Medical Revolutions

Part I of Essay
The Civil War started as a picnic and ended in compassion, but in between were four hideous years of twisted flesh, burning fevers, rampant pus, and oozing raw stumps. Never before had America faced even a hint of such agony and the way it responded to the occasion is fasc ....

Part II of Essay
.... all the older doctors had received their education on an apprenticeship basis but the younger men, those who made up the bulk of the army surgeons, usually held a medical school diploma along with an office internship. Little attention was paid to clinical instruction, and in most cases the laboratory was all but forgotten. Further, stethoscopes, thermometers, syringes, and the like were widely used in Europe while many doctors here at home had never seen them let alone used them. In regard to ability and competence, there is no reason ....