Cabildo and Pharmacy Museum Part 2

Both the Cabildo and the Pharmacy Museum were very interesting to visit. I feel like I gained a much deeper understanding of the history of New Orleans and even the deep south as a whole from visiting the Cabildo, also known as the Louisiana State Museum. I will be completely honest here and say that I did not know a thing about the Battle of New Orleans. In fact, I did not even realize that there was a Battle of New Orleans. I hope I am not the only one. So, the Cabildo was most definitely a learning experience for me. I also did not realize how much of an impact Andrew Jackson had on this community. One of the largest exhibits at the Cabildo was about Andrew Jackson. Not to mention Jackson Square, where there is a huge statue of Andrew Jackson on a horse tipping his hat.
New Orleans has been through so much through its history, and I believe that it has shaped the people that live here today. From the native Americans who first lived here, wars, French and Spanish takeovers, and multiple tragedies that have happened (two major fires, two major hurricanes, etc.), it has shaped the people who live here and the way they live. I hope the community realizes how interesting, and sometimes complicated, the history of their city is.

Andrew Jackson exhibit at the Cabildo.

As a nursing student, the Pharmacy Museum was probably the most interesting tour I have been on so far. The tour guide was also a factor in why I enjoyed the tour so much. He had a good sense of humor about the whole thing, and he was very informative about the devices and medicines used in the early days of pharmacies. I am interested in psychiatric/mental health nursing, so I found it so interesting and unbelievable that an accepted form of treatment for many mental illnesses was the use of cocaine. I understand why they used it, but it is still so shocking to me. As the tour guide said, in the future I am sure we will look back at the drugs and treatments we use today and wonder how we ever thought some of them were a good idea.
It seemed to me that everything early medical professionals thought would be a good idea turned out to be a terrible idea. Syringes were completely unhygienic due to the reuse of needles, and there was no way to take them apart to clean them. Also, on early forms of syringes the needle was very blunt or very unnecessarily long. To top it all off, some of made with lead. Pills that were bought by the wealthy were coated with gold or silver. The pills probably had no affect anyway, but if they did they would simply pass right through someone's system without dissolving due to the coating. What makes this especially interesting is the poor would go to nontraditional healers and the herbs they used would sometimes actually work, whereas the rich were just getting even sicker.
Overall, I learned many interesting facts about early medicine and I learned that the only way to figure out if something works is by trial and error. From the information given at the museum, you would think that the medical professionals who thought of some of those ideas were completely insane. But in reality their ideas were monumental in the formation of medical care that we have today.

Leeches used for bloodletting, which is still used in certain situations in healthcare.

Picture in the Pharmacy Museum