The Wild West was a lawless land. As the US settlers pushed west from the original territories of the United States towards the Pacific coast they encountered many dangers. The countryside was a dangerous place, the terrain often broken especially in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Outside of the safety of the towns there
It is fair to say that the history of medicine has been something of a hit and miss affair. Without modern technology to aid in our understanding of the root causes of ailments, there was a lot of guesswork and outright quackery in the mix for much of the time. This is not to say