MEDICINE IN BRITAIN: 1250-PRESENT Flashcards
MEDIEVAL MEDICINE: PREVENTION
- disease could be prevented by living a life free of sin
- Prayers, confessions, tithes
- Regimen Sanitatas
- Keeping air clean and sweet smelling
MEDIEVAL MEDICINE:
HEALERS
- Physicians: trained in universities using works of Galen and Hippocrates
- Apothecaries: herbal remedies
- barber surgeons: least qualified but highly skilled. Carried out bleeding, pulling teeth and small operation.
MEDIEVAL MEDICINE: TREATMENTS
- 4 humours theory
- blood letting (cupping veins, leeches, cupping)
- purging (emetics and enemas)
- herbal remedies
- bathing with herbs
- praying, fasting, pilgrimages, self flagellation
MEDIEVAL MEDICINE: INDIVIDUALS AND INSTITUTIONS
- Galen and Hippocrates
- Church promoted Galen
- Christian church was the most powerful institution
- unacceptable to question church
- taught that God sent illness
BLACK DEATH REACTIONS
- miasma: sweet smelling herbs and pomanders
- punishment from God: pilgrimages, praying, flagellants
- 1348
- bleeding, purging, emetics (4 humours)
- quarantine
- herbal remedies
- ran away (rich people)
GREAT PLAGUE REACTIONS
- doctors
- cross of the door
- prayer and repentance
- government action: banned public gatherings
- 1665
- killed cats and dogs
- diets
- burning tar on streets
- transference
- cleared streets
- sweet smelling herbs
- wardens
- quarantine
PROGRESS IN RENAISSANCE:
YES:
- weakening of the Catholic Church
- experiments/science
- Harvey: circulation of blood
- Vesalius: anatomy illustrations
- printing press: ideas were able to spread
- Royal society
- Thomas Sydenham: disease, questioned the four humours
PROGRESS IN RENAISSANCE:
NO:
- miasma: Great plague
- Vesalius and Harvey did not make people better
- Herbal remedies
- continuation
- physicians still relied on Galen/textbooks
- Harvey ideas were criticised
- iatrochemistry: bad impact on health
- People still used religion as an explanation and treatment
PREVENTION 1700-1900:
The 1875 public health act:
Drinking water, sewage, food etc were placed under local authorities and strictly enforced.
PREVENTION 1700-1900:
LOUIS PASTEUR:
Germ theory- 1861
Made a link between germs and infections
Published in 1878
Built on Jenners work .
Accidentally created a weak form of chicken cholera which worked as a vaccine.
PREVENTION OF DISEASE 1700-1900:
EDWARD JENNER
Used germ theory to produce a method for finding out which germ caused which disease.
Led to scientists/doctors to look for ways of curing disease.
Koch used Pasteur’s chicken cholera vaccine to develop new vaccines e.g. TB.
PREVENTION OF DISEASE 1700-1900:
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE:
Improved hospital hygiene in the crimean war.
Used this knowledge to improve hospitals in Britain.
Made nursing a respectable profession.
PREVENTION 1700-1900:
JAMES SIMPSON:
Pioneered chloroform as an anaesthetic
Safer alternative to ether and nitrous oxide
Pain had been conquered
PREVENTION 1700-1900:
JOSEPH LISTER:
Used carbolic acid to create antiseptic surgery
Reduced death rate for many surgical procedures
Aseptic surgery developed
PREVENTION 1700-1900:
EDWARD CHADWICK:
campaigned to improve public health
1875 compulsory public health act passed
TREATMENTS IN THE 20TH CENTURY:
ANTIBIOTICS/CHAIN AND FLOREY:
- experimented with penicillin on mice then carried out a human trial
- took penicillin to America and drug companies mass produced them during WW2
TREATMENTS IN THE 20TH CENTURY
- herbal remedies
- magic bullets developed
- penicillin and other antibiotics developed
- high tech surgical treatments e.g. Robotic and keyhole surgery
- NHS
- transplants
- blood transfusions
- radiotherapy and chemotherapy
1900-PRESENT:
PREVENTION:
- government abandoned laizzes-faire attitude
- compulsory vaccinations
- clean air act
- fluoride in water
- lifestyle campaigns
- communicating health risks
- this had a profound effect on health and life expectancy and the UK
- lung cancer: laws and campaigns against it
1900-present:
HOSPITALS:
- NHS
- wide range of treatments e.g. Midwifery, A and E, fracture clinics
- access free for users
- NHS struggling to keep up with demand
1900-present:
CAUSES OF ILLNESS:
- science of genetics developed (Crick, Watson, Rosalind)
- DNA could now be used to identify faulty genes and predict illness (cancer, Down’s syndrome)
- we now know more about how lifestyle affects health
- technology helps us diagnose illness (biopsy)
1900-PRESENT:
WILKINS AND FRANKLIN
CRICK AND WATSON
Wilkins and franklin took pictures of DNA which enabled Crick and Watson to map the structure of the DNA, this made the study of hereditary disease much easier.
1900-PRESENT:
FLEMING
Discovered penicillin but did not develop it
