Medicine exam questions. Flashcards
1
Q
Explain the significance of the Church on the development of medicine in the Middle Ages.
A
- The Church believed in following the example of Jesus who healed the sick: holding medicine back: medical professionals couldn’t have their ideas heard.
- Hospitals concentrated on caring for the sick and not curing: people couldn’t get better: medicine was being held back.
2
Q
Explain the significance of individuals in medical progress during the Middle Ages.
A
Hippocrates:
- Emphasises the importance of clinical observation.
- His theory of the Four Humours and the need to balance them dominated medical thinking up to 1800.
Galen:
- He dissected animals.
- He used the Four Humours theory.
Avicenna:
- Wrote a book of ancient Greek and Islamic medicine.
3
Q
Explain the significance of vaccination in the development of medical treatment.
A
- Jenner decided to test his theory in 1796 by giving cowpox to an eight year old boy as an experiment. If the cowpox was to work, then the child would not react to the follow up small pox inoculation. Six weeks later, he gave the boy the smallpox inoculation and no disease followed.
- He called this disease technique vaccination.
Significance: - Less dangerous than inoculation.
4
Q
Compare the opposition to vaccination with the opposition to using anaesthetics. In what ways was this similar? Find 3 reasons.
A
Opposition to vaccination:
- Many doctors were profiting from operating quickly.
- Couldn’t explain how it worked.
Opposition to anaesthetics:
- Some army surgeons during the Crimean War thought that soldiers should dutifully put up with the pain.
- Surgeons were used to operating quickly and on a conscious patient.
5
Q
Explain the significance of antibiotic resistance in the development of medicine.
A
Antibiotic resistance;
- Around 15% of British and American soldiers would have died without it.
- After the war, it helped to treat pneumonia, tonsillitis and meningitis.
- Led to new antibiotics being discovered.
