Publications American Civil War Surgery and Medicine (also found under Surgery)

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The American Civil War Medical Series:
13 Works in 12 Volumes Ira M. Rutkow, MD, DrPH, Editor

This series reprints the first editions of the medical manuals that Union and Confederate soldiers studied and took with them to the battlefields. For each work in these series, Ira M. Rutkow, M.D., Dr.P.H., has written a new biographical essay about the author. Each volume in the series is limited to 750 copies.

Volume 1: Hints on the Preservation of Health in Armies (New York, 1861). J. Ordronaux
Out of Print

142 pp. BOUND WITH: Manual of Instructions for Military Surgeons (New York, 1863). 238 pp. 5" × 7". ISBN 0-930405-34-X. NP16258.

Ordronaux’s first work is also the first American book on military hygiene. By consulting Ordronaux’s Manual, also bound in this volume, a military surgeon was able to complete an examination of a new recruit in a more orderly fashion.

 

Volume 2: The Hospital Steward’s Manual (Philadelphia, 1862). J. J. Woodward
Out of Print

324 pp. 5" × 7". ISBN 0-930405-35-8. NP16259.

Details the five major parts of hospital organization: hospital attendants; discipline, police, and general supervision of military hospitals; food and its preparation; the dispensary; and hints on minor surgery and dressings for hospital stewards.

 

Volume 3: A Practical Treatise on Fractures and Dislocations (Philadelphia, 1860). F. H. Hamilton
Out of Print

757 pp. 279 woodcuts. 6" × 9". ISBN 0-930405-32-3. NP16260.

Hamilton’s treatise is the first comprehensive English-language textbook on the treatment of fractures and dislocations.

 

Volume 4: Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, Medical, Economical, and Agricultural (Richmond, 1863). F. P. Porcher
Out of Print

601 pp. 6" × 9". ISBN 0-930405-33-1. NP16261.

A type of survival manual, Resources has been credited with maintaining the Southern war effort for many months longer than if it had not been written. Using this book as reference, Confederate medical officers were able, in spite of the blockade of Southern ports, to supply their medicinal needs through the preparation of drugs from plants indigenous to the Southern states.

 

Volume 5: A Treatise on Hygiene. (Philadelphia, 1863). W. A. Hammond
Out of Print

604 pp. 74 illus. 6" × 9". ISBN 0-930405-38-2. NP16262.

Organized into three sections, “On the Examination of Recruits,” “Of the Agents Inherent in the Organism which Affect the Hygienic Condition of Man,” and “Of Agents External to the Organism which Act upon the Health of Man,” Hammond’s treatise staunchly promotes strict hygienic practices.

 

Volume 6: A Manual of Instructions for Enlisting and Discharging Soldiers (Philadelphia, 1863). R. Bartholow
Out of Print

276 pp. 5" × 7". ISBN 0-930405-37-4. NP16263.

This examination manual contains comprehensive advice on the detection of malingerers, much of which is still useful today.

 

Volume 7: Illustrated Manual of Operative Surgery and Surgical Anatomy (New York, 1861). C. Bernard and C. Huette
Out of Print

Edited, with notes and additions . . . by W. H. Van Buren and C. E. Isaacs. 513 pp. 88 full-page plates. 5½" × 8½". ISBN 0-930405-42-0. NP16264.

The most elaborately illustrated of surgical manuals published during the Civil War, with 88 superb plates depicting operations and surgical instruments. This American edition for Civil War surgeons was the best version ever published of this widely translated manual.

 

Volume 8: Regulations of the C.S.A. Medical Department. IN: Regulations for the Army of the Confederate States (Richmond, 1862). S. P. Moore
Out of Print

420 pp. 5" × 7½". ISBN 0-930405-36-6. NP16265.

 

Volume 9: A Manual for the Medical Officers of the United States Army (Philadelphia, 1864). C. R. Greenleaf
Out of Print

199 pp. 5" × 7". ISBN 0-930405-39-0. NP16266.

Intended “to provide Medical Officers, and civilians who contemplate entering the service, with a synopsis of duties required, directions for performing them, and, as far as practicable, with the forms at present in use” (from the preface).

 

Volume 10: The Army Surgeon’s Manual. (New York, 1864). W. Grace
Out of Print

200 pp. 5" × 7". ISBN 0-930405-41-2. NP16267.

The only complete source for the rules and regulations of the U. S. Army Medical Department, Grace’s Manual contains all general orders from the war department, and circulars from the surgeon-general’s office from January 1, 1868 to July 1, 1864. It lists the medical staff of the U. S. Army as of July 1, 1864.

 

Volume 11: Outlines of the Chief Camp Diseases of the United States Armies (Philadelphia, 1863). J. J. Woodward
Out of Print

364 pp. 6" × 9". ISBN 0-930405-43-9. NP16268.

Woodward addresses such problems as malarial influence, crowd poisoning, camp fevers, jaundice, camp measles, acute dysentery, and pneumonia.

 

Volume 12: Confederate States Medical and Surgical Journal. (Richmond: January 1864 - February 1865. [All Published]). Out of Print

272 pp. 8½" × 11". ISBN 0-930405-40-4. NP16269.

The only medical journal published under the Confederacy, the Confederate States Medical and Surgical Journal is virtually impossible to find complete in its original printing, and even separate issues are extremely rare. The January and February numbers for 1865 were the only ones issued that year. The March number had been printed but was destroyed during the burning of Richmond (April 2, 1865).

 

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