Eyesight and Other Senses

[Inverarity]

But this has me think: how can it be possible for wizards to create bones out of nothing (Skele-grow), but they can't create whole limbs? Could this possibley relate to the wizarding world's good understanding of bones, but reletively poor understanding of nerves and muscles and all other parts of the body.

People can regrow lost bone and tissue, but they can't regrow a limb or an organ.

Skele-grow is probably just something that dramatically accelerates the natural healing process. It may be that healing magic is not limited by wizards' understanding of the body, but by what the body can and cannot do on its own.

[Northumbrian]

It may be that healing magic is not limited by wizards' understanding of the body, but by what the body can and cannot do on its own.

I reckon that this is a good working hypothesis.

In my opinion, healers use magic and potions to encourage the body to repair itself, they speed up the natural repair process and encourage re-growth of things that human medicine “knows” can’t be re-grown. That could (possibly) even include a cure for cancer, but I’d be happy to argue either way if there was a good story in it.

What healers can’t do is improve on the pre-existing conditions. If you’re born with poor eyesight, or poor hearing, you’re stuck with it. If you’re deaf, and your ear is chopped off by a sword, the healers can re-grow the ear, but you’ll still be deaf. The same applies to eyes or even a congenital heart condition. I’d argue that magic is better than medicine except with regard to “birth defects” (this would also explain JKR’s (later deleted) reference to a witch with a hare lip in CoS).

Ted Tonks re-grew Harry’s tooth which had been knocked out.

Molly (referring to Fred’s ear) said “I can’t make it grow back, not when it’s been removed by Dark Magic.”

Are they trained healers? Or does “Handy First Aid Hints for Harassed Witches and Wizards” (or whatever) include spells for those minor injuries like losing an tooth, or an ear, or a hand?

-N-

[Karaley Dargen]

It is never discussed elsewhere, the use of this kind of Muggle remedies on Wizards. Though, as primative technology such as glasses works to correct Harry, Arthur, and Dumbledore's vision, if they had an injury that didn't involve magic, then theoretically they could stitch it up, or have it fixed at a Muggle hospital, if the need arose.

Yes – that's partly what I meant, even though I didn't write it ( >.< tired!me). Under normal circumstances, the stitches would probably work like a wound-healing spell, only slower I suppose. But with that injury, they were inferior to the magical healing methods –*so in a way, the wizards are more advanced than the Muggles because they have some potion or something that can help where stitches can't.