The Medical Industry 1865-1912

1. The Medical Industry1865-1912 By Hannah Pell

2. In the late 1800’s the Medical Industry was the most respected profession. It was important and well respected because medicine was used to save lives, and to relieve suffering. Without the knowledge of medicine we wouldn’t be able to cure people of sickness.

3. Sickness has existed since Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s rule and ate the fruit from the tree, in the center of the garden. People have become much more knowledgeable about medicine and it has advanced greatly. In the 1860’s patients usually received treatment from their home. Slowly, in later years, hospitals began to exist. Doctors in the Civil War were very experienced in dealing with health issues in smaller military outposts, but had no idea of how to deal with the larger medical issues of the Civil War. For every one person that was killed in battle, two people died of diseases like malaria, measles, and mumps. Slowly hospitals began to be built wherever they were most convenient or in buildings that were not kept very clean. By the end of the Civil War, hospitals began to improve by the use of large, well-ventilated hospital tents, and more permanent, cleaner pavilion hospitals.

4. In the 1880’s hospitals often had one room which served as operation rooms, a meeting place, and the hospital parlor. These hospitals were not in good condition in the first few years they were in existence; they were often dirty and small. The one room was usually referred to as the patient library, so when it was used as an operation room the book cases were covered with sheets. Hospitals were one room like this for several years, but finally in 1889 a separate operating room was set up. At first, patients with contagious diseases were not admitted to the hospitals. Then, in 1882 and 1883, many hospitals began to build two frame structures on the front lawn to treat patients with contagious diseases or patients whose operations required them to be isolated. Each of these small buildings had three small rooms that could occupy two patients and a nurse.

5. In the 1800’s most cures for diseases were home remedies. For example, a few methods to cure sore throats were to tie bacon sprinkled with pepper around the patient’s throat, or to drink hot water as hot as you could take it. To make cough syrup, they would mix bark, beetroot, and water and boil it all together.  After that was boiled together they would strain the water, and then add sugar to it.  Then they would let it simmer. If someone was burned, you would put an egg white on it to help seal the skin. To cure diarrhea, patients would drink a tablespoon of water that had been boiled with blackberry root every hour. Snake bites were cured by cutting open where the snake bite was, and then sucking the poison out. After that the patient would drink whiskey, and tie tobacco around the wound. Tuberculosis had many cures, but none of them worked. Some of these cures were smoking, drinking cod liver oil, and eating thick, boiled down, stew.

6. Along with many home remedies there were also drugs and medicines that were not home remedies. Morphine was one of these medicines that were first used as a painkiller in the Civil War. It was often sent home with wounded soldiers to help with relief of pain. Many people became addicted to morphine because they would substitute morphine for alcohol. Drug and alcohol addition often became a problem. Later, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration became responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the supervision of food safety, tobacco products, dietary supplements, prescription, and over-the-counter medicine, vaccines, and many other things as well.

7. There may have not been a lot of medical equipment in 1865-1912, but there was some. Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen was a German physicist who in 1895 discovered electromagnetic radiation that was known as X-rays. Electrocardiography is the interpretation of the electrical activity of the heart over a period of time. This is where electrodes are attached to the surface of the skin and recorded by a device external to the body. Usually people would use this equipment when people have seizures. This equipment was invented by William Einthoven in 1903.

8. Many hospitals began to include care for elderly because they felt it was part of their mission. There were even hospitals that were called asylums where mentally ill people could receive the special treatment they needed. The workers in hospitals were basically doctors and nurses. In order to become a doctor, a person would have to go to college for 4 years, and those years were spilt into 9 month terms. In some cases hospitals had just one family running the hospital. Other hospitals just had any doctors and nurses who qualified for the positions.

9. Without hospitals, cures for diseases, and medical equipment, who knows what could have happened. Although hospitals may have started off very small, unsanitary, and not very well staffed, now they are bigger so they can help more people, cleaner, and have a lot more workers. We should be very thankful with what God has provided for us.

10. Sources • Medical Industry in the Civil War: • http://www.utoledo.edu/library/canaday/exhibits/quackery/quack8.html • The World Book Encyclopedia, Volume 13, Medicine, page 363 • Hospitals in 1880: • http://www.rochestergeneral.org/about-us/rochester-general-hospital/about-us/rochester-medical-museum-and-archives/baker-cederberg-museum-and-archives/the-history-of-the-rochester-general-hospital/growth-1880-1890/ • Home Remedies: • http://presidentjohnadams.tripod.com/id12.html