Marrow of Tragedy Part 3

     Smallpox, being an extremely powerful disease that was common in the 19th Century, one would expect there to be some concern among the officers of the Army. The fact that these men turned soldiers would be in close quarters with one another would raise enough concern to take some sort of action to ensure that smallpox could not contaminate the troops. According to Humphrey's, "The Union Army required that men be vaccinated on admission, or show a vaccination scar or evidence of previous smallpox" (282); Even with these precautions, "Smallpox spread through the Union troops and from there into the Confederate Army" (282). Humphrey's explains that "this rule was rarely observed, at least in the enthusiastic opening days of the war" (282). I find it very interesting that the Union Army was willing to let troops with this disease fight for them, when one soldier carrying the disease could potentially do more harm than the Confederate Army could. I believe that the decision to overlook the potential soldiers carrying the disease was influenced by the war strategy of this era. The probability of an enlisted solider to die was much higher than it is today. The most senior military officers probably figured that a bullet would kill a solider before a disease would.

Marrow of Tragedy Part 2

     At this point in the book it is not surprising to read about how soldiers got infections and what not during the war. Humphrey's explains how the troops were "urged...to act like civilized gentleman" (127). The soldiers were forced to wash themselves and their feet, air out their tents, etc. All of these actions now seem like daily tasks that we just preform without second guessing. The USSC actually appointed physicians to inspect the Union camps to ensure that the wounded soldiers were in conditions that would help them heal faster. They ran into trouble with the senior officers of the Army. The officers just wanted their men to help fight. It baffles me to think that they would rather have a regiment full of troops that are in no condition to fight than put forth some effort and cooperation to help get their troops back to full fighting force. The average officer's education, or lack thereof about healthcare and medicine is mind boggling. It was interesting to read that they started teaching some basic medicine at USMA at West Point because of these reasons.

Marrow of Tragedy Part 1

     In the first part of the reading, one of the most intriguing parts was the emphasis on the way that hospitals and women were viewed/used before the war. Humphrey's states that "the principal occupants of public hospitals were the poor" (53). Most people that faced some type of illness felt as if they would be better off in the comforts of their own home. The fact that doctors did not know that much more about healthcare than normal (educated) people made them much less valuable than they are today. Women were a big reason for this desire to stay in the home when feeling ill. Women were experienced in cleanliness, preparing meals and taking care of children. These tasks seem simple, but in this historical era they were not as easy to accomplish as they seem today. In the video interview with Humphrey's, the most interesting part was when she discussed how it never really occurred to men that the wounded men entering the hospital need to put on clean pajamas. She emphasizes that some of these details that seem so minor today were actually big deals in the 19th century.

History of Healthcare

     Healthcare has been improving remarkably very recently. To look back at some of the practices of medicine in the 1800's, it is shocking to think that their methods were actually used on people. It seems as if their methods of healthcare and medicine are just ridiculous, and maybe even cruel. Due to the advances in healthcare, people are receiving treatment for their illnesses and diseases that no one could have lived through two hundred years ago. Technology has been extremely beneficial in the improvement of healthcare in the sense that doctors can now see things in intimate detail that they would have never dreamed of seeing two hundred years ago.