Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: 19th century

  • The imponderable ‘what-ifs’: Did the medical issues of three Confederate generals cause the South to lose the war?

    Kevin R. Loughlin  During the darkest days of World War II, Winston Churchill was credited as saying, “The imponderable ‘what- ifs’ accumulate”. Throughout history, imponderable what ifs have provoked the observer to consider how historical outcomes may have turned out differently. Such it is with the Civil War. It can be reasonably argued that the…

  • Caring for “Our Boys”

    Joanne MurrayPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States When the United States entered World War I in 1917, those in the U.S. Army Medical Department found themselves handling new types of wounds as a result of new methods of modern warfare.  The staggering volume of war-related illness, complicated by the influenza pandemic, added to their challenges. These caregivers…