AMERICAN CIVIL WAR AND MEDICINE

American Civil War and Medicine

American Civil War and Medicine

Outline

I. Introduction3

A. Hospitals And Medical Processes In Civil War3

II. Discussion4

A. Civil Ages And Medical Middle Ages5

B. Medicine Clash Of The War7

C. The Creation of United States Sanitary Commission8

III. Presentation of Opinion10

A. The Professionalization Of America's Hospitals16

IV. Conclusion17

Endnotes19

American Civil War and Medicine

I. Introduction

There are several data that certify to the American Civil War, as the first modern war. It was the first fighting armies of ordinary citizens, not professional soldiers. It was a typical European race motivated by Regios rights to certain territories. As had been the Crimean War, the predecessor of the Civil War. If there was not an ideological component. The result of the conflict had to give in the field of battle, negotiations were not raised alternative to those imposed by bayonets. It was a war in which imported the tactics strategy. Well, who won more had staying power, who had more industry, more capacity he had to replace with new men victims of the battlefields. Total War appears, Sherman in his "march to the sea" destroyed everything he could, knowing that it could serve not devastated to the enemy.

A. Hospitals And Medical Processes In Civil War

Both hospitals and medical processes were rudimentary in the 19th century. Before the Civil War, hospitals played a small role in American medical care and were generally run not by doctors but by "civic-minded" leading citizens of the community where the hospital was located. The Civil War, which brought great numbers of people together into squalid military camps and brutal combat, only served to accentuate the shortcomings of medical care in the era. The doctors who treated soldiers had received their training almost exclusively from mentors who used the antiquated methods standard in American medicine at the time. While university and college courses of instruction were on the rise, even the most prestigious schools frowned upon clinical and laboratory work.

II. Discussion

Adding to the health challenges facing the United States was the fact that medical methodology much more closely resembled medieval practices than anything "modern." Pharmacology was primitive and employed medicines that, in large doses, created the same symptoms as the targeted disease. In fact, several outright poisons, such as mercury, were commonly prescribed. Modern antibiotics were unavailable, and sterilization by heat was unknown. The concept of antiseptic surgery was introduced in Europe by Joseph Lister in 1867, but it took 10 to 15 years for its practice to become generally adopted. Training by apprenticeship perpetuated methods of diagnosis and treatment that fixated on bodily fluids, methods that dated back to Aristotle. Doctors observed urine, feces, blood, and pus to determine the nature of the problem. The prevailing medical opinion was that the body sought to cure itself by excreting toxins. Thus, diarrhea, vomiting, bleeding, or secretions resulting from infection were to be encouraged or induced. It is little wonder that the soldiers of the Civil War hid all but the most dreadful maladies from ...