MSU Events Calendar |
![]() 10:00am to 11:30am |
Coffee with the Profs - Drains, Germs and Profits: How American Medicine Came of Age
(Public Programs) Doctors in the Civil War era had little understanding of what causes infection, hardly any effective remedies and swore by drugs like mercury chloride that caused terrible discomfort. This presentation will chart the unanticipated revolution in knowledge and practice that followed the war - the advent of germ theory, the widespread introduction of sanitation, the regulation of medical practice and the conquering of the giant contagious killers. This period is also full of controversy. We'll learn how the fruits of medical science were unevenly distributed and how basic features of U.S. society sets its system of providing medical care on a very different trajectory than that of western Europe.
|