# Could off-the-shelf pharmaceuticals help a Civil War doctor? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 10, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-off-the-shelf-pharmaceuticals-help-a-civil-war-doctor/709485 "2015-01-10T17:05:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-off-the-shelf-pharmaceuticals-help-a-civil-war-doctor/709485/21 "2015-01-11T18:01:24Z")
> [@Lorene89095](#): > > Somehow bleeding as treatment was go-to. Not so much by the time of the ACW. And leeches were used as we have rediscovered in recent years as a way to keep blood flowing in an injured extremity. As for amputations, an interesting article about them is [here,](http://www.historynet.com/the-truth-about-civil-war-surgery-2.htm) discussing the number of amputations that were NOT made, endangering the patients. Many amputations were necessary because of the nature of the wounds. Being shot with the large but slow bullets of the day or hit by a cannonball was as much blunt-force trauma as anything else, shattering bones that could not be repaired until modern microsurgery, and military doctors today can’t save all limbs. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-off-the-shelf-pharmaceuticals-help-a-civil-war-doctor/709485/22 "2015-01-11T18:20:53Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > Order 100,000,000 pads. > Insulated boots, blankets - a few million > 50 million bars of soap, 20 million folding buckets, and water purification tablets (the water downstream of a battlefield was nasty). Thereby lengthening the war by years, depending on which side was the home team. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-off-the-shelf-pharmaceuticals-help-a-civil-war-doctor/709485/23 "2015-01-11T22:03:25Z")
Preparation H would have been a boon. Civil War medicine was powerless against hemorrhoids. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-off-the-shelf-pharmaceuticals-help-a-civil-war-doctor/709485/24 "2015-01-12T01:11:02Z")
Aside from all the OTC stuff we have to prevent and treat topical infections, you could also take back some vitamin supplements. Iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, magnesium zinc etc. are all important to immune health and wound healing. I’m assuming the average civil war soldier was deficient in several of those. > **[Skin Problems and Treatments](https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/default.htm)** > > WebMD provides details about common rashes and other skin conditions and their treatments > **[Factors Affecting Wound Healing](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2903966/)** > > Wound healing, as a normal biological process in the human body, is achieved through four precisely and highly programmed phases: hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling. For a wound to heal successfully, all four phases must occur in... > **[Vitamin A supplements for children could save 600,000 lives a year, experts...](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110825193059.htm)** > > Children in low and middle income countries should be given vitamin A supplements to prevent death and illness, a new study concludes. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-off-the-shelf-pharmaceuticals-help-a-civil-war-doctor/709485/25 "2015-01-12T01:52:09Z")
Condoms would have helped agains the spread of STDs. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-off-the-shelf-pharmaceuticals-help-a-civil-war-doctor/709485/26 "2015-01-12T02:01:53Z")
Condoms have been around for at least 400 years. They had them during the Civil War, the trouble was getting folks to use them (I guess some things don’t change). ---
**Author:** ![Waymore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Waymore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waymore)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-off-the-shelf-pharmaceuticals-help-a-civil-war-doctor/709485/27 "2015-01-12T02:04:41Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Throughout history, up to and including the American Civil War, doctors and surgeons were two completely different things. Surgeons performed surgery (which, back then, 99.9% of the time simply meant amputations) while ‘doctors’ went to actual medical schools and treated ailments. There was a very distinct class division between the two as well. Doctors were from the upper class and attended universities and generally only treated people with money (the rich). Surgeons were tradesmen, more akin to barbers or barrel makers, who learned their trade thru apprenticeships. And although not everything taught in medical schools then was total quackery a great deal of it was. Human medical treatment was as much (or more) a religious thing rather than a science. The insides of the human body were viewed less as a collection of systems (like a machine) and more as a spiritual object driven by divine magic. > > Anyway, the Civil War was kind of the perfect storm for wartime death. It took place during the industrial revolution, so firearms had replaced melee weapons (swords etc.which were now mostly ceremonial) but as is always the case the technology outpaced the tactics. Unlike smooth bore muskets which were wildly inaccurate, a rifled-barrel weapon was accurate at rages of 500 yards. But tactics still dictated disciplined, massed fire at ridiculously closer ranges. Hence the horrific casualty rates. > > Then add to this the fact that the War took place _ **right before** _ the medical revolution. It seems so common sense to us today but things like merely keeping wounds (and even more so, medical tools) clean was meaningless before Pasteur’s Germ Theory. Its true that far more Civil War soldiers died of disease than bullets. And of those actually wounded in battle a great many more died of complications (i.e. infection) even after surviving the initial physical trauma. Lot’s of good stuff in this post. Thanks for the info. ---
**Author:** ![Waymore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Waymore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waymore)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-off-the-shelf-pharmaceuticals-help-a-civil-war-doctor/709485/28 "2015-01-12T02:07:06Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Aside from all the OTC stuff we have to prevent and treat topical infections, you could also take back some vitamin supplements. Iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, magnesium zinc etc. are all important to immune health and wound healing. I’m assuming the average civil war soldier was deficient in several of those. > > [WebMD Skin Treatment Center - Find skin treatment information on various skin disorders](http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/news/20040708/supplement-speeds-wound-healing) > > [Factors Affecting Wound Healing - PMC](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2903966/) > > [Vitamin A supplements for children could save 600,000 lives a year, experts predict | ScienceDaily](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110825193059.htm) I think I’ve read (maybe in Shelby Foote’s masterpiece) that the lack of fresh vegetables really hurt Confederate soldiers hard. Not sure if there was a full blown scurvy epidemic, but bad news none the less. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-off-the-shelf-pharmaceuticals-help-a-civil-war-doctor/709485/29 "2015-01-12T15:24:46Z")
> [@Palo\_Verde](#): > > …We time-travel some doctors to a modern day pharmacy, but they can’t have any of the prescription medicine, just the over-the-counter stuff. What would be most useful to them? > > My first thoughts are antibacterial creams, clean bandages, and maybe ibuprofen. But would any of this actually make a difference in saving soldier’s lives? Ibuprofen might help, but painkillers already existed then. I believe Aspirin existed but wasn’t in widespread use yet. Maybe increased NSAID use could help reduce complications from excessive Morphine use (e.g. addiction). Another thing to consider is the medical _knowledge_ that one could get from the labels. I believe the germ theory of disease wasn’t fully understood or accepted then and that many people caught bacterial infections that could have been prevented by rubbing a little whiskey on a wound. So the doctors can grab a few bottles of OTC rubbing alcohol, read the instructions, try it, find it works pretty good, then say, hey, this is just crap whiskey, and continue the work with Farmer Bill’s local hootch. ---
**Author:** ![TheSeaOtter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ed655f/32.png) [@TheSeaOtter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheSeaOtter)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-off-the-shelf-pharmaceuticals-help-a-civil-war-doctor/709485/30 "2015-01-12T21:07:40Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Ibuprofen might help, but painkillers already existed then. I believe Aspirin existed but wasn’t in widespread use yet. Actual Aspirin was first synthesized in 1897, several years too late for the Civil War. However, the active ingredient in aspirin (salicylic acid) was originally found in willow bark, which has been used medicinally since practically forever, and the first paper on it was published all the way back in 1763. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Holdsworth\_Effect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@The\_Holdsworth\_Effect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Holdsworth_Effect)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-off-the-shelf-pharmaceuticals-help-a-civil-war-doctor/709485/31 "2015-01-13T00:45:05Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > That’s what I call “prescribing off-label!” > > For those unfamiliar with the effects on some people of sugar alcohols, read the reviews: [http://www.amazon.com/Haribo-SUGAR-Classic-Gummi-Bears/dp/B006J1FBLM/ref=sr\_1\_2?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1420997988&sr=1-2&keywords=sugar-free+gummy+bears](http://www.amazon.com/Haribo-SUGAR-Classic-Gummi-Bears/dp/B006J1FBLM/ref=sr_1_2?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1420997988&sr=1-2&keywords=sugar-free+gummy+bears) > > ETA: Interesting, and accurate, use of the word “tincture,” **The Holdsworth Effect**. It sounds so medical. 😃 i usually soak something in them, like plums or cherries or blackberries (the latter reputed to help diarrhea,BTW). I’ve a prewar (WW2) Remington Pharmacy text. Tells how to make EVERYTHING. Working urgent care in the mid 90’s, pair of young brothers- 3 and 5, or so- came in with a really bad case of the squirts. They weren’t sick, though, and at the end the momma asked if it was because they ate an entire bag of G-ma’s diabetic candy. Decided to cancel the tests 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-off-the-shelf-pharmaceuticals-help-a-civil-war-doctor/709485/32 "2015-01-13T19:59:43Z")
About 2/3rds of all soldier deaths in the American Civil War were caused by disease, not by wounds. A great many enlistees died of disease in overcrowded camps before ever seein an enemy combatant. The most common causes were typhoid fever, dysentery, pneumonia, TB, measles, mumps, chicken pox, small pox, malaria and whooping cough. There are not a lot of OTC medicines today that would prevent or cure those diseases, but sanitation and access to clean water would have had a major impact. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-off-the-shelf-pharmaceuticals-help-a-civil-war-doctor/709485.md?page=1)