Medicine Flashcards
Louis Pasteur
Date:
- 1861 = discovers germ theory ( Snow’s findings helped lead to a change in attitudes as it was only after Pasteur’s Germ Theory that Snow’s Theory became widely accepted as people had a better understanding of what germs were.)
- 1867 = Pasteur proves his germ theory
- 1879 = Pasteur creates the vaccine for cholera
EVALUATION:
- Factors involved in not accepting Pasteur’s Theory were that he wasn’t a doctor and his work focused on decay and spoiled food instead of disease.
- Henry Bastian (a well-known physiologist) promoted the theory of spontaneous generation.
- There was a lack of agreement among the medical community on the link between microbes and disease.
- Tyndall’s theory (in 1859), that dust particles carried germs, wasn’t trusted because he was a physicist and not a doctor hence, the attitudes were carried forward from that point when it came to Pasteur’s Germ Theory
Robert Koch
Date:
- 1878 = Koch discovers how to stain and observe bacteria in a petri dish and discovers the bacteria that causes septicaemia
- 1882 = Koch discovers the bacteria that causes tuberculosis
- 1883 = Koch discovers the bacteria that causes Cholera - Vibrio Cholerae
Cause:
- He isolated and identified bacterial pathogens by developing techniques for pure culture isolation and identification, including the use of solid media like agar.
Howard Florey and Ernst Chain
Date:
- 1943 = Florey and Chain mass produce penicillin through a mould on a melon. Despite them mass producing penicillin, it was large institutions like governments that actually funded its mass production
Cause:
- They held trials on mice and after it was successful, they began testing it on humans
Marie Sklodowska Curie
Date:
- WW1
Cause:
- Marie Curie used radioactivity to shrink or kill tumors with radium being inserted into the tumor itself, which became the basis for radiotherapy. This is still used in cancer treatment today.
- During World War I, Curie used her own money to equip ambulances with X-ray equipment and drove them to the front lines herself - the mobile x-ray units were known as “les petits curies” and allowed for patients to be operated on asap
- she did not patent her work, allowing others to use it freely and build on her discoveries.
Marie-skladowska Curie and Pierre Curie’s work on radioactivity helped lay the foundation for nuclear physics and led to important discoveries about the structure of atoms.
Florence Nightingale
Date:
- 1854 = Nightingale goes to the hospital in Scutari for work during the Crimean War
- 1859 = Nightingale publishes her book “Notes on Nursing”
- 1860 = The Nightingale Training School was established at St Thomas’ Hospital in London.
Cause:
- Introduced guidelines to improve accuracy mortality records, enforced strict hygiene rules, separated patients and beds, and had night-time patient check-ins therefore reducing death rates from 43% to 3% in 6 months.
- led to improved understanding of causes of death, and her work gained fame and led to military hospital reform.
EVALUATION:
- female workers weren’t recognised properly during this time as army medical staff resisted the idea of nurses going to Crimea because they felt that women wouldn’t be able to cope with the poor conditions and that their medical knowledge was too limited.
- Nursing did not require education or training and had a reputation for drunkenness and unruly behaviour.
- The occupation was not respected, and pay was low.
- Florence Nightingale also believed in the Miasma Theory
Elizabeth Garrett
Date:
- 1865 = Elizabeth Garrett is allowed to study medicine by the Society of Apothecaries
- 1872 = Elizabeth Garrett founds her first hospital for women, “New Hospital for Women” with financial backing from her father
- 1876 = Medical Act is passed allowing women to become doctors
Cause:
She helped to found the London School of Medicine for Women in 1874 and became its Dean in 1883 which improved the position of women in medicine as a result of Garrett advocating for women’s education and rights to enter the medical profession. This paved the way for future female leaders in the field
- James Anderson founded the New Hospital for Women in 1872 and supported Elizabeth Garrett in founding the London School of Medicine for Women in 1874. These efforts contributed to the passing of the 1876 Medical Act, which permitted women to enter the medical profession in the UK.
Joseph Lister
Date:
- 1867 = Lister’s death rates fall from about 45% to 15% due to his use of the carbolic acid spray.
Cause:
- The use of carbolic acid as a first step towards aseptic surgery, aimed to reduce the danger caused by infection during surgery because it was very effective in stopping wounds from getting gangrene
- This technique was later developed and improved upon by other surgeons, leading to significant improvements in surgical outcome
EVALUATION
- Many surgeons lived with the fact that lots of patients would die – for them, it was an acceptable part of surgery.
- He also faced opposition however, despite this opposition, it was soon obvious that Lister’s methods were a success as others soon copied his methods; In the 1880s, appendectomies were being carried out
James Simpson
Date:
- 1847 = Simpson discovers the anaesthetic properties of chloroform
- 1848 = Hannah Greener dies due to chloroform overdose during a toenail removal and Snow creates the chloroform inhaler which makes it safer to administer hence, leading to greater acceptance. Improved antiseptic use also reduced surgery mortality.
Cause:
- James Simpson was a pioneer in using anaesthesia, including chloroform, for women during childbirth. Queen Victoria used chloroform during the birth of her 8th child Leopold in 1853 which assisted greatly in gaining high publicity
EVALUATION
- The use of chloroform initially led to a 20-year increase in surgery death rates due to longer operations and infections, known as the “black period of surgery”
Karl Landsteiner
Date:
- 1901 = Discovers the 4 main blood groups A, B, AB, O
- 1915: Lewisohn discovers adding sodium citrate to blood makes the blood last longer
Cause:
- Karl Landsteiner discovered human blood groups
- His research revolutionized the practice of transfusion and transplantation medicine, making it possible to safely perform blood transfusions between individuals of different blood types.
- Landsteiner’s discovery laid the groundwork for the A, B, and O system of blood typing and the discovery of the Rh factor, which helped prevent complications during pregnancy. His work saved more than one billion lives and advanced the field of medicine significantly.
Wilhelm Rontgen
Date:
- 1895 = Wilhelm Rontgen discovers X-rays
Cause:
- His discovery revolutionized the medical field by allowing doctors to visualize the internal structures of the human body for the first time.
-This greatly advanced medicine by allowing doctors to diagnose and treat a variety of conditions that were previously unknown or difficult to diagnose.
- Rontgen received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901 for his discovery which is still widely used today in medical imaging and diagnosis
Edwin Chadwick
Date:
- 1842 = Chadwick publishes his report on the sanitary conditions of the working population
Cause:
- His report revealed that in 1839, 8 people died of specific diseases for every one person who died of old age or violence, and Chadwick believed addressing public hygiene was the solution to reducing disease.
Public Health Act (1)
Date:
- 1848 = Non-compulsory public health act established
Cause:
- It allowed for the creation of General Boards of Health in areas with high death rates or if requested by the local population, which could advise on public health improvements such as water supplies, sewage, and paving
- The impact it had was that it was optional for towns and had little impact on wealthier people’s awareness of poor living conditions, and many towns chose not to reform and did not appoint Medical Officers of Health due to the cost of the necessary changes required.
EVALUATION:
- The government maintained a laissez-faire attitude towards reform, and landlords opposed regulations, leading to insufficient improvements in slum areas; this led to limited progress in public health reform in mid-19th century Britain.
changes were inconsistent across the country, with some areas showing local change, and London having a new sewage system by 1865, while others did not implement reforms
Public Health Act (2)
Date:
- 1875 = Public health act established
1) The aim of the Public Health Act of 1875 was to improve public health with the use of regulations that established better quality water, food, and a central authority controlling funding which assisted in providing a standardized approach.
2) Improvements such as creating new authorities responsible for proper drainage, sewage disposal, reducing overcrowding and improving living conditions improved Public Health
National Insurance Act
Date:
- 1911 = National Insurance Act established which meant health insurance and social security were provided by the government
Paul Ehrlich
Date:
- 1909 = Ehrlich discovers the first magic bullet, Salvarsan 606
Cause:
- Paul Ehrlich was a German-Jewish physician and scientist who worked in the fields of haematology, immunology, and antimicrobial chemotherapy. He discovered the first “magic bullet,” Salvarsan 606, which was effective in curing syphilis without harming humans.
- The concept of a “magic bullet” referred to the idea of killing germs without harming healthy human tissue. It was first introduced in the late 1800s by researchers like Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch
