[starslayer]

Question 23
What kinds of medical advances have been achieved, and how has this affected society?

Answer

Its not so much that what has been achieved is 'better' so much as the 'flavor' for how things are being achieved. About the same time in our own timeline everything 'cutting edge' medicine revolved around electricity, radiation, and cocaine.

In the Tar Coral world, everything cutting edge in medicine revolves around- Tar Coral, pressure, and heat.

As a result of which they are able to cure the bends, not because of any special knowledge of nitrogen narcosis, but instead because they think that pressure can cure everything, so when people were becoming enigmatically ill while diving deeply they tried a variety of tar coral based potions, subjecting them to pressure, and selective heat- pressure worked.

As well the naturally astringent properties of tar coral led them to a much earlier discovery of antiseptics- crushed tar coral is basically incompatible with any form of life that is a threat to regular living tissue.

Finally there use of heat as a treatment has led to a much quicker understanding of the role of heat in relaxing sore muscles and relieving long term bone and tissue injury. The concept of bathing in cold water never really caught on (possibly because a method to heat that water was abundant), and bathing regularly in hot water is considered a requirement for doing manual labor.

The counter of course is that they are not as developed in an understanding of painkillers, radiation technologies (like x-ray), and there understanding of nerve transmission is much reduced- not major losses in the current year, but as there medicine advances those missing pieces may come to haunt them.