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Science and Medicine
Civil War Style
In this slideshow you will:
• Discover the new scientific discoveries
• Take a look into a Civil War surgeon’s tool box
• Learn the different types of medicine commonly
used by doctors
• Learn what the strange prescriptions were used
for
• Look at the quality, success, and troubles of the
treatments
• And last but not least, take a tour of the typical
hospital for the wounded soldiers
New Scientific Discoveries!
• Because surgeons didn’t know of the importance
of sterile tools during medical procedures, the
wounded soldiers of the Civil War tended to die
due to infection more than any other disease.
These deaths later interested French chemist,
Louis Pasteur to discover the harm of bacteria. He
called bacteria, germs, derived from the Latin
‘germen’ meaning ‘seed or sprout’. He named it
this because he saw that over time, however long
or short the period, the bacteria would grow or
sprout and infect different parts of organisms.
Rachitome - Used to cut back tough skin.
Mallet - Used to straighten ligaments or in
combination with the chisel.
Double Guillotine - Used to
remove tonsils.
Chisel - Used
in
combination
with the
mallet to
move bones
out of the
way or into
place.
Rib Shears Used to
remove the
rib cage from
the lungs and
organs.
Skull Clamp - Used for
steadying the head while
removing the Calvaria.
Stout Cartilage Knife - Used to cut though the
tough cartilage during surgeries.
Saw – Used to amputate.
Scalpel – Used for cutting the
soft outer layer of skin and
detaching internal organs.
Grooved
Directors Used to direct
another
surgical
instrument to
a particular
site which is
out of view.
Aneurism Needle An embalming
instrument that is
used for blunt
dissection and in
raising vessels.
Bottles - Used for everything,
from holding intestines and
bullets, to housing pills and
elixirs.
Anatomical Syringe – Used to
inject medicine into the body.
Dissecting Forceps – Used to pick up
small things inside the body.
Typical Medicines of the times
Chloroform - the most common anesthesia
used in the Civil War.
Morphine – A very powerful pain killing
drug.
Styptics – Drugs used to absorb blood and
stop the patient from bleeding out.
Unusual Medicines
Nutmeg – Used to treat diarrhea
Olive Oil – Used for treating burns and for curing stomach, liver, and intestinal
disruptions
Whiskey – Used to treat colic, palsy, and small pox.
Syrup of Squill – a powerful expectorant, particularly to relieve dry irritable
cough, used in the treatment of bronchitis, bronchial asthma and whooping
cough. Squill's stimulating action on the heart makes it useful for heart failure
and moving fluids after heart problems.
Leeches - used to clean infections, generally of the ears, eyes, and bullet
wounds.
Success and Troubles of Treatment
•
•
•
Doctors were commonly called “butchers” by their patients and the press because
of their treatment of amputation.
Despite the name, doctors of the Civil War managed to treat more than 10 million
cases of injury and sickness in just 48 months with as much respect and
compassion as the possibly could.
Bullets carried dirt and germs into the wounds more often than not, causing
infections.
One witness described the surgeon’s tent as, "Tables about breast high had been
erected upon which the screaming victims were having legs and arms cut off. The
surgeons and their assistants, stripped to the waist and bespattered with blood,
stood around, some holding the poor fellows while others, armed with long,
bloody knives and saws, cut and sawed away with frightful rapidity, throwing the
mangled limbs on a pile nearby as soon as removed.”
Survivors of surgeries and wounds still had another hurdle, that being: the high
risk of infection. Most surgeons knew that cleanliness created lower infection
rates. They did not know however, how to sterilize their equipment. Due to a
frequent shortage of clean water, surgeons often went days without washing their
hands or instruments, passing germs from one patient to another as he treated
them.
http://www.civilwarhome.com/civilwarmedicine.htm
Tour of Medical Tents
Outside of the
Surgeon’s tent
where the
wounded lay,
while being
semi- tended
to.
C.K. Irwine,
and a fellow
doctor in
the field.
Irwine was
the head
surgeon of
the 72nd
Regiment
Embalming tent
- used to
preserve the
fallen soldiers
until they could
have a proper
burial.
Sources
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http://www.civilwarhome.com/civilwarmedicine.htm
Wikipedia
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