Civil War Pharmacy: A History of Drugs, Drug Supply and Provision, and

Description

Examine a previously unexplored aspect of Civil War military medicine! Here is the first comprehensive examination of pharmaceutical practice and drug provision during the Civil War. While numerous books have recounted the history of medicine in the Civil War, little has been said about the drugs that were used, the people who provided and prepared them, and how they were supplied. This is the... Read more

Examine a previously unexplored aspect of Civil War military medicine!

Here is the first comprehensive examination of pharmaceutical practice and drug provision during the Civil War. While numerous books have recounted the history of medicine in the Civil War, little has been said about the drugs that were used, the people who provided and prepared them, and how they were supplied. This is the first book to provide detailed discussion of the role of pharmacy. Among the topics covered in this essential volume are the duties of medical purveyors, the role of the hospital steward, and the nature and state of medical substances commonly used in the 1860s. This last subject would become a matter of considerable controversy and ultimately cost William Hammond, the brilliant and innovative Surgeon General, his career in the Union Army.

This richly detailed book shows why the South found drug provision especially difficult and describes the valiant efforts of Confederate sympathizers to run the Union blockade in order to smuggle in their precious cargoes. You’ll also learn about the scurrilous privateers who were out to make a personal fortune at the expense of both the Union and the Confederacy. In addition, Civil War Pharmacy illuminates the systematic effort of pharmacists, physicians, and botanists to derive from Southern plants adequate substitutes for foreign substances that were difficult, if not impossible, to obtain in the Confederacy.

In this painstakingly researched yet highly readable book, Michael A. Flannery, co-author of the critically acclaimed America’s Botanico-Medical Movements: Vox Populi, examines all these topics and more. In addition, he assesses the relative successes and failures of the pharmaceutical aspect of health care at the time—successes and failures that affected every man in army camps and in the field.

Civil War Pharmacy: A History of Drugs, Drug Supply and Provision, and Therapeutics for the Union and Confederacy includes photographs, helpful tables and figures, and six appendices that make hard-to-find information easy to access and understand. You’ll find:

the Standard Supply Table of Indigenous Remedies (1863)
Circular No. 6 from the Surgeon General’s Office (May 4, 1863), calling for the removal of calomel and tartar emetic from the Supply Table
instructions on reading and filling a 19th century prescription—with a glossary of Latin phrases and approximate measures, an excerpt from The Hospital Steward’s Manual, and more!
a circular from the Confederate Medical Purveyor’s Office
a Materia Medica for the South: A list of medicinal substances from Porcher’s Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests
common prescriptions of the Civil War period as well as basic syrups of the era with monographs on their principal substances: alcohol, cinchona, hydrargyrum (mercury), opium, and quinine

Packed with more information than can be listed here and, just as importantly, presented in a reader-friendly manner, this is a book that no one interested in Civil War history—or pharmacy history—should be without! Read less

Foreword
Acknowledgments
Part I: Setting the Stage—Civilian Aspects of Pharmacy During the Civil War
Chapter 1. Civil War Pharmacy and Medicine: Comparisons and Contexts
The Historiography of Civil War Pharmacy
American Pharmacy and Medicine at Midcentury
Pharmacy and Medicine in the Civil War: An Overview
The Role of Disease
Chapter 2. The State of Pharmacy in America, 1861
Education
Manufacturing
Community Practice
Southern Medicine and Pharmacy
Summary
Chapter 3. Angels of Mercy: Women and Civil War Pharmacy
The Woman’s Role: “A Call to Plain Positive Duty”
The United States Sanitary Commission
Women in the South
Women and Civil War Pharmacy: An Appraisal
Part II: Pharmacy in the Union
Chapter 4. The Principals: Medical Purveyors and Hospital Stewards
Official Duties and Responsibilities of Medical Purveyors
Official Duties and Responsibilities of Hospital Stewards
Rank and Status of Medical Purveyors and Hospital Stewards
Chapter 5. The Supplies: Drug Distribution and Manufacturing
Drug Acquisition and Supply: Organizational and Operational Aspects
Free Enterprise Joins the War: Civilian Suppliers
The Laboratories
Chapter 6. The Medicines: A Military Materia Medica and Therapeutics
The Ailments
The Substances
Prescribing and Dispensing in Camp and Hospital
Unit and Patient Case Studies
Chapter 7. The Remedies of Choice: Calomel and Quinine
The Mastodon Unharnessed
Quinine: “Always and Everywhere”
The Quinine Market
Summary
Part III: Pharmacy in the Confederacy
Chapter 8. Administration
Civilian Aspects of Confederate Pharmacy Administration
Medical Purveyors and Hospital Stewards
Administrative Aspects of Supply and Drug Provision
Chapter 9. Fighting More with Less
Disease in the Confederacy
The Blockade
The Supply Table
The Laboratories
Fighting More with Less: An Appraisal
Chapter 10. The Materia Medica
Prescribing and Dispensing in Camp, Hospital, and Home
Wartime Shortages Take Their Toll
The Medicines of the South: An Appraisal
Epilogue. “The Consciousness of Duty Faithfully Performed”: An Appraisal of Civil War Pharmacy
The Impact of the War
Conclusion
Appendix A. Union and Confederate Standard Supply Tables
Appendix B. Circular No. 6
Appendix C. How to Read and Fill a Civil War Prescription
A Glossary of Latin Phrases and Approximate Measures
Excerpt from The Hospital Steward’s Manual, 1862
Appendix D. Circular No. 3
Appendix E. A Materia Medica for the South: A Selected List of Medicinal Substances from Porcher’s Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests
Appendix F. Some Common Prescriptions of the Civil War Period Including the Basic Syrups with Monographs on the Principal Substances: Alcohol, Cinchona, Hydrargyrum (Mercury), Opium, and Quinine
Common Prescriptions
Basic Syrups
Alcohol
Hydrargyrum (Mercury)
Cinchona
Opium
Quinine and Its Salts
Notes
Bibliographical Essay
Index
Reference Notes Included

Author(s)

Biography

Michael Flannery

Civil War Pharmacy A History of Drugs, Drug Supply and Provision, and Therapeutics for the Union and Confederacy

Description

Table of Contents

Author(s)

Biography

SOCIAL NETWORKS

Secure Shopping Payment Options