Medicine in 18th and 19th Century Britain (1750-1900) The Industrial Period

Question 1

Define Innoculation

Answer 1

Giving somebody a small dose of disease to create immunity

Question 2

Define Vaccination

Answer 2

Creating antibodies against a disease

Question 3

Define ‘Spontaneous generation’

Answer 3

A belief that decay caused germs to appear

Question 4

Define Pasteurisation

Answer 4

Heating the liquid to kill germs

Question 5

Define Bacteriology

Answer 5

The study of bacteria

Question 6

Define Cholera

Answer 6

Disease causing severe vomiting, diarrhoea, dehydration, and death

Question 7

Define Antiseptic

Answer 7

Kill germs on a wound

Question 8

Define Aseptic

Answer 8

A germ free environment

Question 9

Define Pharmaceutical

Answer 9

Using drugs for medicine

Question 10

Define Anaesthetic

Answer 10

Making the patient unconscious

Question 11

Define Gangrene

Answer 11

Death of body tissue

Question 12

Define Antibodies

Answer 12

Particles inside the body that can identify and fight off germs

Question 13

Define Laissez-faire

Answer 13

Governments who do not get involved in the lives of their people

Question 14

Deine Epidemic

Answer 14

A wide-spread outbreak of a disease

Question 15

Define Cesspit

Answer 15

A pit for storing sewage.

Question 16

Describe what Edward Jenner did to create the first vaccines

Answer 16

1) He noticed that milkmaids who got cowpox did not go on to develop smallpox and thought that the two must be connected
2) He injected cowpox matter into the eight-year-old James Phipps
3) He repeated this several times
4) He wrote up his findings and named the technique ‘vaccine’ after the Latin word ‘Vacca’, which means ‘Cow’

Question 17

What did the Royal Society do with Jenner’s findings?

Answer 17

They refused to publish it

Question 18

Give 3 ways people opposed Jenner’s discovery

Answer 18

1) Jenner could not explain the link between vaccinations
2) It only worked for Smallpox, not any other disease
3) The Church said using animal matter to protect against human diseases was against God’s will

Question 19

Give 3 effects of Jenner’s discovery

Answer 19

1) From the 1800’s onwards, the government supported this idea of vaccination
2) It was safer, more reliable, and cheaper
3) Vaccination became compulsory after 1872

Question 20

Give 2 ideas people had about the causes of disease by 1750?

Answer 20

1) Bad air - Miasmas

2) Spontaneous Generation

Question 21

Explain Spontaneous generation

Answer 21

Scientists thought that the germs were spontaneously generated by the decay, and this spread the disease further, not the other way round.

Question 22

What year did the world health organisation announce that the Small pox disease had been completely wiped out?

Answer 22

1979

Question 23

In what year did the government enforce compulsory vaccination?

Answer 23

After 1872

Question 24

Louis Pasteur was…

Answer 24

The first scientists to identify microbes and their role in disease

Question 25

Pasteur investigated…

Answer 25

The problem of liquids turning sour in the brewing and vinegar industries

Question 26

What technological advancements allowed Pasteur to do his work?
What was his work?

Answer 26

More powerful microscopes were invented

He could observe the growth of unwanted small organisms in the liquids

Question 27

What did Pasteur discover?

Answer 27

That heating the liquid killed the bacteria and stopped liquid going sour - pasteurisation

Question 28

In what did year did Pasteur publish his germ-theory?

What did it state?

Answer 28

1861

It showed that there were microbes in the air and that they caused decay

Question 29

How did Pasteur disprove the idea of spontaneous generation?

Answer 29

Because no decay happened if matter was placed in a sealed container. This showed the microbes causing decay were not produced from the matter itself, but from the air around it.

Question 30

Give 5 points about what hospitals were like in 1800

Answer 30

1) nurses were often dirty and drunk
2) There were few toilets and poor sewage systems
3) Wards were not cleaned frequently - death rates from infections were high
4) Nursing staff were not trained and poorly educated
5) Doctors did not wash their hands or change their clothes

Question 31

Who was Elizabeth Garrett?

Answer 31

The first woman to qualify as a doctor in Britain

Question 32

Florence Nightingale was born into a …..

Answer 32

Wealthy family

Question 33

Nightingale became a

Answer 33

Superintendent Nurse in a London hospital

Question 34

Describe 3 changes Nightingale made to the Crimean hospital

Answer 34

1) Scrubbed the hospital wards thoroughly
2) Nurses were organised and could treat 2,000 patients
3) Clean bedding and good meals were given

Question 35

Give 4 ways Florence changed the way hospitals were designed

Answer 35

1) Better ventilation
2) More windows
3) Larger rooms
4) Isolation areas for infectious diseases

Question 36

Florence Nightingale set up a …

Answer 36

Nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. Training focused on hygiene and cleanliness to prevent infections and diseases spreading in hospitals

Question 37

By 1900, hospitals were very different, give some reasons why…

Answer 37

1) Separate wards were introduced
2) Operating theatres and different departments
3) Cleanliness was important
4) Doctors were common; trained nurses lived in nearby accommodation
5) The function had changed from a place of rest to a place of treatment

Question 38

How did the workhouse system lead to an improvement in medical care?

Answer 38

It separated the mentally ill from the contagious from the standard ill so it doesn’t ‘spread’

Question 39

What was ‘health reform’?

Answer 39

A religious movement that recommended a healthy lifestyle - run by John Kellogg whose brother invented cornflakes!

Question 40

What was Christian Science?

Answer 40

They taught that disease only existed in the mind.

Question 41

State the 3 key problems in the development of surgery in the 19th century

Answer 41

1) Pain
2) Infection
3) Bleeding

Question 42

Who discovered Laughing gas?

Answer 42

Humphrey Davy

Question 43

What was the name of the gas that put people to sleep and was used successfully as an anaesthetic?

Answer 43

Ether

Question 44

Who developed Chloroform?

Answer 44

James Simpson

Question 45

How did James Simpson develop chloroform?

Answer 45

They inhaled the vapours of various chemicals, after sniffing Chloroform, they all passed out and Mrs Simpson discovered them under a table!

Question 46

State 3 reasons why people opposed the use of Chloroform

Answer 46

1) The dose had to be carefully controlled - in 1848, 14-year-old Hannah Greener died from an overdose after having an infected toenail removed
2) It created the black period of surgery
3) Nobody knew what the long-term effects would be

Question 47

Who was Joseph Lister?

Answer 47

1) He studied Pare’s work and suggested that microbes in the air were causing infections in humans.
2) He used Carbolic acid and developed the use of carbolic spray - to clear the air during operations

Question 48

What was the Black period in Surgery?

Answer 48

When surgeons attempted more complex and deeper surgery’s because of the aid of chloroform, many patients died due to blood loss

Question 49

Why did people oppose Lister’s carbolic spray?

Answer 49

1) The germ theory was not fully accepted - people did not believe in germs
2) Carbolic spray cracked the surgeons skin and made everything smell - it was very unpleasant for the surgeons.
3) Surgeons still focused on speed, Lister’s antiseptics slowed things down

Question 50

What was the short-term impact of Lister’s work?

Answer 50

Surgery did not change that much because of the opposition

Question 51

What was the long-term impact of Lister’s work?

Answer 51

Attitudes changed and more antiseptic methods were developed

Question 52

How was aseptic surgery done?

Answer 52

1) Cleaning all operating theatres and hospitals thoroughly
2) Steam cleaning instruments
3) Rubber gloves and surgical gowns were introduced
4) Face masks for surgeons

Question 53

What were the problems for public health in the 19th century?

Answer 53

1) Towns grew very quickly so houses were built very quickly and cheaply
2) Rubbish on the streets
3) Fresh water came from street pumps and often got contaminated with sewage

Question 54

What was Edwin Chadwick’s report called?

Answer 54

“Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring classes”

Question 55

What did Edwin Chadwick prove?

Answer 55

1) The poor lived in dirty, overcrowded conditions
2) This causes a huge amount of illness
3) Many people were too sick to work - therefore became even poorer
4) Therefore, other people had to pay higher taxes to help the poor

Question 56

What did Edwin Chadwick recommend?

Answer 56

1) Drainage and sewers to be improved
2) Rubbish was removed from streets and houses
3) Clean water supplies
4) Medical officers to check that these things actually happen

Question 57

In what year was the public health act?

Answer 57

1875

Question 58

What things happened in result of the Public health act?

Answer 58

1) In London, sewers were built
2) In Birmingham, slums were demolished
3) In Leeds, sewage was prevented from being drained into the river

Question 59

What was important about the First Public health act of 1875?

Answer 59

It was advised, but not mandatory

Question 60

What is the difference between the first and second public health acts?

Answer 60

The first one was advised but not compulsory

The second was advised and compulsory