Treatment of Venereal Disease during the Civil War - Medical [9], Up until the 19th century, there was still much confusion as to whether syphilis and gonorrhoea were manifestations of the same disease. In 1838 Philippe Ricord, a physician and surgeon who worked under Guillaume Dupuytren, a French anatomist and military surgeon, firmly established that syphilis and gonorrhoea were separate diseases and differentiated the three stages of syphilis, and the primary lesion of syphilis was given the name of Ricords chancre. Smallpox outbreaks were common on both sides, as were resulting deaths. Camp itch could be treated by ridding the body of the pests or with poke-root solution. An 1864 Manual of Instructions for Enlisting and Discharging Soldiers, issued by the assistant surgeon of the U.S. Army, instructed examining physicians to reject all sufferers who had shown signs of syphilitic infection through eruptions of the skin and mucus membranes. The constitutional infection, the surgeon wrote, is almost never cured, and will be surely roused into activity by the exposure and unfavorable hygienic conditions to which the soldier is subjected.. As you recall, there is an unfortunate similarity between smallpox and syphilis. Many physicians doubted the efficacy of mercury, especially as it had terrible side effects and many patients died of mercury poisoning. Beck (1997) describes a typical mercury treatment : A patient undergoing the treatment was secluded in a hot, stuffy room, and rubbed vigorously with the mercury ointment several times a day. The massaging was done near a hot fire, which the sufferer was then left next to in order to sweat. This process went on for a week to a month or more, and would later be repeated if the disease persisted. Other toxic substances, such as vitriol and arsenic, were also employed, but their curative effects were equally in doubt. [9]. As if that wasnt enough, there was also the problem of the commonality of venereal diseases. Doctors and nurses used opium and morphine to treat soldiers pain, stop [12]. [7, 11, 12], In 1906 Paul Ehrlich, a German histological chemist at the Robert Koch Institute who later in his life founded the sciences of chemotherapy and immunology. Politics, Prostitution, and the Pox in Revolutionary Paris, 17891799.. . [24] When Charles VIII invaded and seized Naples in 1495, Naples was populated by Spanish immigrants and was defended largely by Spanish mercenaries who had probably already contracted the disease in Spain and who then passed the disease onto Charles soldiers and followers when they invaded Naples. USCivilWar.Net wants to thank Jenny Goellnitz for compiling this information.jgoellnitz@yahoo.com. [24], Critics of recent palaeopathological studies have pointed out the difficulties in distinguishing syphilis from other diseases that had similar symptoms and left similar bone scars such as leprosy, osteomyelitis, hypertrophic osteoarthropathy, and histiocytosis [31, 32] In 2005 Bruce M. Rothschild published a review of the historical and palaeopathological record of syphilis. Rothschild found that the pathological osseotype features of syphilis were absent in human specimens from re-Columbian Europe, Africa and Asia. However specimens with evidence of treponeal disease were identified from North America dating back some 8,000 years. Bruce Rothschild as co-author with Christine Rothschild in their review study in 2000 found that somewhere between 2000 and 1800 years ago the first identified osseotype evidence of syphilis occurred in North America and it appeared that syphilis had transmutated from yaws. However, it was the tragedy of the era that medical knowledge of the 1860s had not yet encompassed the use of sterile dressings, antiseptic surgery, and the recognition of the importance of sanitation and hygiene. [9], During the 1520s it became clear to historians and physicians of the time that the disease was contracted and spread by sexual intercourse. In Europe the authorities had become so concerned with the rise in venereal diseases that they attempted to control prostitution and sexual encounters outside marriage. Henry VIII of England (reigned 1509 1547) tried to close down the stews, or brothels, and communal bathhouses of London. In many other places strict regulations were issued for brothels and bathhouses, forcing prostitutes who had disease or infections out of employment, and mixed bathing was prohibited. Then they were thrown out and deprived of Naples and Genoa. From its beginning, syphilis was greatly feared by society because of the repulsiveness of its symptoms, the pain and disfigurement that was endured, the severe after effects of the mercury treatment, but most of all, because it was transmitted and spread by an inescapable facet of human behaviour, sexual intercourse. This meant that some soldiers, untrained in medical matters, could easily confuse a syphilis pustule with a cowpox one. However, many of the Southern medical supplies came from captured Union stores. By the end of 1495 the epidemic had spread throughout France, Switzerland and Germany, and reached England and Scotland in 1497. This. It also led us to discover vaccination. Anesthesia's first recorded use was in 1846 and was commonly in use during the Civil War. but, from the very nature of things, this was not possible. Syphilis was a terrible disease because of its propensity to mimic many medical disorders, and its importance to medicine was emphasised by Sir William Osler who in an address given to the New York Academy of Medicine in 1897 titled Internal Medicine as a Vocation said : I often tell my students that it is the only disease which they require to know thoroughly. Know syphilis in all its manifestations and relations, and all other things clinical will be added unto you. [35]. Everything about Civil War surgery was septic. Blood poisoning, sepsis or Pyemia (Pyemia meaning literally pus in the blood) was common and often very deadly. Syphilis was first reported in Europe in 1494 among soldiers (and their camp followers) involved in a war between France and Naples. The first epidemic of the Disease of Naples or the French disease in Naples 1495, In August 1494, King Charles VIII of France led his army of 50,000 soldiers and a large artillery train into northern Italy. The soldiers were mostly mercenaries Flemish, Gascon, Swiss, Italian, and Spanish and were accompanied by 800 camp followers including cooks, medical attendants and prostitutes. Part 1 Phthisis, consumption and the White Plague. Some were aware that the alterations were connected with sexual activity. . Both Armies faced problems with mosquitos and lice. An early attempt to track disease using cartography, the map took advantage of the wealth of data provided by conscription examinations. However, about 75% of amputees did survive. Sometimes bleeding was also used. World War II is the deadliest conflict in history. [4, 5], The disease started with genital ulcers, then progressed to a fever, general rash and joint and muscle pains, then weeks or months later were followed by large, painful and foul-smelling abscesses and sores, or pocks, all over the body. Muscles and bones became painful, especially at night. . Up until that time the disease was usually known as the French disease or French pox, the Spanish pox, or just simply, the pox. When campaigns to eradicate venereal disease came to Macon County, study researchers prevented their subjects from participating. The Three Great Pandemics, Syphilis Its early history and Treatment until Penicillin and the Debate on its Origins, History of Tuberculosis. Left untreated, the disease could cripple a person, with symptoms including rashes and chancres, fevers, headaches, fatigue, paralysis, blindness, and dementia. The largest of these hospitals was Chimbarazo in Richmond, Virginia. Before the Wasserman blood testthe first widely used serum diagnosis test for syphiliswas developed in 1906, diagnosing syphilis relied on the evaluation of visible symptoms like lesions, rashes, and chancres. Doctors would deep cut or scrape off the skin of new patients and introduce the lymph or scab directly into their bloodstream. The Civil War "sawbones" was doing the best he could. WebA consistent policy was never fully evolved: at the beginning of the war, the official line was to preach continence but tolerate brothels under medical supervision; by the end of the [7], In 1527, Jacques de Bethencourt in his work New Litany of Penitence, introduced the term Morbus venerus, or venereal disease. Bethencourt rejected the term morbus gallicus, and suggested that since the disease arises from illicit love it should be called the malady of Venus or venereal disease. He also considered it was a new disease not known to the ancients and not appearing in Europe until the end of the 15th century. Manuela Beltrn Is a Colombian Hero. Joseph Jones, a southern scientist who after the war attempted to recover medical data, calculated that there was one doctor for every 324 soldiers in the south and one for every 133 soldiers in the north. Although many formed enduring interracial friendships while fighting overseas, inequities and blatantly racist treatment stained their experiences both during and after the war. It was also known as 606 because it was the 606th compound Hata and Ehrlich tested. [7]. Sir William Osler (1849-1919), a founder of the John Hopkins School of Medicine and pioneer of modern medical and clinical education and later Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, described the history of the sudden appearance of this new and terrible disease in 16th century Europe : A mysterious epidemic, hitherto unknown, which struck terror into all hearts by the rapidity of its spread, the ravages it made, and the apparent helplessness of the physicians to cure it. [13], By the early 18th century syphilis had ceased to be a virulent epidemic disease and became more of the episodic disease it is today. From about the middle of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century the incidence of syphilis in developed countries declined, except in times of war. During each of the World Wars, the Korean war and the Vietnam War, the incidence of syphilis, and STDs in general, rose sharply but only briefly. After 1943 and with the advent of penicillin and institution of public health measures, its incidence declined again, although in past decades it has slowly increased. Journal of Military and Veterans Health (JMVH). All rights reserved. How Civil War Soldiers Gave Themselves Syphilis While Trying to Avoid Smallpox. Injections were yet to come, so doctors preferred vaccination method was to gatherfluid from an active pustule of an infected cow or person and introduceit into the patients bloodstream by making a cut in the skin. Salvarsan or 606 (dioxy-diamino-arsenobenzol): Its Chemistry, Pharmacy and Therapeutics. As a result, thousands died from diseases such as typhoid or dysentery. [2, 3] In the US Army during World War I they were the second most common reason for disability and absence from duty, being responsible for nearly 7 million lost person-days and the discharge of more than 10,000 men. Only the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918-1919 accounted for more loss of duty during that war. During World War II between 1941 and 1945 the annual incidence of STDs in the US Army was 43 per 1,000 strength. In the Vietnam War during the period 1963 to 1970 the overall average annual incidence of STDs was 262 per 1,000 strength, compared with, at the time, 30 per 1,000 in continental US-based army personnel. In Vietnam 90% of STD cases were due to gonorrhoea and slightly over 1% were due to syphilis. Thinking they could be immune to the terrifying smallpox, many Civil War soldiers accidentally infected themselves with syphilis. Facing the threat of smallpox, many soldiers resorted to arm-to-arm vaccination which often led to further medical complications. Library of Congress/LC-DIG-ppmsca-33113 Paris : J.-B. As Margaret Humphreys graphically describes in Marrow of Tragedy: The Health Crisis of the American Civil War, with the doctor too busy or completely absent, soldiers resorted to performing vaccination with whatever they had at hand. Of these, smallpox was perhapsthe deadliest and most feared. Doi No 11.2021-47955651, If I were asked which is the most destructive of all diseases I should unhesitatingly reply, it is that which for some years has been raging with impunity What contagion does thus invade the whole body, so much resist medical art, becomes inoculated so readily, and so cruelly tortures the patient ? Desiderius Erasmus, 1520. Anesthesia was usually administered by the open-drop technique. You look at your fellow soldiers pus-filled lesion and realize there is only one way tosurvive the smallpox outbreak in your unit. Most medicines were manufactured in the north; southerners had to run the Union blockade in order to gain access to them. Arrizabalaga, Jon, Henderson, John and French, Roger. On occasion, vital medicines were smuggled into the South, sewn into the petticoats of ladies sympathetic to the Southern cause. - Slate Magazine [3] The impact of gonorrhoea and syphilis on military personnel in terms of morbidity and mortality was greatly mitigated after 1943 due to the introduction of penicillin, as well as other factors such as education, prophylaxis, training of health personnel and adequate and rapid access to treatment. All contents Over the centuries, a Depending on whether it was the lymph or the scab, the virus couldstay active from a couple of days to two or three weeks. [10], In 1530, Girolamo Fracastoro in his poem Syphilis sive morbus gallicus described in detail the symptoms of syphilis and its treatment with guaiacum, the holy wood, a herb made from the bark of trees from the guaiacum family which was brought back from the Caribbean and South America in the New World, and the treatment with mercury. According to the The Encyclopedia of Civil War Medicine by Glenna R Schroeder-Lein, the most accepted method was to look for small children to infect with cowpox. All Rights Reserved. . A Practical Treatise on Venereal Diseases, or, Critical and Experimental Researches on Inoculation: Applied to the Study of These Affections: With a Therapeutical Summary and Special Formulary. Side effects of mercury treatments could include tooth loss; mouth, throat, and skin ulcerations; neurological damage; and death. They would then puncture their fellow soldiers pustule and coat their wound with the overflowing lymph. [7], The name for the disease, syphilis, originates from an epic Latin poem Syphilis, sive morbus gallicus, Syphilis, or the French disease, published in 1530 by Girolamo Fracastoro (L. Hieronymus Fracastorius). Fracastoro was a poet, mathematician and physician from Verona in the Republic of Venice, who in his work De contagione et contagiosis morbis first described typhus and wrote on contagion, contagious particles that could multiply in the human body and be passed from person to person or through the mediation of fomes, and which were the cause of many epidemic diseases. See. Enslaved people were money. Treatments: Mercury, Syphilization, and Salvarsan. The anesthetic was applied to a cloth held over the patient's mouth and nose and was withdrawn after the patient was unconscious. As the lists of the maimed grew, both North and South built "general" military hospitals. To search or browse all items digitized for the Contagion exhibit, please use the search bar in the top navigation menu or the "Limit Your Search" options in the left navigation menu (accessible from the exhibit's home page). So incensed was Syphilus that he blasphemed the Sun-God in good set terms and decided from henceforth to offer no sacrifices to him, but to worship King Alcithous. In History Sir William Osler in his biographical essay Fracastorius from his 1909 work An Alabama Student and Other Biographical Essays wrote of Syphilus : He kept the flocks of King Alcithous, and one year the drought was so extreme that the cattle perished for want of water. This paper attempts to examine this hypothesis through an extensive review of pertinent literature, and to clarify misconceptions concerning addiction problems associated with the war. 2023 [7]. Englands Contagious Diseases Acts are an example of this. Salvarsan was the first effective specific chemotherapy against syphilis, although it could involve an extended series of treatments and cause serious side effects. [22] Mahoney and his colleagues at the US Marine Hospital, Staten Island, treated four patients with primary syphilis chancres with intramuscular injections of penicillin four-hourly for eight days for a total of 1,200,000 units by which time the syphilis had been cured. This became a turning point in the treatment for syphilis as penicillin was shown to be highly effective when administered during either its primary or secondary stages, and it had few side effects of any significance when compared to mercury or arsenic. Arnold wrote in 1986 of his early work with penicillin and syphilis: Syphilis was once a dreaded and dreadful disease involving millions of US citizens. Before the introduction of penicillin, the heavy-metal cure often caused thousands of deaths each year. The morbidity and mortality of the disease itself was horrendous, involving all ages from the fetus to the elderly. [23]. [7, 8], 16th and 17th century writers and physicians were divided on the moral aspects of syphilis. Some thought it was a divine punishment for sin, and as such only harsh treatments would cure it, or that people with syphilis shouldnt be treated at all. In 1673, Thomas Sydenham, a British physician, wrote an opposing view that the moral aspect of syphilis was not the province of the physician, who should treat all people without judgement.
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