UNFINISHED Lack of progress by 1848

Name 3 medical theories popular in 1848

• Four humours

• Miasma

• Spontaneous Generation

Briefly describe the Four Humours theory.

Who did it originate with?

What were the four humours?

How could a patient be treated according to them?

Give two examples of treatments

• The belief that there were four “humours” in the body, which could become out of balance to cause illness

• Originated with the Ancient Greeks (urgh Greek)

• Blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile

• Theory of opposites. You had to rebalance your humours by having more or less of one.

• Blood letting if you had too much blood, eating cold foods if you were too hot.

Describe the theory of miasma.

When was disease thought to spread faster?

What logic lead people to believe in it?

• Disease thought to be carried by unpleasant & harmful smells/fumes

• Thought to spread faster in summer because of worse smells

• People got ill around dirty or unhygenic environments (which smelled)

Why was the understanding of anatomy worse?

Belief in life after death lead to fewer dissections

Why was technology a limiting factor in medical progress?

You could not see the microorganisms that caused disease

Where was all the funding coming from? Who was not interested?

• Charity funding from hospitals

• The government was not interested

Describe the theory of Spontaneous Generation UNFINISHED

LACK FO PROOF UNFINISHED