Chapter 5 - Health And Disease - Famous People Flashcards
Where did Ignaz Semmelweis work?
In a maternity ward
Who was Ignaz Semmelweis?
A Hungarian doctor
What did Semmelweis order the other doctors to do?
Wash their hands, sheets etc between patients
Why didn’t other scientists or doctors believe Semmelweis’s theory?
Because there was no scientific or rational explanation
What did Semmelweis discover?
That dirty hands caused disease, but he couldn’t explain it
How did Semmelweis discover his theory?
The maternity ward with the doctors (who did biopsies), had a higher death rate in than the wards with midwives (who didn’t do biopsies). Semmelweis saw the link, and said that doctors needed to wash their hands - they didn’t in 1800s
When did Semmelweis write his book?
1860, but he was accusing doctors and they didn’t believe him
Where was Semmelweis sent, and what did he die of?
To a lunatic asylum, and died of septicaemia
What did Semmelweis reduce the death rates from?
Over 30% to less than 1%
What did Louis Pasteur demonstrate in the early 1860s?
That organisms such as bacteria were responsible for souring wine and beer - he was able to show bacteria could be destroyed by boiling in a process now called Pasteurisation
What was the Germ Theory, who came about with the idea, and when?
It suggested that diseases could be caused by microorganisms - Louis Pasteur - 1861
What was Joseph Lister known for?
For introducing new standards of cleanliness (using carbolic acid)
What did Lister do?
He experimented on covering wounds with dressings tat contained chemicals that kill germs (dressing soaked in carbolic acid - found that rate of infection was greatly reduced)
What is the order of the 4 individuals discoveries (and give dates)?
(Lister, Fleming, Pasteur, Semmelweis)
Semmelweis (1846), Pasteur (1861), Lister (1865), Fleming (1928)
What did Alexander Fleming discover?
Penicillin
