What is greyscale and how does it spread?

[illrede]

also i doubt vinegar etc really helps, we are talking about an era (and fantasy world) which seems to have a lack of scientific knowlege. I always assumed the "cures" were wrong and just old wives tales.

I think the theme is too common to be a coincidence.

EDIT: Heck, Copper-surface = good is an old wives tale.

"Scientific Knowledge" is easy. The scientific method is hard. The maesters seem to have truck with it, though.

[north of the wall]

I think the theme is too common to be a coincidence.

EDIT: Heck, Copper-surface = good is an old wives tale.

"Scientific Knowledge" is easy. The scientific method is hard. The maesters seem to have truck with it, though.

we have no evidence of it working though do we? We are told that this is the usual treatment but have we seen it cure anyone? The maesters similar (albeit maybe slightly more successful) than medieval drs and we all know just how successful they were.

[illrede]

we have no evidence of it working though do we? We are told that this is the usual treatment but have we seen it cure anyone? The maesters similar (albeit maybe slightly more successful) than medieval drs and we all know just how successful they were.

Tyrion's doing fine. The guy who fished him out is Stage Two.

I'm serious about that "this is the shortlist of casually available items and processes that calcium carbonate is soluble with" thing.

[illrede]

I'm serious about that "this is the shortlist of casually available items and processes that calcium carbonate is soluble with" thing.

Well, a few google searches later and I could well be the first GRRM fan to notice that.

(What are you people, liberal arts majors to a man?)

It could be that GRRM just cross-referenced descaling agents for what you could do with a medieval tech base and threw them in there for what the Maesters try to treat grayscale with.

[north of the wall]

Tyrion's doing fine. The guy who fished him out is Stage Two.

I'm serious about that "this is the shortlist of casually available items and processes that calcium carbonate is soluble with" thing.

I may have dismissed it too early on but i always just assumed this isn't a cure since he never showed any syptoms.

i shall have to think about this some more. If westoros and essos are more medically effective than i first thought then it will change the way i think and feel about the "time" of the series though

[illrede]

I may have dismissed it too early on but i always just assumed this isn't a cure since he never showed any syptoms.

i shall have to think about this some more. If westoros and essos are more medically effective than i first thought then it will change the way i think and feel about the "time" of the series though

You can be right on a shot in the dark. You can be right a lot of times on a shot in the dark. The thing about the scientific method is being able to constantly know that you are right or wrong against apocryphal bias. Without it, as time passes, institutional knowledge gets more and more wrong. The scientific method is very difficult. Simple, but utterly unpleasant, ethically taxing, and very difficult.

We could have had it a thousand years ago. We could lose it tomorrow.

[Dr. Pepper]

I may have dismissed it too early on but i always just assumed this isn't a cure since he never showed any syptoms.

i shall have to think about this some more. If westoros and essos are more medically effective than i first thought then it will change the way i think and feel about the "time" of the series though

I doubt it's a cure exactly. Just an available disinfectant. It seems more like the fact that Tyrion was cleaned, beyond just a rinse off with water. Throughout the series, vinegar is used as an antibacterial and has been fairly effective. I doubt GRRM spent long hours studying medicine while he was writing his tome. It seems, for the most part, he draws from random knowledge the average person would already have. Such as vinegar once (and sometimes still) being used to in treating various ailments, regardless of today's scientific understanding on the efficacy of such treatments. He even tosses in some modern medicines (an undeveloped form of penicilin, for example). It doesn't fit with the time period, but because he writes it consistently, it works.

I think the thing we should take away from that greyscale experience is that one character was treated with an antibacterial agent while another wasn't and that cleaning after exposure is better than not.

[BarrelRoll42]

It does have a lot of parralels. Scarred skin, loss of sensation, stonemen are like a leporcolony. It does not spread through water though. GRRM mght have used it as a basis, and added some elements on his own (transmission through water, different forms/related diseases..)

This + syphilis seem the best parallel to me, in that it eventually drives you insane.

[Iskandros]

Leprosy was my first thought. But since it's a fantasy work, it's probably inspired by more diseases and a good dose of common human fears.