A Revolution in Medicine (1800-1900) Flashcards
How did Louis Pasteur improve understanding of disease?
- 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
How did Robert Koch improve the understanding of disease?
- 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
When was the microscope invented?
What did it lead people to believe?
in the 1600s
that disease caused germs
How did Paul Erlich contribute to the understanding of disease?
- 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)
How did Florence Nightingale impact the prevention of disease?
- 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)
How did England change during the Industrial Revolution?
- 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
What was the impact of these new developments on medicine?
- 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”
What part did James Simpson play in making operations endurable?
- 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
How did Joseph Lister help to beat infection?
- 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%
How did Doctor Barnardo help to reduce poverty?
- 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
How did technological developments help the development of medicine?
- -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
In which way did medicine not progress?
- people believed that miasma (bad smell) and bad air
- bleeding was form of treatment
- home remedies such as honey for cuts
What diseases caused problems during the industrial revolution?
- cholera
- typhoid
- typhus
- rickets
- scarlet fever
What did people think caused the Cholera epidemic? When did they happen?
-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
What was used to combat the Cholera epidemic
- 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
