Lewis and Clark treated fevers with pills called "thunderclappers," a strong laxative. Mining camp "soiled doves" may have used opium as birth control. Pioneers sometimes applied fresh cow manure to snakebites. And nineteenth century doctors recommended soaking in natural hot springs for alcohol and drug addiction. Thee are just a few of the remedies--some effective, some not--described in Bleed, Blister, and Purge. Yet this book is much more than a summary of peculiar medical practices of the past. Dr. Volney Steele wrote Bleed, Blister and Purge "to shed light on and celebrate the dedication and humanitarianism of those many physicians, nurses, shamans, and people of sound practical sense who saw their patients--often friends and family--through the adversities that bedeviled them."