Notecards

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Surgery in the Military

Source:

Tannenbaum, Rebecca J. “Health and Medicine in the 17th Century.” American Centuries , vol. 2, Facts on File, 2014. American History , online.infobase.com/hrc/search/details/358046?q=colonial surgery.

Quote:

“Many surgeons learned their skill in the military and continued to practice after their discharge. They set broken bones, removed cataracts, and amputated diseased or injured limbs. Surgeons made up another category of trained healer. Surgery and medicine were considered separate fields, although the lines were beginning to blur and would eventually disappear altogether. Medicine, or “physick,” was an intellectual, gentleman’s skill; surgery was a manual trade, and thus had lower status. Many surgeons learned their skill in the military and continued to practice after their discharge. They set broken bones, removed cataracts, and amputated diseased or injured limbs.” 

Paraphrase:

Surgeons in the colonial period learned how to do surgery on the battlefield. Some of the things the surgeons learned during war were how to set broken bones, get rid of cataracts, and amputations of limbs. Surgeons made a new category of trained healer. Surgery and medicine were considered different jobs but overtime they became the same. Physicks’s was a rich mans skill; Surgery was for poor men and they had lower status. Surgeons learned their skill in the military and they continued to do surgery after the war. The surgeon’s set broken bones, removed cataracts, and amputated diseased or injured limbs.

My Ideas:

This quote shows that a lot of the surgeons learned their techniques from the battlefield. The surgeons on the battlefields saw broken bones, gun wounds, infections, severed limbs, and disease. Surgery was a gentleman’s job and never a woman’s job. In the early times of colonial America surgery and medicine were complete opposites, but later on they became one and the same. The surgeons started out as focusing only on physical aspects of medicine. The physicians focused on medicines and bleedings. I wonder what bleedings are? I think bleedings are when you test someone’s blood to see if there are any problems. Some of the colonial  physicians had a lot in common with the medieval doctors. While the surgeons and physicians started out having very different responsibilities over time there jobs became more similar. Surgeons had a lot lower status  because surgery was a manual trade. Physicians however, were thought of as a skilled trade and learned there job by apprenticeship. This gave the physicians hire status than the surgeons. Since surgeons and physicians did not get paid well they would often switch their trade to farming or school teaching. I can infer that surgeons did surgery because they had a passion for helping people. I can also infer that the surgeons went into surgery knowing that they would not make a lot of money.  

History:

Created: 10/11/2016 10:48 AM

This is one of my notecards, it is about surgery in the military. My topic for the colonial museum is surgery. I think this is my best notecard because it has a good analysis and in general a good theme of the notecard. I learned a lot of interesting things in this notecard. For example most surgeons learned their skill in the army.