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Civil War Medicine

Civil War medicine was not very effective at all. In fact more people died from disease than actual fighting. The doctors during that time could not cure much for people who became sick.

Both sides during the war had equally terrible medical technology during the Civil War. Although the North was slightly better than the South.

Medicine given to patients was so poor that it usually caused more problems for them than actually helping them. Soldiers did everything they could to keep themselves healthy because they knew getting sick or wounded would be virtually a death sentence.

There were a lot of bad treatments going around during the Civil War. One in particular was Mercury. This was seen as somewhat of a cure all and it was given to patients for virtually any problem they had. The reason this medicine was bad simply was because it was poisonous to people. It is known to cause brain damage, tooth loss, and digestive problems.

Of course not every was horrible. Civil War medicine such as chloroform was actually very helpful to people. It was nothing more than an anesthetic but it allowed surgeons to put their patients to sleep while they operated on them. It also allowed patients to be operated on without having to go through the painful agony of the operation. Mercury was plentiful on both sides during the war.

The bone saw was probably the most well known piece of medical equipment during the war. This piece of equipment had only one job, amputation. Needless to say soldiers tried to avoid getting wounded in an arm or leg because they probably knew what was waiting for them if they did.

Amputations were wide spread but the simple reason was that surgeons had no other choice. They could not treat nor prevent infections that would inevitably take place after a soldier was wounded. The only prevention from infection was to amputate. Even this did not always work.

Amputations made up 75% of all field surgeries during the entire course of the Civil War.

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