Disease question

[archieclement]

I been reading some newspaper accounts and it gives deaths and causes from Union hospitals. The two most common seem to be chronic diarrhea and dysentery.......I thought they were the same thing, but it notes them as two different things, any ideas?

 

[Jimklag]

Dysentery is an infection of the intestines (it can be bacterial or viral), one of the symptoms of which is diarrhea, which is merely the Hershey squirts.

 

[jackt62]

Too much information!

 

[Patrick H]

Colorful explanation, but there we have it!

 

[Jimklag]

Colorful explanation, but there we have it!

The color being brown.

 

[archieclement]

But people get diarrhea all the time and don't die from it. I pretty much have chronic between IBS and side effects of heart meds. How is dysentery different and fatal?

 

[Ole Miss]

Dysentery is chronic diarrhoea which causes death from dehydration.*
Regards
David
*https://ehistory.osu.edu/exhibitions/cwsurgeon/cwsurgeon/introduction

 

[drezac]

It does not take much with the right conditions to put someone in bad shape fast. We got a little too hardcore at Hale Farm this year, and reenacted dissentary in camp. Food poisoning sent 6 out of 11 to the ER, due to dehydration from going at both ends. After meds in the squad to stop the throwing up and a couple of bags of IV fluid in the squad and ER made for a fairly quick recovery, however when it started, once i was able to leave the blue " Officers Quarters", I sat down and was too weak to get up. Took me a few days to completly recover. Dropped 8 pounds that weekend. Cant imagine what it would have been like back then with such limited medical knowledge available.

 

[bankerpapaw]

WhoooooooWeeeeeeee!! Fine topic of conversation.

 

[mofederal]

It is something that is easy to get in this day and age from various medications, and not to forget all of the wonderful eating places around that do not practice cleanliness. I can name several places to avoid.

 

[lelliott19]

Cant imagine what it would have been like back then with such limited medical knowledge available.

Excellent point. Had they been available at the time, simple over the counter medicines like Pepto Bismal, Kaopectate or Immodium AD and Gatorade could have saved many lives. As it was, morphine, laudanum (opium/morphine) and alcohol were often used to treat diarrhea and dysentery during the war -- mainly because that was what was available. Since alcohol slows the digestive process and opioids slow the gut, they did work --sort of. But neither was of help to restore or replace lost fluids or electrolytes. And morphine, alcohol, and laudanum were not always at hand. Even if they were, they were often reserved for the gravely wounded. Strange to think that had immodium and Gatorade been available at the time, thousands of lives would likely have been saved.

 

[TomV71]

@archieclement Diarrhea can be caused by many things, one of them is dysentery as mentioned, which is caused by either bacterial, virus or parasite infections in the intestines. If blood is present, the diarrhea is usually caused by dysentery.

The e.coli party's among other various germs they got from having the latrines near the drinking water was also a major problem and of course the lack of general hygiene which is normal i modern days. Bacterial knowledge had not yet seen the light.
Another cause for diarrhea was a diet of field corn, green apples and other ripe fruits when nothing else was available. I have read accounts of troops on the march to Antietam that had to stop several places because there was so much diarrhea in the road from previous passing troops having feasted from the country side of those fruits while on the march.

In modern days, we get hospitalized if in danger of getting dehydrated from diarrhea. And some medicines kill the normal bacterias that are there to regulate our intestines, which again causes diarrhea, but again diarrhea is rarely life threatening nowadays.

WhoooooooWeeeeeeee!! Fine topic of conversation.

You know you are caught up in the Civil War when you actually spend time discussing diarrhea.

 

[TomV71]

*delete*

 

[Cavalry Charger]

The color being brown.

Get the squirts, and you're likely to see yellow as well !

 

[ARW]

And they used castor oil, which causes it, to treat it. Another cure was turpentine. The cure was worse than the illness.

 

[lelliott19]

And they used castor oil, which causes it, to treat it. Another cure was turpentine. The cure was worse than the illness.

And Silver Nitrate - which by the way, results in side effects of violent stomach pain and---yep, you guessed it--diarrhea. There was a thread a while back that includes a surgeon's report of treatment using laudanum and silver nitrate via "retained enema." Now if that doesn't sound unpleasant, I don't know what does. Should have qualified him for the MOH. https://civilwartalk.com/threads/diarrhea-treated-with-silver-nitrate.134258/#post-1533933

 

[Ole Miss]

The issue of dehydration is so critical due to the scarcity of potable water for all soldiers especially during the Civil War. Lack of proper hydration left these soldiers on the cusp of heat exhaustion, sunstroke and other maladies. Even today golfers and tennis players way behind the curve of hydration on many summer days.
Regards
David

 

[gem]

Dysentery or Invasive diarrhea, is defined as diarrhea with visible blood or mucus, in contrast to watery diarrhea. Dysentery is commonly associated with fever and abdominal pain.

Common during the war was Typhoid , a cause of acute dysentery , caused by the Salmonella Typhi bacteria.
Typhoid was spread by ingesting contaminated food and water or through close contact with someone that was infected. It was particularly virulent in the crowded army camps during the first year of the war and throughout the war in the general hospitals.
Patients developed skin lesions called "rose spots," diarrhea or constipation, fatigue, respiratory distress, fever, and general malaise.

Thousand of people died and those who seemed to get better still could spread the disease to others for many months afterwards contributing to its further spread.

I'm not really sure what disease they were referring to by chronic diarrhea, but I'll see if I can find something.

 

[archieclement]

And they used castor oil, which causes it, to treat it. Another cure was turpentine. The cure was worse than the illness.

I used to have a book on old time folk remedies, apparently a mixture of hog lard and turpentine was the miracle drug. It could be used internally or as poutrices

 

[gem]

But people get diarrhea all the time and don't die from it. I pretty much have chronic between IBS and side effects of heart meds. How is dysentery different and fatal?

Dysentery is not your run of the mill diarrhea. Take a look at my post.
Today, Typhoid is really rare in the US so fortunately few people here today experience it.

Back then they hadn't discovered the cause and no antibiotics back then.