Medicine through Time c1700-1900

Spontaneous Generation

The theory that decaying matter and disease (things that had began to rot) created microbes.

The Significance of Louis Pasteur

• Pasteur theorised that germs (bacteria) in the air caused things to decay, and more importantly caused disease, and published his findings called Germ Theory in 1861.

• This contradicted the theory of spontaneous generation, which many people believed in at the time.

• Vaccines - Inspired by Edward Jenners’ successful smallpox vaccine, he used weakened doses of the disease causing bacteria to make animal and human vaccines, to build immunity against diseases (prevention of illness)

The Significance of Robert Koch

• developed a way of growing bacteria on petri dishes, staining them, and seeing them clearly on a microscope.

• famously discovered the bacteria that caused the disease Anthrax (1876), Tuberculosis (1882) and cholera (1883).

• Inspired other scientists to discover other microbes that caused disease, and improved medicine in Britain by making physicians realise that the bacteria caused the symptom, and it was the bacteria that needed to be removed,

Significance of Florence Nightingale

• in the crimean war (1853), Florence worked hard to improve the conditions of the war hospitals and establish better cleanliness. This lead to a death rate of 40% to 2%. She did this by: regular handwashing, better ventilation and sewage systems.

• back in britain, her book in Notes on Hospitals, she pioneered the pavilion hospital - a type of hospital that had separate, self contained wards buildings rather than one large building, to avoid overcrowding and outbreaks moving from ward to ward.