A Revolution in Medicine c1800-1900 Flashcards
How did England change during the Industrial Revolution?
- The population grew rapidly
- After 1851 more people lived in towns than in the countryside, and more people worked in industry than in agriculture.
- Trade became an easier route to wealth than owning land.
- The new towns led to poverty, which led to new social theories.
- Some believed it was not the business of the government to interfere in the everyday life of the people. Others argued that the government actually had a duty to interfere.
- New services such as the “Penny Post” (the first postal service) developed.
What was the impact of these new developments on medicine?
- Pasteur and Koch completely altered the way medicine was understood.
- Snow helped to defeat Cholera.
- A new industry developed manufacturing remedies.
- Florence Nightingale played a large role in improving the care sick people received in hospitals.
- However when the Boer War started in 1899, 90% of volunteers were found to be “unfit to serve”.
How did Louis Pasteur improve understanding of disease?
- Known as the “father of microbiology”.
- He pioneered “Germ Theory” – the idea that disease is caused by tiny organisms he called germs.
- He built on Jenner’s work on vaccination and learn to grow vaccines in the laboratory.
- He invented the process of pasteurisation, named after him, to preserve liquids and stop them spoiling.
How did Robert Koch improve the understanding of disease?
- He was a German microbiologist who won a Nobel prize in 1905
- He invented a way to see bacteria so that it was easier to see it them under a microscope.
- He developed an experimental approach to discover which bacteria caused which disease.
- He identified the bacteria which caused anthrax, tuberculosis and cholera.
How did Paul Erlich contribute to the understanding of disease?
- A German physician who originally worked for Koch.
- He won a Nobel prize in 1908
- He used staining techniques to study blood cells
- His work on chemotherapy led to the idea of “magic bullets” that would target specific organisms in the body.
- He developed Salvarsan as a treatment for syphilis.
How did Florence Nightingale impact the prevention of disease?
- She dramatically cut mortality rates in hospitals, from 40% to just 2%.
- She set up Britain’s first nursing school, and raised £44,000 to fund it.
- She radically changed hospitals in the Crimea, keeping them clean and orderly,
- She published “notes on hospitals” in 1863, setting out her principals for running clean, safe and well-ventilated hospitals.
What part did James Simpson play in making operations endurable?
- He worked on anaesthetics during operations
- Discovered that chloroform was effective for putting patients to sleep during operations
- He was an obstetrician and was focusing on lessening pain in childbirth.
- He also improved the design of forceps for delivering babies.
How did Joseph Lister help to beat infection?
- Improved people’s chances of surviving surgery.
- He pioneered antiseptic surgery using carbolic acid sprayed over the patient and the operating theatre to keep infection at bay.
- In 1871 he developed a machine that sprayed carbolic acid over everything.
- He managed to reduce the mortality rate in his operations from 46% to 15%
- Others copied his methods and he became known as the father of antiseptic surgery.
How did Doctor Barnardo help to reduce poverty?
- He set up a “ragged school” where hungry children were given a cheap breakfast to help them learn better.
- There was a wood-chopping brigade and a city messenger’s brigade to help boys find work once they had left school. There was a factory Girls’ club and Institute to support girls
- Barnado also opened a series of homes for children with the slogan “no destitute child ever turned away”.
- There were also schemes to send boys to Canada and Australia as farm workers after being trained in England
How did technological developments help the development of medicine?
- The stethoscope was invented in Paris in 1816 for listening to breathing ailments. They became widely used from 1850.
- Thermometers were invented in 1895
- Powerful microscopes were invented in 1850
- The first x ray machine was invented in 1895.
- Clinical trials became the norm, so scientists could test medical theories,
- Specialisation within medicine became more normal – people became experts in one area.
In what ways did medicine not progress?
- People believed that miasma and bad air caused diseases, such as cholera.
- Some still used bleeding as a form of treatment.
- People still used home remedies such as honey for cuts and scrapes.
What diseases caused problems during the industrial revolution?
- Cholera
- Typhoid
- Typhus
- Rickets
- Scarlet Fever
What did people think caused the Cholera epidemics? (1831-32, 1848, 1854, 1866)
Miasma – bad smells - In 1858 the “great stink” swept through London. Dry weather built up human and industrial waste, and there was no rain to wash it into the Thames. They believed this spread illness through the smells.
What was used to combat the Cholera epidemic?
- Public Health Act 1848, encouraging towns to clean up and improve conditions.
- In 1958 London started building new sewers.
- 1975 Housing Act allowed councils to knock down houses and replace them.
- Central board set up of Health set up to improve public health in towns.
- Local town councils were empowered to spend money on cleaning up their streets.
- Some cities such as Liverpool made dramatic changes, but many cities chose to do nothing.
Which treatments to combat the Cholera epidemic showed evidence of scientific understanding?
John Snow’s careful investigation led to the understanding that dirty water was causing Cholera. He obtained permission to remove the pump handle from a local infected pump, forcing people to get there drinking water elsewhere.
