Book Review: Bad Doctors: Military Justice Proceedings Against 622 Civil War Surgeons

摘要

Medical therapy in the United States prior to the AmericanCivil War (1861-1865) was not only fragmented and mostlyunscientific but frequently also barbaric at best.1,2 With thenumerous technological innovations in warfare (such as therifled musket and bullet) that were tested and refined duringthe Civil War, it is no wonder that casualties were overwhelmingand medical practitioners (termed surgeons by militaryparlance, no matter what qualifications or training) were inundatedby the carnage. Of the estimated 12 000 surgeons whoserved on the Union side and 8000 on the Confederate side,most performed admirably under highly stressful (and whattoday would be considered horrific) conditions. Nonetheless,there were some (but a surprisingly small number of) surgeonswho conducted themselves badly. In a previous text, Thomas P.Lowry teamed with Jack D. Welsh to describe some of theUnion surgeons who were court-martialed for their improperactivities.3 Now, Lowry has teamed with a historian TerryReimer from the National Museum of Civil War Medicine inFrederick, Maryland, to catalog the surgeons whose militarydiscipline from either the Union or the Confederate side wasrecorded in various archives.