Medicine - 2 Flashcards
Andreas Vesalius
- professor of anatomy in university of Padua (Italy)
- questioned Galen.
- carried out his own human dissections on stolen bodies.
- found out that the breastbone in a human has 3 parts, in an ape it has 7.
- had to leave his job for challenging G.
- found out jawbone is made of 1 bone.
Andreas Vesalius’ contribution to medicine
- published the fabric of the human body in 1543.
- included how body systems work: skeleton, muscles etc.
- intro of printing press meant his book could be spread around.
- began to be read around Europe.
- Italian printer copied his dissection diagrams for barber surgeons.
Ambroise Paré
- French barber surgeon.
- didn’t like cauterising as it was inefficient + painful.
- siege of Milan 1536: ran out of hot oil for cauterising wounds. He made a mixture of egg yolk, turpentine and oil of roses to dress raw wounds.
- ‘bec de corbin’ crows beak clamp, halted bleeding during ligatures.
Ambroise Paré’s contribution to medicine
- developed artificial limbs
- Les Ouvres detailed his experiences (1575)
- promoted ligatures instead of cauterising, kinder for gunshot wounds
- his book on surgery was widely read.
- 16th century England: surgeons followed his book, had new ideas.
- cared about his patients.
William Harvey
- British physician.
- to Charles and James I.
- discovered that blood is pumped round body in circular motion.
- human experiment, showed heart to be like a pump.
- challenged ‘bleeding’, showed the body couldn’t have too much blood.
William Harvey’s contribution to medicine
- discovered capillaries.
- his most famous work ‘on the motion of the heart’ (1628) proved Galen wrong.
- linked the pulse in arteries to the contractions of the left ventricle.
- realised veins have valves to prevent back-flow of blood.
- changed way people saw the body.
Thomas Sydenham
- ‘English Hippocrates’
- physician in 1663.
- believed in close observation before starting treatment.
- believed diseases had diff characteristics + each disease had a separate unique treatment.
Thomas Sydenham’s contribution to medicine
- interested in treating malaria: successfully used chinchona bark from South America to treat it.
- developed a successful treatment for smallpox.
- devised a ‘cool therapy’, lots of fluids, moderate bleeding and keep the patient as cool as poss.
The Plague
- 100,000 died of it in London in 1665.
- 30% of York died 1604.
- most doctors fled.
- wealthy people hid in the country.
- people saw that more victims came from the dirtier parts of London but they hadn’t made the link between dirt and disease.
Preventing the plague: sensible ideas
- entertainment stopped.
- animals kept out of city.
- rubbish cleared.
- bodies buried after dark in mass plague graves.
- trade between towns stopped, Scottish border closed.
- victims quarantined.
- homeowners ordered to sweep street in front of their houses.
Preventing the plague: irrational ideas
- people smoked to keep poisoned air away.
- cut a puppy alive and apply it to the sores.
- amphibians thought to draw out the poison (+ chickens and pigeons)
- dogs and cats killed.
- prayers
- fires lit to remove bad smells.
John Hunter
- surgeon in 1768.
- robbed graves to supply brothers anatomy school
- trained hundreds of surgeons (Edward Jenner included!) in the scientific approach.
- experimented on himself to see if gonorrhoea and syphilis were the same disease. Injected himself, took him 3 years to recover.
John Hunter’s contribution to medicine
- built on Harvey’s work: treated a throbbing leg tumour by cutting into the leg and tying off the blood flow. New blood vessels developed, bypassing the damaged area and the man was ok
- his books showed theories about anatomy that surgeons had to know!
- Blood inflammations + gunshot wounds proved gunshot wounds weren’t poisoned, should be left alone.
Available treatment for ordinary people
- quackery: people inventing and selling diseases that didn’t work.
- main ingredient was alcohol/opium.
- new foreign ingredients: rhubarb from Asia, tobacco from North America (thought to keep Plague at bay) by Walter Raleigh. Opium from China.
- apothecaries.
- wise women: lady Johanna St. John grew herbs and cured locals.
Hospitals
- foundling hospital open in 1741. Care for orphaned children. Trained in domestic/military skills until age 15.
- voluntary hospitals. Treated the sick for free, set up by benevolent rich folk
New discoveries
- Robert Burton published a study of mental illness in 1621.
- Jane Sharp published the midwives book in 1671. Argued women should do it rather than men.
- James Lind came up with a cure for scurvy. Drink lime juice.
- Sir John Floyer was the first to identify causes of disease and offer regime for treating it.
Edward Jenner
- country doctor.
- heard that milkmaids who caught cowpox didn’t get smallpox.
- injected 9 year old James Phipps with pus from a cowpox sore. When he recovered he was injected with some small pox, he lived!
- first vaccine was created.
Impact of Jenner’s discovery
- published his work in 1798. Faced opposition.
- doctors prospered off basic inoculation, disliked findings.
- by 1800s people were using his method in Europe and america.
- 1853: injection was compulsory.
- by 1980s: killer smallpox was eradicated.
Dealing with pain (before)
- no longer used alcohol which made the heart beat faster and so bleeding was harder to control.
- people used to pray through pain.
- or herbs such as opium or hashish but amount was hard to control.
Dealing with pain (Renaissance)
Nitrous oxide. Humphrey Davey. 1844: Horace Wells demonstrated using it to remove a teeth. People weren’t impressed.
Ether: 1842: William Clark used it for tooth extraction, people took notice. Cons: cause vomiting, hard to inhale + highly flammable. March 1842: Crawford Long used it to remove a neck growth.
Chloroform: James Simpson. 1847. Made him + his friends sleep peacefully. Used by Queen Vic.