Which of the following statements best illustrates that Civil War medicine struggled to meet the needs
of the wounded and sick?
Doctors performed amputations of limbs at a slow pace because of their surgical inexperience.
Doctors did not use anesthesia when performing surgeries on the wounded.
Doctors had yet to understand the link between contaminated medical tools and the spread of
infections.
Points:
1 / 1
Military technology advanced much more quickly than medicine did during the American Civil War.
With limited training before entering the field, doctors were forced to adapt quickly to treating large
numbers of sick and wounded in a timely manner. More soldiers died from disease than from wounds,
but doctors also struggled to treat wounds caused by advanced weapons such as the Minié ball bullet,
which could hit targets at longer distances and cause significant damage. Doctors experimented with
the use of anesthesia for surgeries, but medicine had yet to link the spread of infections to the use of
contaminated instruments and tools
