Three years after the Civil War started, Alcott got a job at a hospital in Washington, D.C. She worked for six weeks between 1861 and 1862. While Alcott worked at the hospital, she got typhoid. She had to spend a long time in bed, which affected her health. While she had typhoid, she used medicine that had mercury in it. When Alcott was older, she was ill most of the time. She thought this was because of mercury poisoning from the medicine she used. Early biographies about Louisa May Alcott said that she was ill and died because of mercury poisoning. However, experts now think she was ill from an autoimmune disease.