And even more Civil War medicine

Treating War's Wounds: Innovations in Medicine from the Civil War
Case 697, Private Dennis Driscoll
Just days before the Civil War's end, twenty-two-year-old Private Dennis Driscoll was shot in battle near Fort Stedman, Virginia. A musket ball had entered the soldier's right thigh, striking the tailbone before finally lodging in the gluteus maximus. He was transported to Stanton Hospital on March 25, 1865, arriving five days later. According to the records, the shock from the injury was small. A caregiver noted, "The patient complained of no other inconvenience than pain and tenderness....with a persistent tendency to evacuate the bowels."
During the weeks following, little change was observed in Private Driscoll's condition. His pulse and bladder function were normal, and though confined to the hospital, he was described as being "hopeful." His wound was treated with cold-water dressings and periodically discharged an unpleasant pus.
A little more than two weeks from the time he was admitted however, Driscoll's wound began to show signs of irritation and infection. The exact location of the musket ball was initially uncertain and no attempt to retrieve it had been made. With time the leaden ball became more and more distinct as the area around it reddened. Determined to remove the musket ball, Surgeon B.B. Wilson chloroformed his patient and made an incision over its point of lodgment. In a later case study he wrote, "But the missile, which was distinctly felt previous to the incision, could not be found." Several attempts were made to grasp it, but to no avail.
Strangely enough, the ball was found the following morning in the patient's bed, having "gravitated out during the night." Despite being rid of the ball, pain and tenderness extended over the whole of Private Driscoll's abdomen. Five days after the attempted surgery, the infection spread to the blood and symptoms worsened. Twenty-seven days after receiving the wound, and more than two weeks after the Civil War had ended, Driscoll eventually lost his battle with infection. An autopsy revealed "marked cystitis and peritonitis, with commencing gangrene" as the cause of death.
War's Wounds: Innovations in Medicine from the Civil War
Dr. Mary Walker,Assistant Surgeon of the Civil War
Dr. Mary Walker was the only woman formally appointed as assistant surgeon during the Civil War. Known for her resolute determination to provide care for the wounded and her unapologetic habit of wearing men's pants, Dr. Walker frequently encountered skeptics who doubted the capabilities of women surgeons.
During the war and in the years following, she became a spokesperson for gender equity and dress reform, and was featured on the cover of a London newspaper in her surgeon's uniform. On the difficulty of receiving a formal appointment as assistant surgeon she wrote, "I confess myself unable to see how respectable men can allow a laundress to go with their regiment, and shake their wise heads at the respectability of an educated lady acting as surgeon." Dr. Walker volunteered her medical services for more than two years before receiving an appointment to the 52nd Ohio Regiment as an assistant surgeon, which she served until the war's end.
The war provided a unique opportunity for Walker and other female caregivers to enter into roles that had previously been exclusive to males. She remains today the only female recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.


Treating War's Wounds: Innovations in Medicine from the Civil War
Pain Management and Embalming
The Ether Mask and Pain Management The use of general anesthetic was common during the Civil War. Among the most frequently used drugs to treat pain were chloroform, ether, opium and alcohol. Official records of the Union Army indicate that more than 80 tons of opium were prescribed during the war, though at times surgeons ran out due to problems with communication and supply.
Chloroform and ether, found after the war to be toxic, were frequently used to render a patient unconscious prior to surgery. To help the patient more easily breathe the anesthetic, an ether-soaked cloth would be placed in a metal mask and held over the patient's nose and mouth. Because most surgeries at the time were brief, there was little time for the toxicity of these drugs to build to a dangerous level. In an effort to dispel the anesthetic, post-operative patients were removed from the hospital tent, or fanned to "purge" the lungs of the substance.
Such widespread use of anesthetics, and the detailed medical records that emerged from their use led to an improved understanding of pain management among practitioners of medicine.
Early Injecting Syringe The need to alleviate pain led to advances in ways of administering medicines, especially morphine and opium. These drugs had previously been given by mouth or applied topically to the site of the wound. Introduced during the Civil War, Wood's endermic syringe allowed surgeons to deliver drugs more effectively, close to the wound and just beneath a patient's skin.
The requests of families to have the bodies of their loved ones transported home for proper memorial services made it necessary for a system of preservation to be developed. Using creosote or chloride of zinc dissolved in alcohol, the embalming surgeon would inject these fluids into the femoral artery of the deceased to prevent the body from decomposing. It was also customary to transport bodies in metallic burial cases, or heavy wooden boxes lined with zinc plates to maintain the integrity of the corpse. Public pressure demanded the ascendancy of the profession of mortuary science.

Treating War's Wounds: Innovations in Medicine from the Civil War
Female Caregivers
Prior to the Civil War, women were effectively excluded from most roles outside the home, including nursing. Dressing wounds, administering medicine and caring for patients were considered functions of male nursing personnel. Overwhelming casualties motivated many women to assist in the war effort by volunteering as nurses. This charitable extension of their home "duties" was often looked down upon and deemed "unladylike."
Nevertheless, many women refused to let the prevailing social attitudes influence their ability and desire to care for the wounded. Various women's aid societies such as the Sisters of the Holy Cross and the Daughters of Charity were organized to provide some relief to the over-burdened Civil War Surgeon. Anne Wittenmeyer, who formed one of the first such aid societies, was formally appointed Relief Director for Iowa. She converted a Mississippi River steamboat into a hospital ship which came under fire at Vicksburg. Still, the all-male Iowa Sanitary Commission introduced a bill to repeal the law which authorized the appointment of women commissioners, on the grounds that Wittenmeyer and other women wasted supplies and were "by the nature endowed on them by the Creator unfitted to the position." The bill was subsequently defeated.
In 1861, the Secretary of War appointed Dorothea Dix as Superintendent of Women Nurses for the Union Army. Before the war's end, an estimated 6,000 women had served as nurses for the Union Army. The substantial contributions of women during the war significantly advanced their subsequent involvement in the work place, especially in the field of health care.
In 1865, the United States Army originated the first ambulance service in the U.S. The mission of the service was to decrease mortality rates on the battle field. By the late 1800s, ambulance services in U.S. cities such as New York, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis began as hospital-based operations.