Latest / Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson / Edinburgh’s Surgical Revolution

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Edinburgh’s Surgical Revolution · Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson

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  >> Dr. Terry Simpson: Mhm.
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  Today on 4Q, why medicine isn't
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  and never has been a quick fix. Why
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  hucksters never seem to go away. And how
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  a city famous for kilts, castles and very
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  questionable dinner parties, Edinburgh
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  dragged American surgery out of the Wild west
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  and into the modern age. We'll talk goat
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  testicles, carbolic acid, chloroform,
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  experiments in living rooms. And why the President of the
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  United States once died not from a bullet,
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  but from doctors who couldn't be bothered to
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  wash their hands.
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  I am your Chief Medical Explanationist, Dr. Terri Simpson,
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  and this is Fork U Fork
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  University, where we bust myths, make sense of the
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  badness, and teach you a little bit about medicine.
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  In the 18th and 19th centuries, Edinburgh was the
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  world's medical capital. Its anatomical
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  training, surgical rigor and clinical
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  innovations drew students from everywhere,
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  including the American colonies. Physicians
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  like Benjamin Rush, who also signed the Declaration of
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  Independence. John Morgan, William Shippen
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  Jr. Studied here in Edinburgh and then went
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  home to found America's first medical school
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  at the University of Pennsylvania and ultimately
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  shape Harvard's medical program. But here's
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  the thing. While these elite schools
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  planted the seeds of evidence based medicine in
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  America, most of America
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  remained medical chaos.
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  Patentonics, unlicensed
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  practitioners and magnetic healers peddling
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  miracles. It was the Wild west, and
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  louder claims, not better science, won the
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  crowd. But Edinburgh didn't just
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  export talent, it created
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  breakthroughs. Enter James Young Simpson.
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  Yes, a relative of mine, the man who
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  gave the world chloroform anesthesia.
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  When ether was first used In Boston in
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  1846, the idea sailed across the
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  Atlantic. By the time the next ship docked in
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  Edinburgh, Scottish surgeons were already refining ether
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  masks. And within weeks, Simpson and his
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  colleagues had moved chloroform, a more potent and
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  practical anesthetic. The famous story,
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  a dinner party. Simpson and his friends inhale
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  chloroform, collapse on the parlor floor, wake up
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  amazed, and realize they ended surgical
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  agony. Yes, when you go to a dinner party
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  in Edinburgh, you never know what's going to happen. And it's not just
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  the beer or the Scotch. Quick
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  breakthrough, sure, but only because of years of study
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  and preparation made him ready for that moment.
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  If Simpson solved pain, Lister
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  solved infection. Lister
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  spent years at the microscope, studying
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  inflammation, devouring Pasteur's germ
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  theory and connecting the dots no one else saw.
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  His weapon was carbolic acid. He sprayed it
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  on wounds, tools, bandages, even
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  the air. Colleagues scoffed. Invisible
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  germs offended Victorian pride.
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  But death rates plummeted.
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  Dogma was outdone
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  by data, and antisepsis evolved into
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  asepsis, sterilizing everything from instruments to
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  gowns to hands. Modern surgery was
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  born. Well, it Edinburgh, at
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  least. America, of course, was busy ignoring
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  this progress. In 1881, President
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  James Garfield was shot. The bullet
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  wasn't fatal. He should have lived. But his
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  physician, Willard Bliss, dismissed
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  Lister's ideas, probing Garfield's
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  wounds again and again and again
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  with unsterilized instruments and unwashed
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  hands, and invited a parade of other doctors to
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  do the same. 79 days later,
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  100 pounds lighter, Garfield died at his
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  summer home in Long Beach, New Jersey. Not from
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  a bullet, but from the infection Bliss
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  introduced. And Bliss? He billed the
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  government $25,000 for his trouble.
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  About three quarters of a million today. Thankfully, Congress
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  only paid $6,500. What a bargain.
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  Proof that sometimes the worst thing that can happen to
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  you isn't being shot. It's being treated
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  by a doctor who puts money and grift
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  over reading. By 1910, the
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  Flexner Report finally dragged American medicine
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  towards science. Diploma mills closed.
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  Laboratory training became mandatory. Schools
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  like University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins,
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  modeled on Edinburgh, set the new
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  standard. But if you think this killed quackery, think again.
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  While Edinburgh gave us modern medical science,
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  America gave Edinburgh. Chiropractors.
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  Sorry, friends, Meet John
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  R. Brinkley, the goat gland doctor.
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  He didn't have a formal medical education.
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  He got his degree from a diploma mill. And in the
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  1920s and the 1930s, he made millions
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  of dollars implanting goat testicles
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  into men to restore virility. Let
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  me put this to you another way. You take a goat, you
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  whack off a testicle, you implant it in the scrotum, and. And
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  you say, look, you're restoring virility. Did it
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  work? No. But people
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  thought it did. Testimonials poured
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  in, but data was nowhere to be found.
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  Brinkley pioneered medical marketing, using radio,
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  the social media of the day, to broadcast
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  his miracle in quotes to millions. He ran
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  for governor twice. He built an empire on
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  goat glands. And only when the AMA's Morris
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  Fishbein hounded him in did it finally
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  collapse. America shut down his
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  radio station. But lessons were
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  learned. Hucksters have evolved.
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  They never go extinct.
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  Let's fast forward to now. Goat testicles are gone, but the
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  grift. The grift is thriving
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  today. Snake oil wears lab coats and call
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  itself functional medicine or root cause Wellness.
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  They pedal expensive stool tests. It's invent
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  conditions like leaky gut and sell you supplements that
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  allegedly fix what only they can diagnose.
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  They use enough medical jargon to make it sound
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  Real. And then there's the carnivore crowd,
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  the influencers telling you to eat nothing but steaks. Ignore 70
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  years of data on the Mediterranean diet, dismiss the science
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  of cholesterol and instead admire their abs.
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  Sign up for their life coaching, buy their overpriced special
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  salt for rehydration. News flash. Salt to
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  salt and Pedialyte, used in 92
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  million rehydrations around the world, doesn't need
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  their branding. Sometimes people ask me, if these
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  hucksters turned their genius for making money toward
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  actual science, could they help medicine? The answer
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  is no. First,
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  most don't have the scientific foundation to begin
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  with. And those who do, self select out of the
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  grind, out of the painful erudition that real
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  medicine requires. They leap straight to the
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  shortcut. The miracle, the grift.
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  Second, even those with training have chosen the
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  con. Their drive isn't discovery, it's
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  dollars. Progress is slow,
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  ungrammarous work. Selling dehydrated
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  beef liver is easier.
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  Which is why we're standing here at the Surgeon's
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  Hall Museum. Why this place
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  matters. This isn't just scalpels
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  and skeletons.
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  It's a cautionary tale. Breakthroughs in
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  butchery, science and snake oil side by
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  side. Progress is fragile.
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  And the line between huckster and healer
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  isn't thin. It is a line of thick
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  evidence. But it appears thin to the general
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  public. Because while they don't have that
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  long foundational ability to understand the
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  difference between quackery and. And real science,
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  we have to keep bringing it up.
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  Edinburgh, uh, gave the world more than anesthesia and
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  antisepsis. It gave us a model.
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  Evidence over ego, humility
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  over hype. America eventually followed,
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  but the hucksters never disappeared. They just
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  rebranded. Goat Gland Radio became the
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  wellness Podcast. Patent tonics became the
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  $70 detox supplements. The promises
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  are the same, only the fonts and ring
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  lights are fancier. The cure for
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  quackery isn't charisma. It's science.
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  And that's the real lesson behind these glass
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  cases. If you're ever in
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  Edinburgh, while you might go and buy yourself
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  a kilt and some great scotch, please see this
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  museum. It is truly a testament
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  to the modern wonders of how we got here today.
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  And finally, I want to give a huge thanks to the following
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  people. Kushina, Thomas, Jordana,
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  Shanti, and Kat, everyone at the
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  Edinburgh Museum who welcomed us so warmly
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  and shared their work. And a special thanks to
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  producer girl who made these
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  episodes possible. And, ah, future episodes.
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  This has been Fork University with me, Dr. Terri Simpson, your
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  chief medical explanationist. And, and here's the thing.
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  While I am a doctor, I am not
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  your doctor. And if you're seeking or hear about some
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  miracle cure, please see a board certified
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  physician. Not a chiropractor, not an
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  eastern trained shaman, but a real doctor
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  who can sit down and explain to you why uh, that miracle
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  detox won't help you. Why that worm
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  dewormer that they're trying to sell you for some
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  parasite cleanse will not help you.
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  But instead we have some real medicine that
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  is often cheaper than the fake one that
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  won't even cure you. Thanks to our distributing
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  partners, Simpler Media Productions and the pod
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  God himself, Mr. Evo Terra. Have
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  a good week everybody.
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  Hey Evo. You know the
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  scotch here was pretty good. I'm pretty sure
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  this might be a cure for something. I just don't know
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  what.
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  Yes, sorry, I'm still thinking about
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  testicle testimonials. Yeah,
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  I went there.