Course Reflection
By Ben Fitzgerald
When I think about the medical revolution I often tend to think about the medicine during the Civil War to World War 2. With surgical methods stemming from the Civil War and the invention of penicillin. However, what I did not expect was the medical revolution and its focus on France before, during, and after the revolution. This course taught me a lot about the medical revolution, but I think the parts that piqued my interest the most were the ideas of religion and science butting heads and yet working together at the same time. For example, when discussing the ideas of animal-to-human blood transfusions, many were afraid of the idea of man playing God. However, more were afraid of the idea that we would ultimately create human-animal hybrids or chimeras. Religion/mysticism really helped forge the ideas of the unexplainable when it came to science. In a way, I believe that one could not exist without the other.
Another part of this course that I found interesting was the modeling that was done in order to figure out the inner workings of the human body/circulatory system. I’m a visual learner so the fact that they used pumps, nozzles, hoses, scraps, etc. to understand how blood would flow up and around the body was really interesting to learn and see. Side note, I thought it was cool to learn how people thought that blood was the thing that kept the human body hot and running, like gas to a car.
I think one skill I definitely learned or was able to lock down was looking into the present in order to relate it to the past. When we were discussing Washington and his battle against smallpox, it was hard not to paint him as an anti-vaxer turned vaxer. Not only but the fear of smallpox and the propaganda wheel that would soon follow was another example of how America and the rest of the world treated both the Asian community and COVID-19 as a whole. Furthermore, another skill I learned was to take good notes in order to have well-versed conversations during our time in class. Analyzing the text in order to pick out important information is crucial as well as writing them down. When analyzing historical texts, scriptures, books, etc. it is important to skim or “speed read” in order to get the information needed to make note of important information. This is to ensure that one doesn’t spend hours on end reading. In fact, when writing the last paper about the island of Saint Domingue, I used my notes from the book Medical Revolutionaries by Karol K. Weaver in order to get my point across.
In terms of other courses here that have challenged my analyzing skills as well as my critical thinking would be my Professional-Tech and Communications with Jesse Miller. During the class, we are always challenged with the idea of bettering ourselves through communication. We achieve this by doing small readings and analyzing what we thought was important for the class discussion. This course challenges me by constantly coming up with new ways to interpret information effectively, that way I can present it to my peers in a confident manner. Whereas in this course I had to interpret texts and readings so we can better understand the past. Figuring out how to communicate effectively is super important for any field. While communicating effectively, we can learn different ideas from one another. I think what both courses do really well is teach us how to learn from one another based on different experiences both past and present.
When it comes to being a history major there are a lot of avenues one can take and looking back at this course, it is clear to say that I made the right decision in picking it. I was hesitant at first because I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I’ve had courses with Professor DeCoster before and I’ve always admired his teaching style. Though this was a little different than I was used to, it was for the better. I got to broaden my knowledge of how the medical revolution began and the many theories and taboos it hid for years that I never knew. It showed me how people were afraid of human-animal hybrids, Washington being an anti-vaxer at first, and the Haitian Revolution benign a turning point for both medical and abolitionist movements alike. It also taught me how to be more effective when it comes to reading and note-taking in order to make relevant and accurate points during a debrief on our readings. Not only but it showed me how similar some courses can be when breaking in new skills as well as sharpening old ones like using Chicago manual style citations. I really enjoyed this course and I would recommend it to anyone curious about the medical world or history in general.
