Below you will find information on a Civil War medical kit from The Early American Museum in Mahomet IL.

· The medical kit was a brown and black leather case. It was a 10x6 case filled with medicines. They used Scalding water, or flaming alcohol, or a glowing cutery iron to treat a Concussion or if someone had collapsed. They were applied to the flesh. Moxa, a great pain reliever, was a wad of cotton. The wonder drug was bromine, which conquered hospital gangrene. To treat for pneumonia was called cupping. Cupping is when surgeons put a small amount of alcohol was ignited in a cup; the cup was inverted on the chest, and a blister raised. The blister was then lanced, and the flaming cup applied again. This drew off about an ounce of blood. Ether and chloroform were used to knock a patient out during surgery. Chloroform worked much faster.

· Surgeons used the medicine kit to apply medication to wounds to help prevent infection. They also used it to nurse soldiers back to health.

· The main purpose of the medical kit was to treat wounds and sicknesses of the soldiers. They also helped to prevent death.

· The medicine kit helped nurse the soldiers back to heath and saved many of their lives.

· What I found unusual about the artifact was the shape and size of the bottles. Today we use much bigger and many different shape and sizes of bottles. Where as, they used many glass bottles which were about three inches long. I think it would have been difficult to keep the medications separate and know what was in them.

This particular case was used around the 1850’s and during the war. Through the years it has began to fall apart and looks very delicate. The leather belt has begun to come off as well.