Frontier Fever: The Silly, Superstitious--and Sometimes Sensible--medicine of the Pioneers

The Silly, Superstitious--and Sometimes Sensible--medicine of the Pioneers

Plot

In 1890, the United States Census Department declared that there was no longer an American frontier. It had taken over 280 years, but the pioneers had persevered through broken bones, gunshot wounds, disease, and malnutrition. Whether using chicken guts to treat appendicitis, blood-letting to relieve fever, or firing guns into the air to stop epidemics of yellow fever, pioneers and their doctors would try anything to get their health back. See how medical knowledge and practices expanded along with the frontier. You might even say it's a miracle the West was ever won.