Better preventive health in ACW

67th Tigers

Banned
For very good reasons.

The prevalent theory was that "miasma" (bad smells) were the source of infection. It had recently been disproved (in 1854) in London, Pasteur disproved the spontaneous generation variant of germ theory in 1857.

Germ theory had gained acceptance in Britain by the 1860's, and Lister would use the theory to develop antiseptic theory in 1865, which was an expression of practice that had developed over the previous 5 years (mostly in Britain and France).

Certainly, British Military Field Hospitals had adopted antiseptic techniques around this time (essentially dowsing stuff in Phenol or similar), although I don't know if the Union had.
 
Perhaps the best way to deal with all this is too get a professor or perhaps the Commandant at West Point to decide that teaching the cadets about the importance of cleanliness being next to godliness.

Actually you could argue that neat camps with a clean supply of drinking water was something that probably wouldn't have been hard to achieve, and it certainly makes sense, and could be made to make sense to the 19th century officer. Clean camps = less disease seems like something that doesn't need a widespread acceptance of germ theory to be accepted. The commandant impresses his cadets with this idea that cleanliness is important, and it is taken to heart by some officers during the Mexican-American War. Those officers' units suffer less disease, and the practice of cleanliness is impressed on the peace-time army.

Once the civil war starts both sides may be short of food, clothing, shoes, and shelter, but they have officers who understand the importance of a clean and orderly camp, so some of the disease is mitigated.

Perhaps this commandant also decides that the Army really needs doctors, and gets a medical school going for West Point. "Army Doctor" is now a label of pride, since the West Point Medical School is seen as the national leader in health science (having a captive population of test subjects certainly helps . . .).
 
The prevalent theory was that "miasma" (bad smells) were the source of infection. It had recently been disproved (in 1854) in London, Pasteur disproved the spontaneous generation variant of germ theory in 1857.

Germ theory had gained acceptance in Britain by the 1860's, and Lister would use the theory to develop antiseptic theory in 1865, which was an expression of practice that had developed over the previous 5 years (mostly in Britain and France).

Certainly, British Military Field Hospitals had adopted antiseptic techniques around this time (essentially dowsing stuff in Phenol or similar), although I don't know if the Union had.

Even with that it was far more likely for you to pick up some sort of infection at a hospital then to be cured of it. I don't think there were any antibiotics yet and it is difficult to completely destroy airborne infectants.
 

67th Tigers

Banned
Even with that it was far more likely for you to pick up some sort of infection at a hospital then to be cured of it. I don't think there were any antibiotics yet and it is difficult to completely destroy airborne infectants.

No antibiotics, these are discovered in the 1930's (so even WW1 hospitals lacked them).
 
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