this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2025
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I'm living in interesting times now. May as well be sent back somewhere where I can push human technology ahead a few hundred years. The lice infestation, insecurity, discomfort, filth, poor medical care, and malnutrition are a small price to pay!
200 years ago naturalists were still stealing human bodies from fresh graves to try to learn something about anatomy and causes of death, because Christians believed that dissecting the body would prevent the deceased from being resurrected when Christ returned to Earth. And they were still debating the germ theory of disease.
By the time of the American Civil War (1861-1865) there was enough understanding of infections that field doctors knew they needed to remove damaged limbs to prevent disease from spreading through the body, which led to amputation being the most common surgical procedure performed during the war:
...because they knew the infection would spread but they didn't have any method for stopping it short of hacking off the entire limb as cleanly as possible.
It just... it hasn't been that long that we've had anything that you would consider actual medical practice.
The discovery of penicillin would not happen until 1928, and useful cultivation and production would not happen until 1939. Anytime earlier than that you'll have really high odds of dying from an infection acquired through what we would consider a common, simple injury.
So... best of luck with that.
Exactly! Think of all the progress that could be made with even just the little things that we non-professionals understand in the modern day!
Plus I love appropriate technology
Witch!