(apologies for my spelling)

Medical medicine:

• thought to have a supernatural cause;

  many people belived illness was a punishment from god for peoples sins so it was encouraged for them to fast, pray amd repent for their sins to be ‘cured’

  disease was also thought to be caused by evil supernatural things like demons or witches. this caused people to be trialed as witches. many were executed

  people belived disease was also caused by evil sprits living inside someone so exorsisms were performed to remove said ‘evil spirit’ from someone

• the churches influence;

  the roman catholic church was a incredibly powerfull organisation over medival europe controlling how people studied and thought about a large range of topics

  the church was the biggest contributer of the belief that sickness was a punishment from god preventing peoplke from trying to find cures

  disection was outlawed by the church

  medical scholars had to learn and follow the way of galen. this is presumed to be because his works fit with the bible the best

• the use of astrology;

  astrology: the belief that the movment of planets and stars has a effect on the earth

  astrology was a new way of diagnosing diseses. developed by arabic medicene and brought to england around 1100 - 1300

  different star signs were belived to affect different parts of the body

• the four humors theory;

  many medival doctors based their diagnosis and treatments on this theory

  created by the greek doctor hippocrates who belived the body wa made up of four fluids/humors: blood, yellow bile, black bile, phlem

  he also belived they needed to be ballanced for good health

  this theory was later developed by the greek doctor galen who belived that diseses could be treated by opposites

• the miasma theory;

  the theory that bad air causes disease

Medicine in 18th and 19th century britian:

• case study: vaccination;

  in the 1700’s smallpox was one of the most deadly diseases and in 1751 killed over 3500 people in london alone. at this time the only way to prevent it was through inoculation (this was introduced into england from turkey). incolation involed cutting a patients arm and soaking it in the puss taken from someone with a mild case if smallpox. surprisingly this was succesfull in many cases but some died in others

  Edward Jenner born in 1749 was a doctor in glouchester who heard that milkmaids didnt get smallpox but did catch cowpox this intruiged Jenner so using careful scientific methods investigated this claim and discoverd that it was infact true. So in 1796 Jenner tested this theory on a young boy called James Phipps, Jenner took puss from the sores of a milkmaid (Sarah Nelmes) and injected young james after week or so when he recoverd from it he injected him with smallpox, which james didn’t catch and in 1798 Jenner pulished his findings using the term ‘vaccination’ which stems from the latin word for cow ‘vacca’

  though Jenner was met with opposition and doctors was scared it was a threat to their livelihood, many people was also scared about getting a disease from a cow despite all this opposition the goverment accepted his findings and was granted £10,000 in 1802 to open a vaccination clinic. Then a further £20,000 two years later as it was a success

  in 1840 the goverment passed an act which made the vaccinaton free for infants. Then in 1853 the goverment made it compulasory to have

• the germ theory;

  Germs as well as other micro organisms were discoverd as early as the 17th century but scientist thought that they were created by decaying matter like rotting food or dead bodies this lead people to belive that disease caused germs

  people still belived miasma was the main cause of germs

  the french chemist louis pasteur was employed in 1857 to figure out why sugar beet used in the fermenting of alchohol was souring he came down to one conclusion germs. to prove this is why it was souring he showed a closed flask with sterile water in not bred germs but a open flask with germs in bred germs. later in 1861 pasture published the germ theory arguing microbes were the cause of decay he also sugested that some germs caused disease

  the germ theory took a while to catch on but eventually gained traction in britian. the germ theory inspired joseph lister to develop antiseptics, it proved john snow’s discoveries on cholera and pressured the goverment to pass 1875 public health act

  a german scientist called robert koch built on pastures work by linking spesific diseases with different microbes that caused them. korch identified anthrax sores in 1876, speticaemia 1878, tuberculosis 1882 and choera in 1883

  he also started revolutionay scientific methods like:

  using agar jelly in culters to breed bacteria

  dyed and stained bacteria to see it under microscope

  used photography to record his findings

• Florance nightingale and developments in nursing;

  Florance nightingale 1820 - 1910 born in florance italy and growing up in england brought a professionalism and disipline to the bad reputation job of being a nurse. she began studing to be a nurse in 1849 despite her families opposition

  when the carabian war started in 1853 horror stories of the british hospital in scutari started spreading at the time their death rate was at 42%. sidney herbert a long time family friend of the nightingales and the secertary of war asked nightingale to go over the military strongly opposed this but still nightingale went with 38 other handpicked nurses.

  nightingale used her training (making sure wards were clean and hygenic, making sure ther was an adiquet water and food supply) to improve the hospital and after two years the death rates were 2%

  nightingale used her fame to change nursing as in 1859 she published a book called ‘notes on nursing’ which explained her methods, this quickly became the standard texbook for generations of nursing. the public also raised £44,000 to help her train more nurses with this she set up the nightingale school of nursing in st thomas’ hospital where nurses had three years of training and by 1900 there was over 64,000 trained nurses in britian

  after her death in 1919 the nurses registration act was passed making training complusary for all nurses

  Mary Seacole (1805-1881)

  mary seacole born in 1805 learnt nursing from her mother who ran a boarding house for soilders in jamacie and in 1854 came over to england as a volunteer nurse but was turned away persumably on racist grounds but this caused her to make her on way as a nurse. this inspired her to build the british hotel a small group of makeshift buildings which served as a hospital, shop and canteen for soilders after finaning herself by selling goods to soilders and travellers

  unfortuntly she couldnt find work after the war and went bankrupt but receved support due to the press

• anaestetic;

  Nitrous oxide (laughing gas) was discoverd to be a possible anaesthetic by british chemist humphry davy in 1799 but was ignored by surgons at the time. it was picked up again by a american denstist called horace wells who unfortuantly picked up a pacient not effected by it

  in 1842 an american doctor discovered the anesthetic qualites of esther but dudnt publish his work but the first public demenstration of this was in 1846 by a dental surgeon called william morton. esther is an irritant and explosive so using it was very risky

  james simpson a midwifery profesor at edinbrugh university was looking for a safe alternitive to esther for childbirth and in 1847 descoverd chloroform. it only became popularly used after queen victoria birthed her 8th child to it in 1853. the only problem with it is it suddenly causes patients to die as it sometimes effects the heart

  the descovery of anaesthetic lead to longer and more complex operations as surgons relised its easier to opperate on a unconsious person but this as lead to more deaths as surgons didnt realise that poor hygien spread diseaes and caused infections

• antiseptics;

  antiseptics and asepsis reduced infections: antiseptic methods were used to kill germs near the sergical cuts, aseptic surgical methods aim to stop any germs getting near the wounds

  Ignaz Semmelweis showed that doctors could reduce infections by washing their hands with chloride of lime but it was a unplesant experiance so want used often

  Joesph Lister had seen a carbolic acid spray being used in sewage works to keep the smell away and decied to try it in opperating theaters in the early 1860s and saw a reduce in infection rates. Lister heard about the germ theory in 1865 and realised that germs could be in the air, on sergical instruments and peoples hands this realisation caused him to start using carbolic acid on instruments and bandgaes

  these paractacies and the use of antiseptics reduced the rate of infection by 35% going from a 50% in 1864-1866 to roughly 15% in 1876-1870

  because of antiseptic the number of operations increased ten times between 1867 and 1912 as surgons didnt need to worry about infections and their pacients dying because of it

  asepsis reduced the need for the harsh cheicals

• case study: cholera in london;

  the industrial revolution started in the 18th century and because of this many people moved to the london areas where they lived in small cramped and dirty houses which allowed for the spread of cholera