Disease and infection Flashcards
The theories of what people think caused disease and how they tried to treat those illnesses
Who came up with the Theory of the Four Humours and what was his susequent nickname?
Hippocrates
‘The Father of Modern Medicine’
the theory was used for nearly 2000 years
What was the Theory of the Four Humours?
The four humours of the body must be balanced in order to be healthy. Illness is caused when one of the humours is unbalanced.
What were the four humours of the human body?
Blood
Yellow bile
black bile
phlegm
How did the Theory of the Four Humours relate to the wider world?
Seasons were linked to symptoms due to humour imbalance.
Dry rahes in the hot summer
Runny noses in damp winter.
How did Hippocrates earn the name ‘father of modern medicine’.
He encouraged doctors to observe a paitent’s symptoms to look for a cause related to them.
Encouraged good hygiene, diet and exercise
Although, his theory of the four humours was so heavily relied upon that it prevented doctors looking elsewhere for causes of disease.
Why and how did the Romans practise good hygiene?
Tried to look after their soldiers by having gyms, bath houses and toilets.
This was a public health system unseen by the Greeks or Egyptians.
Also had hospitals and health measures
Prayed to Salus: Roman Goddess of Health
How were Roman (and Greek) doctors trained?
Anyone could practise as a doctor without training/ regulations
Learn by shadowing experienced doctors
They may have read the Hippocratic collection, travelled to Alexandria, the medical capital of the world, to share ideas and gain new medical knowledge
Alexandria was also the only place where human dissection was legal
Quote part of the Hippocratic Oath.
Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from intentional wrong doing.
Who were barber surgeons and what did they do?
In medieval times, most people would be treated by a barber.
Perform basic surgeries like blood letting but also major ones like amputation
Learnt as an apprentice, usually trying to heal on battlefields
Lead to death, infection and extreame pain so most people would try to find other cures to avoidd surgery.
How did the ancients treat disease?
They would try to rebalance the four humours by blood letting, purging and vomitting
Who were wise women and what did they do?
Medieval people would usually go to wise women for their main source of care and fist aid.
Also gave herbal remdies, some we still use today.
Did also use spells/charms to try to heal people
Using treatement passed down orally from generation to generation, rather than writing it down (probably illiterate)
What was a travelling healer and what did they do?
Went to markets and town fairs, performing minr operations like tooth extractions or fixing fratures and selling potions
Mostly in it for the profit, many of the potions were useless/ dodgy
Medieval period
Who was an apothecary and what did they do?
Mixed ingredients to make ointments to sell and for doctors to use
What was a herbalist in monasteries and what did they do?
Cared for the sick using herbal treatements, prayers and supernatural cures within mosteries
Medieval period
What were trained doctors in the Medieval period like and how significant were they?
They had to be university educated for seven years.
They charged high fees and were controlled by the Church
Could only be found in big towns and there were very few, only available to the rich within society
Still using the incorrect theories of Hippocraties and Galen
What were the beliefs of Medieval churches about the ill?
The ill were being punished by God and therefore, the Church should not try to cure the ill, but help them reach divine salvation through repentance.
How many hospitals did the Church set up and fund?
Medieval
More than 700 in England
What was a Lazar House?
Set up for those who needed to be isolated since they had leprosy.
Did keep wider society safe however, it also meant that no one would see these people dying despite praying to God for forgiveness, so would keep peoples’ faith.
What was the main aim of Medieval Church Hospitals and how did they achieve this?
To care not cure the ill.
1. They would enforce strict monestery schedules onto patients, hoping the hard work and prayer would mean God would forgive them
2. They also used some painful cures, like carving ‘in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit into a patients’ jaw.
3. The best cure was said to be prayer and pilgimage
Use the hospital of St John as evidence
What was the ethos of Medieval Church Hospitals towards their patients?
Very cold and no sympathy for the ill (who deserved to be ill because they had sinned and were now being punished).
St John hospital, Bridgewater, like many others, had strict rules as to who could be admitted into the hospital. Eg. no women, beggars, children ect.
The hospital, like many others, had rules on when to let patients leave: ‘infirm persons have recovered, they are let out without delay’
What did Prophet Muhammed PBUH say about scientific discovery and religion?
**
Every disease has a cure, if a cure is applied to the disease, it is relieved by the permission of God almighty.
Did Islam or Christiamity encourage scientific pursuit?
Islam did, medical knowledge travelled all over the Islamic Empire, often to Baghdad, where one of the largest libraries: The House of Wisdom was
What was the main ethos of Islamic hospitals?
First set up to help those with mental and physical illnesses, treating them with compassion and as victims of an unfortunate illness
What were brimaristans?
Islamic hospitals built in cities (under Caliph al-Rashid, 805CE) to provide care for everyone and doctors were always present, with medical students training along side them
Give the names of two influentail, muslim doctors whose works were translated and transformed the west
Rhazes and Avicenna
The their works were translated by Constantine the African when he came to Italy in 1065 and then by Gerald of Cermona when he died
Their works soon transformed Italy, and Podua and Bologna became the most prolific medical universities in Europe
Who was Ibn Sina?
980-1037
Wrote an encyclopedia of medicine: Canon of Medicine
It covered the whole of Ancient Greek and Islamic medical knowledge of the time
Became the standard European textbook until 17th century
listed the properties of 760 drugs and had chapters on anorexia and obesity
Who was Al-Razi?
Stressed the need for careful observation of the patient
Distinguished measles from smallpox for the first time
Wrote over 150 books including Doubts about Galen
Encouraged students to question, build off of and correcg their teachers
865-925
Ibn al-Nafiz
Considered to be the first to describe how blood circulates around the human body via the lungs
Galen thought that blood went from one side of the heart to the other, without going to the lungs
he wrote on many medical topics and concluded Galen was wrong
Not read by the West, who continued to accept Galen’s mistake until the 17th century
Describe the medieval practice of blood letting
Based on the belief of the four humours, and if you had too much blood you needed to be rid some to rebalance the humours.
Use a small cut under the arm or leeches
Didn’t cure, since blood was rarely tne problem, and could lead ro excessice blood loss and infection
Describe the medieval treatment of amputation
If a wound became infected or a body part caused sevre pain, it would be cut off
The shock could cause instant death, high risk of infection
Did work well for some illnesses, like breast cancer or haemorrhoids
Describe the treatment of cauterisation.
Method used to open and close wounds by searing it with a hot iron or coal
Effective but very painful and could lead to infection and
Describe medieval anaesthetics
People never has pain relief during surgery
Did use some herbal remedies like opium
some success if the right dose was given, but they didn’t measure out the drug or its concentration, so would be just luck
Describe the medieval treatment of trepanning.
Belie ex that anyone with a seizure causing disease had s little demon stuck in their head
Would drill a hole in the skull to let the demon out
Drill too far would cause death
Infection and shock would likely cause death
Very painful and ineffective
When was the Great Plague?
1665
What were the belived causes of the Great Plague?
Punishment from God
Miasma
Movement of planets
What was the cause of the Great Plague?
Fleas on rats from returned trading ships
Whar were some of the tried remedies for the Great Plague?
- Bled with leeches
- Smell vinegar
- Use scorpions to draw out the poison
What did the apothecary William Boghurst recommend to treat the Great Plague?
‘you cut up a puppy dog alive and apply it warm to the sores’
Where did King Charles and the rich in London go during the Great Plague?
King Charles II fled to Oxford, adn the rich often fled to the counrty side to escape the plague.
What are the Bills of Mortality?
Records kept by local monestry of the causes and number of deaths each week
Helpful for studying the Great Plague and its spread
What were women searchers?
Paid women who would examine the sick for plague during the Great Plague
How did households try to protect themselves from the Great Plague?
Quarantined th sick, with watchmen outside stopping them from leaving
Houses with plague victims had a red cross painted on their door, with ‘Lord ahve mercy on us’ written
homeowners were ordered to sweep the street outside their house and no animals were allowed to be on thr streets
How were the dead gotten rid of during the Great Plague?
Dead were collected and burnt in pits (fire smoke believed to remove poison from the air)
How did the Great Plague end?
Rats developed a greater resistance to the disease, so the fleas did not survive
What were the quarantine laws of 1666?
Quarantine laws prevented epidemic diseases coming into the country on ships by making boats from foreign lands quarantine first
Whar is mistakenly, but often believed, to be the cause for the end of the Great Plague?
the Great Fire of London in 1666 but it only burnt within city walls, so couldn’t have ended the epidemic that spread across England.
When was The Black Death?
1348
What did people believe to be the cause of The Balck Death?
- Many believed it was caused by God, bad air or stars
- Many in Europe blamed Jews, leading to anti-semetic attacks (not in UK, all Jews had been dispelled in 1290 by Edward I)
Really caused by rats from trade ships
What meant the Black Death was so bad?
- Common food shortages meant people had weak immune systems
- People lived close together in towns or ports, so quickly spread
- Those who did handle bodies didn’t protrct themsevles
- Most bodies were left to rot
Few hygiene rules and no understanding of germs
How did people deal with the Black Death?
- No medical knowledge, so people resorted to extreame measures like drinking mercury, shaving a chicken and strapping it to buoes and flagellation
- Some fleed to other villages
- Local councils tried to quarantine infected places
Define germ theory.
The idea that germs, bacteria and microbes cause disease
Define anti-contagionists.
like Nightingale, they believed that disease was a product of the enviroment and could pass through water or soil, which meant they kept their medical areas clean
Define contagionists.
believed that disease could only be passed on by being in contact with a microbe from an infected person or the bacteria itself
Define spontaneous generation
theory that stated that microbes developed when other cells died. This theory stated that all microbes were the same.
Define miasma
the theory that disease spread by bad smells
When did scientists first become aware of the first microbes and bacteria.
1677 thanks to the invention of microscope
Who was Louis Pasteur?
A French chemist born in 1822 who is remembered as the founder of fermentation and micro-biology
what was developed in 1876?
Pasteur developed cholera vaccine and anthrax vaccine
What did Pasteur do in 1857 and what did he conclude?
Pasteur observed fermentation of wine due to yeast and he hypothesised microbes must be everywhere and make food spoil and used heat to develop pasteurisation
Called the swan neck experiment
Describe the swan neck experiment.
2 swan neck containers were boiled, with their contents inside. The one with the crack developed microbes.
Pasteur
What did Pasteur conclude from the swan neck experiment?
proved biogenisis and disproved spontaneous generation
What did Pasteur publish in 1860?
germ theory
Who is Robert Kock?
A German chemist working during the same time as Pasteur, and he proved anthrax microbe caused anthrax and TB bacteria caused TB.
What did Robert Kock do?
- He confirmed John Snow’s theory of germs in the intestine
- He correctly identified 11 different diseases and causes
- 1882: discovers the microbe that causes tuberculosis
- 1876: discovers microbe that causes anthrax
- 1883: identifies germ that causes cholera
How did Robert Kock identify germs?
- Getting microbe from infected people
- Isolate the disease from the host
- Culture the microbe and place in another animal
- Test to see if it is the same microbe (used dye for this)
1872-1880
Robert Kock was a medical officer in Prussian army
How many Brits died from TB in the 1870s.
50000
When was the Cattle plague outbreak?
1866, which farmers found could be controlled by quarantining and slaughtering infected cattle
Who did the gov. appoint to investigate the cattle plague of 1866?
Prof. Lionel Beale
What happened in June 1866
Beale recognised the specific microbe responsible for the cattle plague ‘a living particle of extreamly minute size’ and how the microscope could help with complex medical research
Who spread the spontaneous generation theory in the 1860s.
Charlton Bastian, Prof. of Anatomy at Uni college London
What happened in Jan 1870
Bastian saw arguments of physicist John Tyndall and he brought Lister and Pasteur’s ideas together with experiments on light to show tiny microbes exist in air
What killed Prince Albert in 1861?
typhoid fever
What was discovered in 1874?
the scientist Emanuel Klein announced he had identified the Typhoid microbe, but he was mistaken, he had not discovered the typhoid microbe
What did Robert Kock identify in 1876?
proved that Germ Theory could explain diseases like Typhoid
Why did many British doctors change their view on germ theory?
public debates over the cause of typhoid between contagionists, anti-contagionists and Kock’s eventual discovery of Typhoid microbe
