A History of Medicine in South Carolina, 1825–1900

A History ofMedicine in South Carolina, 1825-1900, by JOSEPH I. WARING, Charleston, South Carolina Medical Association, 1967, pp. xv, 366, illus., $7.70. In this second volume Waring has continued the history of South Carolina from the graduation in 1825 of the first class at the Medical College. He deals separately with plantation medicine, the growth of hospitals, medical education, professional bodies, epidemics, and treats in great detail the medical care of soldiers in the Army of the Confederacy. The author's unique knowledge of private and official archives has made possible another series of biographies of distinguished physicians in practice between 1825 and 1900, which was one of the outstanding features in Waring's previous volume. The book is rich in information and constitutes a precious document for the understanding of Southern medicine in the United States. Waring divides his period of study 1825-1900 into three parts: the years prior to the Civil War, during that conflict, and after the military fall of the Confederacy. This fact is another reminder that Charleston was the place where the first shots of that conflict were fired. Not just the war, but the political, social, and economic ideas behind the war affected the evolution of medical practice in South Carolina, and in fact permeate Waring's book. Some of his findings are indeed disturbing, and show, for instance, that the civil war that freed the slaves in the Southern States, far from improving their welfare, was followed by a deterioration of the Negro's health which has persisted until the present day. F. GUERRA