The Health thread
Remedies, painkillers, anaesthetics, surgery, instruments and the first antibiotic. 60 entries, in the order they are reached.
Phase 01 — First days: water, fire, shelter Year 1 (days 1–7)
| 01.24 | First-aid kitpressure and clean cloth for bleeding, boiled water to wash wounds, splints and slings for breaks | year 1 |
| 01.26 | Monthly hygienewashable pads, a wash rule and privacy for the twelve women | year 1 |
| 01.27 | Life-saving drillwhat to do in the first minutes for choking, drowning, stopped breath and heavy bleeding | year 1 |
Phase 03 — Food security and the first camp Year 1
| 03.23 | Herb garden and remedy list ⚠wound, fever and stomach remedies; the strong plants (foxglove, castor, senna, belladonna) are grown apart and not used until doses can be weighed | year 1 |
| 03.24 | Charcoal for swallowed poisoncrushed charcoal in water, given at once | year 1 |
| 03.36 | Willow-bark teathe first painkiller and fever remedy | year 1 |
| 03.37 | Honey dressings and leaf poulticeskeep a wound clean and draw out infection | year 1 |
| 03.38 | Bites and stingswashing and dressing a bite, what to do for a snake bite, relief for stings | year 1 |
| 03.39 | Salt-and-honey drinkputs back what fever and loose bowels take out; saves more lives than any other remedy; never made with honey for a child under one year | year 1 |
| 03.40 | Birth hut and birth kita clean place, boiled ties, a flamed blade and two trained helpers | year 1 |
| 03.41 | Mother and infant carechecks before the birth, care of the newborn, weaning foods and boiled water for infants | year 1 |
| 03.42 | Sick hut and the keeping-apart ruleanyone with fever or flux is nursed away from the camp | year 1 |
| 03.43 | Care of teethdaily cleaning with a chew stick and salt or chalk | year 1 |
| 03.44 | Burial grounda place for the dead, away from the water, where they are laid to rest and remembered | year 1 |
| 03.45 | Worms, lice and fleasmeat and fish cooked through, washing and combing, pigs kept from the latrine | year 1 |
Phase 04 — Clay, kilns, charcoal and lime Years 1–2
| 04.31 | Ointments, infusions and decoctionseach herb prepared the same way every time | year 2 |
| 04.32 | Gypsum plastera cast that holds a broken limb still; also moulds and smooth walls | year 2 |
Phase 05 — Copper and bronze Years 2–3
| 05.29 | Bronze healer's toolstweezers, probes, needles, lancet and cautery iron | year 3 |
Phase 06 — Iron and steel Years 3–5
| 06.31 | Steel surgical instrumentsscalpels, forceps, tooth forceps, scissors, bone saw and curved needles | year 5 |
Phase 07 — Carpentry, the village, measures and writing Years 4–9
| 07.48 | Infirmarya separate sick house with washable lime-plastered walls, its own water and its own privy | year 9 |
| 07.49 | The formularyevery remedy, dose and warning written in the Record, with doses by weight; the strong plant drugs are used only from here on | year 9 |
| 07.52 | Wooden listening tubehears the heart, the lungs and the unborn child | year 9 |
| 07.53 | Delivery forceps and checks before the birththe unborn child's heart heard, and a hard birth helped | year 9 |
Phase 08 — Farming, cloth, leather and household industry Years 6–18
| 08.42 | Opium poppy plot and raw opium ⚠strong relief for severe pain; kept locked and given only by the healer | year 16 |
| 08.43 | Boiled linen bandages, gauze and cotton wool | year 17 |
| 08.44 | Gut and linen suturesthread for sewing wounds | year 17 |
| 08.45 | Stretcher, crutches and a working handthe injured carried out; a hook and grip for a hand that has lost fingers | year 17 |
Phase 11 — Glass, chemistry, petroleum, rubber and cement Years 24–32
| 11.58 | Tinctures and laudanum ⚠plant medicines dissolved in alcohol and given by the drop | year 30 |
| 11.59 | Healing oils by steamclove for toothache, eucalyptus and mint for the chest | year 30 |
| 11.60 | Iodine and iodine tincturepainted on skin to kill germs before a cut | year 31 |
| 11.63 | Carbolic acid ⚠distilled from coal tar; the first surgical germ-killer | year 31 |
| 11.64 | Ether ⚠the first reliable anaesthetic: sleep without pain for surgery | year 31 |
| 11.65 | Chloroform ⚠a second anaesthetic, which does not catch fire | year 31 |
| 11.66 | Laughing gas ⚠short anaesthesia for teeth and childbirth | year 31 |
| 11.67 | Morphine ⚠the active part of opium, purified so that a dose can be weighed exactly | year 31 |
| 11.68 | Sterile salt water and distilled waterfor washing wounds and mixing medicines | year 31 |
| 11.69 | Rubber medical goodsgloves, tubing, hot-water bottle, bulb syringe | year 32 |
| 11.70 | Antiseptic operating room ⚠scrubbed hands, boiled instruments, carbolic on everything, the patient asleep under ether | year 32 |
Phase 12 — Precision and machine tools Years 30–36
| 12.35 | Compound microscopeshows living things a thousand times too small to see | year 35 |
| 12.36 | Hypodermic syringe and hollow needlemedicine put straight under the skin | year 35 |
| 12.37 | Fever thermometer and pulse timingfever and heartbeat as numbers | year 35 |
| 12.38 | Blood-pressure gaugea rubber cuff and a column of mercury | year 35 |
| 12.39 | Salt water into a vein ⚠replaces lost blood and fluid in the injured and in mothers after a hard birth | year 35 |
| 12.40 | Cold ether spray ⚠skin and gums chilled numb for small operations | year 35 |
| 12.41 | Eye drops for the newbornone drop of weak silver solution in each eye prevents blindness from birth | year 35 |
| 12.42 | Treadle dental drill and fillings ⚠a decayed tooth cleaned out and filled, not pulled | year 36 |
Phase 13 — Steam power Years 34–40
| 13.27 | Steam steriliser ⚠steam under pressure kills every germ on instruments, dressings and culture jelly | year 39 |
| 13.29 | Stained slidesbacteria coloured so that they can be seen and told apart | year 39 |
| 13.30 | Culture dishes, seaweed jelly and warm cabinetgerms grown on purpose, one kind at a time | year 40 |
| 13.31 | Porcelain candle filterstrains the germs out of a liquid without heating it | year 40 |
| 13.32 | The island's germs namedthe causes of wound fever and childbed fever found, grown and drawn in the Record | year 40 |
Phase 14 — Electricity, generators, motors and batteries Years 38–45
| 14.40 | X-ray tube and glowing screen ⚠broken bones and swallowed metal seen through the flesh | year 44 |
Phase 15 — Railways, steam and electric cars, the power grid Years 43–50
| 15.36 | Salicylic acid and aspirinthe willow's painkiller made by the pound from coal tar | year 49 |
| 15.37 | Serum against lockjaw ⚠made in a horse and given after a dirty wound | year 49 |
| 15.38 | The mould that kills germsa blue-green mould from spoiled fruit clears a ring in a dish of bacteria | year 49 |
| 15.39 | Mould broth for woundsthe mould grown in rows of flat sterile bottles on sugar broth; the filtered liquid heals infected wounds | year 49 |
| 15.40 | Penicillin for injection ⚠the broth concentrated cold, purified and dried; the first true cure for blood poisoning | year 49 |
| 15.41 | The hospitaloperating room, wards, laboratory, steriliser, electric light, X-ray, hot and cold water | year 49 |
Phase 17 — The gasoline engine and the forklift Years 51–64
| 17.10 | Motor ambulancethe sick and the injured reach the hospital in minutes | year 56 |
Phase 21 — Microphone, speaker, magnetic tape and the telephone exchange Years 58–85
| 21.15 | Hearing aida small microphone, amplifier and earpiece worn by those who hear badly | year 64 |