by Penny
Rogers
Horlicks, or other malted milk drink.
My late father
had a perfectly good nose; somewhat large but by no means huge, and triangular
in shape. It sort of went straight down without a noticeable
bridge.
Dad
always maintained that his nose was this shape because of the treatment that he
had received for diphtheria, and as this contagious disease features prominently
in a series of stories I am writing about France in the early years of the
twentieth century I recalled what he had told me about his own
experiences.
As a
boy of about seven years old - that would have been in 1912/1913 - he contracted
diphtheria. My grandfather was in the army stationed on Salisbury Plain and the
family lived in the garrison at Tidworth. They were a large family without much
money, so when her youngest surviving boy became ill my grandmother did whatever
she could to save him. Somehow a horse-drawn ambulance was acquired, and in it
Dad made the long journey across the plain to the isolation hospital in
Devizes.
Diphtheria destroys healthy tissue in the respiratory system and the dead tissue
forms a grey pseudo-membrane in the nose, tonsils, larynx and throat, making it
difficult to breathe and to swallow. To clear this obstruction a nurse would
hold Dad’s nose to make him keep his mouth open, his head was tipped back and
his throat swabbed with Gentian Violet. This sounds extreme now, but before the
days of antibiotics the antiseptic qualities of Gentian Violet were extensively
used to treat a wide range of bacterial infections. I have read that its use is
being re-evaluated in the twenty-first century as medical science searches for
alternatives to antibiotics.
The
treatment worked and Dad recovered. I believe he was in hospital for some time;
he told me that when he was better he was allowed to go outside and watch the
horses and the ambulances being cleaned. I guess stables and yards were as much
part of the hospital in those days as there would be car parks and garages
today.
Until the end of his life Dad could not bear to lie flat nor to have his head
tipped back. He slept on several pillows; the terrifying memory of having his
head forcibly held back stayed with him for his remaining 90 years. I doubt
whether his assertion that his nose was deformed by the treatment is true, as
other members of his family had similarly shaped noses.
Gentian Violet
was synthesised by a French chemist in 1861 and known originally as Violet de
Paris, so I can confidently refer to its use in the treatment of diphtheria
during the years before the First World War when my story is
set.
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