Frontier Medicine at Fort Davis and Other Army Posts
eBook - ePub

Frontier Medicine at Fort Davis and Other Army Posts

True Stories of Unglamorous Maladies

  1. 192 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Frontier Medicine at Fort Davis and Other Army Posts

True Stories of Unglamorous Maladies

About this book

From a headless burial to cocaine toothache drops, the true stories hidden in the Wild West's medical records are a match for its tallest tales.

In the 19th century, when dying young was a fact of life, a routine bout of diarrhea could be fatal. No one had heard of viruses or bacteria, but they killed more soldiers on the frontier than hostile raiding parties. Physicians dispensed whiskey for TB, mercury for VD and arsenic for indigestion. Baseball injuries were considered to be in the line of duty and twice resulted in amputations at Fort Davis. Donna Gerstle Smith explains how an industrious laundress could earn more than a private, how a female army surgeon won the Medal of Honor and how a garrison illegally hung the local bartender.

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Yes, you can access Frontier Medicine at Fort Davis and Other Army Posts by Donna Gerstle Smith in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Histoire & Histoire de l'Amérique du Nord. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Front Cover
  2. Half Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. Acknowledgements
  7. Introduction
  8. 1. Let the Dead People Talk
  9. 2. Step Back in Time
  10. 3. Barroom Brawl, Death, Hanging
  11. 4. Diphtheria: Strangling Angel of Death
  12. 5. No Pension for Her Own Work
  13. 6. Quanah Parker and Peyote: Indigenous Cactus Medicine
  14. 7. A Young Boy Loses His Father
  15. 8. Frontier Military Women Sometimes Took Matters into Their Own Hands
  16. 9. Two More Women Who Took Matters into Their Own Hands
  17. 10. Magic Lanterns and Photography
  18. 11. The Runs: Diarrhea but No Issue of the Tissue (TP)
  19. 12. In the Line of Duty: Baseball Injuries
  20. 13. Not in the Line of Duty: Man Bite
  21. 14. Who Will Pay for Deceased Frontier Army Doctor’s Casket?
  22. 15. Soldier Buried Headless
  23. 16. Texas Was a Good Place for Men, but Awfully Rough on Women and Oxen
  24. 17. Unfit for Military Service: Why Do We Call It 4-F?
  25. 18. Brandy, Whiskey and Opium to Treat Tuberculosis
  26. 19. How to Limit Family Size: Two Women’s Dilemmas
  27. 20. Water: Where Will Our Next Drink Be?
  28. 21. You Were Bitten by What?
  29. 22. Surgery and Anesthesia
  30. 23. Camp Followers Came in a Wide Variety of Characters
  31. 24. Trials of a Frontier Army Officer’s Wife
  32. 25. Where’s the Dentist?
  33. 26. Your TB Treatment Is Scheduled for Two O’Clock in the Inhalatorium
  34. 27. Death Hovered Close for Women in Childbirth and for Children
  35. 28. Sudden Deaths
  36. 29. Medical Whiskey and Other Elixirs, Nostrums and Cure-Alls
  37. 30. Take a Photo of Our Beloved Daughter—She’s Dead
  38. 31. Demon Whiskey
  39. 32. Children Died, Too—and There Were No Child-Proof Caps
  40. 33. Cocaine Toothache Drops and Other Remedies
  41. 34. Ice—for Fever, Weddings and Ice Cream
  42. 35. Scalps and Skulls
  43. 36. No Talking after Bedtime, 8½ P.M.: Army Hospital Rules
  44. 37. Female Army Surgeon Receives Medal of Honor
  45. 38. Dying Too Young
  46. 39. What Would You Name Your Horse?
  47. 40. What Did They Call PTSD?
  48. 41. Cemeteries: Fort Davis, Where Are Your Dead?
  49. 42. Scurvy: A Monstrous and Wicked Disease for Soldiers, Sailors and Pirates
  50. 43. Died of Softening of the Brain
  51. 44. Why Did the U.S. Army Deliberately Burn Down Its Hospitals?
  52. Glossary of Old Medical Terms Used in the Nineteenth Century
  53. Appendix: Excerpts from Fort Davis Military Death Records
  54. Bibliography
  55. About the Author