Medical Books

[CraftyMauiMamma]

I'm looking for recommendations for books that discuss medical treatments during the Civil War. I am a nurse and I'd like to get a better grasp of diseases and disorders that are spoken about in historical accounts I am reading. Has anyone read Learning from the Wounded: The Civil War and the Rise of American Medical Science or Bleeding Blue and Grey? Or any other book I should begin with?

I'm also looking for Clara Barton book recommendations; what should I read first about her?

Thanks!

 

[nitrofd]

I'm looking for recommendations for books that discuss medical treatments during the Civil War. I am a nurse and I'd like to get a better grasp of diseases and disorders that are spoken about in historical accounts I am reading. Has anyone read Learning from the Wounded: The Civil War and the Rise of American Medical Science or Bleeding Blue and Grey? Or any other book I should begin with?

I'm also looking for Clara Barton book recommendations; what should I read first about her?

Thanks!

The most famous union doctor was Dr. Jonathan Letterman.there is an excellent book about him titled,
Jonathan Letterman, the Civil War doctor who pioneered Battlefield medicene.
#2 The encyclopedia of Civil War Medicene.
#3 Bleeding Blue and Gray: Civil War Surgery and the evolution of American Medicene
#4 Learning from the wounded:The Civil War and the rise of American Medical Science.
All of the above are available from amazon, some on kindle.
P.S. don't be taken back by some of their remedies as when I spoke to several of my doctors they thought they were trying to kill their patients not help them.

 

[CraftyMauiMamma]

The most famous union doctor was Dr. Jonathan Letterman.there is an excellent book about him titled,
Jonathan Letterman, the Civil War doctor who pioneered Battlefield medicene.

Looks like a great book and I'll add it to the list. Do you remember if the book explains medical issues in light of current understanding? I've come across diagnoses in the Civil War that do not exist today and I keep having to stop and look them up to find out what they are talking about.

 

[AndyHall]

I've come across diagnoses in the Civil War that do not exist today and I keep having to stop and look them up to find out what they are talking about.

This may help:
http://www.homeoint.org/cazalet/oldnames.htm

 

[CraftyMauiMamma]

This may help:
http://www.homeoint.org/cazalet/oldnames.htm

What a great resource! I think my favorite word is "scrumpox".

 

[nitrofd]

Looks like a great book and I'll add it to the list. Do you remember if the book explains medical issues in light of current understanding? I've come across diagnoses in the Civil War that do not exist today and I keep having to stop and look them up to find out what they are talking about.

In Sam Hood's book the private papers of John Bell Hood there is one chapter dealing with Hood's amputation of his leg.it goes into the total doctors report and treatment of the general covering a period of three months.it is really a fascinating lesson of medical practice of a difficult injury.they also discuss his Gettysburg wound which basically left his arm useless.

 

[jackt62]

In my own CW reading, I've come across the terms "dyspepsia" and "neuralgia" numerous times. I suppose they were generic catch-all terms for maladies relating to the stomach and nervous system.

 

[nitrofd]

There is another source you might want to check out and that is the website of the "National Civil War Medical Museum".they have the Dr. Jonathan Letterman Foundation there.
www.civilwarmed.org

 

[CraftyMauiMamma]

There is another source you might want to check out and that is the website of the "National Civil War Medical Museum".they have the Dr. Jonathan Letterman Foundation there.
www.civilwarmed.org

Awesome! Thanks for sharing! I think the family's on their own for dinner tonight, I'm busy!
We're planning a trip to Washington DC next month. I know we can get to the Clara Barton Missing Soldier Office and the Pry House Field Hospital Museum. Not sure if we'll have enough time to detour to the main museum, but I sure hope so!

 

[HardeeBoy]

This is high my TBR list, I hope to get to it soon. It may not have a lot of didactic info on surgery/nursing but it seeems to provide a thorough account of what it meant to fill that role in this war. Could be cool though.

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jmh/summary/v067/67.4luft.html

 

[CraftyMauiMamma]

This is high my TBR list, I hope to get to it soon. It may not have a lot of didactic info on surgery/nursing but it seeems to provide a thorough account of what it meant to fill that role in this war. Could be cool though.

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jmh/summary/v067/67.4luft.html

Looks like something I would enjoy. I'd be really interested in hearing about the "readability" of the journal, sometimes it's a struggle to get through a personal writing style and other times it adds to the narrative.

 

[nitrofd]

Looks like something I would enjoy. I'd be really interested in hearing about the "readability" of the journal, sometimes it's a struggle to get through a personal writing style and other times it adds to the narrative.

I see the journal is published by Johns Hopkins so there may be some real value in this journal.it might be a bit technical for its time.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

I'm looking for recommendations for books that discuss medical treatments during the Civil War. I am a nurse and I'd like to get a better grasp of diseases and disorders that are spoken about in historical accounts I am reading. Has anyone read Learning from the Wounded: The Civil War and the Rise of American Medical Science or Bleeding Blue and Grey? Or any other book I should begin with?

I'm also looking for Clara Barton book recommendations; what should I read first about her?

Thanks!

I read a great volume I picked up at the Gettysburg Visitor Center gift shop two years ago called Bleed, Blister & Purge: A History of Medicine on the American Frontier - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0878425055/?tag=civilwartalkc-20

I really enjoyed it even though it doesn't focus on Civil War medicine, but had great sections on a number of topics that would apply to that era as well. There's even sections about Native American medicine and home/folk remedies of the time. Plus its an easy read and not dry in the least bit.

 

[kevikens]

If I may suggest a book, out of print but available in libraries, as a general history of medicine during the 19th Century, the Century of the Surgeon. I read that book many years ago and it has been the best ever for an understanding of what the practitioners 0f medicine faced in that era.

 

[DixieRifles]

I have studied the OR's on many occassions but it wasn't until recently when I accessed a printed volume of Medical Reports on the War. I discovered reports of casualties by regiment. The volumes were divided by head wounds and amputations and disease and other categories. They had statistics on everything including loses by battle or division etc.

I think this is one of the volumes but I'm not sure. It seems like there were 15 to 20 volumes.

The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion.
Google Book Link: https://books.google.com/books?id=y...and Surgical History of the Civil War&f=false

 

[BelleBlackburn]

Doctoring the South by Steven Stowe summarizes the accounts of doctors' daybooks and how they treated disease and perceived it and what they charged for it. It seems like voodoo today but what we are doing will in 100 years too.

 

[E_just_E]

If you are looking for books that were targeted towards Clinicians and medical practitioners, back then, instead of books that describe to us today what Medicine was like back then, here is a list:

Civil War Manual for Army Nurses, Annotated With Overview of Civil War Medical Treatment (1861)
The Science and Art of Surgery, by John Erichsen, M.D. (1859),
Pathology and Treatment of Venereal Diseases, by Freeman J. Bumstead, M.D (1861)
Elementary Treatise on Human Anatomy, by Joseph Leidy, M.D. (1861)
Treatise on the Practice of Medicine, by George B. Wood, M.D. (1858)
Principles and Practice of Modern Surgery, by Robert Druitt (1860),
Handbook for the Military Surgeon, by Chas. Tripler, M.D. and Geo. Blackman, M.D.(1862)
etc

Nothing like going to the original sources, esp. if you understand the language. No textbooks btw. IIRC Lippincott published the first of those in the 1870s or whereabout.

Some interesting advances that frame Civil War Medicine: Pasteur's research was published in 1860 and Lister's in 1865... Of course neither into practice for another decade or so.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

If you are looking for books that were targeted towards Clinicians and medical practitioners, back then, instead of books that describe to us today what Medicine was like back then, here is a list:

Civil War Manual for Army Nurses, Annotated With Overview of Civil War Medical Treatment (1861)
The Science and Art of Surgery, by John Erichsen, M.D. (1859),
Pathology and Treatment of Venereal Diseases, by Freeman J. Bumstead, M.D (1861)
Elementary Treatise on Human Anatomy, by Joseph Leidy, M.D. (1861)
Treatise on the Practice of Medicine, by George B. Wood, M.D. (1858)
Principles and Practice of Modern Surgery, by Robert Druitt (1860),
Handbook for the Military Surgeon, by Chas. Tripler, M.D. and Geo. Blackman, M.D.(1862)
etc

Nothing like going to the original sources, esp. if you understand the language. No textbooks btw. IIRC Lippincott published the first of those in the 1870s or whereabout.

Some interesting advances that frame Civil War Medicine: Pasteur's research was published in 1860 and Lister's in 1865... Of course neither into practice for another decade or so.

The Handbook for Military Surgeon I Googled and found a link to a downloadable version for free from the government!
It takes a bit of time to download it via PDF, but hey its free! http://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-46920340R-bk

 

[huskerblitz]

There are a couple of more journals I didn't see listed.
Google Books has the Documents of the Sanitary Commission in several volumes. It also has the Sanitary Memoirs of the War. Actual Civil War surgeons wrote articles for these. Both are complete and free on the internet.

Also, the Cincinnati Lancet was a medical journal where CW surgeons wrote articles in. All are pretty technical in nature, but may be right up a nurse's ally.

 

[CraftyMauiMamma]

If you are looking for books that were targeted towards Clinicians and medical practitioners, back then, instead of books that describe to us today what Medicine was like back then, here is a list:

Civil War Manual for Army Nurses, Annotated With Overview of Civil War Medical Treatment (1861)
The Science and Art of Surgery, by John Erichsen, M.D. (1859),
Pathology and Treatment of Venereal Diseases, by Freeman J. Bumstead, M.D (1861)
Elementary Treatise on Human Anatomy, by Joseph Leidy, M.D. (1861)
Treatise on the Practice of Medicine, by George B. Wood, M.D. (1858)
Principles and Practice of Modern Surgery, by Robert Druitt (1860),
Handbook for the Military Surgeon, by Chas. Tripler, M.D. and Geo. Blackman, M.D.(1862)
etc

Nothing like going to the original sources, esp. if you understand the language. No textbooks btw. IIRC Lippincott published the first of those in the 1870s or whereabout.

Some interesting advances that frame Civil War Medicine: Pasteur's research was published in 1860 and Lister's in 1865... Of course neither into practice for another decade or so.

I downloaded the Civil War Manual for Army Nurses, it was a nice brief overview and a great place for me to start, thanks for the recommendation. I was surprised by how much sugar was used in treatments listed and I wonder if nurses improvised or just chose a different treatment when it became (I assume) unavailable. I didn't remember that Pasteur and Lister were within the timeframe of the Civil War, in my head it was a decade later (if only it was a decade earlier!). And I had no idea that Lippincott has been torturing students for so long! (Just kidding. Kind of.)

The Handbook for Military Surgeon I Googled and found a link to a downloadable version for free from the government!

Thank you! Downloaded and ready to read