how did they treat syphilis during the civil war how did they treat syphilis during the civil war

The aim of treatment was to expel the foreign, disease-causing substance from the body, so methods included blood-letting, laxative use, and baths in wine and herbs or olive oil. However, this changed during the first few months of the war as medical departments on both sides were unprepared for the number of wounded soldiers that needed treatment in the hospitals. Then they were thrown out and deprived of Naples and Genoa. All Rights Reserved. Until the 19th century, syphilis was known by many different names, but the most common was the French Disease. (The French called it the Neopolitan disease, in a pattern that would repeat itself elsewhere. discovery as a bastion of scientific freedom against the communist reign (Finkbeiner). Doctors often took over houses, churches, schools, even barns for hospitals. Green Fever / Sickness - Anemia. Sir William Osler in his biographical essay Fracastorius from his 1909 work An Alabama Student and Other Biographical Essays wrote of Syphilus : He kept the flocks of King Alcithous, and one year the drought was so extreme that the cattle perished for want of water. Blood poisoning, sepsis or Pyemia (Pyemia meaning literally pus in the blood) was common and often very deadly. Thinking they could be immune to the terrifying smallpox, many Civil War soldiers accidentally infected themselves with syphilis. They would then puncture their fellow soldiers pustule and coat their wound with the overflowing lymph. Verses from the poem where Fracastoro refers to naming the disease after Syphilus are : A shepherd once (distrust not ancient fame) [6, 7], Syphilis in the 16th century and its social ramifications, Fifty to a hundred years after its appearance in Naples the disease became less virulent and less lethal. The disease had several distinct phases. The first began with genital sores, or pocks, later called chancres. After these had healed and several weeks following, there appeared a generalised rash, often accompanied by fevers, aches and the night bone pains, dolores osteocopi nocturne, described by Von Hutton and De Vigo. This meant that some soldiers, untrained in medical matters, could easily confuse a syphilis pustule with a cowpox one. Thinking they could be immune to the terrifying smallpox, many Civil War soldiers accidentally infected themselves with syphilis. Facing the threat of smallpox, many soldiers resorted to arm-to-arm vaccination which often led to further medical complications. Library of Congress/LC-DIG-ppmsca-33113 [25] In 1974, two anthropologists, John Lobdell and Douglas Owsley, stated syphilis can probably not be blamed, as it often is, on any geographical area or specific race. [18] Arsenic however, while being able to cure syphilis whereas mercury wasnt, had many drawbacks administration of treatment was complex requiring many injections over a long period of time, and it also produced toxic side effects. Surgical fevers and gangrene were constant threats. Possest these downs, and Syphilus his name.. While in some cases, the pain ended at that, it sometimes led to serious complications that would cause a need for amputation, and in extreme cases, death. For example, throughout April and May 1861 too few medical stewards (male nurses) were assigned to hospitals. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. Generally, Civil War doctors underwent two years of medical school, though some pursued more education. [24] When Charles VIII invaded and seized Naples in 1495, Naples was populated by Spanish immigrants and was defended largely by Spanish mercenaries who had probably already contracted the disease in Spain and who then passed the disease onto Charles soldiers and followers when they invaded Naples. Paracelsus (1493-1541) derided the use of guaiacum as useless and expensive and instead promoted mercury, metals being one of Paracelsus favoured medicinal treatments for disease. I In the 1980s palaeopathological studies found possible evidence that supported this hypothesis and that syphilis was an old treponeal disease which in the late 15th century had suddenly evolved to become different and more virulent. Some recent studies however have indicated that this is not the case and it still may be a new epidemic venereal disease introduced by Columbus from America. In fact, there are 800,000 recorded cases of its use. Selections from the Works of Abraham Colles: Consisting Chiefly of His Practical Observations on the Venereal Disease: And on the Use of Mercury. [24], There have been three main hypotheses on the origin of syphilis the Columbian hypothesis that Columbus brought syphilis from the New World, the pre-Columbian theory that syphilis had already existed in the Old World and had evolved into a more virulent form around the time of Columbus, and the Unitarian theory that all treponematoses are a single disease with syphilis being an environmentally determined variant where social and environmental conditions in the late 15th century favoured its transmission by sexual intercourse. In fact, diarrhea and dysentery alone claimed more men than did battle wounds. By the end of the War, Chimbarazo had 150 wards and was capable of housing a total of 4,500 patients. Publications Treatments: Mercury, Syphilization, and Salvarsan, See Also (Related Contagion Exhibit Pages). Enslaved people were money. By John Frith 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." The disease was striking in two ways: for its unpleasantness and for its status as a new disease, unknown to the ancient medical authorities. [1], Johannis (Giovanni) de Vigo, an Italian surgeon who was appointed as surgeon to Pope Julius II, wrote about the contagiousness of the disease, its origin from sexual intercourse with an infected person and its rapid dissemination throughout the body in De Morbo Gallicus, 1514, the fifth book of his work Practica in arte chirurgica copiosa. He accurately described the primary chancre, the secondary eruption of rash, ulcers and pustules, the terrible night bone pains and the late tumours of scirrhus hardness. [7, 8, 10] As well, a rash of verrucous papules often broke out in the genital area. When these healed, a long latent period occurred, lasting months initially and as history passed, several years, in which there were few symptoms. The last phase consisted of the appearance of abscesses and ulcers, and the gumma referred to by Girolamo Fracastoro, often ending with severe debility, madness or death. Perhaps in peace time this would have worked, but not in the middle of a war. [7, 20]. Looking in the garden. Disease was particularly rampant in the prisoner-of-war camps, whose conditions were generally worse than the army camps. The field hospital was located near the front lines -- sometimes only a mile behind the lines -- and was marked with (in the Federal Army from 1862 on) with a yellow flag with a green "H". Gathering - A collection of pus. Bloody fingers often were used as probes. for possible inclusion in JMVH. whatever the future may bring to justify the present enthusiasm, is now actually a more or less incredible advance in the treatment of syphilis and in many ways is superior to the old mercury as valuable as this will continue to be because of its eminently powerful and eminently rapid spirochaeticidal property. [17], LW Harrison, a medical officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War I, described the effectiveness of Salvarsan and Neosalvarsan on soldiers who contracted syphilis during the war. For details and exceptions, see the Harvard Library Copyright Policy 2022 Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College. They most notably championed their push for scientific. Their bodies and labor were the capital that fueled the countrys founding and wealth.. Then there appear a series of new ulcerations on the genitalia Then the skin becomes covered with scabby pimples or with elevated papules resembling warts. Syphilis was first reported in Europe in 1494 among soldiers (and their camp followers) involved in a war between France and Naples. During the Civil War, military hospitals considered opioids to be essential medicine. Russians, for instance, sometimes called it the Polish disease.), Syphilis is generally believed to have come originally from the New World, imported into Europe by Christopher Columbuss sailors after their famous voyage of 1492. Anesthesia was usually administered by the open-drop technique. Bloody knives were used as scalpels. As Margaret Humphreys graphically describes in Marrow of Tragedy: The Health Crisis of the American Civil War, with the doctor too busy or completely absent, soldiers resorted to performing vaccination with whatever they had at hand. Afterwards they could do nothing but hope for the best. Submit your article In the mid19th century, European physicians conducted experiments in syphilization, often on hospitalized prostitutes. Researchers believed that the benefits of nontreatment outweighed the benefits of treatment, even when penicillin became available as a treatment for syphilis, because they aimed to study the natural course of untreated syphilis [5]. Bullets fly, the cold creeps in, and your body is so malnourished thatyou can barely walk. [5, 6, 14, 15]. Because of this, thousands of soldiers were killed by simple infections and diseases we now consider non-threatening orobsolete. An inspector who visited the camps of one Federal Army found that they were, "littered with refuse, food, and other rubbish, sometimes in an offensive state of decomposition; slops deposited in pits within the camp limits or thrown out of broadcast; heaps of manure and offal close to the camp." [7, 11, 12]. Medicine in the United States was woefully behind Europe. Heart Sickness - Condition caused by loss of salt from body In August 1495 the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I proclaimed that nothing like this disease had been seen before and that it was punishment from God for blasphemy. By 1500 syphilis had reached the Scandinavian countries, Britain, Hungary, Greece, Poland and Russia. It was a time of world exploration and Europeans took the disease to Calcutta in 1498, and by 1520 it had reached Africa, the near East, China, Japan and Oceania. Winner will be selected at random on 06/01/2023. . Whiskey and other forms of alcohol also were used to treat wounds and disease though of questionable medical value, whiskey did relieve some pain. But many also had money. A Treatise of the Venereal Disease: In Six Books: Containing an Account of the Original, Propagation, and Contagion of This Distemper in General: As Also of the Nature, Cause, and Cure of all Venereal Disorders in Particular, Whether Local or Universal: Together with an Abridgment of the Several Discourses, Which Have Been Written Upon This Subject from the First Appearance of the Venereal Disease in Europe to This Time, with Critical Remarks Upon Them.