MEDICINE TODAY: Civil War Medicine...

MEDICINE TODAY: Civil War Medicine...

Modern medicine probably dates back to the Civil War when:

1) Lead shot (not encased in copper) led to broken and shattered bones.  Something about the way the bullet slows down (SIGN:YES  SLOWS) by deforming slowly?  That was a great risk to people, lead shot, and it led to many lost limbs.

2) I would trace the dawn of the field hospital to The Civil War, SIGN:YES.  That is when they made hospitals close enough to the fighting to make a difference in life and death.  That was an advance that remains to this day, but helicopters can make the ride fast enough to have less risk from enemy fire. MUSIC: TRUE THAT, BABY!

3) At the time of the Civil War, there was no conception of keeping the doctor or the facility sanitary.  One patient would undergo an operation with dirty tools and location and doctor from the last operation.  This was a major failing of medicine, with hospitals more dangerous than the field.

4) Civil War medicine was much about amputations that are no longer SIGN:YES NO LONGER used for medicine.  For major bleeding and or shattered or broken limbs there was little choice.

5) The Civil War saw widespread use of morphine for pain, adequate for the worst of pain, and still the best!

My how medicine has grown!  I tried to get this right, but I don't know, and I don't have time to check!

EDITOR'S LATER NOTE:

The Civil War by my account is the start of modern medicine as we know it.