Edexcel IGCSE History: Changes in Medicine 1848-1948

Area 1: Understanding of Disease

Causes that hindered medical progress in 1948

– Misunderstanding of disease causes:

– Four humours – Yellow bile, black bile, phlegm, blood; Imbalance causes diseases, cured by consuming opposite qualities (From Ancient Greeks)

– Miasma – Disease carried in unpleasant smells and harmful fumes in the air

– Spontaneous generation – Disease created by rotting, non-living matters

– Limited doctors' knowledge, few dissections available ⇢ Ineffective methods for prevention and treatment

– Low level of technology

– Lack of money for research – government not responsible, hospitals relied on charity funds

– Stubborn attitudes

Louise Pasteur & Germ Theory, 1861

1854 – Asked to investigate sour beer, discovered a particular microorganism

Theory: Microorganisms caused beer to turn sour; proved by heating liquid prevents sourness

1860 – Challenge organised by French Academy of Science to prove spontaneous generation

Pasteur showed that a sterile mixture would not go bad if not exposed to air, and microbes could be seen in the contaminated mixture

1861: Published Germ Theory, allowed other scientists to experiment with his ideas

Summary of Germ Theory: Microorganisms in air (unevenly distributed) cause decay, can be killed by heat

Pasteurisation – Sterilising by heating up substances to kill microbes

Limitations:

• Not able to link disease and medicine

• Ideas often resisted and ridiculed, and took time to be accepted

Germ Theory and its Applications to Medicine, 1878

1865-70:  Pasteur discovered silkworms killed by microorganism-causing disease  – Idea: Microorganisms cause disease in humans

1878: Published Germ Theory and its Applications to Medicine

 – Explained causes of some diseases but not yet applied

 – Unknown why only some microbes cause disease

Robert Koch’s development of Pasteur’s work, 1872-1883

Koch – German doctor who scientifically proved Pasteur’s work (‘father of bacteriology’)

– Able to show researching microorganisms can lead to cures

1882: Discovered tuberculosis germ

1883: Discovered cholera germ

Other findings: Developed staining, use of agar jelly for growing cultures, septicaemia microbe

By 1900s: Koch and students identified 21 germs causing diseases

Pasteur’s work on vaccines

Vaccine idea from chicken cholera: Discovered weakened version of bacteria stimulated chicken natural defence

1881: Combined Koch’s work with his own, proved anthrax vaccine can protect sheeps and cows

1885: Rabies vaccine experimental stage – vaccinated 9-year-old boy recently bitten; successful

Area 2: Public Health/Hospitals

Problems in Public Health

Living conditions in poorer areas:

– Houses: damp, dark, unventilated, packed

– 50 or more families share 1 house

– Toilet shared by 100 people

– 20-30 families share a water pump (water from polluted rivers, only available for a few hours 3-5 times a week)

Standards of housing described in Dr Robert Baker’s report, 1832 cholera epidemic in Leeds:

• Bare earth streets, muddy

• No sewers: 19 streets, 1 sewer: 10 streets (partially covered)

• Human excrement collected to sell to farmers in some parts
  

Killer diseases (no cure)

1. Smallpox

2. Typhus

3. Typhoid fever

4. Influenza

5. Cholera (most frightening)

Patients weakened by diseases so they die easily from other illnesses

Dealing with cholera