Medical Treatments of the Revolutionary War

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Medical Treatments of the Revolutionary War
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• During the American Revolutionary War, more
  soldiers died from illness than from combat.

What do you know about medicine during the 18th
and 19th century that may have allowed for this?
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Medicine in Colonial America

• Much of the common information we know today
  about germs, cleanliness, stopping the spread of
  disease, and treating illnesses was not yet
  discovered during the 18th and 19th centuries.

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Revolutionary Medical Care

• What factors do you think influenced the quality
  of medical care during the Revolutionary War?
• Skill of Physicians
• Disease Treatments
• Hospitals
• Health Conditions
• Surgical Procedures

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Revolutionary Medical Care

• There was no medical college in the colonies
  before the Revolution, what does this tell you
  about the skill of colonial doctors?
• The practice of bloodletting for treating almost
  any disease was common and if the doctor was not
  at hand, this was done by the barber.
• Hardly any drugs or anesthetics were used.

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Bloodletting

• Bloodletting is the removal or large amounts of
  blood from a patients body.
• The practice of bloodletting began in the ancient
  world.
• Ancient Greeks, Aztecs, and Egyptians used
  bloodletting because they believed that many
  diseases were caused by having too much blood.

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Physicians

• At the beginning of the war, little carefulness
  was used when determining who could and could not
  practice medicine on the battlefield. Why do you
  think this was so?

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Physicians

• Army physicians, like most physicians at the
  time, were uneducated.
• Each doctor had their own way of treating
  injuries and illnesses, which led to very unusual
  medical care.

If you were a member of the Continental Congress,
what would you do to fix this problem of
inadequate medical treatment?
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Hospital Department for the Army

• The Continental Congress created the Hospital
  Department for the Army.
• This department established acceptable treatments
  of injuries and illnesses.
• In addition, it created a detailed list of
  appropriate qualifications of physicians to
  ensure that all physicians were educated.

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Health Conditions

• Poor health conditions posed even more problems
  to medical treatment during the Revolutionary
  War.
• What were the living and working conditions of
  soldiers living in camps?
• Living in close quarters, often outside
• Malnutrition
• Fatigue

What effect could these conditions have on their
immune system?
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Health Conditions

• The military tried desperately to regulate
  cleanliness of camps and bedding as well as
  provide what was considered a balanced diet in
  the form of rations.

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Health Conditions

• But keeping the camps supplied with a proper diet
  and clean and substantial clothing was difficult
  throughout the course of the War. Soldiers often
  went weeks without changing clothes.
• In this environment, diseases ran through the
  camps at a rapid pace.

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Hospitals

• Many types of hospitals were used during the
  Revolutionary War.
• This hospital environment was usually set up in a
  local home or community near the army's camp.
• Although many local citizens and volunteers
  offered care for the injured soldiers, these
  hospitals were still viewed as sewers of
  impurities.

Do you think these hospitals would have been very
effective at treating wounded or injured soldiers?
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Hospitals

• Other soldiers were sent to a general hospital.
• This type of hospital treated all soldiers with
  all illnesses and was set up for longer term
  care.
• These types of hospitals could be horrible places
  to recover. Over crowding, lack of supplies, and
  often lack of cleanliness made the death rate
  very high in these hospitals.

What would have been some effective ways to lower
the death rate in these hospitals?
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Treatments

• Blood Letting
• Amputation
• Bullet excision
• Burn treatment
• Smallpox Typhus
• Setting broken bones
• Wound Treatment

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Surgery

• The most common type of surgery performed was the
  removal of bullets from gunshot wounds.

A surgeons amputation and general surgery tool
kit.
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Surgery

• Since no drugs or anesthetics had been developed,
  surgeons had to work fast!
• Surgery was extremely painful for the patient.

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Infection

• Unfortunately, because of poor sanitation, most
  surgical wounds eventually became infected.
• To avoid infection, doctors often resorted to
  amputation.

What were some of the health conditions at the
time that increased the risk of infection, how
could infection have been avoided?
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Infection

• It was not until the mid 1800s that sterile
  surgical procedures, such as wearing gloves, were
  recommended in order to prevent infections.
• In 1867, Joseph Lister discovered that spraying
  surgical tools, surfaces, and surgical incisions
  with carbolic acid drastically reduced the chance
  of the patient getting an infection.

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Stopping the Spread

• Unfortunately, these discoveries were made well
  after the Revolutionary War, but they have helped
  shape the field of medical and disease treatment
  during later wars, and have helped to
  significantly reduced the number of deaths due to
  disease and infection.

Click to see the advancement of medical treatment
through some of Americas Wars.