PBS
H/T Crossroads
In light of all our discussions about slavery and the War Between the States (aka The War To Prevent BRA), the new two hour PBS special Death and the Civil War is coming on tonight at 8 PM.
Note: 1 out of 5 White males in the Confederacy of military age died in the war. It was as bad as German losses during WW2.
“It was as bad as German losses during WW2” except that German white males had just been “thinned” heavily in WW1.
Even though the microscope had been around since 1600, no Civil War medical doctor North or South made the connection between bacteria, and, infection. No hand washing, in those days they probed wounds with their fingers, no sterilizing medical instruments, no cleaning of operating tables, no operating gowns, no sterile bandages…what a friggin’ mess. You would have thought someone would have suggested hand washing, think of the thousands that simple practice would have saved.
A lot of Confederate soldiers took French leave in the months after Antietam, or Sharpsburg as it was known in the South.
You’d have to boil the water first. When did Pasteur come up with sterilization?
Is that not a genocidal event? The war was on for three campaigning seasons or was it four?
“Even though the microscope had been around since 1600, no Civil War medical doctor North or South made the connection between bacteria, and, infection. No hand washing, in those days they probed wounds with their fingers, no sterilizing medical instruments, no cleaning of operating tables, no operating gowns, no sterile bandages…what a friggin’ mess. You would have thought someone would have suggested hand washing, think of the thousands that simple practice would have saved.” – That is because no medical doctor on planet earth made the connection. Germ theory had to be pioneered and accepted first, and it would not be until the decades after the civil war that that happened.
“You’d have to boil the water first. When did Pasteur come up with sterilization?” – About during the civil war.
from the germ theory wiki:
“Italian physician Francesco Redi provided early evidence against spontaneous generation. He devised an experiment in 1668 in which he used three jars. He placed a meatloaf and egg in each of the three jars. He had one of the jars open, another one tightly sealed, and the last one covered with gauze. After a few days, he observed that the meat loaf in the open jar was covered by maggots, and the jar covered with gauze had maggots on the surface of the gauze. However, the tightly sealed jar had no maggots inside or outside it. He also noticed that the maggots were found only on surfaces that were accessible by flies. From this he concluded that spontaneous generation is not a plausible theory. Louis Pasteur further demonstrated between 1860 and 1864 that fermentation and the growth of microorganisms in nutrient broths did not proceed by spontaneous generation. He exposed freshly boiled broth to air in vessels that contained a filter to stop all particles passing through to the growth medium: and even with no filter at all, with air being admitted via a long tortuous tube that would not pass dust particles. Nothing grew in the broths, therefore the living organisms that grew in such broths came from outside, as spores on dust, rather than being generated within the broth.”
He says in the end of the last vid, “the crucible out of which we became Americans…” To be “southern” (confederate) is to be un-american/ anti-american, in other words. As if, whatever they are, is the opposite of Southron. Maybe there are some things they should have kept.