Medical history comes to life at Schifferstadt

By Megan Gustafson Special to the News-Post

wiggle, wiggle, wiggle."
These were the words Adrien Tudor used to describe the process of removing teeth with an instrument resembling pliers used by doctors in the 18th and 19th centuries. An unlucky patient whose tooth perhaps didn't come all the way out on the first attempt would then be subjected to further treatment with the use of an even scarier-looking pointed instrument.
Ouch.
That was medicine back in the day -- and it's on display this weekend at the Schifferstadt Architectural Museum's What Ails You: Medical History Days event.
As he described various other methods and practices, Tudor, a retired schoolteacher, was assisted by rising high school freshman Jeremy Franklin, 14, who eagerly showed the small audience the difference between a rich and poor person's toothbrush.
One was made of pig bone and bristles, Franklin said, and it bore a striking resemblance to a modern toothbrush.
The other, the poor person's toothbrush, was a stick.
Bringing Frederick 's history to life
Christina Murphy is the vice chairwoman of the Schifferstadt Advisory Board and the museum's temporary manager. She said the exhibit of medical history is an annual event, growing out of people's interest in how medicine was practiced.
On the second floor of the museum, in the same room where Tudor was discussing tooth extraction, former Smithsonian botany curator Michael Spencer, chairman of the advisory board, displayed pieces of his own "traveling museum of Frederick history."

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