19th Century medicine Flashcards
James Simpson and Chloroform
James Simpson was a Scottish doctor. In 1847, he and some friends experimented with chloroform. He discovered that it was an effective general anaesthetic. Chloroform replaced ether as the most widely used anaesthetic. The discovery of chloroform meant patients were still during an operation and felt no pain. This meant surgeons could start to consider more complex operations.
What did Louis Pasteur do
- In the 1850s he was asked by a wine maker to investigate why their wine was going off. Pasteur used a microscope to see that there were bacteria in the wine. He warmed the wine to kill the bacteria
- He carried out further experiments to prove his theory. He put broth in two flasks and boiled it to kill any present bacteria. He then exposed one of the flasks and sealed the other. The flask that was exposed to the air went bad, while the sealed one didn’t. This proved his theory of microbes causing disease
- In 1861 he published his work on germ theory. This allowed his team to further advancements to take place in vaccines, surgery and antibiotics
What did Robert Koch do
- He was a German doctor. He used dyes to stain bacteria. In 1876 he identified the herm that causes anthrax. This was the first time the bacteria responsible for a specific disease had been identified. Identifying specific bacteria was crucial in being able to develop effective treatments and vaccines.
The work of Lister on antiseptics
- He was a Scottish surgeon
- He experimented using carbolic acid to soak bandages before applying them to wounds. He found that it prevented infection and helped wounds heal
- Carbolic acid became widely used in surgery to sterilise the air and equipment before surgery
- Carbolic acid was hugely effective as the mortality rate of his surgeries fell from 40% to 15%
Aseptic surgery
Further improvements were made to deal with the problems with carbolic acid. William Halsted, asked a tyre company to make rubber gloves for him to wear during operations. Halsted came up with the idea after speaking to a nurse who had suffered from dry skin on her hands due to the use of carbolic spray. The use of gloves helped to make surgery cleaner and therefore safer.
Housing and sanitation
Factory owners often built cheap houses for their workers. Back-to-back terraced housing was common, with families living in a single room. There was a lack of clean running water, proper sanitation and sewage systems.
Toilets were normally shared between several houses.
Water came from pumps in the street with water supplied from a river that was often heavily polluted. Cracked pipes could also lead to contamination of the water with human waste from cesspits. If there was an outbreak of a disease, it would spread rapidly due to overcrowding and poor sanitation.
People using a shared water pump. Underground its cracked pipes are near a leaking cesspit containing human waste
1848 Public health act
in 1848, the government responded to Chadwick’s report and passed a Public Health Act. The act set up a Central Board of Health to oversee the improvement of public health. This meant that:
If an area had a mortality rate higher than 23 per 1,000 people, the local authority had to set up a board.
The local board of health could then raise taxes to pay for clean water supplies and new sewerage systems.
X-rays
Marie Curie and her husband Pierre’s scientific research was crucial in the development of X-rays for use in surgery. The X-ray machine was invented in 1895 before the start of World War One. During World War One, mobile X-ray units were available. Marie Curie played a vital role in getting 200 X-ray units into field hospitals along with 20 mobile X-ray vehicles, which the French troops nicknamed petites Curies which translates to ‘little Curies’. This meant surgeons could see what internal injuries a patient had, meaning surgery could be better planned and was safer.
Charles Booth
After the 1875 Public Health Act and other reforms, there was a feeling public health problems had been dealt with. However, a social researcher and reformer, named Charles Booth, conducted a piece of research in 1889. This showed that 35 per cent of London’s population lived in ‘absolute poverty’
Rowntree
After the 1875 Public Health Act and other reforms, there was a feeling public health problems had been dealt with. However, a social researcher and reformer, named Charles Booth, conducted a piece of research in 1889. This showed that 35 per cent of London’s population lived in ‘absolute poverty’
The second Boer War
The Second Boer War had also shown there was a problem with public health. In 1899, at the start of the war, one in three of the men who volunteered to fight were unfit to be recruited for health reasons. The government needed to take action to improve the health of the people.
What did the Liberal reforms introduce
- Free school meals
- Medical inspections of children
- Old age pension act
- Labour exchange act (job centres)
Impacts of world war 2 - Blood transfusions
Charles Drew was an American surgeon. He came up with new methods to store and transport blood. When World War Two began, Drew was put in charge of a campaign called Blood for Britain. This involved US civilians donating blood, which was transported to Britain using Drew’s techniques. It was then used to treat injured British civilians and soldiers in blood transfusions.
Impacts of world war 2 - Evacuation
During World War Two, evacuation led to 3 million children moving to the countryside, so they were safe from the bombing of towns and cities. Many people in rural areas were shocked at the levels of poverty they witnessed in some of the evacuated urban children. This led to support for social reform and a commitment to help families in need of assistance. In turn, this helped to pave the way to the foundation of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948.
The birth of the NHS
The NHS started treating patients in 1948. The first patient was 13-year-old Sylvia Diggory, who was treated at Trafford General Hospital.
For the first time, everyone in the country could receive free health care, regardless of income. This included eye tests, hearing tests, prescriptions and hospital care.
To ensure the NHS could be fully staffed, nurses and domestic workers from the Caribbean and Ireland were employed and encouraged to come and work in hospitals in the UK. During the 1960s, NHS employees were also recruited from South Asia and Africa, as well as from the Caribbean.
