Examining The Changing Media Scene In India Media Essay

Examining The Changing Media Scene In India Media Essay INTRODUCTION The media scene in India is changing very fast, especially in the past decade. On one hand, new media are emerging and affecting the existing ones. On the other hand, the consumption patterns of the media users are also undergoing a lot of transformations. Post independence, the development of media was rather slow and unexciting. For twenty five years after independence, the growth of media such as print, cinema and radio followed a gradual and uneventful path, progressing slowly and steadily. Pressures of urbanization, growing literacy and development in technology did not affect the media significantly. The scenario was such a sad one that neither inter nor intra- media competition existed. This obviously translated into the fact that there was no strategy or planning on the part of the media. Essentially media marketing itself was an alien concept for most of the newspaper owners and the sole television operator Doordarshan. The first strains of change on this static environment were observed in the early eighties. These changes were introduced through technology: the development of grafting techniques in press and in electronics. The implications were two fold. On the first level, the reach of media was expanded and on the second level, the people were given more choice. Introduction of glossies among print titles, the expansion of the television network, establishing a radio commercial channel suddenly made life more exciting and entertaining for the vast majority of the urbanites. It was now, for the first time, that audiences were getting segmented by the titles introduced, new markets were opening up and a large number of people were coming under the media exposure. Another interesting fact during this time was the development of a new relationship between the media and the audiences. Media patterns changed once again when sponsored programs on television became a regular feature. This initiative, along with the development and popularity of home videos changed the entire equation. People stopped frequenting cinemas, since the same films were conveniently available at home. Magazine readership also declined in favor of videos. Television, however, maintained its regular set of viewers during the period. It became a veritable obsession with the people. Programs such as the Mahabharat and the Ramayan were the opium of the masses. Now, television delivered important audience segments such as women, the rural affluent and children. At about the same time, easy access to technology and developing markets pushed publishers to add on new editions as well as supplements. THE GLOBAL BEGINNING Another change in the media environment came with the Invasion of the Skies in the early nineties. Satellite television found its way into India through CNN and the Star Network during the Gulf War. The monopoly of Doordarshan came to an end and there were multiple channels, giving the Indian viewer a choice of programs he had never been exposed to before. This, needless to say, introduced heavy competition among the channels and thus the programs contents also improved. Finally, Doordarshan had to deal with the fact that it was not the king of the skies any more: for the first time in India, the television viewer had the choice of deciding what to watch from over 50 channels. Faced with heavy competition, it had to revamp and introduce new channels in the metros and in regional areas. The competition became intense even within the satellite television players with the influx of regional channels and more and more international quality programming. It was realized that only those players who can adopt a market-savvy, strategic approach to differentiate their programming from the rest shall be able survive the media jungle. Developments in wireless technologies and their decreasing costs have created opportunities for faster deployment of telecommunications services. This speed is critical for developing countries especially in rural areas, as the role of telecommunications in development is more significant for them. The uptake of wireless technologies has been rapid in most developing countries. For the most part, these have been cellular networks that operate in the licensed bands. The unparalleled growth of mobile service (operating in licensed bands) in almost all countries of the world has been driven by both technology as well as deregulation. While the rapid spread of such networks is unprecedented, it has so far been limited to urban and semi-urban areas. Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE): It is considered to be one of the biggest techno-social communication experiments in education and rural development. The one-year experiment (August 1975 July 1976) aimed to provide direct broadcasting of instructional and educational television in 2400 villages in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan. Over 500 conventional television sets spread over 335 villages in Kheda district, Gujarat was also part of SITE. Satellite technologists had called SITE as leapfrogging from bullock cart stage to satellite communication, which did not discriminate between rural poor and urban rich for information and communication. It had given 50 years communication lead to rural poor of the country. SITE provided telecast for rural primary school children in the age group 5 12 years studying in grades 1-5. Rural adults viewed television programs on improved agricultural practices, health and family planning. They were also able to view news. Television was considered as window to the world. Both quantitative (survey) and qualitative in-depth (anthropological holistic study) evaluation indicated modest gains in some areas, whereas no gain or negative gain in other areas. The one-year duration was thought to be too little for any positive results. Based on the experiences and positive gains, INSAT satellite was launched in 1981. Since then a series of INSAT satellites have been launched and used for nationwide television telecast for education and deve lopment. The sad part is that, in spite of best efforts, satellite television has been used for entertainment more than rural development. The other research says that access to satellite TV is of surprising value to the lives of rural Indian women and villagers in general. School enrolment among girls, family planning, hygiene, awareness about diseases and many more such milestones have been achieved by the electronic media. The newly wired women also has become less accepting of spousal abuse, a bias in favor of having boys declined, and they look more likely to be able to spend money without a husbands permission. However, shows on satellite TV tend to focus on urban areas, where womens status is higher and are shown leading extravagant lifestyles. The rural people are not able to associate with those programs and shows. Customization as per rural needs has recently begun and has been appreciated even by the urban crowd. People are getting exposed to a set of attitudes that are more liberal, that are more favorable toward women, and they are changing their minds in response to that. Change is inevitable. Government h as taken initiatives to start many such programs to generate awareness, some ran for years, others could never come out of papers and the rest bombed after the take off. Few project initiatives were: Project Project Partners Outcomes Country wide classrooms UGC, CEC and 17 other universities where media centers are located 10,000 programs produced and telecast on National TV till date School Television in India CIET and 6 state Institutes of Educational Technology Programs produced and run on national TV till date Gyan Darshan HRD, IB, Prasar Bharti, IGNOU The program runs 24 hrs and is handled by IGNOU Gyan Vani Reached out to backward communities, distant education and counseling Namma Dhwani (voices) UNESCO Educational and development oriented informal programs Gujarat Community Radio Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan, DMC, Ahmedabad Non- formal education and social issues, esp. for women Jhabua Development Communication Program ISOR, GoMP Literacy, health and non- formal education, watershed management RADIO AS A MEDIUM Radio, as a mass medium, is particularly suited to communicate in the local dialect and idiom, thereby establishing a personal connection between the broadcaster and the listener. That has not, however, been achieved in India because of the bureaucratic stranglehold on radio. Development, as a process meant to empower the poor, reduce exploitation, and oppression by those having economic, social, and political power. It also means an equitable sharing of resources, improved health care and education for all. One of the major components and driving force of rural development is communication. Conventionally, communication includes electronic media, human communication now information technology (IT). All forms of communications have dominated the development scene in which its persuasive role has been most dominant within the democratic political framework of the country. Persuasive communication for rural development has been given highest priority for bringing about desirable socia l and behavioral change among the most vulnerable rural poor and women. Initially, the approach lacked gender sensitivity and empathy of the communicators and development agents who came from urban elite homes. Added to these constraints is political will that still influences the pace and progress of rural development. Communication has been seen by a large number of development planners as a panacea for solving major social ills and problems. Apart from development, the introduction of communication in the educational process for open and distance learning is seen as step towards improving the quality of education and bridging the social and educational gap (Agrawal 1993). However, experience indicates that those rich who could afford to have access to private resources have hogged the advantage whether development or education. In this respect, it seems that communication technology has, in no way has helped the poor for improving their socio-economic condition. ALL INDIA RADIO (AIR) India presents huge challenges to any broadcasting institution that aspires to serve the whole nation. All India Radio (AIR), the state-run monopoly, was expected to take these challenges on and help build a modern nation state with an egalitarian social democracy. Approximately 303 news bulletins are aired daily, of which 93 are intended for national listeners, whereas regional stations originate 135 news bulletins daily. In addition, there are special bulletins on sports, youth, and other major events, such as the annual Haj to Mecca by Muslims or the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad. More than 80 stations in the AIR network broadcast radio dramas in various languages. Forty percent of the broadcast time, however, is set aside for classical, light, folk, and film music. The External Service, set up to act as a cultural ambassador, airs 65 news bulletins in 16 foreign and eight Indian languages. In addition, magazine programs on sports and literature; talk shows on sociopolitical-economic is sues; and classical, folk, and modern Indian music from different regions of the country are broadcast. But the results have not been that healthy, the reasons being many folds. AIRs heavily bureaucratic ways have been the major impediment to innovation and creativity. In a highly pluralistic society with incredible linguistic, caste, and class differences, AIR has attempted not to offend any group. Controversial social and community welfare issues take a back seat while popular film music dominates. Regional language radio stations beam programs to the whole state in a formal dialect, which renders it stiff and official. As a consequence, most people find AIR boring. Radio for Rural Development: Popularly known as Radio Farm Forum, it was one of the earliest efforts in the use of radio for rural development. The experiment was carried out from February to April 1956 in five districts of Maharashtra State by All India Radio (AIR). Rural listener groups were organized, who would listen to radio broadcasts twice a week at 6.30 p.m. for half an hour. The group then stayed together for discussion of what they had heard, the discussion lasted usually, about half an hour. The summative impact evaluation indicated positive outcome of radio rural forum. Impressive knowledge gains as a result of radio listening were reported across illiterates and literates, agriculturists and non-agriculturists, village leaders and others. However, over a period of time the project withered away and could not be operationalized for large-scale implementation in one form or the other. Lack of political will and indifference of bureaucracy killed the rural development proje ct even before it could help poor to take advantage of radio broadcast. Satellite radio for education EDUSAT, according to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), is the first exclusive satellite for serving the educational sector. The satellite has multiple regional beams covering different parts of India, which theoretically enables programs to be broadcast in relevant local languages EDUSAT can provide connectivity to schools, colleges and higher levels of education and also support non-formal education including developmental communication. But it is a matter of concern that, over a year after the satellite was launched, much of its capacity is lying idle. Community Radio Initiative: In post media liberalization phase, Government of India, announced the policy for community radio broadcasting which was expected to focus on issues relating to education, health, environment, agriculture, rural and community development. In the absence of true community radio in India, a number of NGOs are using innovative methods for non-formal education through audio. School Audio through cable has been in operation in Budhikote village, Karnataka, since January 2002. The School Audio project is a spin-off of the Namma Dhwani cable audio service. In the Kutch region of Gujarat, the Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS), an independent organization of rural women, focuses on adolescent girls education, basic functional literacy within sangathan members and development of context specific educational curricula on different issues for literates and neo-literates. Shivpuri, MP launched a radio station, Dharkan 107.8 FM, to give educational messages through humor featuring Ms. Adivasi as a difficult mother-in-law arguing against exclusive breastfeeding. Vandana Dube, the stations first manager, helps to produce programs on hygiene, health and the importance of education. She said that listening groups, which have formed throughout the district, are having a major impact. In particular, more women are now contributing to important debates on caste discrimination, female foeticide and female empowerment issues that concern them directly. UNICEF Image CONCLUSION There is no single ideal format for educational radio. Innovative programming offers some very effective approaches to non-formal education over radio. Recently, AIR agreed to a proposal from Sesame Workshop India to provide airtime on national and regional radio channels for locally produced versions of the universally popular Sesame Street. The programs would be aimed at pre-school goers, and would also provide under-served children with access to educational media, especially in rural areas. All the same, it has been amply proved that radio rightly used can improve educational quality and relevance, lower educational costs and improve access to education, particularly for disadvantaged groups. It is most effective when supported by trained facilitators, group learning, group discussion, feedback and the use of multimedia approaches.

Logic and knowledge assignment Essay

1. The poles of knowledge are related to experience in that experience serves to bring out a connection of a particular meaning of an issue that has occurred in the past. The individual will therefore refer to the past so that he can bring out the truth of the matter. 2. The objects of knowledge are constituted in a manner in which they are integral because all these senses are in a position to distinguish various elements as either right or wrong e. g. the eye can determine whether what it has seen is right or wrong while the ear can select what to hear. 3. Intellect begins to function when the mind presents the reality in a distinct and a clear way so that truth can be said to have been exercised. 4. The animal intelligence is different from the human intelligence in that the animal intelligence cannot separate or unite concepts which are considered elements that make up logic. 5. A concept is a material that represents logic in its untrue or unfinished state while judgment is discerning the differences between some given forms of matter in a finished and a clear manner. While concepts are incomplete and imperfect, judgments are complete and perfect thoughts that the individual’s mind will rest upon in making decisions. Whereas a judgment can deny or reaffirm some of subject matter, a concept denies or affirms it. The two aspects also differ in that while concept stands for a meaning of a certain issue; judgment is an expression of the concept. 6. Concept differs from a simple apprehension as an act because it does not affirm or deny and therefore becomes an incomplete and an imperfect act. The reason why it does not represent a complete act is rest upon the mind not resting on this point and therefore needs to seek and get the real answer to the problem in question. 7. The image is different from the concept because an image can be expressed in form of the characteristics of the object in its material from that is its concreteness and the variable of the material while a concept is immaterial, constant, universal and abstract. 8. Judgment separates images by giving the distinction between one image and the other. It therefore does not unite images but separates them in their form and differences. 9. It is possible for a vague image to be universal because an object in the mind which is represented as a concept has the property that it can be represented as universal, abstract and constant and therefore a vague object in the mind of an individual can be represented as universal. 10. Simple apprehension can be false because the mind has not yet registered any evidence of truth about the matter. An example is when a person gives a word which has several meanings in a class. The minds of the students will revolve around all the meanings of the word but they will want to be told further some hint about the details of the issue and therefore they can establish the real meaning of the issue. Otherwise the issue would represent either false or true answers in the minds of the students. 11. In logic â€Å"notes† refer to the elements of complex meaning. 12. Comprehension of a concept refers to the articulation of notes in the mind of a person in the right order. 13. Comprehension relates with the essential definition in that comprehension is the coming up with the real meaning of an issue after definition as been done that is coming up with probable solutions. Initial definition therefore aids in comprehension. 14. â€Å"Specific property† differs from â€Å"descriptive characteristic† in that specific property is the act of giving the object the real meaning that it specifically fits while descriptive characteristics refers to the ability of logic to unite and separate the concepts. 15. Extension is the property of an object in which a concept is represented in a combination of the real things which are actual and possible to be applied. Comprehension is the idea of the intellect knowing the meaning and essence of a particular object and expressing this meaning in a definition. 16. These two terms vary inversely because comprehension does not necessary refer to knowing the facts of the matter while extension means the real facts of the subject matter is really known and therefore the concept can be confidently represented. 17. A term refers to the concepts that do not have any significance when they are represented on their own while ‘syncategorematic words’ refer to the concepts that connote some particular issue when they stand on their own. 18. Universal is different from generality in that while universal means something that is widely accepted in a big region like the entire world, generality means a concept that is perceived in a particular person’s mind and it could be different from the perception of another person somewhere else. 19. a. Signification of terms Signification of the terms is the dividing of terms so that they meaning is affected. Examples include the use of the word â€Å"man† it can either have the meaning of masculine or it can be used to mean individuals regardless of their sex orientation. b. Supposition of terms Supposition of the terms refers to the terms in which a word stands; it does not represent the meaning of the term alone but also a proposition of the term. An example is â€Å"Paul is short† this phrase indicates that the truth about Paul’s height is that he is short. 20. It’s important to study logic because it makes individuals to learn things from the truthful way. Logic often bases issues in a truthful manner and therefore if people followed logic then concepts can easily be inferred as correct and therefore problems solved easily. Reference: Etienne Gilson, Knowledge as Understanding, the Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, Chapter V, pp. 200-206

Multimedia Basics Essay

Application of Multimedia: Multimedia finds its application in various areas including, advertisements, art, education, entertainment, engineering, medicine, mathematics, business, and scientific research applications. A few application areas of multimedia are listed below: Entertainment and Fine Arts: In addition, multimedia is heavily used in the entertainment industry, especially to develop special effects in movies and animations. Multimedia games are a popular pastime and are software programs available either as CD-ROMs or online. Some video games also use multimedia features. Multimedia applications that allow users to actively participate instead of just sitting by as passive recipients of information are called Interactive Multimedia. Education: In Education, multimedia is used to produce computer-based training courses (popularly called CBTs) and reference books like encyclopedia. A CBT lets the user go through a series of presentations, text about a particular topic, and associated illustrations in various information formats. Edutainment is an informal term used to describe combining education with entertainment, especially multimedia entertainment. Engineering: Software engineers may use multimedia in Computer Simulations for anything from entertainment to training such as military or industrial training. Multimedia for software interfaces are often done as collaboration between creative professionals and software engineers. Industry: In the Industrial sector, multimedia is used as a way to help present information to shareholders, superiors and coworkers. Multimedia is also helpful for providing employee training, advertising and selling products all over the world via virtually unlimited web-based technologies. Mathematical and Scientific Research: In Mathematical and Scientific Research, multimedia is mainly used for modeling and simulation. For example, a scientist can look at a molecular model of a particular substance and manipulate it to arrive at a new substance. Representative research can be found in journals such as the Journal of Multimedia. Medicine: In Medicine, doctors can get trained by looking at a virtual surgery or they can simulate how the human body is affected by diseases spread by viruses and bacteria and then develop techniques to prevent it. Multimedia System Architecture: Multimedia encompasses a large variety of technologies and integration of multiple architectures interacting in real time. All of these multimedia capabilities must integrate with the standard user interfaces such as Microsoft Windows. The following figure describes the architecture of a multimedia workstation environment. From the above figure: the left side is very similar to non-multimedia systems. Right side shows the architecture of multimedia supporting system. Multimedia Extensions is used to enhance the speed of process. The add-on multimedia devices and peripherals include scanner, video camera, VCR, and sound equipment along with their associated device controllers. For each of these special devices, a special software device driver is needed to provide the interface from the application to the device. The graphical user interface designed primarily for windows managed by applications at fixed resolution; require control to extensions to support applications such as full-motion video or remote desktop. Evolving Technologies for Multimedia Systems: Multimedia applications use a number of technologies generated for both commercial business application as well as the video game industry. Let us review some of these technologies in this section. Hypermedia Document: Hypermedia documents are documents which have text, embedded or linked multimedia objects such as image, audio, hologram, or full-motion video. Hypertext: Hypertext implements the organization of non-sequential of data by natural association of information. Hypertext systems allow authors to link information together; create information paths through a large volume of related text in documents. It also allows annotating existing text, and appending notes. It allows fast and easy searching and reading of selected excerpts. Hyperspeech Multimedia stimulated the development of general-purpose speech interfaces. Speech synthesis and speech recognition are fundamental requirement for hyperspeech systems. Speech recognition is nothing but converting the analog speech into a computer action and into ASCII text. Speech-recognition systems cannot segment a stream of sounds without breaks into meaningful units. The user must speak in a stilted fashion. He should make sure to interpose silence between each word. 3D and Holography: Three-dimensional technologies are concerned with two areas: pointing devices and displays. 3-D pointing devices are essential to manipulate object in a 3-D display system. 3-D displays are achieved using holography techniques. Digital Signal Processing: Digital Signal Processing is used in applications such as digital servos in hard disk drives, and fax/modems. DSP technology is used in Digital wireless communications, such as personal communication networks (pens), wireless local area networks and digital cordless phones. DSP Architectures and Applications: A typical DSP operating system architecture would contain the following subsystems: Memory Management: DSP architectures provide dynamic allocation of arrays from multiple segments, including RAM, SRAM and DRAM. Hardware-Interrupt handling: A DSP operating system must be designed to minimize hardware interrupt latency to ensure fast response to real time events for applications, such as servo systems. Multitasking: DSPs need  real-time kernels that provide pre-emptive multitasking and user-defined and dynamic task prioritization.

Civil War Medicine - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1606 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2019/05/08 Category History Essay Level High school Tags: Civil War Essay War Essay Did you like this example? Before the Civil War started, the effectiveness of hospitals in America wasnt the best, but as the war waged on, they slowly got better and more efficient. Before the succession of South Carolina, its Medical Department consisted of 30 surgeons that were ranked major, a general surgeon that was ranked colonel, and 84 assistant surgeons ranked lieutenant and then promoted to be a surgeon. They were a part of the General Staff of the army, but they were not part of any regiment because they would work where ever they were needed. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Civil War Medicine" essay for you Create order In total they had 834 surgeons and 1,668 assistant surgeons. (Picketts Charge) In the North each regiment had a surgeon and an assistant surgeon that were commissioned by the state. They were permanently a part of a regiment and would only leave the regiment if a situation arose. The Union had 547 surgeons and assistant surgeons that volunteered and were appointed. (Picketts Charge) (MAKE A COMPLETE THOUGHT) (MAKE IT FLOW) When it comes to treating the injured soldiers there were field hospitals and field stations that were used as places to perform surgeries and treat wounds. A field hospital was for second level care that needed to be given to wounded soldiers. Field stations would be set up at the boarder of the battlefields before the battle would start. When a soldier was wounded, they would either be carried to a field hospital or they walked there. When they would get to the field station, they would be separated by the type of injury they had and how bad the injury was. If a soldiers injury was severe and needed immediate attention, they were treated at the field stations and those whose injury wasnt as severe were given pain killers and sent to a field hospital where they would receive treatment. At the field stations if a soldier was bleeding, they would pack the wound with lint that was scraped from either clothing or bedsheets. If there was an abdominal or chest wound the soldiers were given a pain reliefer and were sent to the field hospital. (Picketts Charge) Field hospitals suffered major losses due to the spread of disease. During this time, they didnt know about germ theory and there was no knowledge about the cause of disease. With that in mind, more soldiers died of diarrhea and dysentery than the men with battle wounds. At field hospitals the tools used for amputations werent properly cleaned after each use, in fact, they would just set the knife in a bowl of bloody water and when the next man was put on the table, they would pick the kn ife up from the bowl and use it again. They did not know the importance of hygiene and the use of sterile supplies yet, so this led to the spread of disease and cost thousands of lives. (Picketts Charge) (MAKE IT FLOW) With the lack of knowledge about germs and the cause of disease led to problems with doctors. Most doctors during the Civil War only went to medical school for two years, while a few did pursue more education. The majority of the surgeons in the Civil War had never treated a gunshot wound before the war and there were even some surgeons who had never performed a surgery prior to the war. (Civil War Medicine: An Overview of Medicine) With the lack of knowledge about medicine and treating different wounds it led to surgeons doing odd things to treat soldiers. For example, to treat pneumonia and bronchitis they would give the soldier opium or muster plasters and sometimes they would use bleeding to treat the disease. Surgeons liked to use whiskey and other alcohol to treat disease and wounds, although it offered some pain relief, it wasnt very effective. If a soldier got scurvy, they would prescribe green vegetables. (Civil War Medicine: An Overview of Medicine.) There were a lot of sol diers that died during the Civil War and a lot of the deaths could have been avoided if we had cleaner medical practices. The two most common causes of death were disease and battlefield injuries. (Reilly) Due to the lack of sanitation in camps and the neglect of hygiene through the hospitals and through the camps the soldiers stayed in, disease spread quickly. In the camps they stayed in, pneumonia, typhoid, and dysentery claimed the most lives. It didnt help that there was a lack of proper clothing and shoes for the soldiers and the food they were given wasnt the best. (Civil War Medicine: An Overview of Medicine.) Since most doctors and surgeons had limited knowledge, they did things a lot different than most surgeons and doctors would do today. During surgeries the surgeons would use their fingers as probes and dig around in the body cavity to locate things. (Civil War Medicine: An Overview of Medicine) In addition, they would use bloody knifes that would be used so much that they needed to be sharpened multiple times throughout the day as scalpels. (Picketts Charge) Another reason that a lot of soldiers died would be due to the supply difference in the Confederate Army and in the Union Army. Since most of the vital medicines were produced and manufactured in the North, the southerners had to find a way to get around the blockade and get access to these medicines. These medicines were smuggled into the Confederate territory by women in the North who sympathized with the Confederacy. They would do this by sewing the medicine onto the petticoats and get it to the South. Most of the Confederates medical supplies were from Union stores that they had captured, but the South mainly used herbal remedies for treating soldiers. (Civil War Medicine: An Overview of Medicine.). When treating soldiers, they would send them to hospitals for further treatment. The early hospitals in the Civil War would be in houses, churches, and schools. (Civil War Medicine: An Overview of Medicine.) These early hospitals were heavily crowded and there wasnt a set system for them. (Civil War Medicine) There were regimental hospitals that were in regimental training camps. They were small and it was where the assistant surgeon and surgeon of that regiment would care for the wounded or sick soldiers. They were intended for men only from that regiment and they would constantly turn people away. (Picketts Charge ) In addition to the regimental hospitals there were general hospitals. General hospitals were pavilion-like hospitals that had patients beds in the center of the building and the support services on the edge. They were typically two stories and they only used the bottom story to keep the wounded and sick. The second story had large windows that allowed the bad air to get out. Bad air was a belief in medicine at the time that fumes radiating from swamps and the Earth caused disease, which was later proven wrong. ( Picketts Charge) One of the biggest advancements in medicine during this time was the use of anesthesia. With anesthesia being used in 95% of all surgeries performed in the Civil War it became very popular. (Anesthesia in the Civil War) The most common anesthetic was chloroform it was used by it being applied to a cloth or a sponge that was on top of a cone and the open side was put over the mouth and nose of the soldier. They would gradually give it to avoid shock and the cone was removed after nine minutes or when the soldier was unconscious. They would only use enough so that the patient couldnt feel any pain, but during surgery the men would move and moan because of the light dosage. Due to the fact that they were given a low dosage of anesthesia the surgeons had to work quickly so then the men wouldnt wake up during the surgery and be in an overwhelming amount of pain. (Anesthesia in the Civil War) The use of anesthesia would carry on to today. With the use of anesthesia, it allowed them to pref orm many amputations on soldiers throughout the course of the war. Since there were new forms of technology used in the war it led to more intense injuries. The minie ball did the most damage out of them all with it dragging skin and pieces of clothing into the wound and shattering two or three inches of bone it caused great and lethal damage to a soldier and one of the only fast and efficient ways to save them was to amputate. But some of the inexperienced surgeons were very eager to perform an amputation so they could improve their skill and this was part of why three quarters of all surgeries performed were amputations. (Maimed Men Life and Limb: The Toll of the American Civil War) Due to the fact that a lot of men didnt have limbs they created artificial limbs. The industry of creating them grew so then they could accommodate the veteran population in America. For Union veterans in 1862 an artificial leg costed $75 and an artificial arm costed $50. In 1862 the Confederacy provide financial support for the cost of these artificial limbs. Most of the time the cost of the artificial limbs covered the expense of traveling to a showroom so it could be fitted. (Maimed Men Life and Limb: The Toll of the American Civil War) Since so many men were handicap from the war the federal government established the Invalid Corps program in 1863. The Invalid Corps program employed veterans that were disabled in the war and gave them jobs in war-relate work. They would divide them into two regiments based on how bad their injury was.