Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ebook download (eBook PDF) World Religions Eastern Traditions 4th Edition all chapter
ebook download (eBook PDF) World Religions Eastern Traditions 4th Edition all chapter
ebook download (eBook PDF) World Religions Eastern Traditions 4th Edition all chapter
http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-world-religions-eastern-
traditions-5th-edition/
http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-world-religions-western-
traditions-5th-edition/
http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-world-religions-western-
traditions-4th-edition-by-willard-g-oxtoby/
http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-a-concise-introduction-
to-world-religions-4th-edition/
(Original PDF) World Religions Today 6th
http://ebooksecure.com/product/original-pdf-world-religions-
today-6th/
http://ebooksecure.com/product/invitation-to-world-religions-3rd-
edition-ebook-pdf/
http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-invitation-to-world-
religions-2nd-edition/
http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-invitation-to-world-
religions-3rd-edition-by-jeffrey-brodd/
http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-anthology-of-world-
religions-sacred-texts-and-contemporary-perspectives/
Contributors xi Preface xx
Important Features of this Edition xii
2 I Hindu Traditions 26
Origins 31
Classical Hinduism 41
Schools and Communities of Theology 53
Practices. Rituals. and Arts 69
Recent Developments 90
Summary 96
Contents
3I 1
t
:sikn Traditions
' I I
.<.
.! I
104
Overview 106
Crystallization 118
Practice 126
Differentiation 131
Cultural Expressions 134
Interaction and Adaptation 137
Recent Developments 139
Summary 142
Credits 400
Index 402
Roy C. Amore is professor and an associate dean in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and
Social Sciences at the University of Windsor in Ontario. His extensive research in the areas
of comparative religion and Asia has enabled him to author Two Masters, One Message, a book
comparing the lives and teachings of Christ and Buddha, and co-author Lustful Maidens and
Ascetic Kings: Buddhist and Hindu Stories of Life.
Amir Hussain is professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount Uni-
versity in Los Angeles, where he teaches courses on Islam and world religions. A Canadian of
Pakistani origin, he is the author of Oil and Water: Two Faiths, One God, an introduction to Islam
for North Americans. He is also the editor of the journal of the American Academy of Religion (JAAR).
Vasudha Narayanan is distinguished professor and chair, Department of Religion at the Uni-
versity of Florida and a past president of the American Academy of Religion. She is the author
or editor of seven books and has written more than a hundred articles and chapters in books.
Her current research focuses on Hindu traditions in Cambodia.
john K. Nelson is professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the Uni-
versity of San Francisco. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, he is the author of two books on
Shinto as well as a documentary film on Yasukuni Shrine, and is the author of Experimental
Buddhism: Innovation and Activism in Contemporary japan (2013).
The late Willard G. Oxtoby, the original editor of this work, was professor emeritus at the Uni-
versity of Toronto, where he launched the graduate program in the study of religion. His books
include Experiencing India: European Descriptions and Impressions and The Meaning of Other Faiths .
Pashaura Singh is professor and Dr jasbir Singh Saini endowed chair in Sikh and Punjabi
studies at the University of California, Riverside. He has authored three Oxford monographs,
co-edited five conference volumes, and contributed articles to academic journals, books, and
encyclopedias. His recent book, Life and Work of Guru Arjan: History, Memory, and Biography in
the Sikh Tradition (OUP, 2006) was a bestseller in India.
Anne Vallely is associate professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the
University of Ottawa, where she teaches courses on South Asian traditions (especially Jainism
and Hinduism), as well as nature and religion and death and dying. Her book Guardians of the
Transcendent: An Ethnography of a Jain Ascetic Community (2002) is an anthropological study of
Jain female ascetics. Her co-edited volume Animals and the Human Imagination published in 2010.
Terry Tak-ling Woo teaches at York University and the University of Toronto, Scarborough.
She is involved with courses that introduce the study of religion and East Asian religions. Her
research interests include women in Chinese religions and Chinese religions in diaspora.
1 I J orld Religions: Eastern Traditions , fourth edition, is a readable and reliable introduction to
VV Eastern religions. Expert contributors thoroughly investigate Hindu, Sikh,jaina, Buddhist,
Chinese, Korean, and japanese religious traditions. Highlights of the fourth edition include:
GJ NEW learning tools in the form of chapter outlines, chapter summaries, discussion
questions, and Sacred/Foundational Texts tables
lloli"""(S..:r)
TeJ<t(o)
J>ll!i'";'t.SV.t>m~:>~,.
•O<Jo;g.mb.,.J """'•A,<;.,,,.
Sites
Sites boxes draw attention to locations of special significance to each tradition.
Document
Document boxes provide a generous selection of excerpts from scripture and other important writings.
Focus
Focus boxes offer additional information on selected subjects.
.. muroi A popular t<rm 101" th< bu<hi ohogun Th< mpi<m< military com- ta ri~ i Th< "oot<id< pow«," off<r<d by
{'" warrior), who « rY<d r<gionalwar-
lord < in vniou> cap aciti<>; >amurai
mand<r of Japm, appoint<dbyth< <m·
p<mr and dl«:tiV<lyrulingin hi> nam<
buddh o• ondbod hisattv., , without
wh ich individual> livingin t h<ag< ol
Recommended Websites
-"'·••••an·•.or.jp/SHUIUNKEN/pui>IO,otio,.FJi,./ f(obal ...,.... ,...._,...iP/•nJ{ondu.ht..r
~~~~~~:bd::~~i<~c:::::.~)
m ul< np th< top , p<Tc:<ntofooci<ty
duringtll< Eclo p<ri<>d (l 603- lB67) ijt-oM.t"'h"" Th< E.W,;h -lo o~ " "U W<b<.k olth< Sow Z.n "'boo! intrudu<d l<ry
ln<hi n i!' Ond p<.otic< • .(Eo<hl!udd h i<t.S.no"'; "" "'" ""' ~m il> t
A« ml-onnualjoum •IJ«<i<>t<dto tloe aca<kmi< l<udyof]>pan«< o it< ; .,anyt<m pl<o o iO<>I\.,~ tlorit own<it< < . )
, . _...................jp{oj«
Ambroo , B><b.o,.._lO l l.&.c> of C""""'"'"'A"""AI>andkli~ioo O<lool.l«rot<tibut<d<h•pl<" "" " "<)' po<l~~·•ndro«<mpor•ry
The Eo~l!<h -lo n.o;"'l!< .... b<it< f<>< tO. Ln otitut< <>fJ • pa"'« Cultu"
i•Co•k"'f"'<"')')•pan-llo.ooluluoUaivuoOlyofllo""iOP"' " drvdopm<nUin)'f"l "' " 'di&icn•• nd .-.h~OOu<f""''U<
or<l C bwi<aot Kol< up k ui nUntm<>ty, • p<<i o li •i <>~t n S hi oto<tud
A tho""3h uploutmof tl><..,..ly pupul" l"""'""of ""mori i<ad<r. lon.lOO, _ Mdt"'lPi!J:•""og<.cMro•t"'la•JPro£10o<t• www.on,..tkptod..:tio ... <001/It""Vboddtli'"'""h""l
a!O• i r.j~p<t<• nd wha ~ impiidb-both j o po.->o&<y o <><liu Sltikoh . lt""olu l~ o UnOvmily ofltawoH p,.,._
A <ktoH«< ;,,._M,nyortli"'publri!"'""
A ph.xohbmydrv«<dtoort"""k.«p<<Wiy"'ulptu.-.,drp;ct;n&
ot.dyof th< Shil<t>l<u fi ls ri""#,intludin,o; th< .-.lip• "li&" 'fi
Buddhiot andSh inwd<itk• in_)opan.
llowdng.iich.onl.lOOii.UrR<~p..... TnWOO.> of Japo • ,500- <>n«ol th< 88..a.dt<m pl<<that mol<r upt0.rout<
J600.Cambr;d~oCamh-<i<%< U.. im>ityh<» . A<omp« l><n Row<,-"""-lOli.BondooftO.D<...rc T<"'!'I<>, B••iol,ondtO.
<iY< o nd hOgh ly,.>d o bl<oa<runtolj a po O<K«h~i"-><hi<<my honofon•olton ofCo""'"l"''"'1 1•!"'••~8•dJkt.'"- Chi-
""""""'l m<>«tlun l,C>OOyr•n ' '3"' Um;.,.,;,yo!ChOo"3oP ..... A~ ndb .. ol<insbool<tlut References
Couii,Stoph<n.lOO• .J•po•<"' l ""''k8oddlli"'" "'orldll•m <><pio«<J•po<><O<Buddh i<m'• «li'"''"""""'"''J'ilu.ol<irttb<
iooR<t<,:ioo of R<•••<WtW..JIODOiuluoUan-rBityoltta... ii """",o....JdLJ98S. Th<Koj.ln. TokpfokJ'"U"'"'"''1"""-
"""""'' P"iDd P)<,.'Iidt.>d. 200f. •n..o;,, '"'"'"' <f ~SJ<t"n<tnC..tttr-f"'"'1
I'Tm. A""'"""' "~ o.ami.ut"'" of <<mt<mpon<y «mpk Bud Xhndl, S=u. 1999. 1M Jlmui"'l D'""" II~••" PratUu <• o jap-
d hi<m, with an <mpo..i<oo tO.T<ndoi.S.nomic-*licn ""'"'C"'"'""";.,-_tl=oluluo Uni><nilyofltawoi;Prm. An -""'"· """'"\'"'"""""'"'-·~I'Ugr;"'"!;'<- '~l'op<>
jalk , Kkh.onl.lOOl. Nc"O.'Monlt oo•'-'?-...,•cCkrluiM"''"'&< <thc.ogn phi< lookatam>joo-r..tiv>lin > ""'-ll m cuc" • indtyand No.Jt), C..tt<fo<J'P""<"S.udid. Untw"'t' <j ""... 'J-
;. Mool.,njapon<>< B•dd~"'"- ,-.;»«tone Fri"'-'<ton Um;v«- wh.ottt""'"'"' ' O.cuhu.-.l;d<n<ityol tO.loatlp«>pl< JILodr. ,, lon . l!l9l . ~ionlnC..tmporyj.tpo.n.JJ """ ""'"' U.<><,..;lJ"
,;ty p,..,_ A n <o~~"3 • • •ly<i <ofth< t<n <ion b<t~· « nth< S.,-.,...,, P,ul. andClo.>.Ch;bon. <ds. lOOii. T O..'<on>:»nG•id< <fila>.''""""
h i<tOO<.U ;'"'U ol !uddh ;l< p<kl<<" monh or<l th< ..-..l<m <oJ•I"'"'"'R<IiJ:tons. JI=oluluo Univ<...:tyoflta .... iiPr<H Sohti,fio"""l""""""'""""'-ltlll. Thi!Pn< ..... Uj<.- Budo9U«T< ......
;,=;=,~~" pri<ouwill ha>~ f• mHO,oo nd run tlorit t<mpld Amy.,..ful<ompiiOlion ufO<Iool.lrly"'""'" "" m'nytopK< Rm<j o,.[A•"-N"'IrorA<nn<.,lnP«tJJllj.tpo.•. Y'"""""""lntu-
.-.lakd to j o pan«<.-<1~ • ""' """' Boul.J iti<t&"'""e<C..~,
Nd""'john_I _ _Atcar t. tO.LifcofaS~inwSkri"'_llonolu lu Th.ol. S"oh.lOOii.R<o"""''"'l'lt<Lond><op<oftii<Goof" TO. i."~ """'-1988 . "T""u!Wot<to}4pon<!<C"" "" _.joponQo;o.•tnlJ
Uni><nityoiJU_..;;p,..,_Aot.dyciwhot lJ>donb<hind tO. PoliticoofoPi(!:•;...,gcs;"'"l•r••. U7J - 19ll_Chi<oF
"'""' ""• mojo<Shi nto ohri"'i n th<<~yoi~'V"'I<i U mMn~y ofChO,a&<> p,..,_ A ' ""'· f"' h<"""' hi<toryoftb<
~ .lOO• . Spfri<>oftlt<StokcJ.,....~Y"-'•It•n<S••<n<.l8min w.-.n<h in s <haoi!'<ID<<«ioo o for= • Buddlti« t<mpl< , now
Docum<nt"yGim, di>tdbut«<byi'Olaul'"'th<lluaunOl;.. <on>"<rtod to o mojo<Shinto <hri,._
(,..,..,.._GimHom).A do<um<n!"Y• "'ad<fotuni..-.•"t'" Ji "'"oky,And.-. ..-.lOO<.Chi..loo<ht.,.cD<,.u.,;"«tO. S.C .. dArl>
<n«<, obrut th<<onlruV<""Y'" '.-oo.odinsY"ubni Shti"' '"""""'1"'"" i"f"'"-""""'"'"' Univmityo!tto..-oiiP ... ,
v.-h< .. th< 'P" •it• ol th< mHu• 'l' d<adm<o.OriO<d or<l ,..,.,_ Onc cith<b<"""Jldofth<• tt i<tit,a«h~u .. l. andO<<tlorti<
at<dby tO. • tot< <onl!ibutlOO• ol th< <i>t<<nth<<rt!" ' YTO)"<omi"'Sim<!Dtb<
~ . lO)}_f"'"''"""'"'8...Ukio"'I"""""'Ko.andA<t;v"'"'" «lif;Ocuol>ndO<op< ol] 'f"l n
c...,..,,..,.?i"f"'"-''"""'"'"' Un;.,.,;,yoftto..-,;;?< .... A Willi.oau, Du"'on-lOO, _ Th<O!O.rSW<of2<ncASodollrhtory
" ..Jy ofptio<Wfrum • ll ol j opon'<Buddh..,d<oom;.,aticn•,••• l ofS...o2<•to f oh.!;.....,Jopon.Pri"'-'<lonoPrinc<t"" UniY<r
u.oti c~ tb< ' ri "' l*'in,o;t< m pldi n j o po n today. o rul docu= nt i"3
..,...,o/th<i<'<<OtiV<,.<poc.K< to tlo.i t ,.,.of p>t """.!<Ond
oity Pr<H . So. tp ri~n,o; ond oft.n """ "'"~in "' """"- "' of crx-
tuphoo an d <>ploOtat;..,om""'!f"""'from th< <i•t<=thtoth<
Notes
drtlini o~<o<io l ~,yti f.< on«_ nin<t«nth «ntutld,thi< " udy,.V< ol< th<"d,.k ' <id<ofi""'i
L On<olth<« colO<'-'l<l1lU<>oi Kannon appu r< at lh< ood HO<Sitin »W!a<ltu,Michiganmonognph « n<" inJ•pa·
Prohl, lnk<n,ondjohnN<Ison.<do.lOll.l!u.thool!ofConi<>R tutioortoiZ.n ,whi<h do.,; not<d_lo.p><><«""""'yb-""""thon
<rid ol th< l 006 filmK.1mi0a«Gir!t1!th< backdroplor• n<>< >tudiu oo_ ~ (Ann Arborc Cmt<r fm Japan<>< Stt>d ·
1"'' "'1i"f"'"""'R<It&ton'-<id<n c 8rilLMo., th• nt ,..nty 250 y....
battl< b<twu nm1fl·girlmotorcycl< gmg :rnd<m< of th< i<>, VniY<n ity of Michigan, l 990)_
protagooim ) . f or1tr.. lm<nt ol t hi> topic <Uitabl< fm d .s..-oomu« ,
2. Formor<onlh<«liintr:odition,«<fdwardKam<n>, Th< >«my docum<ntaryfilmSpi rit< oftlt< Sto": ) opan'•
Buddhit!i'D<uyoj th< Grr~t /6:t mo Pri <> tt1<.· l.>oi>oiin S<o<hi Yatu~"ni 51u-i:l<(200~. film > lorth< Humaniti<r.)_
Important Features of This Edition
Instructor's Manual contains chapter overviews, lecture outlines, and tutorial discus-
sion questions.
Test Generator includes multiple-choice, true/false, short answer, and essay questions.
PowerPoint Slides cover all key concepts and are easily adapted to suit your course.
NEW Image Bank provides all images and captions, maps, and boxed features.
Students have access to a wealth of additional information in the Student Study Guide, which
offers chapter summaries, multiple-choice and short-answer questions with answers, research
questions, reflection questions, fieldwork guidelines, and a bonus chapter on Zoroastrianism.
=- · ~··.
·····
,.._, ' """"
-·' , .. ···
authoritative examination of religions of the
Eastern world. In this contrib ute d text, experts
on Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, and
Chinese, Korean, and Japanese religions
You need a password to access these resources.
Please contact your local
Sales and Edltorjal Representative for more
information.
Ordering information
Sa mple Materia l
Contact & Comments
Get Adobe PDF reader [ .US I UK )
www.oupcanada.com/Eastern4e
This is the fourth edition of a successful textbook project started by the late Will Oxtoby, Pro-
fessor at the University of Toronto. Will believed that only those who loved classroom teaching
could write a good textbook. And he wanted authors who could write about each religion in
a scholarly but appreciative way. In choosing contributors, Amir Hussain, the co-editor of the
companion volume World Religions: Western Traditions, and I have tried to be true to Will's
vision. A goal of both volumes is to include both male and female voices and to give attention
to women's experience throughout each chapter.
Will wrote in his original foreword that before 1979, many people used to ask him why
he was wasting his time on something as unimportant as religion, but that those questions
stopped after Iran's Islamic Revolution. I have a similar story. Before I moved over to political
science, I taught in a religious studies department. Sometimes political science students would
ask me why anyone interested in politics would bother with religion. Since the attacks of Sep-
tember 2001, not a single student has raised that question. On the contrary, understanding the
world's major religious traditions seems more important now than ever before.
This fourth edition of the Eastern Traditions volume, like its Western counterpart, updates
the material, incorporates more focus and text boxes, moves the site boxes from the chapter
end to their proper context, adds discussion questions, and improves the colour layout that
students appreciated in the previous edition. The two new volumes share their opening and
concluding chapters, on the nature of religion and current trends respectively.
Preface
@ Acknowledgements
I wish to express my appreciation to all the teacher-scholars who have contributed to this
volume. They have produced a sound and engaging text, and several of them also contributed
photographs for their chapters. I enjoyed working with my co-editor Amir Hussain on the proj-
ect as a whole and on the chapters that open and close this book. I also deeply appreciate the
support and advice on content I have received from my wife, Michelle Morrison, and from so
many of my students at the University of Windsor.
At Oxford University Press I would like to thank Katherine Skene and Stephen Kotowych
for their encouragement, Meagan Carlsson for her developmental guidance, and Sally Living-
ston for her hands-on editorial work. I am also grateful to all the reviewers whose comments
helped to shape this volume, both those whose names are listed below and those who wished
to remain anonymous:
Finally, on behalf of all the authors, I wish to thank the many practitioners of Eastern reli-
gious traditions who, over the years, have answered our questions, posed for our cameras, and
allowed us to observe them at worship, sometimes even inviting us to take tea with them or
share their food. It is, after all, their spiritual lives that this book is all about.
Roy C. Amore
March 2013
University of Windsor
.,
...
...
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
During this period of six months no less
than five hundred and sixty-five deaths are
recorded under the head of morbi vanie. In
other words, those men died without having
received sufficient medical attention for the
determination of even the name of the
disease causing death.
During the month of August fifty-three
cases and fifty-three deaths are recorded as
due to marasmus. Surely this large number
of deaths must have been due to some other
morbid state than slow wasting. If they were
due to improper and insufficient food, they
should have been classed accordingly, and if
to diarrhea or dysentary or scurvy, the
classification in like manner should have
been explicit.
We observe a progressive increase of the
rate of mortality, from 3.11 per cent. in March
to 9.09 per cent. of mean strength, sick and
well, in August. The ratio of mortality
continued to increase during September, for
notwithstanding the removal of one-half the
entire number of prisoners during the early
portion of the month, one thousand seven
hundred and sixty-seven (1,767) deaths are
registered from September 1 to 21, and the
largest number of deaths upon any one day
occurred during this month, on the 16th, viz:
one hundred and nineteen.
The entire number of Federal prisoners
confined at Andersonville was about forty
thousand six hundred and eleven; and
during the period of near seven months, from
February 24 to September 21, nine thousand
four hundred and seventy-nine (9,479)
deaths were recorded; that is, during this
period near one-fourth, or more, exactly one
in 4.2, or 23.3 per cent. terminated fatally.
This increase of mortality was due in great
measure to the accumulation of the sources
of disease, as the increase of excrements
and filth of all kinds, and the concentration of
noxious effluvia, and also to the progressive
effects of salt diet, crowding, and the hot
climate.
CONCLUSIONS.
1st. The great mortality among the Federal
prisoners confined in the military prison at
Andersonville was not referable to climatic
causes, or to the nature of the soil and
waters.
2d. The chief causes of death were scurvy
and its results and bowel affections—chronic
and acute diarrhea and dysentery. The
bowel affections appear to have been due to
the diet, and the habits of the patients, the
depressed, dejected state of the nervous
system and moral and intellectual powers,
and to the effluvia arising from the
decomposing animal and vegetable filth. The
effects of salt meat, and the unvarying diet
of corn-meal, with but few vegetables, and
imperfect supplies of vinegar and sirup, were
manifested in the great prevalence of scurvy.
This disease, without doubt, was also
influenced to an important extent in its origin
and course by the foul animal emanations.
3d. From the sameness of the food and
form, the action of the poisonous gasses in
the densely crowded and filthy stockade and
hospital, the blood was altered in its
constitution, even before the manifestation
of actual disease. In both the well and the
sick the red corpuscles were diminished; and
in all diseases uncomplicated with
inflammation, the fibrous element was
deficient. In cases of ulceration of the
mucous membrane of the intestinal canal,
the fibrous element of the blood was
increased; while in simple diarrhea,
uncomplicated with ulceration, it was either
diminished or else remained stationary.
Heart clots were very common, if not
universally present in cases of ulceration of
the intestinal mucous membrane, while in
the uncomplicated cases of diarrhea and
scurvy, the blood was fluid and did not
coagulate readily, and the heart clots and
fibrous concretions were almost universally
absent. From the watery condition of the
blood, there resulted various serous
effusions into the pericardium, ventricles of
the brain, and into the abdomen. In almost
all the cases which I examined after death,
even the most emaciated, there were more
or less serous effusions into the abdominal
cavity. In case of hospital gangrene of the
extremities, and in case of gangrene of the
intestines, heart clots and fibrous coagula
were universally present. The presence of
these clots in the cases of hospital
gangrene, while they were absent in the
cases in which there were no inflammatory
symptoms, sustains the conclusion that
hospital gangrene is a species of
inflammation, imperfect and irregular though
it may be in its progress, in which the fibrous
element and coagulation of the blood are
increased, even in those who are suffering
from such a condition of the blood, and from
such diseases as are naturally accompanied
with a disease in the fibrous constituent.
4th. The fact that hospital gangrene
appeared in the stockade first, and
originated spontaneously without any
previous contagion, and occurred
sporadically all over the stockade and prison
hospital, was proof positive that this disease
will arise whenever the conditions of
crowding, filth, foul air, and bad diet are
present. The exhalations of the hospital and
stockade appeared to exert their effects to a
considerable distance outside of these
localities. The origin of hospital gangrene
among the prisoners appeared clearly to
depend in great measure to the state of the
general system induced by diet, and various
external noxious influences. The rapidity of
the appearance and action of the gangrene
depended upon the powers and state of the
constitution, as well as upon the intensity of
the poison in the atmosphere, or upon the
direct application of poisonous matter to the
wounded surface. This was further illustrated
by the important fact that hospital gangrene,
or a disease resembling it in all essential
respects, attacked the intestinal canal of
patients laboring under ulceration of the
bowels, although there were no local
manifestations of gangrene upon the surface
of the body. This mode of termination in case
of dysentery was quite common in the foul
atmosphere of the Confederate States
Military Hospital, in the depressed, depraved
condition of the system of these Federal
prisoners.
5th. A scorbutic condition of the system
appeared to favor the origin of foul ulcers,
which frequently took on true hospital
gangrene. Scurvy and hospital gangrene
frequently existed in the same individual. In
such cases vegetable diet, with vegetable
acids would remove the scorbutic condition
without curing the hospital gangrene. From
the results of the existing war for the
establishment of the independence of the
Confederate States, as well as from the
published observations of Dr. Trotter, Sir
Gilbert Blane, and others of the English navy
and army, it is evident that the scorbutic
condition of the system, especially in
crowded ships and camps, is most favorable
to the origin and spread of foul ulcers and
hospital gangrene. As in the present case of
Andersonville, so also in past times when
medical hygiene was almost entirely
neglected, those two diseases were almost
universally associated in crowded ships. In
many cases it was very difficult to decide at
first whether the ulcer was a simple result of
scurvy or the action of the prison or hospital
gangene, for there was great similarity in the
appearance of the ulcers in the two
diseases. So commonly have those two
diseases been confined to their origin and
action, that the description of scorbutic
ulsers, by many authors, evidently includes
also many of the prominent characteristics of
hospital gangrene. This will be rendered
evident by an examination of the
observations of Dr. Lind and Sir Gilbert
Blane upon scorbutic ulcers.
6th. Gangrenous spots followed by rapid
destruction of the tissue appeared in some
cases where there has been no known
wound. Without such well established facts,
it might be assumed that the disease was
propagated from one patient to another. In
such a filthy and crowded hospital as that of
the Confederate States Military Prison at
Andersonville, it was impossible to isolate
the wounded from the sources of actual
contact with gangrenous matter. The flies
swarmed over the wounds and over filth of
every kind, the filthy, imperfectly washed and
scanty supplies of rags, and the limited
supply of washing utensils, the same wash-
bowl serving for scores of patients were
sources of such constant circulation of the
gangrenous matter that the disease might
rapidly spread from a single gangrenous
wound. The fact already stated, that a form
of moist gangrene, resembling hospital
gangrene, was quite common in this foul
atmosphere, in cases of dysentery, both with
and without the existance of the entire
service, not only demonstrates the
dependence of the disease upon the state of
the constitution, but proves in the clearest
manner that neither the contact of the
poisonous matter of gangrene, nor the direst
action of the poisonous atmosphere upon
the ulcerated surface are necessary to the
development of the disease.
7th. In this foul atmosphere amputation did
not arrest hospital gangrene; the disease
almost universally returned. Almost every
amputation was followed finally by death,
either from the effects of gangrene or from
the prevailing diarrhea and dysentery. Nitric
acid and escharoties generally in this
crowded atmosphere, loaded with noxious
effluvia, exerted only temporary effects; after
their application to the diseased surfaces,
the gangrene would frequently returned with
redoubled energy; and even after the
gangrene had been completely removed by
local and constitutional treatment, it would
frequently return and destroy the patient. As
far as my observation extended, very few of
the cases of amputation for gangrene
recovered. The progress of these cases was
frequently very deceptive. I have observed
after death the most extensive
disorganization of the stump, when during
life there was but little swelling of the part,
and the patient was apparently doing well. I
endeavored to impress upon the medical
officers the view that on this disease
treatment was almost useless, without an
abundance of pure, fresh air, nutricious food,
and tonics and stimulants. Such changes,
however, as would allow of the isolation of
the cases of hospital gangrene appeared to
be out of the power of the medical officers.
8th. The gangrenous mass was without
true puss, and consisted chiefly of broken-
down, disorganized structures. The reaction
of the gangrenous matter in certain stages
was alkaline.
9th. The best, and in truth the only means
of protecting large armies and navies, as
well as prisoners, from the ravages of
hospital gangrene, is to furnish liberal
supplies of well-cured meat, together with
fresh beef and vegetables, and to enforce a
rigid system of hygene.
10th. Finally, this gigantic mass of human
misery calls loudly for relief, not only for the
sake of suffering humanity, but also on
account of our own brave soldiers now
captive in the hands of the Federal
Government. Strict justice to the gallant men
of the Confederate armies, who have been
or who may be, so unfortunate as to be
compelled to surrender in battle, demands
that the Confederate Government should
adopt that course which will best secure their
health and comfort in captivity; or at least
leave their enemies without a shadow of an
excuse for any violation of the rules of
civilized warfare in the treatment of
prisoners.”
APPEAL TO CONGRESS.