Moving to Subtack.

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Continue to watch for History Lectures with SoCWS and other groups posted on my substack account.

How the Am Civil War (War between the States) spawned the Pharmaceutical Industry (Pfizer, Lilly, Squibb) and others.... Also, the first opioid epidemic followed the AmCivilWar as the "Old Soldier's Disease"

 

You can thank the Civil War for Pfizer

Memory holed history of the Military-Pharmaceutical Complex

Paracelsus 19 hr ago

15 12

In 1861 the United States descended into civil war. History is written by the victors, and thus many key facts have been memory-holed in favor of a slavery-centered narrative. Sadly lost in today’s ‘civil war history’ is the story of our nation’s first opioid epidemic, Pfizer’s rise as a prominent pharmaceutical company, and the federal government’s hand in both those events.

This story starts before the war, when two German immigrants (Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart) started a chemical company in Brooklyn in 1849. The company had moderate success with its first product, an anti-parasitic drug that was compounded into a candy-like toffee. However, Pfizer was just one of dozens of other companies in the US manufacturing chemicals and pharmaceuticals at the time. Pfizer would use the Civil War to bring itself to prominence and profit, much as ‘defense’ companies do today.

Wars have always produced injuries and disease, however a key invention just prior to the Civil War led to exceptionally gruesome wounds. The Minié ball, named after the French army officer who invented it, was a new bullet that expanded when fired while still maintaining relative accuracy. Previous bullets were more likely to travel through bodies, but the Minié ball would lodge inside tissue, creating sucking chest wounds and other fatal injuries. Not only were battlefield injuries horrific, but there were also deadly diseases like measles, dysentery, and malaria, the latter being endemic in the South where the war was mostly fought. Thus, there was a great need for pain killers, antiseptics, anesthetics, and anti-diarrheal medications by both the Union and Confederate armies.

It was already known before the Civil War that opium and morphine (which is roughly ten times stronger than opium) would alleviate pain and stop diarrhea. Prior to the Civil War, opium and morphine were typically administered by mouth, however the advent of the hypodermic needle in 1853 popularized intravenous (IV) administration. In fact, giving IV morphine became popular because it was thought to be less addictive than consuming it by mouth. Additionally, opioids were thought to have antiseptic properties, and morphine powder was applied topically to wounds.

Therefore, the Civil War produced a great demand for opium and morphine. Companies like Pfizer rushed to fill the demand – but only for one side of the conflict. Due to Abraham Lincoln’s naval blockade, no medical supplies were able to reach the South. The Confederacy had to make its own drugs. Without the industrial infrastructure of the North, the South turned to its agricultural economy to aid its troops. The government of Jefferson Davis enlisted farmers to grow opium poppies and cinchona trees (quinine, an anti-malarial drug, can be extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree). A loosely and hastily-constructed network of ‘laboratories’ in Colombia, South Carolina and Montgomery, Alabama processed the raw ingredients into powders that could be used on the battlefield.

Meanwhile in the North, Pfizer and the future Bristol-Myers Squibb built and expanded factories in New York and Philadelphia. In fact, Squibb was founded by Edward Robinson Squibb, a naval doctor who served in the Mexican-American war. Also formulating their future business model during this time was Union Colonel Eli Lilly, a cavalry commander for an Indiana regiment. (Lilly first tried being a farmer after the war, but he failed in that venture and so then he started a pharmaceutical company.)  

Whether made in a lab or grown on a farm, opioids were freely dispensed by both armies’ doctors to soldiers for injury, disease, and “nostalgia,” which was the Civil War-era term for what we now call PTSD. There are stories of army doctors patrolling fields after battles, dispensing morphine powder from satchels without bothering to dismount and examine the wounded. Morphine also was used for phantom limb pain after amputations, and also given at low doses thought to stimulate tired men for battle.

Although opioids were used by both sides, the Union commanded the lion’s share of anesthetics used for amputations and other painful procedures. Chloroform was the preferred method of battlefield anesthesia, since it is less flammable than ether. Yet due to the naval blockade, Confederate doctors and their soldier patients were often without chloroform. Limited amounts were captured from Union supplies by Stonewall Jackson and his men during the Shenandoah Valley campaign.

All in all, an estimated 10 million doses of morphine, 5.3 million opium pills, and 2.8 million ounces of opium dissolved in alcohol (known as laudanum) were administered to Union soldiers alone. Since the South’s production of opium and morphine was more organic and harder-to-measure than industrial manufacturing, figures for Confederate troops are not well known. Regardless, at the end of the war there were an estimated 400,000 veterans now addicted to opioids. The first opioid epidemic in the US was labeled as “Old Soldiers Disease.”

While nearly a half-million veterans were silently suffering from addiction (acknowledging chemical dependence was verboten due to social stigma and fears of losing army pensions), the future kings of big pharma were healthy as ever. Before the Civil War there were just over 80 companies in the US manufacturing chemicals and pharmaceuticals. After the war there were over 300. Pfizer’s revenue doubled between 1860 and 1868, and a precedent had been set for a chummy relationship with the US government during wartime. Indeed, Pfizer became the US government’s preferred pharmaceutical hand during that time. That relationship has only grown since the Civil War, with “most of the penicillin that [went] ashore with Allied force on D-Day made by Pfizer,” and now the COVID-19 vaccines today.

Looking back 150 years ago we see one country invading another, starting a war fought by common men who have nothing to do with the origins of the conflict. Bodies fall in fields while companies see profits rise. The government responsible for death, destruction, and addiction rewards corporate instead of civilian loyalty. The masses suffer while bureaucrats and politicians, free of consequences, rest comfortably and rewrite history.

How many times will we let this happen?

Sources:

Shooting Up by L. Kamienski

Pharmacy in the American Civil War by G.R. Hasegawa

Medicine During the American Civil War by J. Paciorek

source:  https://paracelsusdoc.substack.com/p/you-can-thank-the-civil-war-for-pfizer?s=r

Correction by Dr. Saleeby: "Previous bullets were more likely to travel through bodies, but the Minié ball would lodge inside tissue, creating sucking chest wounds and other fatal injuries."  

A correction to this point.  The Minie ball has a pointed end and a blunt rear when gunpowder is ignited the blunt end expands to grab the rifle grooves in the barrel and start spinning, this increases is exit muzzle velocity and as it spins it has more accurate trajectory.  It has a longer range and impacts harder on it's target.  The older round balls were slower and caused less damage.  For example it may only bruise a bone, while the Minie ball would shatter bone.  If it were a chest wound the Minie ball would go all the way thru the body and one is more likely to survive that would; conversely the round ball would lodge in the chest and cause more damage crushing tissue and leading to infection.  In gut wounds the older round ball would increase survivability as it would only contuse tissue often and not pierce intestinal linings; the Minie ball however would tear intestinal linings, spilling gut contents attributing to more infections and more deaths.  These observations are from a Union Surgeon's diary from the Am Civil War.  So the opposite is true about the impact of the Minie ball vs the older round shot in this statement.

Also the South survived the war from a medical perspective when the Union blockage prevented medications coming into the CSA from Europe and also the north, by recruiting Dr. F.P. Porcher (Charleston, SC) to write a book of herbal medicines found in the region.  This book:  "Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests" gave the Southern Medical Corp an upper hand in treating the sick Southern civilian and military population.  https://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/porcher/porcher.html

Dr. Saleeby to give lecture on Medicinal Herbs used during the Am. Civil War by the CSA. A review of the Dr. F.P. Porcher book.

Dr. JP Saleeby is scheduled to give a lecture in Georgetown, SC on August 2nd, 2022 at 5:30PM EST at the Georgetown County Museum 120 Broad St, Georgetown, SC  

843-545-7020 for more information.

Dr. Saleeby will discuss herbal medicine then and now. 

 Discuss the importance of the book:

Resources Of The Southern Fields And Forests, Medical, Economical And Agricultural: Being Also A Medical Botany Of The Southern States. by Francis Peyre Porcher M.D. 

References:  

Porcher Medicinal Garden (musc.edu)

Resources Of The Southern Fields And Forests, Medical, Economical And Agricultural: Being Also A Medical Botany Of The Southern States: Porcher M.D., Francis Peyre: 9781477605356: Amazon.com: Books

https://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/porcher/porcher.html

http://medical-antiques.blogspot.com/

https://paracelsusdoc.substack.com/p/you-can-thank-the-civil-war-for-pfizer

Article in Georgetown Times on Saleeby Lecture

https://www.southstrandnews.com/news/an-incredible-journey-the-story-of-simon-baruch/article_dcdf0746-9b48-11e8-8409-f3e1b9f694db.html

Dr. Saleeby to lecture on Dr. Simon Baruch (CSA)

http://docsaleeby.blogspot.com/2018/07/dr-saleeby-to-lecture-on-dr-simon.html

War Between the States - Doctors and Medicine during the mid 1860s

Dr. Saleeby will be giving a lecture this year (Aug 7th 2018) at the Georgetown Museum on Medical Advances in Civil War Medicine and also discussing luminaries Drs. FP Porcher and S. Baruch both CSA Medical Officers from the area.  Please contact the Museum to reserve a seat.

Dr. Saleeby's Medical Antique Collection

The photo above taken by a commercial photographer in 2005 was just a small sample of the collection which was used in an article in a "Savannah Magazine" issue of that year. 

This is only a small sampling of Dr. Saleeby's Medical Antique equipment and book collection. Some 150 to 200 pieces of equipment collected over 20+ years is represented as a complete collection for loan/exhibit.

Questions?  Please e-mail jpsaleeby@aol.com or call (912) 656-2297

This page is sponsored by:
www.PHC365.com
www.GetMyThyroidFixed.com
www.eStatLabs.com


Inventory:

Dr. Saleeby’s Medical Antique Collection Inventory

(estimated value along each listing)

Display Case (Glass top) Reproduction Antique inlay wood     $250

Small Field Surgical Set (Ivory Handles, retractors, scissors, pick ups . 4 blades, 3 retractors) in leather box c.1860s $500

Ivory/bone tongue depressor    c. 1900s      $150

Victorian era morphine syringe and; two needles in box $100

Sharp and Dohme  Ampoule Sodium Cacodylate 10cc for IV use in paper sheath $25

Circular pill box (cardboard) with “Choc. Opium) including 4 tablets $25

David and Geck Chromic Gut suture in glass ampoule  $25

Cucurbitual - Cupping bowls (glass) c. 19th Century X 2  $28 each 


Brass encased dual blade bloodletting Fleam  early 19th Century   $60

Sklar and co. stainless steel retractors X2   $15 each

Stainless Steel vaginal speculum $25

Stainless Steel 1905 spring-loaded needle holder $25

Bless-Moore Inst. Co. (St. Louise) Stainless Steel surgical kit c leather carrying case $350

A.F. and Co, wooden handled blood letter $200

Skull and Crossbones printing press dyes X2 $100 for both

B-D Erusto hypodermic needles Box and 5 needles $25

Stanley-Durit seamless rustless hypoderm needles box c 5 of 10 needles $20

Sklar Stainless oral/mouth retractor $150

OB/GYN suction/ D and C device with suction mount $25

Stainless Steel toothed needle holder with spring and ratchet catch $30

Urological Stainless Steel instrument – urethral probe with retractable blade $75

P and S 1900 spring loaded nasal speculum $50

Fannin.Dublin. Ivory handled ophthalmoscope in leather carrying case (England) $600

4 Glass medicine bottles 2x unlabeled , one labeled: Cocain Hydrochlor 5%, one labeled: Lapactic Pills Sharp and Dohme c contents and cork stopper. $200 for set.

Upright English Display Case on long legs Mahogany wood with mother of pearl and copper inlays c. late 1800s. $ 1200

Victorian era portable lab microscope with carrying box, assorted lenses and mirror $250

KNY-Scheerer (Germany) stainless steel suturing instrument $25

American Standard Haemacytometer with Levy counting chamber – Arthur H. Thomas Co. Phil USA (all components except rubber tubing which has deteriorated) with box $100

H and S 90 Civil War era dental pliers.       $100

B-D Yale 1min. Becton Dickinson and Co. nurses oral thermometer with carrying tube and pin on. C. 1940s $150

Three assorted sounds/probes stainless steel $25 for set

Civil War era ebony handles spade shaped double edged bloodletting instrument $150

Civil War Mahogany Box with brass plate “Dr. Whiteford from JD 1864” Amputation Kit (single saw, 3 blades with ebony handles, 2 retractors, one pick up and Arnold and Sons (London) bone pliers (rongeurs), Tourniquet set (Atken). Sutures and 3.5 in. pins, Blades stamped with “Young” and have ebony handles.     $6000 * could be either Alfred H. Whiteford, MD with NY 99^th Infantry Naval Brigade and Union Coast Guard mustered out 1865 died 1873 or Aloysius X. Whiteford, MD died Feb 1901 allopath from Parkville, MD. Probably the former.

Glass syringe (Italy) c. 1960s $15

Books:   
Analytical Compendium of Medical Science by John Neill, MD and F. G Smith, MD , 1866.  

The Parasitic Amoebae of Man by C.F. Craig, MD    1911.  

Merck’s Manual 1899 (reproduction).       

PDR 1951 Original 5^th Edition.              $400 for all
==

J.B.Daniel retractor set (Ob/Gyn) stainless steel $40

Set of McIntosh D… dilators and sounds $25

Noyesbros and Cutler urological sound stainless steel $40

Dr. Forbes Specifications ATCo. (Germany) Bath Thermometer $50

Large leather doctors bag $25

D-B Direct Venous Pressure Apparatus $100

Allen and Hanburys (London) leather doctor’s case with 3 drawers filled with assorted hypodermic needles, pill boxes (circular) and instruments $500

Greco-Roman instruments 6 in all mounted in box frame c.100 AD $1500

Small Child’s crutches (one) c. late 1890s – early 1900s $100

Welch Allyn Co. #50 Opthal/Oto scope set in leather box c. 1950s $200

Capac Bin-Aural (London) $230

Klett Mfg. Co, Inc Bone drills and saw stainless steel electrical / orthopedic device (USA) in wooden box $200

Teaching Mannequin (nursing school) c. 1950’s   $400

Gendron Wheel Chair Co. (Toledo OH) SN 69036N Convalescent Wheelchair with wicker seats and back (3-wheels) $500

Mahogany and Poplar/Pine Book case c. 1880s from Georgia Estate near Augusta, GA. $2000

Six calibrated baby bottles with metal rack c.1950s $40

Stainless Steel irrigator (urethral/ear) $75

Glass and Rubber breast pump c. 1950’s $50

Pioneers in the Fight against infectious disease plaque with medals Lilly andCo. Drug Rep gift. 7-medallions with Jenner, R[K]och, Ehrlich, Flemming, Leeuwenhoek, Pasteur, Lister $25

Otoscope , 1950s, American Cystscope-Makers, Inc. NY Wappler-E-Co. $100

Kittinger’s Drug Store cardboard pill box (rectangular) 1949 $30

2% Novutox Pharmaceutical Manuf. Co. (London) box + bottle only $50

Reusable syringe and needle graduated with glass tube $100

Stainless Steel tonsil extractor- KNY-Scheerer (Germany) c. 1950’s $25

Stainless Steel box and hypodermic needle with plunger (England) $75

Bottle of Compounded ASA, Phenacetin, Cod Phosph. With pills inside $50

Brown Bottle with Hyd-Crec Co. and pills inside $10

Bottle with Soneryl Gr 1.5 $10

Additional bottles $25

Stryphnnon Ribbon Gauze box $10

Pitocin ampoules Parke, Davis and Co. Old 5-units in box. $15

Glass with sealed cork, alcohol filled with many bands of suture (cat gut?) post-1880s $100

Alpha blades $10

Box of syringes $25

Old prescriptions c. 1919 almost 50 count $100 for all

Dr. Nelsons Improved Inhaler / porcelain $150

General Medicine 1925 Book $25
General medicine, ed. by George H. Weaver, Lawrason Brown, Robert B. Preble. 
(26-16513) 7141 Who's who in American medicine, 1925.

Syphilis Book 1901 $25

Syphilis: its diagnosis and treatment,  William Samuel Gottheil - 1901

CYSTOCATH SUPRAPUBIC DRAINAGE SYSTEM c. 1970s $10

Scarification device (brass) F.A.Koch and Co. NY $300

Merthiolate Swabs Lilly Old box with swabs $10

Powers and Anderson B-D Manometer c. 1950s $100

Trepanation surgical skull bore device c. post-1880 Pilling PA $250

Cover and bottle, Chamberlain’s colic relief and wind colic $25

Doctors pill box case leather, with 24 bottles some with pills varied medications post-1880s $250

Smith and Woodman Dispensing Chemists, St. Augustine FLA bottle $45

2 glass syringes with metal cap and plunger (Special Standard Glass) $200 for both 
(one made in Italy) 

Ampoule Mersalyl B. D. H. (London) with content $25

Small round cardboard pill box with 6 pills $20

Glass tabs Trinitrum vial $20

USA Medical Dept porcelain measure $40

Old Stethoscope bell only c.post-1880s $200

Glass eye  c. 1880's  $50

Metal urethral dilators X3 $50 for all

Chinese Stethoscope with diaphragm and bell interchangeable, rubber deteriorate c. 1960s $100

Autoclave container tin/porcelain with tray c. 1950s $100

12 Boxes of Hypodermic Needles various companies c. 1950’s $150 for all

Small pill box leather pocket case with small thin 7 glass pill vials, some with Digitalin, Strychnine sulfate, Morphine and Atropine, other. $200

Old set of OB/GYN forceps $250

Cat Gut Sutures in breakable vials X2 $100 for both

Speculums stainless steel c. 1950s X2 $100 each

Old Magill like forceps (Sharp and Smith) c. 1950s $100

Military Preventive Medicine 3rd Edition 1938 Book $30

Essentials of Electro-cardiography 1937 Book $30

Cellular Toxins 1902 4th Edition Book $50

Vaporizer- Turpo Electric in Box $125

Box with hypodermic needle and plungers for Rabies Vaccine $50

Dental Pliers   c. pre-1880's   x 2 $75 each

Sterogyl-15 injectable Roussel labs Lmt (London) one ampoule remains $50

Manual of Diseases of the Nose and Throat 2nd Edition 1901 Book $45
A MANUAL OF DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND THROAT By CORNELIUS GODFREY COAKLBY, AM, Lea Brothers & Co., 1901.

American Medical Biography 1828 Book $150

by James Thacher, Richardson & Lord, 1828

MCG Year Book 1966, 1974, 1976, 1991   $100 for all

Wrist support aluminum mid-1970's $30

Cystoscope – Bransford Lewis Universal Cysto. C. 1950’s in box $250

X-ray tube from OLD x-ray machine 1980s. $50

Old First Aid Kit with supplies 1970s. $30

Assorted Instruments OB/GYN X8 $200 for all

Effingham Co. Hospital Gift Plate with medical motif $25

Auto badge enameled “MD” with Cadusa and Cross (c. 1950s) $75

Hot Bottle/ test-tube bath (for laboratory) A.S. Aloe Co. c. post-1880s $300

Burdick ECG Machine EK III – 1960-1970s with reflex device (bogus) $100

Three different Porcelain/ clay figureens of Doctors (Mickey Mouse, Elf and Contemporary Collectible Artist) $200 for all three

Four Antique Anatomical Prints (Dissections) from Old English Text c. post-1880 matted and framed $800/set

Three bottles (varied sizes)  Dr. Tichenor's Antiseptic  $100 for all three.

Two framed collections of Medical Related United Postage Stamps $150/both sets

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