Part 3: A Revolution in Medicine (1800-1900)

Question 1

How did Louis Pasteur improve understanding of disease?

Answer 1

• father of microbiology
• pioneered ‘Germ Theory’ (the idea that disease is caused by tiny organisms called germs
• built on Jenner’s work on vaccinations
• invented process of pasteurisation

Question 2

How did Robert Koch improve the understanding of disease?

Answer 2

• German microbiologist
• developed way to stain bacteria to see it under microscope
• he could link specific diseases to particular microbes
• identified bacteria which caused anthrax, tuberculosis and cholera

Question 3

When was the microscope invented?

What did it lead people to believe?

Answer 3

in the 1600s

that disease caused germs

Question 4

How did Paul Erlich contribute to the understanding of disease?

Answer 4

• German physician
• he used staining techniques to study blood cells
• work on chemotherapy led to idea of “magic bullets” that would target specific organism in the body
• he developed Salvarsan as a treatment for syphilis (first used on human in 1911)

Question 5

How did Florence Nightingale impact the prevention of disease?

Answer 5

• she dramatically cut morality rates in hospitals from 40% to just 2%
• she set up Britain’s first nursing school and raised £44,000 to fund it
• she radically changed hospitals in Crimea (clean and orderly)

Question 6

How did England change during the Industrial Revolution?

Answer 6

• population grew rapidly
• new towns led to poverty
• more people worked in industry than in agriculture
• new services such as “Penny Post” developed
• some believed Govt shouldn’t interfere

Question 7

What was the impact of these new developments on medicine?

Answer 7

• Pasteur and Koch completely altered the way medicine was understood
• Snow helped to defeat cholera
• Nightingale improved care sick people received in hospitals
• However, when the Boer war started in 1899 90% of the volunteers were found to be “unfit to serve”

Question 8

What part did James Simpson play in making operations endurable?

Answer 8

• worked on anaesthetics during operations
• discovered that chloroform was effective for putting patients to sleep
• improved the design of forceps for delivering babies
• focused on lessening pain in childbirth
• Queen Victoria used it to give birth in 1853

Question 9

How did Joseph Lister help to beat infection?

Answer 9

• pioneered antiseptic surgery using carbolic acid (sprayed over patient and operating theatre)
• in 1871 he developed a machine that sprayed carbolic acid over everything
• reduced morality rate in operations from 46% to 15%

Question 10

How did Doctor Barnardo help to reduce poverty?

Answer 10

• set up “ragged school” for starving children
• schemes to send boys to Canada and Australia as farm workers
• Barnardo opened a series of homes for children
• factory Girls’ club and Institute to support girls

Question 11

How did technological developments help the development of medicine?

Answer 11

• -stethoscope (for listening to breathing ailments) widely used from 1850
• powerful microscope (1850)
• thermometer (1895)
• first x ray machine (1895)
• clinical observations became norms
• specialisations within medicine

Question 12

In which way did medicine not progress?

Answer 12

• people believed that miasma (bad smell) and bad air
• bleeding was form of treatment
• home remedies such as honey for cuts

Question 13

What diseases caused problems during the industrial revolution?

Answer 13

• cholera
• typhoid
• typhus
• rickets
• scarlet fever

Question 14

What did people think caused the Cholera epidemic? When did they happen?

Answer 14

-miasma
in 1858 “great stink” swept in London
-dry weather built up human and industrial waste (believed to encourage spread of illness through smells)
1831-32 , 1848, 1854, 1866

Question 15

What was used to combat the Cholera epidemic

Answer 15

• Public Health Act 1848 (encouraged towns to clean up and improve conditions)
• in 1958 London started building new sewers
• Housing Act 1975 (allowed councils to knock down houses & replace them)
• local town councils were empowered to spend money on cleaning up their streets
• some cities (like Liverpool) made dramatic changes, but many cities didn’t

Question 16

Which treatments to combat the Cholera epidemic showed evidence of scientific understanding?

Answer 16

• John Snow’s careful investigation led to understanding that dirty water was causing cholera
• he obtained permission to remove the pump handle from a local infected pump, forcing people to get there drinking water elsewhere

Question 17

Explain the significance of John Snow?

Answer 17

• published book (1849) arguing that cholera was spread through dirty water rather than air
• Govt didn’t agree
• he mapped the location of each death and worked out that they all collected their water from the local water pump
• he removed handle of pump
• later discovered that a cesspit 1 metre from the water pump was leaking dirty water into the drinking supply

Question 18

How did hospitals develop during this period?

Answer 18

• Florence Nightingale revolutionised hospitals, keeping them clean and orderly
• she dramatically cut morality rates in hospitals from 40% to 2%
• set up Britain’s first nursing school and raised £44,00 to fund it
• she published “notes on hospitals” in 1863 setting out her principals for running clean, safe and well-ventilated hospitals

Question 19

Case study:What serious outbreak hit Lincoln in 1905?

Answer 19

• epidemic of Typhoid
• Lincoln obtained water from river Witham, local streams and disused grave pits
• raw sewage entered 30 miles upstream and it was “acceptable”
• Bishop of Lincoln claimed the outbreak was the “hand of God”
• a new water pump was completed for £200,000
• by 1911 a new reservoir was built

Question 20

How did social Welfare change?

Answer 20

• William Farr pushed for registrations of birth, marriages and deaths in 1837
• Edwin Chadwick wrote report on public health in 1842 (arguing that living conditions needed to be improved)
• Public Health Act (1848), Sanitary Act (1866) and Housing Act (1875)
• Government became more active

Question 21

Why did Social Reform face opposition?

Answer 21

• many were reluctant to have the Govt interfere in their businesses
• the prevailing attitude was laissez-faire

Question 22

What did the work of Chadwick, Snow and Pasteur lead to?

Answer 22

• Public Health Act (1875) which forced councils to maintain sewerage systems, provide clean water and keep their towns’ streets clean
• it was compulsory
• slum housing could also be pulled down and rebuilt