Research Symposium

BIO

Alexandra Falvella is a first-year student participating in FSU's Honors Program and pursuing a Bachelor of the Arts in History. Her on-campus involvements include serving as an Article Editor for the Undergraduate Law Review and an intern at FSU's Postcard Archive. Currently, she aspires to become a history professor and research fellow. She enjoys reading historical literature and cooking in her free time.

Puritan Medicine in Colonial New England: Decoding a Mystical Marvel

Abstract

From the Salem Witch Trials to The Scarlet Letter, the colonial Puritans have cemented an instantly recognizable image in modern minds. Typically, most remember the Puritans as religious fanatics—shunning reason and progress in favor of divine purification. However, this fixed perspective does the scholars and religious intellectuals of this group a vast disservice. Specifically, this project seeks to understand how the Colonial New England Puritans cultivated their knowledge of public health and the manner by which they deemed it would be best preserved. Ranging from superstitious precautions to botanical remedies, the medical education of these colonists is largely credited to two notable figures in medicinal history: the ancient Greek physician Galen and the German-Swiss alchemist Paracelsus. Complex debates about the efficacy of healing afflictions through opposites (treating cold fits with heat) or likeness (utilizing a plant that resembles a scorpion to treat the real insect’s bite) were a result of their conflicting doctrines. Through a detailed analysis of primary sources and medical treatises, I aim to gauge which of the two men played the most influential role in the Puritan medical sphere. Importantly, the result of this analysis of Puritanical perceptions towards public health may also encourage the shedding of simplistic interpretations of this period of the United States’ history. Ultimately, this research serves as a point of origin for this country, reflecting on the success of one of its first permanent settlements through a lens that both expands upon and humanizes the Puritan experience.

Keywords: Puritan, Medicine, Paracelsus, Galen, Botany