It was some time in the early 1950s, I was less than 10 years old, that I was playing at my grand-parents’ home. We were there visiting my mother’s parents, perhaps on a Sunday afternoon after church. I was running around just to the east of the house on a path that led to the chicken house and the garden, right at the point where it veered off to lead to the privy back behind the house.
There was a board in my path I stepped on without thinking. And, in the board was a nail sticking up as plain as day. I felt the nail hit the resistance of the sole of my shoe which provided some safety. The pointed end of the nail pierced into the sole of the shoe and, just for a moment, there was a contest to see which would prevail: was the nail so sharp that it would pierce the piece of leather from which its enemy was made, or would the leather be of such density that it could protect the foot inside the shoe. As quickly as it happened, I was aware of the leather sole pushing back on the intruder, but only momentarily. Then I felt the nail win in the contest as it went all the way through the leather barrier, after which it entered the soft flesh covering a small child’s foot. It punctured the skin and passed through the muscle and blood, sinew and cartilage, going upward through the foot and out the skin covering the top of the foot. It happened so quickly, I don’t remember it hurting all that much as it entered the foot. Pulling the foot off the nail wasn’t quite as quick.
I walked back into the house and told my parents what had happened. They removed the shoe and looked at the puncture wounds in the bottom and top of my foot. We had doctors in those days in Erick. But, I’m not sure it ever occurred to my parents they should take me to see one. We didn’t look for someone to do things for us which we could do for ourselves. And, it didn’t seem we needed help doctoring a foot that had stepped on a nail, we could treat it ourselves. We had coal oil.
My grand-parents kept coal oil and used it to fuel their cook stove. (Thinking of that, I suppose this was probably late in the late 1940s.) Coal oil is normally thought of as being the same substance as kerosene, however, that probably isn’t accurate. Coal oil really is a derivative of coal, produced by a process developed in Scotland in 1850. Kerosene is a distilled petroleum product. They are not technically the same, but had a common use and the terms in those days were used interchangeably, particularly among older people. I doubt that today one could even find a product marketed as “coal oil.” It probably doesn’t matter unless one starts using it for medicinal purposes.
Coal oil was considered a proper treatment for many ailments. It was used to treat flu and the common cold. Mixed with a little sugar or molasses, it would be taken internally to reduce fever or suppress a cough. The stuff is toxic so a little would go a long way. It was used to treat cuts and abrasions by either wrapping the wound in a coal oil soaked rag, or, more effectively, just pour the stuff into wound. In my situation, they simply poured coal oil in a pan and put my foot in it to soak for some time. I don’t recommend this as a remedy for injuries as I don’t know that you can get real coal oil today. Kerosene is a petroleum distillate and, as such, I think it may be more akin to gasoline than it is to coal oil. Now, I know gasoline has chemicals in it that are so dangerous that contact with skin is discouraged. (Of course, we used to wash our hands in gasoline to cut grease from the skin before then using soap and water.)
Tetanus was known back then. In fact, my mother, as a child, had suffered from “lockjaw”, a term used for tetanus in those earlier days because the disease first appeared as a stiffening of the jaw. It is a damnable disease caused by bacteria living in soil. Back in those days there was a very high mortality rate and even today it reportedly has an 11% rate of mortality. Since 1924 we have had a vaccine for tetanus, but I don’t know if that was to treat it or simply prevent getting it in the first place. It is something someone can get from a scratch while planting tomatoes in a garden. That’s why medical practitioners ask when your last tetanus shot was. If you ever get it, you may survive but you’ll have a hell of an experience to share with your kids and grand-kids afterwards. And, that is only if you survive.
I sat there about 30 minutes or so allowing the coal oil to soak into the open wound, seeping down deep to reach all the way into the center of the little violated foot. I still have that foot. And, no, I didn’t get lockjaw. I guess it worked, but I still recommend that if you step on a dirty, rusty nail, you need to go to the doctor. The incubation period for the bacteria causing tetanus is about 8 days and by then the vaccine can probably go to work to help fight it off. I don’t recommend you soak it in a petroleum distillate.
