"Dr. Cirillo has written an entertaining and informative account of a very important storythe health and medicine of America's first war in which modern scientific medicine was available. The recognition of medicine's potential called for changes in military medicine and the professional education of officers, and so this story will be of interest to historians of medicine and the military. Whether you are a patriot interested in the care of soldiers, a patient, a soldier, or a practitioner, Dr. Cirillo has an important message for you." Dale C. Smith, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Medical History, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

For each soldier killed in combat during the Spanish-American War, more than seven died from diseases such as typhoid fever and malariaa rate higher than that of the Civil War. During a time of rapid medical innovation and discovery, why did these soldiers perish so needlessly?

Bullets and Bacilli is the first book to focus primarily on military medicine during this conflict. The historian Vincent J. Cirillo argues that a universal element of military culture stifled medical progress. The Spanish-American War gave army medical officers an opportunity to introduce new medical technologies to the battlefield, including the X-ray, aseptic surgery, and sanitary systems derived from germ theory. With few exceptions, however, their recommendations for preventive health measures were almost completely ignored. Scientific knowledge in itself was not sufficient to implement much-needed medical improvements; putting these ideas into military practice also required the cooperation of line officers and volunteer soldiers, as well as a restructuring of military education.

The influence of military experiences on the history of American medicine is often overlooked. Cirillo shows how preventable deaths during the Spanish-American War led to reforms that continue to save the lives of both soldiers and civilians to the present day.

Vincent J. Cirillo, past president of the Medical History Society of New Jersey, is an independent scholar.