Frontier Fever

Frontier Fever

      Looking for a good independent reading book? Maybe a good book to do some research in? This is the book for you. The book Frontier Fever by Elizabeth Van Steenwyk, talks about the history of medicine in America. In particular the book talks about how medicine has evolved and changed through America and the frontier. Frontier Fever includes tons of wacky, gory, superstitious, and just plain weird examples of medical theories and treatments used in the Wild west by the native Americans and settlers. Some of the treatments and theories include spilling warm chicken guts on the patients torso to relieve stomach aches and pains and believing that getting a disease is largely based on your attitude. I think that Elizabeth Van Steenwyk wrote this book for educational and research  purposes mostly but also for people to read for fun. Personally I enjoyed this book as there are lots of specific examples of treatments. This book also delves in to the history outbreaks and epidemics in America. The author talks about how the  various epidemics were caused and how people adapted and fixed them. Relating to history, Steenwyk also provides stories of different doctors, physicians and midwives with particular theories who changed the face of medicine as we know it. While talking about individuals stories, the book includes a story about one of the first female doctors. The doctor was rushing to a patients house where she found that he had cracked his skull open. The doctor quickly took a large coin  out of her pocket, pounded it out flat with a hammer and applied it to the patients skull to fix the crack. In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this book to you if you are looking for some research or just some light reading.

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk