Marrow of Tragedy: 1-3

Major Facts:
killed more than a million Americans
major influence was Christianity blended with American culture
2:1 Illness to battle wound death ratio
Movement from care in home to care in hospital
Design and architecture of new hospitals
Gender issues in professional medicine
Lack of consistent medicine


A very interesting idea that came from the introduction was the idea of preachers changing their sermons to justify the war. I feel like for us today, a similar thing occurs with our politicians while religious leaders change their sermons on social issues.
There was no knowledge about how to organize the number of wounded and sick during the war. It's so sad to think of how many lives in history could have survive if the importance of good sanitation was understood. So many survived the battle but not the bunkers. Women, the main providers of care at home, emerged as one of the most valuable assets to war. While at the time no one saw women as having any contribution to battle, they gained recognition for cleaning up after the battles so that men could go on to fight the next one. The realized the importance of "will"  and gave the men more than medical attention, but encouragement. The smallest things, like dysentery, were the most lethal. The ideas of straws to drink water or IV fluids with electrolytes, Imodium pills and Gatorade could have saved people. With amputations, I was surprised that they knew about blood infections, but not to heal some basic wounds. The idea that hospitals before this time had never seen affluent patients made me think that care before in hospitals was not real care at all. I presume that the poorer patients were sometimes seen as lesser humans, but not anymore. It seems to me that medical progress could have been decades more advanced had people accepted the skills of women and learned from them rather than ignored them. I love the recognition the author gives women in that they were promoted socially and professionally.