Early Doctors, Surgeons, and Apothecaries Essay

Although medicine today is comparatively more advanced, that is a more recent change than one would like to think. For instance, not even 150 years ago, “Hippocrates and Galen would have recognized and largely agreed with most medical practices.” Barry addresses this topic of medical advancement at the beginning of his book by producing a well researched, albeit a little too long, history of western medicine. He provides examples of how medicine evolved from the teachings of Hippocrates, Galen, and Vesalius to a more “modern” form of medicine. This was done in order to explain how prepared the medical community was in the face of this impending virus. Unlike the other epidemics, the people of the early 19-century should have been prepared to face the influenza with all of their exciting and new medical equipment and practices, but there was something in their way of advancement—universities.

Mr. Gawande starts his literature on washing hands. He introduces two friends a microbiologist and an infectious disease specialist. Both work hard and diligently against the spread of diseases just like Semmelweis who is mentioned in the chapter. Something I learned, that not many realize, is that each year two million people acquire an infection while they are in the hospital. Mainly because the clinicians only wash their hands one-third to one-half as many times as they should. Semmelweis, mentioned earlier, concluded in 1847 that doctors themselves were to blame for childbed fever, which was the leading cause of

Before the founding of America newspapers were local and worked for their own agenda. With the unfair taxes and acts that were passed by Parliament the nation needed to create a unity in the colonies. Colonies formed Committees of Correspondence to keep each other informed of the resistance efforts throughout the colonies. Newspapers reprinted the tales of the protests and actions against Britain. This created American propaganda to obtain fair treatment from Britain. The greatest time that the newspapers came together to inform the colonies of the Boston Massacre. Being the biggest piece of propaganda at the time, the massacre lead to more colonists believing that they could be a part of a bigger political community and was one of the turning points in American History that lead to the independence of the country from British rule.

The Regimental Medical Officer and his assistants cleaned the wounds applied dressings, and gave injections. The injured man was then taken to the Advanced Dressing Station. Wounds were again treated and sometimes emergency amputations took place. The wounded soldier was now moved to the Casualty Clearing Station where surgery if needed was carried out.

The logic and principles of medieval medicine shaped those of Modern medicine. Never was there a more efficient method perfected, so much that it remained through history through so many hundreds of years. Today’s concepts of diagnosis, relationships with the church, anatomy, surgery, hospitals and training, and public health were established in the Middle Ages.

How were injured soldiers treated during the circus war? How does our medical treatments now compare to how they were treated before? Did the way injured soldiers were treated have to do with the cause of their death? Wounds were treated very differently to how they’re treated now and it always makes people wonder how people still survived and were able to live longer. It all reflects on technology, transportation, antiseptic practices, and surgical techniques. Throughout war and history more soldiers died from diseases than they did from injuries and often the medical treatments they would get for their injuries wouldn’t make them better but worse and it was what caused more deaths.

There were many interesting trades presented on this website. One of these trades that interested me the most was apothecary. Apothecary in the colonial era was a druggist who had a similar roles to what a doctor does today. They didn’t just provide medical treatment, or prescribe drugs but also performed surgeries as well. Reading more about this trade, I discovered that some apothecaries even trained to become man-midwives. Before reading this article, I had the assumption that the majority of mid-wives were female, and that most men didn’t handle child birth in that time era. Furthermore, some of the ingredients used in colonial remedies, that is still found in modern medicine. Some include, but are limited to; chalk for heartburn (Tums), calamine for skin irritations (Aveeno lotions) and many more. Like many drug stores today, apothecaries also sold household items and not just drugs.

Imagine a quick spreading rash throughout the entire body, leaving not a single space behind; every opening and crevice in your body, including your mouth and eyes covered in painful bumps accompanied by high fever and severe body aches. Flat red spots transforming into fluid-filled lesions and soon oozing out yellow pus, evidently emitting a pungent odor to anyone who dared get close. The live virus present in the darkening crusty scabs that would soon fall off only to leave behind a deep pitted scarred filled complexion on anyone who was fortunate enough to survive. These scars would be forever remembered as the hallmark for the smallpox epidemic which tormented the world for over 3,000 years. (Riedel “Deadly Diseases”).

The improvement of medicine over the course of the human successes gave great convenience to the people of today. Science has cured and prevented many illnesses from occurring and is on its way to cure some of the most dreadful and harmful illnesses. As the world modernizes due to the industrialization, so does the ways of medicine. Some cures are approached by chance, some, through intense, scientific measures.

Ancient Greece advanced more than any other ancient civilization. It advanced drastically in drama, philosophy, historical writing, and art and medicine. The advancements undertaken in the field of medicine by the early greek laid the basis for western medicine in three important ways. These include the first pioneers of western medicine, by establishing medical schools, the treatments created by the early Greeks and the creation of the Hippocratic Oath.

At the time smallpox was the most feared disease and killed up to 33% of the people that came contact with the disease. Smallpox is caused by the virus variola. It enters the body through the lungs and is carried in the blood to the internal organs, which

lives of the people in the worse way. It became known as an epidemic disease

The practice of Medicine changed in an abrupt manner in the face of the rapid advances in science as well as the new approaches to physicians. This was the dawn of the 19th century in the field of Medicine. Amongst the most powerful techniques in this era was anaesthesia, as well as the development of antiseptic and aseptic operating theaters (Swander, 2008). It is important to realize that actual cures were developed for a several endemic disease. Medicine was extremely revolutionized in the 19th century, and the advances in laboratory and chemistry techniques replaced the ideas of infectious disease epidemiology with virology and bacteriology.

Before the 1900s, our medical equipment was insufficient. We did not have the medicines and the machines back then as we do now in the 21st Century. In the past, medics and clerics only had the necessary instruments including items like cloth to patch up wounds and saws to amputate limbs. During that time, many people died from their injuries or the infection afterward because of the lack of good instruments. Now with the use of better equipment, doctors can assess patients and use said equipment to save patients' lives.

Newspaper now became the new source for information. When local news could no longer be option by word of mouth or even gossip, a newspaper was the next best thing. Although,