Physician Knowledge/Medicine

Physician Knowledge/Medicine

Caste colors & appearance

Green
Often good manual dexterity
Smooth Shaven

"These tiers shared the color of that portion of the wall behind them, the caste colors.The tier nearest the floor, which denoted some preferential status, the white tier, was occupied by the Initiates, Interpreters of the Will of the Priest Kings. In order, the ascending tiers; blue, yellow, green and red were occupied by representatives of the Scribes, Builders, Physicians, and Warriors."
Tarnsman

“He is a member of the Caste of Physicians,” said Kusk, “and his manual dexterity is superior even to that of Priest-Kings.”
“Of what city?” I asked.
Parp looked at me closely. “Treve,” he said.
Priest-Kings

Two smiths were in the room. There was a guard talking with the smiths. There was also a man in the green of the Caste of Physicians, standing at one side, writing notes on a slip of record paper. He was a large man, smooth-shaven.
Assassin
Women Active in the Caste Work
Normally not admitted to full practice until giving birth to two children
At age 15, given 2 bracelets to wear on left wrist. After birth of each child, a bracelet is removed.
A notable exception to the generalization that women of a given caste normally do not engage in caste work is the caste of Physicians, whose women are commonly trained, as are the boys, in the practice of medicine. Even the physicians, however, normally do not admit their women to full practice until they have borne two children. The purpose of this is to retain a high level of intelligence in the caste. Professional women, it is well understood, tend not to reproduce themselves, a situation which, over time, would be likely to produce a diminution in the quality of the caste. Concern for the future of the caste is thus evinced in this limitation by the physicians on the rights of their women to participate without delay in the caste craft. The welfare of the caste, typically, takes priority in the Gorean mind over the ambitions of specific individuals. The welfare of a larger number of individuals, as the Goreans reason, correctly or incorrectly, is more important than the welfare of a smaller number of individuals.
...
The woman of the Physicians, at the age of fifteen, in many cities, wears two bracelets on her left wrist. When she has one child one bracelet is removed; when she has a second child the second bracelet is removed. She may then, if she desires, enter into the full practice of her craft.
Fighting Slave
Employed in Wealthy "Houses"
The selection of the girls, incidentally, is determined by judges in their city, or of their own people, in Turia by members of the Caste of Physicians who have served in the great slave houses of Ar;
Nomads

She had then been examined thoroughly by the Physicians of the House of Cernus.
Assassin

No longer,” said he. “I left the Cylinder of Physicians and the next day took service in the House of Cernus, where I have been for many years. I am content here. I am well paid. I have much gold, and some power, and my pick of Red Silk Girls. What man could ask for more?”
Assassin

I had found that I could stand on the leg. It had been lacerated but none of the long, rough-edged wounds was deep. I would have it soon treated by a physician in my own holding.
Raiders

In the garrison there are one hundred men and five officers,” said Sucha. “There are twenty men who are ancillary personnel, a physician, porters, scribes and such.”
Slave Girl
Tools of the trade
Microscope-like machine
Many un-named instruments of advanced medicine
Physicians tape
Needles for shots
Syringes
Vials
Kit
White cloth & metal clips for bandanges
Further, certain pieces of his instrumentation were clearly far from primitive. For example, there was a small machine with gauges and dials. In this he would place slides, containing drops of blood and urine, flecks of tissue, a strand of hair. With a stylus he would note readings on the machine, and, on the small screen at the top of the machine, I saw, vastly enlarged, what reminded me of an image witnessed under a microscope. He would briefly study this image, and then make further jottings with his stylus. The guard had strictly forbidden me to speak to the physician, other than to answer his questions, which I was to do promptly and accurately, regardless of their nature.
Captive

Rim, from his own pouch, handed up to her a tiny steel half crescent, ground from the blade of a shaving knife. Part of it, wrapped in physician’s tape, was bent and fitted behind her two fingers. The blade, as it projected from between her two fingers, was almost invisible.
Hunters

The physician was busying himself with fluids and a syringe before a shelf in another part of the room, laden with vials.
I screamed. The shot was painful. It was entered in the small of my back, over the left hip.

Captive

A physician entered the booth, with his kit slung over the shoulder of his green robes. He began to attend to the merchant.
Beasts

Flaminius, swiftly wrapping a white cloth about the wound, securing it with four small metal snap clips.
Assassin

Items available for treatment
Chemical sterilizers
When the physician had finished the cleansing, chemical sterilization and dressing of the merchant’s wounds, he left.
Beasts

Balm
"Put balm on his wounds.
Fighting Slave

Sedatives (drug tending to calm, moderate, or tranquilize nervousness or excitement)
"Sometimes," said Flaminius, "shock cannot be so easily prevented. Indeed, sometimes the lash itself drives the girl into shock. Then sedations and drugs are called for.
Assassin

Sedative in a shot, a small amount keeps the slave sleeping for "better than an ahn"
The man with the Thief's scar again emerged from the ship, this time with a syringe. He injected a tiny bit of serum into each girl, entering the needle in the girl's back, on the left side between the hip and backbone, passing the needle each time into a small vial he held in his left hand.
The girl who had been stirring uneasily rolled about once, tossing her head to one side, as though in fever, and then her movements subsided and she lay quietly, sedated.
"They will not awaken now," said the man with the Thief's scar, "for better than an Ahn."
One of the men-at-arms laughed. "When they do," he said, "they will find themselves in the slave kennels." Several of the others laughed.
Assassins

Ointment / salve for cuts
He touched the bloodied cut on my belly, where the branch had struck me. Then, with his hand, he lifted my head, turning it, looking at the cut on my cheek. "We are not pleased," he said. I said nothing.
"Bring salve," he said. An ointment was brought, and he smeared it across the two cuts. It was odorless. To my surprise it seemed to be absorbed almost immediately.
"You must be careful," he said. Again I said nothing.
"You might have marked yourself," he said, "or might have been blinded." He returned the ointment to another man.
"They are superficial," he told me, "and will heal without trace."
--Captive

Emetics (an agent that induces vomiting)
"Some girls I have been told sometimes try to swallow small coins but this is foolish. The coin can be produced swiftly enough in such cases by emetics and laxatives."
Dancer

Laxative (Mild drug to loosen bowels, relieve constipation)
"Some girls I have been told sometimes try to swallow small coins but this is foolish. The coin can be produced swiftly enough in such cases by emetics and laxatives."
Dancer

Sleeping Potion / Tranquilizer(described to be different than Tassa Powder)
)) "Kamchak said nothing, but then he got up and from a chest in the wagon he took forth a goblet and filled it with an amber fluid, into which he shook a dark, bluish powder. He then took Elizabeth Cardwel in his left arm and with his right hand gave her the drink. Her eyes were frightened, but she drank. In a few moments she was asleep."
Nomads

Cathartic (medicine that causes purging of the system)
In a higher class market girls are usually fed a cathartic a few hours before the sale, and forced to relieve themselves shortly before their sale, a kettle passed down the line.
Explorers


Various work performed by Physicians
Inspecting slave girls
At certain times of the year several such booths are set up within the courtyard of a slaver’s house; in each, unclothed, chained by the left ankle to a ring, on furs, is a choice Red Silk Girl; prospective buyers, usually accompanied by a member of the Caste of Physicians, in the presence of the slaver’s agent, examine various girls; when particular interest is indicated in one, the Physician and the slaver’s agent withdraw;
Assassin

Certifying slaves as Virgins
Tamirus approached me. He wore green robes. I did not know at that time but this indicated he was of the caste of physicians.
....
There are various attitudes in which the virginity of a girl may be checked. The least embarrassing to her is probably this one.
Tamirus was careful with me, and gentle. He checked twice, delicately.
“Thank you, Master,” I said to him, gratefully.
He stood up. “It is as certified by the house of Hendow,” he said. “The slave is a virgin.”
Dancer

Certifying slave papers
Elizabeth was much amused by the forged slave papers prepared for her, giving in detail an account of her capture and exchanges, complete with endorsements and copies of bills of sale. Some of the information such as Physicians' certifications and measurements and marks of identification had been compiled in the Nest and later transferred to the documents. In my compartment, A1-Ka fingerprinted her, adding her prints to the papers. Under a section on attributes I was interested to note that she was listed as literate.
Assassin

Conducting psychological studies, compiling statistics
whereas Flaminius argued for a position in which women were hardly to be recognized as belonging to the human species. I expect both, and I am certain that Flaminius, recognized the errors and exaggerations of their own position, but neither was concerned with the truth; both were concerned only with victory, and pleasing themselves. At any rate, to my satisfaction, but Elizabeth’s irritation, Flaminius commonly had the best of these exchanges, producing incredibly subtle, complex arguments, quoting supposedly objectively conducted studies by the Caste of Physicians, statistics, the results of tests, and what not. Phyllis, unconvinced, was often reduced to tears and stuttering incoherence.
Assassin

Research diseases
“I thought to find,” said he, “an immunization against Dar-Kosis.”
“For many years,” said Flaminius, “and this was even before 10,110, the year of Pa-Kur and his horde, I and others worked secretly in the Cylinder of Physicians. We devoted our time, those Ahn in the day in which we could work, to study, research, test and experiment.
Assassin


However, disease is almost unknown in the Gorean cities, where the members of the Caste of Physicians do their work.
Age, on Gor, interestingly, was regarded, and still is, by the caste of Physicians as a disease, not an inevitable natural phenomenon. the fact that it seemed a universal disease did not dissuade the caste from considering how it might be combated. Accordingly the work of centuries was turned to this end. Many other diseases, which presumably flourished centuries ago on Gor, tended to be neglected, as less dangerous and less universal then that of aging. A result tended to be that those less suseptible lived on, propegating their kind.

At any rate disease is now almost unknown among the gorean cities, with the exception of the dreaded Dar-Kosis disease or the holy disease, reasearch upon which is generally frowned upon by the caste of initiates who insist the disease is a visitation of the displeasure of the Preist-Kingss on its recipients.
Assassin
Testing on animals
Flaminius took another drink, and then he looked at me, bitterly. “Before the next passage hand,” said he, “armed men broke into the Cylinder of Physicians; the floors we worked on were burned; the Cylinder itself was seriously damaged; our work, our records, the animals we used were all destroyed; several of my staff were slain, others driven away.” He drew his tunic over his head. I saw that half of his body was scarred. “
“I had,” he said, “shortly before the fire developed a strain of urts resistant to the Dar-Kosis organism; a serum cultured from their blood was injected in other animals, which subsequently we were unable to infect. It was tentative, only a beginning, but I had hoped I had hoped very much.”
Assassin

Blood transfusions
Why have you done this?” I cried in anger. She looked at me in mild surprise. “Kuurus,” she said, calling me by the name by which she had known me in the house. “It is you, Kuurus.”
“Yes,” I said. “Yes.”
“I did not wish to live longer as a slave,” she said.
I wept.
“Tell Ho-Tu,” she said, “that I love him.”
I sprang to my feet and ran to the door. “Flaminius!” I cried. “Flaminius!”
A slave running past stopped on my command. “Fetch Flaminius!” I cried. “He must bring blood! Sura must live!”
...
Flaminius came in but a few moments. With him he carried the apparatus of his craft, and a canister of fluid. There was paga on his breath but his eyes were sober. At the door, suddenly, agonized, he stopped.
Assassin

Giving shots for Stabilization Serums
“She requires the Stabilization Serums,” said the physician.
The guard nodded.
“They are administered in four shots,” said the physician.
He nodded to a heavy, beamed, diagonal platform in a corner of the room. The guard took me and threw me, belly down, on the platform, fastening my wrists over my head and widely apart, in leather wrist straps. He similarly secured my ankles. The physician was busying himself with fluids and a syringe before a shelf in another part of the room, laden with vials.
I screamed. The shot was painful. It was entered in the small of my back, over the left hip.
They left me secured to the table for several minutes and then the physician returned to check the shot. There had been, apparently, no unusual reaction.

We returned, similarly, to the physician’s house on the next four days. On the first day I had been examined, given some minor medicines of little consequence, and the first shot in the Stabilization Series. On the second, third and fourth day I received the concluding shots of the series. On the fifth day the physician took more samples.
“The serums are effective,” he told the guard.
Captive

Shaving heads of message slaves
Samos looked at me, quickly. Then to one of those at the table, one who wore the garments of the physicians, he said, “Obtain the message.”
. . .
The member of the caste of physicians, a laver held for him in the hands of another man, put his hands on the girl’s head. She closed her eyes.
. . .
The physician lifted the girl’s long dark hair, touching the shaving knife to the back of her neck. Her head was inclined forward.
. . .
“The message girl is ready,” said the man who wore the green of the physicians. He turned to the man beside him; he dropped the shaving knife into the bowl, wiped his hands on a towel.
The girl, bound, knelt between the guards. There were tears in her eyes. Her head had been shaved, completely. She had no notion what had been written there. Illiterate girls are chosen for such messages. Originally her head had been shaved, and the message tattooed into the scalp. Then, over months, her hair had been permitted to regrow.
Tribesmen

Dental Care
Open your mouth,” said the man.
I opened my mouth.
“See?” he said to Melina. He had his fingers in my mouth, opening it widely. “In the back tooth, on the top, on the left,” he said, “a tiny bit of metal.”
“Physicians can do that,” said Melina.
Slave Girl

On a rounded wooden block a naked slave girl knelt, her wrists braceleted behind her. Her head was back. One of the physicians was cleaning her teeth.
Beasts

It is not an infallible sign, however, for not all Earth girls have fillings and some dental work is done upon occasion by the caste of physicians on Gorean girls.
Beasts

As a child I had had some fillings in the molar area, on lower left side.
“They are common in barbarians,” said the first man.
“Yes,” said Durbar. “But, those of the caste of physicians do such things. I have seen them in some Gorean girls.”
Kajira

Testing for pox
“We are going to test you for pox,” he said. The girl groaned. It was my hope that none on board the Clouds of Telnus had carried the pox. It is transmitted by the bites of lice. The pox had appeared in Bazi some four years ago. The port had been closed for two years by the merchants. It had burned itself out moving south and eastward in some eighteen months. Oddly enough some were immune to the pox, and with others it had only a temporary, debilitating effect. With others it was swift, lethal and horrifying. Those who had survived the pox would presumably live to procreate themselves, on the whole presumably transmitting their immunity or relative immunity to their offspring.
Slaves who contracted the pox were often summarily slain. It was thought that the slaughter of slaves had had its role to play in the containment of the pox in the vicinity of Bazi.
“It is not she,” said the physician. He sounded disappointed. This startled me.
Slave Girl

Revealing (and perhaps applying) Chemical Brands
The physician swabbed a transparent fluid on my arm. Suddenly, startling me, elating the men, there emerged, as though by magic, a tiny, printed sentence, in fine characters, in bright red. It was on the inside of my elbow. I knew what the sentence said, for my mistress, the Lady Elicia of Ar, had told me. It was a simple sentence. It said; “This is she.” It had been painted on my arm with a tiny brush, with another transparent fluid. I had seen the wetness on the inside of my arm, on the area where the arm bends, on the inside of the elbow, and then it had dried, disappearing. I was not even sure the writing had remained. But now, under the action of the reagent, the writing had emerged, fine and clear. Then, only a moment or so later, the physician, from another flask, poured some liquid on a rep-cloth swab, and, again as though by magic, erased the writing. The invisible stain was then gone. The original reagent was then again tried, to check the erasure. There was no reaction. The chemical brand, marking me for the agents with whom the Lady Elicia, my mistress, was associated, was gone. The physician then, with the second fluid, again cleaned my arm, removing the residue of the second application of the reagent.
Slave Girl

Inducing "Hypnosis" with drugs
Iskander, of the physicians, had given me of a strange draft, which I, slave, must needs drink.
“This will relax you,” he had said, “and induce an unusual state of consciousness. As I speak to you your memory will be unusually clear. You will recall tiny details with precision. Further, you will become responsive to my suggestions.”
I do not know what the drug was but it seemed truly effective. Slowly, under its influence, and the soothing, but authoritative voice of Iskander, I, responsive to his suggestions, obedient to his commands, began to speak of the house of Belisarius and what had occurred there. I might, in my normal waking state, have recalled much of what had occurred there, even to the words spoken, but, in the unusual state of consciousness which Iskander, by means of his drug and his suggestions, had induced in me even the most trivial details, little things which a waking consciousness would naturally and peremptorily suppress as meaningless, unimportant, were recalled with a lucid, patient fidelity.
Slave Girl

Attending "Caste Conventions" (Meeting at the Fair) to exchange information
The fairs, too, however, have many other functions. For example, they serve as a scene of caste conventions, and as loci for the sharing of discoveries and research. It is here, for example, that physicians, and builders and artisans may meet and exchange ideas and techniques.
Beasts

Further, members of castes such as the Physicians and Builders use the fairs for the dissemination of information and techniques among Caste Brothers, as is prescribed in their codes in spite of the fact that their respective cities may be hostile.
Priest Kings


Although the codes required them to share information and techniques among members of their caste, they kept their records and information confidential from the public at large.
One hires a warrior for one thing, one hires a scribe for another. One does not expect a scribe to know the sword. Why, then, should one expect the warrior to know the pen? An excellent example of this sort of thing is the caste of musicians which has, as a whole, resisted many attempts to develop and standardize a musical notation. Songs and melodies tend to be handed down within the caste, from one generation to another. If something is worth playing, it is worth remembering, they say. On the other hand, I suspect that they fear too broad a dissemination of the caste knowledge. Physicians, interestingly, perhaps for a similar reason, tend to keep records in archaic Gorean, which is incomprehensible to most Goreans.
Magicians

It seems then, in a roleplay sense, not only acceptable but actually preferable to simply refer to using a balm, a chemical sterilizer, a shot, a sedative, and so on rather than trying to name them with plants and ingredients either known on gor or from earth herbal lore
Tending Wounds - note the chemical sterilization
“Call one of the physicians,” I heard.
“One is coming,” I heard.
These voices came from within the booth.
I bent down and brushed aside the canvas, re-entering the booth. Two men with torches were now there, as well as several others. A man held the merchant in his arms. I pulled aside his robes. The wounds were grievous, but not mortal.
. . .
A physician entered the booth, with his kit slung over the shoulder of his green robes. He began to attend to the merchant.
. . .
When the physician had finished the cleansing, chemical sterilization and dressing of the merchant’s wounds, he left.
Beasts

I found Flaminius, the Physician, in his quarters, and he, obligingly, though drunk, treated the arm which Ho-Tu had slashed with the hook knife. The wound was not at all serious.
"The games of Kajuralia can be dangerous," remarked Flaminius, swiftly wrapping a white cloth about the wound, securing it with four small metal snap clips.
"It is true," I admitted.
Assassin

Tending Wounds - note the patient does not receive magic, "advanced", or herbal pain medication and in fact, still hurts afterwards!
It was then that I heard the scream, a man's scream. I knew the sound for I was of the warriors. Steel, unexpectedly and deeply, had entered a human body.
...
Inside, crouching over a fallen man, the merchant, was the attacker, robed in swirling black. In his hand there glinted a dagger.
...
A man held the merchant in his arms.
I pulled aside his robes. The wounds were grievous, but not mortal.
...
I returned my attention to the struck merchant. The placement of the wounds I found of interest.
"Will I die?" asked the merchant.
"He who struck you was clumsy," I said. "You will live." I then added, "If the bleeding is stopped."
I stood up.
"For the sake of Priest-Kings," said the man, "stop the bleeding."
I regarded the scribe. Others might attend to the work of stanching the flow of blood from the wounds of the merchant.
...
A physician entered the booth, with his kit slung over the shoulder of his green robes. He began to attend to the merchant.
"You will live," he assured the merchant.
...
When the physician had finished the cleansing, chemical sterilization and dressing of the merchant's, wounds, he left. With him the majority of the watchers withdrew as well. The scribe had paid the physician from a small iron box, taken from a locked trunk; a tarsk bit.
...
"There is one part of this plan, however," I said, "which you have not fathomed."
"What is that?" asked the merchant. Momentarily he gritted his teeth, in pain from his wounds.
Beasts

Tending broken bones
I yanked the fellow by the neck leash of twisted cloth to his feet. I thrust the silver tarsk into his mouth, so that he could not speak.
“Seek a physician,” I told him. “Have your wrist attended to. It appears to be broken. Do not be in Victoria by morning.”
I then turned him about and, hurrying him with a well-placed kick, sent him running, awkwardly, painfully, whimpering and stumbling, from the dock.
Rogue

Working on docks to inspect crew & slaves of incoming ships
Two men from the desk of the nearest wharf praetor, he handling wharves six through ten, a scribe and a physician, boarded the ship. The scribe carried a folder with him. He would check the papers of Ulafi, the registration of the ship, the arrangements for wharfage and the nature of the cargo. The physician would check the health of the crew and slaves. Plague, some years ago, had broken out in Bazi, to the north, which port had then been closed by the merchants for two years. In some eighteen months it had burned itself out, moving south and eastward. Bazi had not yet recovered from the economic blow. Schendi’s merchant council, I supposed, could not be blamed for wishing to exercise due caution that a similar calamity did not befall their own port.
The scribe, with Ulafi, went about his business. I, with the crew members, submitted to the examination of the physician. He did little more than look into our eyes and examine our forearms. But our eyes were not yellowed nor was there sign of the broken pustules in our flesh.
Explorers

Advising FW on their frigidity
A familiar bit of advice given by bold Gorean physicians to free women who consult them about their frigidity is, to their scandal, “Learn slave dance.” Another bit of advice, usually given to a free woman being ushered out of his office by a physician impatient with her imaginary ailments is, “Become a slave.” Frigidity, of course, is not accepted in slaves. If nothing else, it will be beaten out of their beautiful hides by whips.
Guardsman

Artificial Insemination?
“I had never been in the arms of a man before,” she said, “for the men of Tharna may not touch women.”
I must have looked puzzled.
“The Caste of Physicians,” she said, “under the direction of the High Council of Tharna, arranges these matters.”
Outlaw

Testing a slaves responses
Cernus turned to Caprus. "Was she touched by the leather?" he inquired.
"The Physician Flaminius conducted the test," reported Caprus. "She was superb."
Assassin

Administering sedatives and drugs
"This one," said Flaminius, "started to go into shock. That can be quite serious. We lashed her that she would feel, that she would come alive under the lash, come to her senses in the pain."
I looked into the cage. The girl was terrified, and doubtless in pain, but certainly she was not in shock.
"Sometimes," said Flaminius, "shock cannot be so easily prevented. Indeed, sometimes the lash itself drives the girl into shock. Then sedations and drugs are called for. This lot, however, has been excellent."
Assassin Information that may be helpful to a Physician
Simple-pile arrows may be withdrawn from the wound
Broad-headed arrow & Tuchuck barbed arrow must be pushed through the wound
"Get the arrows," I told Telima.
I had used simple-pile arrows, which may be withdrawn from the wound. The simple pile gives greater penetration. Had I used a broad-headed arrow, or the Tuchuk barbed arrow, one would, in removing it, commonly thrust the arrow completely through the wound, drawing it out feathers last. One is, accordingly, in such cases, less likely to lose the point in the body.
Telima, one by one, as we passed those that had fallen to the great bow, drew from their bodies the arrows, adding them to those she carried.
Raiders


Specialized Areas of Medicine
Wound Physicians
I wondered, too, on the nature of my affliction. I had had the finest wound physicians on Gor brought to attend me, to inquire into its nature. They could tell me little. Yet I had learned there was no damage in the brain, nor directly to the spinal column. The men of medicine were puzzled. The wounds were deep, and severe, and would doubtless, from time to time, cause me pain, but the paralysis, given the nature of the injury, seemed to them unaccountable.
Marauders

Psychological
He was Iskander, said once to have been of Turia, the master of many medicines and one reputed to be knowledgeable in certain intricacies of the mind.
Slave Girl
Known Accomplishments of Physicians
Developed slave goad with Caste of Builders
On the other side of the belt, there hung a slave goad, rather like the tarn goad, except that it is designed to be used as an instrument for the control of human beings rather than tarns. It was, like the tarn goad, developed jointly by the Caste of Physicians and that of the Builders, the Physicians contributing knowledge of the pain fibers of human beings, the networks of nerve endings, and the Builders contributing certain principles and techniques developed in the construction and manufacture of energy bulbs. Unlike the tarn goad which has a simple on-off switch in the handle, the slave goad works with both a switch and a dial, and the intensity of the charge administered can be varied from an infliction which is only distinctly unpleasant to one which is instantly lethal.
Assassin

Developed Stabilization Serums -
The matter, I supposed, was a function of genetic subtleties, and the nature of differing gametes. The serums of stabilization effected, it seemed, the genetic codes, perhaps altering or neutralizing certain messages of deterioration, providing, I supposed, processes in which an exchange of materials could take place while tissue and cell patterns remained relatively constant. Aging was a physical process and, as such, was susceptible to alteration by physical means. All physical processes are theoretically reversible. Entropy itself is presumably a moment in a cosmic rhythm. The physicians of Gor, it seemed, had addressed themselves to the conquest of what had hitherto been a universal disease, called on Gor the drying and withering disease, called on Earth, aging. Generations of intensive research and experimentation had taken place. At last a few physicians, drawing upon the accumulated data of hundreds of investigators, had achieved the breakthrough, devising the first primitive stabilization serums, later to be developed and exquisitely refined.
Slave Girl

Developed Slave Wine
In the concentrated state, as in slave wine, developed by the caste of physicians, the effect is almost indefinite, usually requiring a releaser for its remission, usually administered, to a slave, in what is called the breeding wine, or the “second wine.”
Blood Brothers


Sip root, the main ingredient in slave wine, is effective on the female reproductive system. It does not work on male slaves.

She did not need the sip root, of course, for, as she had pointed out, she had had some within the moon, and indeed, the effect of sip root, in the raw state, in most women, is three or four moons. In the concentrated state, as in slave wine, developed by the caste of physicians, the effect is almost indefinite, usually requiring a releaser for its remission, usually administered, to a slave, in what is called the breeding wine, or the "second wine".
Blood Brothers

"And is he, upon occasion," asked the Lady Florence, "rewarded with things of another sort?"
"Of course, Lady Florence," said Kenneth.
"With what?" she asked.
"With meaningless little things, trivialities, baubles, things of no account or worth," said Kenneth.
The Lady Florence looked over to the line of kneeling Kajirae. "To be sure," she said, acidly.
"If Lady Florence disapproves," said Kenneth, "we shall, of course, discontinue the practice."
"Why should I disapprove?" she asked, angrily.
"I do not know, Lady Florence," said Kenneth. "I only thought-"
"The sluts are on their slave wine, are they not?" she asked.
"Of course," said Kenneth.
Fighting Slave - This scene is dicussing rewarding a male slave with the *use* of female slaves. Note the *female* slaves, upon whom sip root is effective, are the ones "on slave wine"


Healing done by those not of the caste of Physicians
Stanching blood flow with hands and hair
Tupita wept over Mirus, who had fallen, who was unconscious. With her hands and hair she tried to stanch the flow of his blood.
...
Tupita looked up, frightened, from where she crouched over Mirus. His eyes were now open. Her hair and hands were covered with blood. She had stopped the bleeding. I did not think, however, he could rise.
Dancer

Homemade tourniquet
"The other one may still be alive," said the fellow with the injured arm. The blood was slow on it now, as he had his hand clasped over the wound. Blood, as he held the wound, was between his fingers, and was visible also in rivulets, running to his wrist and the back of his hand.
...
The wounded man’s arm had apparently stopped bleeding, or nearly so. With one hand, and his teeth, he tore his tunic, and bound cloth about his arm. Some blood came through the cloth, but very little, little more than a sudden, fresh stain, then nothing.
Dancer

I saw one man who lacked an arm, lying on the floor, groaning, the limb having been lost to the unseen beam of the ships above. "My fingers," he cried, "my fingers hurt!" One of the humans by the wall, a girl, knelt by him, holding a cloth, trying to stanch the bleeding. It was Vika! I rushed to her side. "Quick, Cabot!" she cried, "I must make a tourniquet!" I seized the limb of the man and pressing the flesh together managed to retard the bleeding. Vika took the cloth from his wound and, ripping it and using a small steel bar from the sheared wall, quickly fashioned a tourniquet, wrapping it securely about the remains of the man’s arm. The physician’s daughter did the work swiftly, expertly. I rose to leave.
Priest Kings - Vika is a slave at this point, and as such, is without caste. She later is freed and elects to work with Flaminius as a Physician.

Using dagger and leather lacings to sew up gaping wound
Flesh hung, ripped from his body. I tried to press together the wounds.
...
"Find the lance head," said I, "take the lacings from the blade. Bring me the dagger."
"You cannot save him," said Hassan. The beams beneath the body of the kennel master were drenched with blood. My forehead was drenched with sweat. I saw the wounds in the shifting torchlight above and behind me. There was salt on my hands, blood. I pressed together, as I could, the serrated flesh.
"I did not know there could be so much blood in a man," said one of the men behind me.
"Bring me what I asked for," I said.
The lance shaft broken, was found floating near the raft. The lacings which had reinforced the head were removed. The dagger was thrust in the wood beside me.
Using the dagger as an awl, punching through the flesh, and the long lacing from the lance head, while Hassan held together the edges of the ripped furrows, I crudely sewed together the rent, bloodied meat before me.
Once T'Zshal opened his eyes. "Let me die," he begged.
"I thought you once made the march to Klima," I said.
"I did," said T'Zshal.
"March again to Klima," I told him.
The fists of the kennel master clenched. A bit later be slept.
I leaned back from the body of T'Zshal. "You would not qualify as one of the caste of physicians," said a man behind me.
Hunters - This last remark clearly shows this is seen as a much cruder level of care than one would receive from a member of the Caste of Physicians

Applying Balm to open wounds from whip
The strap which held my bound wrists was cut away from the ring to which it was tied.
I crouched down, under the ring. I did not collapse to the tiles. I was sick. I was aware of the blood on the tiles, beneath me and on my feet. I was aware of the sweat and blood on my body. My hands were still tied before my body. I was conscious of the collar of steel on my neck. I had received fifteen blows of the snake. I knew that twenty blows of that fearsome whip could kill some men.
"Return him to his kennel," she said. "Put balm on his wounds. Feed him later. Let him rest. Tomorrow he will run certain errands for me. Tomorrow, in the evening, send him to my chambers."
Fighting Slave


Amazing Ointment from Treve
This quote posted in many places often leaves out the last part - this is an ointment of the Priest Kings, NOT Physicians. This scene takes place in the Sardar Mountains, the home of the Priest Kings.
With a graceful movement she rose and went back again to the chests against the wall. She returned with a small tube of ointment.
"They are deeper than I thought," she said.
With the tip of her finger she began to work the ointment into the cuts. It burned quite a bit.
...
"The ointment will soon be absorbed," she said. "In a few minutes there will be no trace of it, nor of the cuts."
I whistled.
"The physicians of Treve," I said, "have marvelous medicines."
"It is an ointment of Priest-Kings," she said.
Priest Kings
Other drugs, powders & such often listed on Gorean "Medical" Pages
Tassa Powder
I struggled to move, but could not well do so. When the tharlarion wagon had arrived at a house in Venna, I had been removed from the slave cage and slave sack. When the hood, with its gag, had been removed from me, I had been forced, sitting in the courtyard, my head back and nose held, to swallow a draft of water, into which a reddish powder had been mixed. I had shortly thereafter lost consciousness.
...
"You have recovered more quickly than I had anticipated from the Tassa powder," she said. "But it does not matter.
...
"In the courtyard below," I said, "I was drugged."
"It was done by Tassa powder," she said.
"It was tasteless, and effective," I said.
"Slavers sometimes use it," she said. "It is well for a girl not to drink with a strange man," she laughed.
"It shows up, of course," I said, "in water."
"It is meant to be mixed with red wine," she said.
"Of course," I said.
I wondered how many girls, accepting the apparent generosity of a stranger, had found themselves suddenly, inexplicably, swooning, only to awaken later in some unknown place, naked and in the chains of a slave.
...
When the Lady Melpomene had finished with me, after that long night of her use of me, she had held for me another draft of water, discolored by the reddish Tassa powder. I had not wished to drink this. Then she had held her dagger to my body. I drank. Soon I was unconscious.
Fighting Slave - Does not appear in any of the books to be something used by Physicians. They use their sedatives as above

Gieron
"My pursuit of you was foiled," I said, "by the results of the drug you placed in my paga."
"The drug," said Shaba, "was a simple combination of sajel, a simple pustulant, and gieron, an unusual allergen. Mixed they produce a facsimile of the superficial symptoms of Bazi plague." "I could have been killed," I said, "by the mob."
I did not think many would care to approach you," said Shaba.
"It was not your intention then that I be killed?" I asked.
"Certainly not," said Shaba. "if that was all that was desired, kanda might have been introduced into your drink as easily as sajel and gieron"
Explorers - An allergen, meaning causing allergic reactions. There is no medical use for giving a patient an allergen.

Sajel -
See above quote
A pustulant, causing pustules to break out on a persons skin. Again, no valid medical use.

Kanda
"It was not your intention then that I be killed?" I asked.
"Certainly not," said Shaba. "if that was all that was desired, kanda might have been introduced into your drink as easily as sajel and gieron"
Explorers

The roots of the kanda plant, which grows largely in desert regions on Gor, are extremely toxic, but, surprisingly, the rolled leaves of this plant, which are relatively innocuous, are formed in ostrings and, chewed or sucked, are much favored by many Goreans, particularly in the southern hemisphere, where the leaf is more abundant.
Nomads

Tobacco is unknown on Gor, though there are certain vices or habits to take its place, in particular the stimulation afforded by chewing on the leaves of the Kanda plant, the roots of which, oddly enough, when ground and dried, constitute an extremely deadly poison.
Priest kings

It was a throwing knife, of a sort used in Ar, much smaller than the southern quiva, and tapered on only one side. It was a knife designed for killing. Mixed with the blood and fluids of the body there was a smear of white at the end of the steel, the softened residue of a glaze of kanda paste, now melted by body heat, which had coated the tip of the blade.
Assassin

They are men who commonly have an extraordinary aptitude for the game but beyond this men who have become drunk on it, men lost in the subtle, abstract liquors of variation, pattern and victory, men who live for the game, who want it and need it as other men might want gold, or others power and women, or others the rolled, narcotic strings to toxic kanda.
Assassin

From kanda we get poison from the roots, and a sort of stimulating, narcotic chewing tobacco from the leaves. Neither offers much value medically to the advanced caste of Physicians.