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How Civil War Soldiers Gave Themselves Syphilis While Trying to Avoid Smallpox
If only someone had warned them not to take a DIY approach.
by Mariana Zapata
November 30, 2016
608
The field hospital after the Battle of Savage Station. Lack of doctors and resources meant that medical conditions were often unhygienic. Library of Congress/LC-DIG-cwpb-01063
Bullets fly, the cold creeps in, and your body is so malnourished that you can barely walk. You know that if smallpox gets a hold of you, you don’t stand a chance. You look at your fellow soldier’s pus-filled lesion and realize there is only one way to survive the smallpox outbreak in your unit. You breathe in deeply, cut your arm open with your rusty pocket knife, and fill the wound with the liquid coming out of your comrade’s pustule.
More: http://www.atlasobscura.com/article...elves-syphilis-while-trying-to-avoid-smallpox
If only someone had warned them not to take a DIY approach.
by Mariana Zapata
November 30, 2016
608
The field hospital after the Battle of Savage Station. Lack of doctors and resources meant that medical conditions were often unhygienic. Library of Congress/LC-DIG-cwpb-01063
Bullets fly, the cold creeps in, and your body is so malnourished that you can barely walk. You know that if smallpox gets a hold of you, you don’t stand a chance. You look at your fellow soldier’s pus-filled lesion and realize there is only one way to survive the smallpox outbreak in your unit. You breathe in deeply, cut your arm open with your rusty pocket knife, and fill the wound with the liquid coming out of your comrade’s pustule.
More: http://www.atlasobscura.com/article...elves-syphilis-while-trying-to-avoid-smallpox