Throughout the Civil War, the South never had a discrete advantage over the North but many medical innovations practiced by the North were also practiced on the side of the Confederates. Even the Confederates invented medical innovates that would not only help in the war, but change the medical field forever. Medical advances and practices of the South during the Civil War includes:
• Amputations - Amputations were also practiced in the South and were very effective in saving the patients life.
• 3,000 Physicians - The South did not have as many Physicians as the North but they were quite effective with new medical innovations and inventions of which are mentioned in this list.
• Anesthesia Inhaler - Physicians used to put injured patients under Anesthesia by applying a rag with chloroform on it onto the mouth of the patient. But this practice would waste much of the chloroform as it would dry very quickly once on the rag. And since the Confederates were quickly running out of chloroform because it mostly came from the North, the Southern Physicians invented the Anesthesia Inhaler so it wouldn’t waste Chloroform and in fact, the Inhaler only used 1/8 ounce of the Chloroform rather than the prior 2 ounces needed for rags.
• The Closing of Chest Wounds - A medical assistant on the battlefields of Civil War names Benjamin Howard experimented with chest wounds since many other Physicians were convinced chest wounds were usually not able to be cured or treated. He created a life saving procedure in which he would close the wound with metal sutures, add drops of collodion into the wound, and wrap the chest with bandages. This procedure proved to be heavily effective and saved many more soldiers than the procedure prior that involved sucking on the wound which would cause the risk of the lungs collapsing in the patient.
