The old adage that war is the laboratory for the surgeon could just as aptly apply to the American Civil War and medicine in general. Such phenomenal strides in medicine occurred in the 19th century that Sir William Osler termed the attendant decrease in suffering "the Promethean gift of the century to man."
A large percentage of those medical advances came during the Civil War. Numbers and necessity together forced a comparative handful of physicians to give deep attention to traumatic injuries, epidemics, widespread infection, and hygiene and to such basic medical practices as dietary needs, transportation of the sick and wounded from battle areas, hospital care, and record-keeping. Some writers assert that more knowledge was gained--and more improvements made--in the field of medicine in that four-year American conflict than in any other similar period of time in history.
Learning from the past is the key to understanding the present and anticipating the future. That is as true for medicine as for all fields of study. Civil War medicine offers an almost unlimited area for investigation and discussion. That is why the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies is proud to present this academic symposium on medical beliefs and and treatments in the 1860s. The program is made possible by an educational grant from Merck & Company.
James I. Robertson Jr.
Director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies
