FEBRUARY MEETING
On Wednesday February 18, 2010 at 7:30 PM the SDCWRT will hold its 283rd meeting at Palisades Presbyterian Church, 6301 Birchwood St., San Diego CA 92120.
This month our guest speaker will be Dr. Joe Wagner on “Civil War Medicine.”
The state of medical and surgical practice during the American Civil War remained primitive with almost no scientific foundation. Based entirely on experience with what worked in previous centuries, doctors were surprisingly effective in the care of the sick and wounded. New discoveries in science and technology were not far off, but still just beyond their horizon. The existence of bacteria remained unknown. The germ theory of disease was yet to be determined. X-rays not yet discovered
His initial curiosity in exploring this subject was the matter of anaesthesia. The first successful public demonstration of anaesthesia took place at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846. When the Civil War began 15 years later, did the surgeons know about and use anaesthesia?
We will see the answers to those questions during this presentation on “Civil War Medicine”.