"What Killed Prisoners of War? - A Medical Investigation" Topic
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21 Oct 2020 6:38 a.m. PST by Editor in Chief Bill
- Changed title from "What Killed Prisioners of War? - A Medical Investigation" to "What Killed Prisoners of War? - A Medical Investigation"
Areas of InterestGeneral 18th Century
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Tango01 | 20 Oct 2020 10:36 p.m. PST |
"Throughout the Revolutionary War, prisoners learned that dysentery accompanied starvation. Confined to the prison ship Jersey in 1781, Christopher Hawkins described rations "not sufficient to satisfy the calls of hunger." In the next two sentences, Hawkins mentioned that "the bloody flux or dyssenterry" prevailed on the Jersey, from which "many died on board her." Like other prisoners of war, Hawkins was certain he witnessed epidemic dysentery. Caused either by the ameba Entamoeba histolytica or by several species of bacteria, dysentery is characterized by diarrheal expulsions mixed with blood and mucus. Like many victims of starvation, however, prisoners probably had the non-contagious condition known as "hunger diarrhea" or "famine diarrhea." Famine diarrhea figured in two major scandals of prisoner neglect in the Revolutionary War, New York in 1776 and Charles Town (present-day Charleston), South Carolina in 1780.[1] In a succession of hunger crises in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, medical professionals gradually distinguished famine diarrhea from dysentery. During the Irish Potato Famine (1845-1850), Dr. Daniel Donovan distinguished "famine dysentery" from "ordinary dysentery." Donovan, however, still mistook the ailment for a contagion. Doctors in the Finnish Famine of 1866-1868 realized famine diarrhea was noninfectious. In the Madras Famine of 1877-1878, British physicians in Madras, India identified "famine diarrhoea" as a noncontagious affliction, a result of prolonged starvation, and a sign that the patient was near death. Serving as Assistant Director of Medical Services for the 6th (Poona) Division of the Indian Army, Maj. Gen. Sir Patrick Hehir observed famine diarrhea during the Turkish Army's 148-day siege of British and Indian troops at Kut, in modern Iraq (1915-1916)…" Main page link Amicalement Armand
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