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

摘要

Medical therapy in the United States prior to the American Civil War (1861-1865) was not only fragmented and mostly unscientific but frequently also barbaric at best.1,2 With the numerous technological innovations in warfare (such as the rifled musket and bullet) that were tested and refined during the Civil War, it is no wonder that casualties were overwhelming and medical practitioners (termed surgeons by military parlance, no matter what qualifications or training) were inundated by the carnage. Of the estimated 12 000 surgeons who served on the Union side and 8000 on the Confederate side, most performed admirably under highly stressful (and what today would be considered horrific) conditions. Nonetheless, there were some (but a surprisingly small number of) surgeons who conducted themselves badly. In a previous text, Thomas P. Lowry teamed with Jack D. Welsh to describe some of the Union surgeons who were court-martialed for their improper activities.3 Now, Lowry has teamed with a historian Terry Reimer from the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Maryland, to catalog the surgeons whose military discipline from either the Union or the Confederate side was recorded in various archives.