Medicine in enlightenment Flashcards
1700-1900
What beliefs about disease are different from the Renaissance?
. Most people no longer believed in the Four Humours
. Theory of spontaneous generation
Louis Pasteur observed Microbes and in 1861 he published his results. What were the 4 principles of the Germ theory?
. The air contains living organisms
. Microbes can be killed by heating them
. Microbes I’m the air caused decay
. Microbes are not evenly distributed in the air
What stayed the same from renaissance?
. People still believed in miasma but was less popular
Explain the theory of spontaneous generation?
When things rotted, they created living creatures. E.g rotting meat has maggots on so they thought rotting flesh produced microbes that had grown into these maggots
When did the theory of spontaneous generation start to dissipate?
1870s
What things did Robert Koch do to help medicine?
. He discovered the specific germs that caused a number of diseases: anthrax tuberculosis and cholera
. He developed a method for staining and photographing microorganisms using dye
What was Koch’s solution to disease?
. Recognised to treat the disease, the microbes that caused it had to be removed e.g diphtheria
True or false:
Koch and Snow’s discovery of cholera being in microbes in water helped the government to change system
False, they ignored it and kept to the idea that the disease was in soil
True or false:
People were slow to accept Germ theory
True
Explain the factors affecting the understanding of the causes of disease
Individuals
- Koch, Pasteur, John Tyndall
Government
- not interested in getting involved (Laisez Faire attitude)
Science
- improved communications helped scientists share their work with each other
Technology
- better microscopes
- industrial dyes to see bacteria
Attitudes
- more interested in finding reasons for disease
- people did not accept microbes until it was proven
What years is the enlightenment period?
18th and 19th century
1700-1900
How did Florence Nightingale improve hospitals?
. Set up the Nightingale School for Nurses to train mainly on cleanliness
. Tiles on floors and painted walls and ceiling made it possible to better wash surfaces
. Promoted ‘pavilion style’ hospitals where separate wards were built to ensure that infectious patients could be kept separate
What were hospitals like by 1900?
. Different wards to separate infectious and non infectious patients
. Used antiseptics
. Became a place to get treatment not rest
. Separate operating theatres
How were hospitals the same?
Hospitals places were still limited
What were the 3 big problems of surgery?
Bleeding- speed was the only way to parent too much blood loss
Infection
Pain- no anaesthetics
What was the first anaesthetic and what were it’s problems?
Ether
-made patients vomit
-was flammable
What was the second anaesthetic and who discovered it?
Chloroform
James Simspson
What is chloroform and how does it work as an anaesthetic?
A chemical that when the patient sniffed it, it would knock them out
What were the negative effects of chloroform?
. Dosages had to be carefully controlled as was easy for a patient to overdose
. Chemical sometimes affected heart
Give a reason why chloroform grew in popularity after 1853
Queen Victoria used it in childbirth.
What was the first chemical used to clear bacteria from wounds and who discovered it?
Carbolic acid
Joseph Lister
What was a negative effect of carbolic acid?
Dried out skin making it sore
What’s the name of surgery where you prevent microbes getting in the wound in the first place?
Aseptic surgery
Why were some people opposed to using anaesthetics and antiseptics?
. People believed pain relief was interfering with God’s plan, especially in childbirth
. Anaesthetics allowed for deeper surgeries so infection and bleeding became a bigger problem so death rates increased
. Took a long time for doctors to accept that germs caused infection