The Angel's Glow - How The Soil Healed Wounded Soldiers | George Monbiot

THE ANGEL'S GLOW - HOW THE SOIL HEALED WOUNDED SOLDIERS | GEORGE MONBIOTShow more

After the Civil War battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, in 1862, 16,000 injured soldiers were strewn across the battlefield. So great were their numbers that neither army was able to retrieve and treat them quickly. Thousands were left lying in the mud, in some cases for two days and two nights. Many died from their wounds and the consequent infections.

But at night, some of the injured men noticed a strange blue glow emanating from their wounds. The light could be seen from a distance. Field surgeons observed that the soldiers whose wounds emitted this blue light healed more quickly and had a higher rate of survival than those who didn’t. They called it the Angel’s Glow.

What was it? At the time, people believed it was divine intervention: these men must have been touched by the healing hands of angels.

It took almost 140 years for a scientific explanation to emerge...this is the story of the science behind the Angel's Glow.