Medicine+8

=Medicine During the Civil War = =Surgeons =

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Surgeons were not very common at the beginning of the civil war, in fact there were only 36 in the entire United States. People felt that the war wasn 't going to last much longer than a few months, so initially there wasn't much of a need for doctors. When the need was first noticed, there weren't any requirements to become a surgeon, some went to school but only did book work. Another way to become a surgeon was to earn it. you could star t out as litter bearer, they carried wounded men off the battlefield, and then work your way up to Steward where you would take care of minor wounds, pull teeth, and guard medicine storage. Assistant surgeon was the next step in which you would actu ally be able to help out in an operation. If you were lucky by the end of the war you could work your way up to a full-fledged surgeon. Being a full-fledged surgeon meant that you were in charge of amputations and treatments for disease. =====

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Although it was not always necessary, amputation was the treatment of choice because little time was given to the doctors with each patient and amputation took about 10 minutes. During an amputation the surgeon took a scalpel and cut through the flesh tissue to the bone, then they used a capitol saw to cut through the bone. After the bone was completely cut off they would sew up the arteries and veins. =====

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In the North, silk thread was used and in the South they used cotton thread. Pain was excruciating during these amputations, so the surgeons gave the patients Chloroform, an anesthetic, by holding a cloth soaked in it over a soldier's nose or mouth untile they were unconscious. After the surgery was completed the doctor would give the  patient Morphine either orally or by injection to relieve some of the pain. One of the main problems with these amputations is there were so many soldiers that needed medical treatment that there was no washing hands or medical instruments between these operations. This caused several of the amputees to get infections, but luckily about 75% of them recovered. The doctors were aware that cleanliness can prevent infection, but they did not know how to sterilize equipment.=====

=A Doctor's Manual =

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 During the war it became apparent that some kind of manual was needed in order for doctors to "properly" carry out all of there duties and in 1863 J.J. Chislom created this manual. Even though this manual was widely accepted during the war, there were several treatments Chislom described that did more harm than anything else. For example he said that every soldier should soak his socks in soap and water each day in order to avoid foot sores but in fact because the soap was made of lye, a corrosive ingredient, this made the men's sores even worse. Another suggestion he made led to malnutrition which ended up killing many soldiers. =====

[[image:civil_war_nurses.jpg width="101" height="120" align="right" caption="Nurse Attending to a Soldier"]]
=Nurses = = =

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Women sought direct involvement in the war and as nurses they received first hand experience as to what was really going on in the country. They provided valuable succor to the wounded and diseased soldiers as well as to the surgeons. These women proved that nursing was a job for both men and women. =====

= Clara Barton =

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Clara Barton left her job as a government clerk so she could give first aid and supplies to the Union Troops when she learned that they were in need of medical supplies. She put an advertisement for donations in her local newspaper, the Worcester, Massachusetts, // Spy // and started a distribution center for all of the goods. U.S. Surgeon General William A. Hammond took note of her help and a year later gave her a the right to go with army ambulances to help care for and comfort the diseased or wounded soldiers. She was known to the soldiers as the "Angel of the Battlefield" because of all of her comfort and support. After the war ended, Barton founded the American branch of the Red Cross in 1881. =====

= Dorothea Dix =

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Dorothea Dix was recognized for recruiting women to serve in the Army Medical Bureau as nurses. She even established standards for all of her nurses, for example she required that were middle-aged and "plain looking". Nurses that were recruited by Dix nicknamed her "Dragon Dix" as a badge of honor because she showed what it took to create the army's first nursing corporation. =====

= Disease =

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Although there were many deaths in combat itself, there were twice as many due to disease. Poor weather conditions, lack of shelters and adequate clothing, poor food quality and water, insects, and crowdedness led soldiers getting dysentery, measles, small pox, pneumonia, typhoid and malaria. One of the other reasons that soldiers were so susceptible to these diseases is they could be an unqualified recruit who should have never been able to pass their physical exam. The most crucial reason that disease was spread so easily was due to poor camp hygiene and sanitation. As an attempt to fix this the Federal government formed a Sanitary Commission to deal with all health =====

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Amputation was the main treatment for battle wounds but for disease doctors had several different cures. Quinine or turpentine were used to treat Malaria, whiskey was used to treat both wounds and disease. The North had easier access to medications because that was where they were manufactured, but the southerns were able to gain // access // to them if the were able to get past the Northern stewards. Another way to try to get vital medications into the South was to have them sewn into the coat of women who felt sympathy towards the Southern cause. Herbal remedies were another way the south was able to produce "actual" medication. =====

= Hospitals =

[[image:civil_war_ambulance.jpg width="195" height="118" align="right" caption="4-Wheeled Ambulance"]]
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Hospitals were where wounded soldiers were kept and could be anything from a house to a church to a school, or even a barn. The field hospital, marked with a yellow flag and green H, was positioned by the front lines. Solders were taken to hospitals by litter bearers in ambulances that were four or two wheeled wagons. ===== =   = = = = = =Works Cited =

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7899/medicine.html