A Revolution In Medicine: The Development In The Germ Theory

Question 1

When was the first basic microscope invented and how did this impact medical knowledge?

Answer 1

In 1667. It meant that scientists could identify microbes in the blood of sick people. However, no link was made between microbes and disease yet.

Question 2

What is the difference between contagionists and anti-contangionists?

Answer 2

Contagionists: the idea that infection was spread by contact with an infected person or a bacteria. They beloved any contact would lead to the illness being transmitted. Example supporters: John Simon.

Anti-contagionists:the idea that disease was spread by infections interacted with the environment (soil or water) and created the disease that would them attack the weak. They believed cleaning up the environment would stop epidemics because epidemics interacted with the environment to create diseases. Linked to the theory of miasma.
Example supporters: Florence Nightingale.

Question 3

What is meant by spontaneous generation in terms of microbes?

Answer 3

The idea that microbes could appear as if by magic when something rotted therefore it was believed the disease caused the microbes not the other way round.

Question 4

What does the term miasma mean?

Answer 4

The idea that there was ‘bad air’, and that disease was spread by air.

Question 5

What was the germ theory?

Answer 5

The theory that bacteria or germs were the real cause of infection. This theory was created by Louis Pasteur. (1822-95).

Question 6

What did public health reforms believe in. Either…or…”

Answer 6

Contagionists of the anti-contagionists.

Question 7

Why did germ theory disapprove the anti-contagionists?

Answer 7

Because they believed that cleaning up the environment would stop epidemics. These people believed that epidemics were caused when infections reacted with the environment. She in fact diseases are caused when microbes from the environment invade organisms.

Question 8

Fact file on Joseph Listler:

Answer 8

• born in Essex
• studies surgery and became a fellow of the Royal College if Surgery In 1852.
• moves to Glasgow in 1860 to become a professor of surgery.
• introduced new principles of cleanliness in surgery.

Question 9

What were some of Listlers impacts and discoveries?

Answer 9

• in 1855 he carried out the antiseptic surgery.
• first person to identify the link between clean hospitals and infection rates.
• before this patients often suffered from ward fever (a group of infections) caught in the hospitals.
• Listler used antiseptic spray after he discovered that is was used to reduce the smell of sewage.
• developments in surgical hygiene followed. They washed hands, cleaned equipment with carbolic spray and washed their aprons.

His discoveries meant less people would die of infection.

Question 10

What were some of Lislters antiseptic methods?

Answer 10

-Listler published his results in March 1867, giving details of 11 patients with compounds fractures, none of whom had died of infection. He also publicised Pasteur’s Germ theory through his explanation of antiseptic technique.

–Listler tested his antiseptic approach out on other surgeries:
His method was to spray carbolic acid to coat the surgeons hands, the wound and the instruments used in the operation. He also soaked the bandages, ligatures and dressings to be applied to the wound in diluted carbolic acid.

Question 11

How did Pasteur’s influence aid Listlers theory about antiseptic techniques?

Answer 11

• In Glasgow, 1860, Joseph Listler realised that operations went well as long as the wound was kept free of from infection.
• Listler thought Pasteur’s Germ Theory might explain the problems of infections. Carbolic acid was suggested to Listler as a chemical that could kill bacteria.
• He believed that infection only happened when the skin was broken so that microbes could enter and start infection.
• He came to the conclusion infection in wounds was caused by microbes in the air. He said the cause of sepsis came from outside the body and not from spontaneous generation and recommended his form of antiseptic surgery.

Question 12

Why did some doctors argue Listlers method of antiseptic techniques using carbolic spray of unpleasant?

Answer 12

The carbolic spray often cracked the doctors skin as well as the patients and made everything smell. Also having to spray the whole surgery and coat bandages (etc) also caused extra work and more operation meaning more expensive so doctors lost profit.

Question 13

Why did some doctors argue Listlers method of antiseptic techniques using carbolic spray took too long?

Answer 13

E.g during amputation speed was essential as well as in other operations because they still had the problem of bleeding. Spraying everything just slowed everything down.

Question 14

Why did some doctors argue Listlers method of antiseptic techniques using carbolic spray didn’t work?

Answer 14

Some doctors tried this methods without success, and patients still developed infections from wounds and died anyway. When they challenged Listler, he claimed they had not been systematic enough when preparing the theatre. These doctors disagreed and thought that antiseptics prevented to bodies natural defence system.

Question 15

Why did some doctors not take Listlers method of antiseptic techniques seriously?

Answer 15

Many doctors laughed at him and found it amusing. They found it difficult to accept the idea that there were tiny microbes all around, invisible to the naked eye, which could cause diseases.

Question 16

Why did some doctors not like Listlers method of antiseptic techniques using carbolic spray?

Answer 16

Some doctors thought he was cold and arrogant. He was critical of other surgeons and many found his lectures boring.

Question 17

Why did some doctors feel Lislers method of antiseptics was a hoax?

Answer 17

He kept changing his technique to improve it and looked for substances that could just as well but without the erosion the carbolic spray caused. Some beloved he did this because his method did not work.

Question 18

Why was development of antiseptic techniques significant?

Answer 18

It enabled doctors to preform more complicated/ambitious surgery, which would not have been able to done before because to risk of infection. It also supported the germ theory that stated that microbes entered the body and caused infection. This caused an overall improvement in public health.

Question 19

How did understanding of the germ theory develop during the last part of the 1800s?

Answer 19

In 1878 Koch found the bacterium which caused septicaemia and proved and proved that disease was spread through contact with an infected surface. This gave a real boost to Lister’s ideas.

In 1892 Lister and Pasteur were together given an award at the Sherbonne University in Paris for their contribution to fight against disease.

Question 20

How did antiseptic techniques develop towards the end of the 1800s?

Answer 20

• operating theatres and hospitals were now rigorously cleaned to ensure absolute cleanliness. From 1887 all instruments are steamed and sterilised and in 1904 rubber gloves were used.
• surgeons also began to scrub their hands and arms before entering the surgical theatre as well as wear face masks and change their clothes for operating gowns.
• By the late 1890s Listers antiseptic methods became aseptic surgery which meant removing all possible germs from the operating theatre to create a sterile environment.

Question 21

How did the development of antiseptic techniques lead to more ambitious surgeries in the late 1800s?

Answer 21

• despite opposition Lister’s methods marked a turning point in surgery. In 1877 he moved to London to train young surgeons under his own supervision.
• with basic problems (such as pain and infection) now solved surgeons became to attempt more ambitious operations.
• the first successful operation to remove an infected appendix came in the 1880s. This first heart operation was carried out in 1896 when surgeons repaired damage by a stab wound.

Question 22

Fact file on Robert Koch:

Answer 22

• 1843-1910
• born in Germany
• studied in to be a doctor, worked as a surgeon in the Franco-Prussian war.
• became a pioneering biologist and was awards the Nobel prize.

Question 23

What did Koch discover?

Answer 23

He lived through testing on mice. He discovered new bacteria and applied the germ theory to his experiments. He isolated microbes casing anthrax.

Question 24

Why were Koch and Pasteur rivals?

Answer 24

Their countries were at war (Franco-Prussian) so their governments were prepared to invest in research.

Question 25

What did Pasteur discover about vaccinations?

Answer 25

That a weakened strand of the same deadly disease could make an organisms ill but not kill them, making them resistant. He tested this theory on chickens. Although Jenner had discovered something similar earlier his vaccination did not use the deadly disease itself.

Question 26

What did Koch became well known/famous for?

Answer 26

In 1786 he became famous for his work on anthrax microbes. Anthrax was a disease that caused sores in the lungs and could kill both humans and earlier.
He found a way of staining and growing the particular germ thought to be responsible.

Question 27

What were Koch’s methods in discovering specific bacteria and proving how they caused diseases?

Answer 27

• to prove a specific bacterium was responsible for a specific disease, Koch said the bacterium had to present is successive experimental animals that were inflicted with it. The bacterium could be retrieved from the dead animal and be cultured.
• Koch developed the technique of growing microbes on a plate made of solidified agar (a seaweed extract) which encourages microbes to grow.
• He found a way of using dyes to stain specific microbes under the microscope so they would stand out among all other germs.
• He also developed ways of photographing microbes so that other scientists could study them in detail and find them in samples.

Question 28

Why was Koch influential?

Answer 28

He didn’t work alone. He had a team working with his and also trained many young scientists to use his methods. Koch turned bacteriology in to science and perfected his methods so scientists could hunt down specific disease causing microbes and isolate them. Scientists started to discover many more germs responsible for a wide range of diseases.

Question 29

What were William Dallinger and John Drysale known for?

Answer 29

In 1874 they published a paper describing the life cycle of a microbes, they were British. Also between 1873-75 a number of British germ studies were published using microscopic evidence.

Question 30

Who was Paul Ehrlich, who influenced him and what did he discover?

Answer 30

Influenced by Koch and Pasteur’s work, he was a German physician and worked to find chemicals that would attack the specific germs that caused illnesses and disease, and cure them. In 1909 he developed the first chemical cure for disease: Salvarsan 606 to cure syphilis. It targeted the harmful germ specifically and destroyed it without harming the rest of the body.

Question 31

How did the Germ theory impact doctors during the 1880’s and how was it still limiting?

Answer 31

By the 1880s British doctors accepted the germ theory and its role in explaining infections. Surgery and public health improved and benefited from the germ theory but doctors dealing with disease deep inside the body could not use intense heat or powerful antiseptics.

Question 32

Why was John Tyndall significant and what individuals was he influenced by?

Answer 32

He was a physicist. In 1870 John Tyndall publicaly defended Pasteur’s Germ Theory. He lectured of both dust and disease, bringing together Pasteur’s And Lister’s work with experiments on light that showed tiny microbes in ordinary air.

He continued to promote Pasteur’s Germ Theory widely and in 1876 he lectured British doctors about Koch’s discovery about anthrax.

Question 33

Who was William Roberts and how did he contribute to the development of the Germ Theory?

Answer 33

In 1878 a Manchester doctor, William Roberts, who had previously supported Tyndall’s criticism on spontaneous generation developed a doctors version of the germ theory of disease: he linked all the laboratory research with the practical evidence of surgeons and public health. He used Koch’s work to draw attention to germs and their role in human infection.

Question 34

Who was Emanuel Klein and what did he cloak to discover that was later proved wrong?

Answer 34

In 1874 he announced he had identified the typhoid microbe. He was actually wrong he had not discovered this microbes but now one realised at the time. Tyndall used Klein’s supposed discovery to criticise the theory of spontaneous generation and said the germ theory explained typhoid fever.