Junior Paper

Rachel Clark

English III

Ms. Donnelly

10 January 2013

Importance of Medical Instrument in the Military

One day when I was in the Burgaw Public Library, my interest caught me on the book call Medical Instrument in History. Medical instruments play a huge part in life, even the military. Medical instruments save many lives now but did very little in the past because they were not highly technological. The Revolutionary War and Civil War did have medical instruments, but had little effect on saving soldiers. Medical instruments in the military have made technological advancements over the past 200 years to the benefit of society.

Throughout the 1860s, medical equipment, supplies, and drugs were short in supply as the Civil War started. This means it was nearly impossible to save Union and Confederate soldiers lives. In addition, most regimental surgeons were not well trained, especially at the beginning of the war; however, the only tools they had were the pocket surgical kit, and they performed the only useful surgery they knew: amputation. “Typically amputation was performed using a surgical saw, which is very similar to a hacksaw” (Dunne). Amputation in the Civil War was frequent because the war was so crude, eventually killing many lives lost because of the major loss of blood. Today, our advance armamentarium -medical instruments- saves many lives with the recent evolution to save society.

However, if they had problems with losing limbs, what about gun shot wounds? “Bullet Extractors were specially designed to remove the bullet, bullet fragments, or other foreign materials from the wound” (Dunne). This instrument was a pair of pincers or tongs used for grasping, operating, or removing. Such an instrument was used by a surgeon. Surgeons really had a hard time trying to remove these bullets, with such little equipment and just a bullet extractor; it also caused more pain to the patient which they did not have pain relievers back then either. “Dysentery,...