Medicine in enlightenment

Question 1

What beliefs about disease are different from the Renaissance?

Answer 1

. Most people no longer believed in the Four Humours
. Theory of spontaneous generation

Question 2

Louis Pasteur observed Microbes and in 1861 he published his results. What were the 4 principles of the Germ theory?

Answer 2

. 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

Question 3

What stayed the same from renaissance?

Answer 3

. People still believed in miasma but was less popular

Question 4

Explain the theory of spontaneous generation?

Answer 4

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

Question 5

When did the theory of spontaneous generation start to dissipate?

Answer 5

1870s

Question 6

What things did Robert Koch do to help medicine?

Answer 6

. 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

Question 7

What was Koch’s solution to disease?

Answer 7

. Recognised to treat the disease, the microbes that caused it had to be removed e.g diphtheria

Question 8

True or false:
Koch and Snow’s discovery of cholera being in microbes in water helped the government to change system

Answer 8

False, they ignored it and kept to the idea that the disease was in soil

Question 9

True or false:
People were slow to accept Germ theory

Answer 9

True

Question 10

Explain the factors affecting the understanding of the causes of disease

Answer 10

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

Question 11

What years is the enlightenment period?

Answer 11

18th and 19th century

1700-1900

Question 12

How did Florence Nightingale improve hospitals?

Answer 12

. 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

Question 13

What were hospitals like by 1900?

Answer 13

. Different wards to separate infectious and non infectious patients
. Used antiseptics
. Became a place to get treatment not rest
. Separate operating theatres

Question 14

How were hospitals the same?

Answer 14

Hospitals places were still limited

Question 15

What were the 3 big problems of surgery?

Answer 15

Bleeding- speed was the only way to parent too much blood loss

Infection

Pain- no anaesthetics

Question 16

What was the first anaesthetic and what were it’s problems?

Answer 16

Ether
-made patients vomit
-was flammable

Question 17

What was the second anaesthetic and who discovered it?

Answer 17

Chloroform

James Simspson

Question 18

What is chloroform and how does it work as an anaesthetic?

Answer 18

A chemical that when the patient sniffed it, it would knock them out

Question 19

What were the negative effects of chloroform?

Answer 19

. Dosages had to be carefully controlled as was easy for a patient to overdose
. Chemical sometimes affected heart

Question 20

Give a reason why chloroform grew in popularity after 1853

Answer 20

Queen Victoria used it in childbirth.

Question 21

What was the first chemical used to clear bacteria from wounds and who discovered it?

Answer 21

Carbolic acid

Joseph Lister

Question 22

What was a negative effect of carbolic acid?

Answer 22

Dried out skin making it sore

Question 23

What’s the name of surgery where you prevent microbes getting in the wound in the first place?

Answer 23

Aseptic surgery

Question 24

Why were some people opposed to using anaesthetics and antiseptics?

Answer 24

. 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

Question 25

What method of treatment would people use against smallpox before Edward Jenner?

Answer 25

Inoculation- giving yourself a small dose of the virus

Question 26

What was the problem with innoculation?

Answer 26

Some patients died of the smallpox they were given if dose was too strong

Question 27

What did Edward Jenner realise when observing milk maids?

Answer 27

That they were immune from smallpox because they caught cowpox (a milder virus)

Question 28

What year was Edward Jenner’s discovery?

Answer 28

1796

Question 29

How did Edward Jenner test his theory?

Answer 29

.selected a healthy boy
.took cowpox from a sore on a milkmaid’s hand and inserted it into the boy via cuts
.observed that the boy experienced uneasiness and a headache as a result but became well again
.the boy was then inoculated with smallpox, but no disease followed

Question 30

How did the government play a role in tackling smallpox?

Answer 30

Made smallpox vaccinations compulsory in 1852

Question 31

What were the short term impacts of the smallpox vaccine?

Answer 31

. saved thousands of people
. very popular in other countries

Question 32

Why did the Church and inoculators oppose Jenner’s vaccine?

Answer 32

Church:
Using animal infection in human medicine goes against God’s will

Inoculators:
Didn’t want to go out of business so spread negative views of vaccinations

Question 33

What were the long term impacts of the smallpox vaccine? Positive and not so useful.

Answer 33

. Vaccination against smallpox became part of normal life
. Scientists were unable to develop other vaccines based on Jenner’s method
. Inspired other scientists to search for other vaccines

Question 34

When was the first public health act?

Answer 34

1875

Question 35

In the 1700s what attitude did the government have?

Answer 35

Laissez- faire

Question 36

True or false (explain):
The government had a laissez- faire attitude in th 1800s

Answer 36

no because more men (less rich) were given the right to vote, so the government began passing laws that helped ordinary people

Question 37

What improvement came out of the Public Health Act?

Answer 37

City authorities had to:
-provide clean water to stop spread of disease in dirty waster
-building public toilets
-make sure there’s proper drainage and sewage systems

Question 38

What did people think was causing cholera?

Answer 38

Miasma and rotting material

Question 39

Snow observed cholera and wrote his theories. What were the main 2 things he suggested?

Answer 39

.cholera could not be spread by miasma because it affected the gut not the lungs
.drinking water was being contaminated by cholera-ridden faeces

Question 40

How did Snow realise the cause of cholera in one area of Soho?

Answer 40

He took a map and marked where the deaths had occurred.

The deaths were cantered around the water pump.

He removed the handle from the pump, an deaths from cholera stopped.

Question 41

True or false:
Louis Pasteur published the germ theory before John Snow’s theory

Answer 41

False

Germ theory- 1861
John Snow- 1854

Question 42

Why did the government not support John Snow’s theory?

Answer 42

Admitting that cholera was present in water, would mean having to provide clean water, which would be very costly.

Question 43

How impactful was John Snow’s work for the short and long term.

Answer 43

He saved many people on the residents of Soho square but his impact outside the area was limited.

Question 44

What finally forced the British government to take action on cholera?

Answer 44

‘The Great Stink’

When the Thames river was low which exposed the stench of the exposed sewage.