History of Maggots in Medicine

From: web.stanford.edu In 1840, Hope came up with the term myiasis to distinguish the human disease caused by dipterous larvae. However, German entomologist Fritz Konrad Ernst Zumpt (1908-1985) is perhaps the name most closely associated with discovery of myiasis (for better or worse). Zumpt worked primarily in Africa and published several articles and a book on myiasis, called “Myiasis in man and animals in the Old World” in 1965. Of course, as many different kinds of flies are associated with myiasis, discovery of these many species were by various other etymologists (and unfortunate myiasis victims!). Maggots have been used in medicine...

Read More

Mary Todd Lincoln Funeral Ledger Found in Springfield

By Tribune news services Contact Reporter An itemized list believed to be from former first lady Mary Todd Lincoln's funeral has resurfaced after two of the oldest funeral homes in Springfield merged. The list shows her 1882 funeral cost almost $280, with expenses ranging from $225 for a casket to $1.50 for crepe and ribbon, the Springfield State Journal-Register reported. A horse-drawn hearse with four attendants? Fifteen bucks. The list was included in stacks of fragile ledgers acquired by Butler Funeral Homes of Springfield after last year's buyout of Boardman-Smith Funeral Home. Butler Funeral Homes is creating a "Lincoln Room" where...

Read More

“An Aristocracy of Talent”: The South Carolina Physician-Naturalists and Their Times

By Charles S. Bryan, MD (by invitation) and A. Weaver Whitehead, Jr, MD Abstract During the natural history movement of the 18th and early 19th centuries, Charleston as a center was rivaled in the United States only by Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Prominent physician-naturalists included Alexander Garden (for whom the gardenia is named), John Edwards Holbrook (“father of American herpetology”), and Francis Peyre Porcher (whose Resources of Southern Fields and Forests helped Confederates compensate for drug shortages). The Charleston physician-naturalists belonged to an “aristocracy of talent” as distinguished from the “aristocracy of...

Read More

Antietam: Aspects of Medicine, Nursing and the Civil War

By John Tooker, MD, MBA, FACP Abstract Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia met the Army of the Potomac under George B. McClellan at Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland on September 17, 1862. Before the day was done, nearly 23,000 men were killed, wounded, or missing, memorializing Antietam as the bloodiest single day in American military history. Dr. Jonathan Letterman, the Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac, Clara Barton, the “Angel of the Battlefield,” and Dr. Hunter McGuire, Chief Surgeon to and Medical Director of General Stonewall Jackson's Corps, were among the nursing and medical personnel engaged on that historic...

Read More

A Burden Too Heavy to Bear

By Diane Miller Sommerville, 4-2-12 In late December 1861 Northern newspapers buzzed with rumors about a high-ranking Confederate officer who had committed suicide. Within days the victim was identified as Philip St. George Cocke, one of Virginia’s wealthiest and largest planters. Cocke, a West Point graduate, had been appointed commander of Virginia’s state forces by Governor John Letcher in the earliest days of hostilities. He lost his coveted rank of brigadier general, however, when Southern state militias were folded into the Confederate Army. Although he received a promotion to brigadier general after the First Battle of Bull Run, Cocke...

Read More

Civil War Surgery

From: totalgettysburg.com The primary form of Civil War surgery was the amputation. The common use of the minie ball, named after co-inventor Claude Etienne Minié in the American Civil War greatly increased catastrophic injuries. Made with soft expanding lead, when the mini ball struck flesh, bones and major organs the injuries were devastating. A minie ball could be accurately fired from 1,000 yards and the basic line-formation tactics of the Civil War had not adapted to new weaponry. It could easily shatter bones and when faced with these types of injuries, Civil War doctors of this age often had no choice but to amputate. This may seem...

Read More

Clara Barton Surmounts The Faithlessness Of Union Officers

From: civilwarhome.com It was not only doctors and nurses who were, at times, incompetent but army officers as well. At least so Clara Barton often thought. She was a strong-minded woman, and a bit inclined to think the worst of her superiors and associates. When the war broke out Miss Barton was working in the patent Office in Washington. Deeply moved by the distress of the soldiers after First Bull Run she wrote a letter to the Worcester (Massachusetts) Spy asking for food, clothing, and bandages for the soldiers. Provisions poured in-and she had found her mission. Never formally associated either with the Sanitary Commission or, except...

Read More

Early Hospitals in Chicago

By Paul A. Buelow The history of Chicago's hospitals begins with an almshouse established by Cook County as part of its responsibility to provide care for indigent or homeless county residents, and for sick or needy travelers. Located at the corner of Clark and Randolph streets, this public charity was in operation as early as 1835. It did provide medical attendance, but such places typically crowded the ill together with the healthy poor, the insane, and persons who were permanently incapacitated. Unlike Cook County, the city of Chicago had no legal mandate to care for the sick poor, but its charter did charge it with guarding against “pestilential...

Read More