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Recently in Salon Health & Body

Geographic discrimination?
Supporters of a new lawsuit against the federal government want to know why Minnesota seniors receive less money for their health care.
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[12/16/99]

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Benson is the author of two medical books for the preparedness culture: "Survivalist's Medicine Chest," and "Do-It-Yourself Medicine," the latter having sold more than 100,000 copies. How do recluses in backwoods Idaho procure such an item? They shop the Internet. Amazon.com is a godsend for the shack-bound but Internet-savvy retreater. Both Benson's medical books ship within 24 hours, as do his -- as he puts it -- "more strident" titles, e.g., "Survival Poaching and Man Trapping." (Ragnar's "Guide to Home and Recreational Use of High Explosives" has been pulled from distribution, owing to a law passed by Congress this October, which is too bad because I've been nosing around for a new pastime and high explosives sounded just the ticket.)

Mary Roach Mary Roach's column appears in Salon Health & Body every other Friday. + Biography + Archives

Benson has no medical degree. His expertise comes from his youth, which was spent on a farm in Indiana. "When one of us needed medical attention," he told me, "we dipped into our veterinary supplies." According to Benson, many pharmaceuticals for animals are the same as those formulated for humans, and can be purchased without a prescription at veterinary supply stores, of which most rural communities have several. In figuring out how to translate livestock dosages to human ones, Benson offers this jaunty rule of thumb: "The dose for a medium hog is usually correct for an adult person." He is less precise about equine preparations -- for example, those used to treat vaginal infections in mares. "Nolvasan in diluted form works wonders for human females with similar maladies," he writes, but does not specify the dilution.

Do-it-yourself medicine is a crude, catch-as-catch-can art. Benson's books explain how to use a plastic soda straw for wound drainage, how to rig an impromptu chloroform mask from an automotive funnel, how to pull metal fragments from eyes with a sterilized shop magnet. The do-it-yourself doctor gets the job done, but doesn't get it done with a great deal of finesse. "Skilled amateurs can sew up wounds provided the victims aren't overly fussy about how the finished product looks," states Benson in the opening chapter of "Do-It-Yourself Medicine." His bedside manner is pretty much what you'd imagine it to be were you a medium hog. Benson describes an encounter with a man in Africa whose eyes he had treated, and who kept taking off the bandages and reinfecting his eyes. "Using an old wooden chair leg," writes Benson, "I beat the crap out of the guy until he promised not to disregard my medical instructions again."

Next page | "I have killed a number of four-legged critters trying to adminster anesthetics"