The Reality of Civil War Medicine and its Interpretation

Robert D, Hicks, Ph.D., curator of the Mutter Museum at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, will discuss issues of medicine during the Civil War. Most people derive their knowledge of Civil War medicine from popular fiction: soldiers biting the bullet as limbs are amputated by doctors who were little different from butchers. The reality was very different: all the major components of our modern handling of trauma developed during the war. The Civil War claimed almost two percent of the country's population, or in today's terms, millions of citizens. The massive casualties and disease victims made huge demands on medical practice and ideology, stimulating the reorganization of hospital medicine. To supplement the presentation, Dr. Hicks will display several medical artifacts and specimens from the Mutter Museum.

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