Fragmentation of medicine in the united states: Remnants of the 19th century and the american civil war

摘要

During the 19th century, the United States of America radically and tumultuously transformed from an experiment in democratic governance by a fledgling group of settlers populating the eastern portion of North America to a robust, free, and powerful nation encompassing a greater portion of the continent of North America and dominating technological innovation for the world. The event that served as the major dividing point in this period of development was the American Civil War of the 1860s. Wartimes trigger great social, scientific, and technologic upheavals and the American Civil War was no exception. By the 1860s, science and technology were finally beginning to be incorporated into medical diagnosis and treatment in Europe, which at the time held leadership in this field, whereas in the United States, medical care still often produced more harm than good (eg, accepted therapy for injuries with internal bleeding was bloodletting).