The Beginnings Of Change: Dealing With Diseases Flashcards
Why were catholic monasteries closed down in 1536 and how did this affect hospitals?
In 1535 King Henry 8th turned England from a catholic to a Protestant country, he seized all the wealth of the catholic monasteries and closed them down.
The monasteries could no longer fund the hospitals so the king gave money to set up hospitals, such as St Bartholomew’s and St Thomas’.
Give a brief description of the key changes and developments of medicine and hospitals during the medieval era:
- in the early and mid medieval period they learned from Galen’s textbook and students saw dissections but did not practice them or have any practical experience.
- During 18th century learning was still theoretical and dissections we’re only allowed on a small number of criminals.
- medical training improved after 1815 but doctors still couldn’t do much to cure and treat diseases.
- doctors could set up practises once accepted in to the royal college of surgeons, Royal college of physicians or the society of Apothecaries.
- these societies allowed students to practise examinations and gain experience.
- in 1888 the general medicine act said doctors had to be registered in order to practise doctoring and treat people.
- Important medical schools developed in London, Edinburgh and Oxford. Once attended doctors could then apply to hospitals and be supervised.
- doctors started to split up into more distinct groups, who specialised in different areas.
What were the effects of Henry 8ths actions of Medieval hospitals?
- medieval hospitals were small and run by Christian church’s.
- they were places were people could be cared for not cured.
- funded by rich men, donating money to the church.
- However, King Henry 8th turned England Protestant in the 1530’s.
- When he changed the religion to Protestantism, he seized the wealth of catholic monasteries and closed them all down. He gave this money to the hospitals.
What were the types of hospitals in the the 18th century?
- there were both the general and specialist hospitals
- St Luke’s hospital in London became the 2nd largest hospital after Bethlem to cure mentally ill people.
- London’s Lock hospital for venereal diseases STIs opened in 1746.
- there were also maternal hospitals.
- wards were set aside Middleset hospital for pregnant women in 1747 and the British hospital for mothers and babies was set in 1749.
What caused high child mortality rates?
- this was major social issue in the early 18th century.
- in the 1720s and 30s there were severe epidemics like typhus and influenza and so the death rate among children was alarming.
- there were poor provisions for babies and children to be given medical treatment.
Who was Thomas Coram and what did he do?
He founded the hospital for abandoned children in 1741 ‘The Founding Hospital’ which cared for children, clothing them, feeding and educating them till they were 15.
What experienced during the hospital boom?
- Between 1720-50 5 new general hospitals were added to London and 9 more throughout the country.
- By 1800 20,000 patients were handled a year compared to 470 in 1400.
- there was a religious motive behind the ‘boom’. Christians began stressing the importance of showing their faith - they needed to do good deeds to the community to go to heaven.
- attitude to diseases were changing. People began abandoning the idea disease was a punishment for sin. A more scientific, evidence based view was developed.
Who was Florence Nightingale?
She is referred to as the founder of modern nursing. She was born in 1820 in Italy, Florence and worked during the Crimean war to care for soldiers, she trained in Germany and returned home after the war.
How did Florence Nightingale reduce mortality rates?
By cleaning wards, washing sheets and keeping the ward hygienic she reduced mortality rates from 40% to 2% as this limited the amount of infections the soldiers could catch as this is how most of the wounded were dying, which they were unaware of.
Why was Florence Nightingale significant? Give examples of factors that improved medicine and general medical knowledge?
- She wrote a book ‘Notes on Nursing’ explaining her ideas on how nurses should be trained and how they should treat their sick.
- She set up Britain first nurse training school as St Thomas’ Hospital. She raised £44,000 herself in order for this to happen.
- she aimed to make nursing an honourable profession as it was looked down on at the time.
- ‘Notes on Hospitals’ followed in 1863 setting out her principles for running clean, safe and well ventilated hospitals.
What similarities do Vesalius, William Harvey and John Hunter share?
- used close observation and scientific methods to gain a better understanding of the human body and how it works.
- found faults in Galen’s methods and theories and faced opposition for going against his ideas and the 4 Humours and this was the view held by the Christin church, which was very influential.
- built up knowledge through dissection and wrote scientific books with detailed illustrations in order to help further understanding for doctors. Dissected on both humans and animals.
- inspired next generation of surgeons, who believed in their findings but their theories and discovered took a long time to be accepted.
- all proved Galen wrong, taught the younger generations and wrote books that became used as textbooks for students studying in university.
Harvey and Hunter both came up south new theories about blood.
Who was John Hunter?
- Born in 1728.
- Joined his elder brother William in London at age 20.
- He worked at his brothers anatomy school as an assistant learning and carrying out experiments.
- He preformed dissections and robed graves to supply the anatomy school with bodies to dissect on. -grave snatcher.
What was a body snatcher?
These were people who would dig up graves of people who had recently died they would then sell them to anatomy school in order for them to carry out dissections on them to teach their students. Sometimes people from schools/universities would do this themselves, such as John Hunter in order to provide bodies to his brothers anatomy school.
What were John Hunters scientific methods?
- he promoted observation and use of scientific methods in surgeries. In 1767 he even went as far as experimenting on himself.
- he injected himself with pus from a gonorrhoea patient to see wether it was the same STI as syphilis. Unfortunately the patient he had caught it from also had syphilis. Took him 3 years to recover using mercury treatment.
Give an example of one of Hunters cases which he used his scientific methods on:
In 1785 a man was emitted to St George’s hospital with a throbbing lump (aneurysm) on his knee joint. Usually they would amputate the leg above the tumour. However, Hunter thought if the blood supply was restricted above the aneurysm, it would encourage new blood vessels to develop and widen to allow more blood flow and bypass the damage area. He had tested this theory first in animals. He prepped this on the man and saved his leg. The man recovered after 6 weeks and could walk again.
