Two points are relevant. One, against what alternatives was a turpentine enema competing. A man was dying. What are you going to do, if you don't know what to

Two points are relevant. One, against what alternatives was a turpentine enema competing. A man was dying. What are you going to do, if you don't know what to do? Two, this was still the turmoil of technological advances created by the Industrial Revolution being applied to medicine. One could say the Enlightenment (18th century) was the catalyst, but it took time for those changes to wash over all fields, particularly with reference to an ever increasing technological state of the art. The Nick is an interesting show, albeit set a bit later at the dawn of the 20th century, that grapples with the same themes. 'If the best training we have suggests one course of action, but technology enables another that seems it would be better, which do I choose?' https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Knick https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Knick