Now, it may prove to be the case that you can use a medieval recipe of “a bit of garlic, some onion or leek, copper, wine and oxgall” to kill methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). And it may be true that “in 200 years, people will judge us” negatively for our ridiculous and barbaric medical practices. The lesson here, however, isn’t that we should get rid of the National Institute of Health (NIH) and begin consulting 10th Century “Leechbooks.” The lesson is that human beings do a remarkable job of figuring out solutions to problems with whatever tools are available to them. Every generation has its MacGyvers.
Hugh Capet, Eric the Red, and Basil II had to worry about getting infections, just like we do today. And if they had some “doctor” give them cow’s bile to drink and it saved their lives, that was all that mattered. Yet, we’d sensibly run in the other direction if that same “doctor” tried to treat us for strep throat or tonsillitis.
In 200 years, we’re going to be judged harshly, but there will be things we figured out that are still useful in a pinch. Most of those things will have been figured out using the Scientific Method, but some of them may have been figured out by cranks using the old brute-force trial and error methods of the Dark Ages.
What I don’t think is that there will be anything worth anything that was created or discovered by the Conservative Movement.
But I could be wrong. Maybe sometime in 2215, a team of medical researchers will find an important cure in one of our own Leechbooks.
