12:00 noon
Thursday, April 19th
Amphitheater R153

Dr. Joseph A. Gerache
Retired Pharmacist & Owner
Corner Drug Store & Colonial Drug Store, Vicksburg, MS
Including a
Civil War artifacts and apothecary memorabilia museum
 

Hundreds of publications, films, art works, and other materials, both fiction and non-fiction, document the various aspects of the Civil War, including treatment of the wounds and injuries incurred by the military men on the battlefields. My time as a Civil War surgeon on the battlefields in the South has given me first-hand experiences of all aspects surrounding medical care for those fighting in this war. I will relate issues about the “call to arms” and the establishment of the southern army’s “medical departments.” This will be followed by a review of the treatments, procedures and medications in general use at that time. To fully understand the operations of the “medical departments,” I explain the places of encampment and their layouts. As expected, the “medical department staff” focused mainly on treating the many types of wounds and amputations. Details of my surgeries and the medical practices of others will be highlighted. The use of anesthesia, its dangers and the shortages, created many challenges that I will discuss. Medical complications from the flux, experienced by all of us, greatly affected the treatment outcomes. Then, there were the many diseases that had to be treated, some not too successfully. I will report on those diseases - their causes, effects and treatments. I think it is important that you and I understand the war’s deadliest killers, its major battles - their casualties and results, the cemeteries and other places to fully comprehend the huge medical challenges of the Civil War.

THE GUYTON LECTURER

Dr. Joseph A. Gerache, retired pharmacist, practiced in Vicksburg, Mississippi from 1950–1997. Former owner of the Corner Drug Store with its museum of Civil War artifacts and apothecary memorabilia and now owner of the Colonial Drug Store, his roots in the pharmacy profession are wide and deep as his father, sister, son and several cousins are registered pharmacists. In 1943, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was assigned as a hospital corpsman to a Special Augmented Hospital Unit serving mainly in the Philippines and Okinawa. He graduated from Loyola University School of Pharmacy in New Orleans in 1950.

His commitment to the advancement of pharmacy as a science and as an art is reflected in his honors and awards and his professional organization memberships. He is a Fellow in the American College of Apothecaries, a member of the American Pharmaceutical Association, and the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy. Gerache served on the Mississippi State Board of Pharmacy from 1980-85 and served as its president in 1984. He was president of the Mississippi Pharmacy Association in 1993 and is a charter member of the Galen Order of the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy. Among his many honors are the 1979 Bowl of Hygeia Award from the A. H. Robins Company for professional excellence and community services and the honorary doctorate of pharmacy from Loyola University in 1982.

Gerache has dedicated time outside his profession to community service including his participation in the Fourth Degree of the Knights of Columbus, a service organization, in which he collects and distributes medications for the Saltillo, Mexico mission sponsored by charities in both Jackson and Vicksburg. He serves on the Board of Directors of Good Shepherd Community Center and currently is the vice-president of the Street Medical Foundation.