19th Century Medicine

Civilisation
1. Explosion of Industry
2. Urbanisation
3. Growth of Empires
4. Growth of Wealth
5. Advances of Technology
6. Improved communications
7. Growth of Science and research
8. Democracy and Socialism
9. New ideas about evolution and genetics
10. Wars on a greater scale
Knowledge of the Body
1. Robert Koch
  1. Discovered how to stain and grow bacteria in a petri dish
    1. From this he was able to find what bacteria caused septicaemia, TB, and cholera. Later discovered Typhoid, pneumonia and plague
2. Louis Pasteur
  1. Discovered that germs cause disease
  2. Invented the Pasteurisation of Milk, which prevented it going sour by killing germs and sealing it from the air
3. Joseph Lister
  1. Invented the multi-lens microscope, allowing doctors to see very small organisms accurately
Surgery
1. Doctors made to wash their hands in calcium chloride
2. Standards of cleanliness and nursing rose due to Florence Nightingale
3. Joseph Lister sprayed carbolic acid on instruments and bandages to stop infection
4. Surgeons boiled their instruments to sterilise them
5. Landsteiner discovered Blood groups to stop people being killed from clotting
6. Lewisohn discovered that sodium citrate stopped blood clotting
7. National Blood transfusion service was setup
8. X-Rays discovered to help internal surgery
9. Laughing gas discovered as an anaesthetic
10. War meant that army surgeons were needed for amputations
11. Crimean war led to the development of nursing (Nightingale)
Methods of Treatment & Diagnosis
1. Charles Chamberland discovered by chance that injecting chickens with a weakened form of chicken cholera gave them immunity to disease (Principle of Inoculation)
2. Paul Ehrlich discovered that different dyes could stain bacteria and some chemicals would kill them. He discovered several magic bullets that would target disease causing microbes in the body and kill them
3. Alternative cures included injections of animal hormones, cocaine, mercury, and creosote
Public Health
1. Towns were overcrowded
2. Edwin Chadwick argued that disease was the reason for poverty
3. A Cholera epidemic made the government do something about the prevention of disease
4. Miasma was believed to be the cause of disease. Although this is wrong, it lead to much cleaner environments
5. Nightingale influenced improvements in hospital hygeine
6. Free school meals for poor children
7. Old-age pensions introduced
8. National insurance for workers who fell ill

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19th Century Medicine

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	Created by Dan Elsey almost 10 years ago