during the era have been long gone, some have stood the test of time.</p><p>When another from the group questioned the jar of chalk, Smith smiled.</p><p>&#8220;What do we use today that&#8217;s made of chalk?,&#8221; he asked, later announcing the answer of antacids.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Re-enactor Jeff Smith reaches for an enema syringe during a talk about Revolutionary War-era medicine at the Nathan Denison House in Forty Fort on Sunday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/web1_TTL070119Revolution_4-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Re-enactor Jeff Smith reaches for an enema syringe during a talk about Revolutionary War-era medicine at the Nathan Denison House in Forty Fort on Sunday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/web1_TTL070119Revolution_3-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Revolutionary War re-enactor Jeff Smith shows the use of surgical instruments during a talk at the Nathan Denison House in Forty Fort on Sunday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/web1_TTL070119Revolution_3-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Revolutionary War re-enactor Jeff Smith shows the use of surgical instruments during a talk at the Nathan Denison House in Forty Fort on Sunday. </caption1><photoCredit1>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/web1_TTL070119Revolution_2-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Re-enactor Jeff Smith describes one of the surgical &#8216;instruments&#8217; used to perform amputations in Colonial America at the Nathan Denison House in Forty Fort on Sunday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/web1_TTL070119Revolution_2-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Re-enactor Jeff Smith describes one of the surgical &#8216;instruments&#8217; used to perform amputations in Colonial America at the Nathan Denison House in Forty Fort on Sunday. </caption2><photoCredit2>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Event offers lesson in 18th-century medicine</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Marcella Kester</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div>

Event at Denison House offers lesson in 18th-century medicine