CHANGE IN THE VICTORIAN ERA:
1. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: This was a time of great change for the economy, technology and of course medicine! The industrial revolution happened which made finding out about diseases more important: the cities were becoming very overcrowded...
2. NEW ATTITUDES: By this time church ideas were also less influential: There was a SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION: All medical knowledge would be challenged through this. Some false medical theories were still around by this time: Miasma was still a very popular theory.
3. GOVERNMENT: Another very important change was that the British government started taking public health seriously (about time!). They introduced acts which dealt with making public toilets, disposing of sewage properly, overcrowding and clean water.
1. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: This was a time of great change for the economy, technology and of course medicine! The industrial revolution happened which made finding out about diseases more important: the cities were becoming very overcrowded...
2. NEW ATTITUDES: By this time church ideas were also less influential: There was a SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION: All medical knowledge would be challenged through this. Some false medical theories were still around by this time: Miasma was still a very popular theory.
3. GOVERNMENT: Another very important change was that the British government started taking public health seriously (about time!). They introduced acts which dealt with making public toilets, disposing of sewage properly, overcrowding and clean water.
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EDWARD JENNER DISCOVERS THE FIRST VACCINE: 1796.
EDWARD JENNER: THE FATHER OF IMMUNOLOGY.
Jenner was an English scientist around the time when smallpox was a huge threat to health: It killed 25 percent of its victims!
Smallpox gave people horrible puss-filled boils and fever symptoms.
JENNER'S THEORY: Jenner noticed that milkmaids quite often got cow pox from working with cows. He reckoned that those who got cowpox might be immune to smallpox: He tested his theory on a young boy called James Phipps... and then his son!
He was right: He tested this on 25 patients by taking puss from the boils of a cowpox victim and putting it inside an open cut. He would then inject the patient with smallpox once they had recovered. They did not get sick!
His vaccine was made compulsory in Britain in 1853. He named it 'vaccine' after the Latin word 'vacca' meaning cow.
In 1978 The World Health Organisation finally said that smallpox was completely eradicated (destroyed) as a disease. This was a huge achievement!
LIMITATIONS OF HIS DISCOVERY: Many people laughed at Jenner's work- injecting an animal disease in humans seemed bonkers!
He was unable to explain why his vaccine worked in scientific terms so the Royal Society refused to publish his work because he did not have enough evidence. His method also would not work to help develop other vaccines. This why an anti-vaccination league was set up against the smallpox vaccination.
The church still taught that disease was a punishment from God. Many still accepted that.
Jenner was an English scientist around the time when smallpox was a huge threat to health: It killed 25 percent of its victims!
Smallpox gave people horrible puss-filled boils and fever symptoms.
JENNER'S THEORY: Jenner noticed that milkmaids quite often got cow pox from working with cows. He reckoned that those who got cowpox might be immune to smallpox: He tested his theory on a young boy called James Phipps... and then his son!
He was right: He tested this on 25 patients by taking puss from the boils of a cowpox victim and putting it inside an open cut. He would then inject the patient with smallpox once they had recovered. They did not get sick!
His vaccine was made compulsory in Britain in 1853. He named it 'vaccine' after the Latin word 'vacca' meaning cow.
In 1978 The World Health Organisation finally said that smallpox was completely eradicated (destroyed) as a disease. This was a huge achievement!
LIMITATIONS OF HIS DISCOVERY: Many people laughed at Jenner's work- injecting an animal disease in humans seemed bonkers!
He was unable to explain why his vaccine worked in scientific terms so the Royal Society refused to publish his work because he did not have enough evidence. His method also would not work to help develop other vaccines. This why an anti-vaccination league was set up against the smallpox vaccination.
The church still taught that disease was a punishment from God. Many still accepted that.
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Louis Pasteur was a French chemist born in 1822. He was given a job of trying to find a method to stop wine from going sour so soon. His theory was that germs were in the air, and they were causing the damage to the wine.
- HIS EXPERIMENT: Pasteur heated up the wine and let it cool: His guess was that this would kill the germs. It worked!! This would become known as PASTEURISATION. The milk that we drink today is pasteurised: So you can thank Louis Pasteur for keeping milk fresh.
- HIS SECOND EXPERIMENT: Pasteur felt that the germs were not evenly distributed in the air. So he used a curved flask to see if germs could travel down the flask. He found that they could not do so. He was right again.
- Spontaneous generation was a theory that germs could just appear basically from nothing. The theory said that germs appear in the body randomly BECAUSE we have disease, but this is wrong: HE DISCOVERED THAT GERMS CAUSE DISEASE. Pasteur realised that germs were airborne and were what was causing disease: He successfully disproved spontaneous generation!
- His theory worked for food, but he also felt it would work for humans: He went on to help develop vaccines for CHOLERA, RABIES and ANTHRAX. He had a very successful career!
ROBERT KOCH: THE FATHER OF MICROBIOLOGY.
Louis Pasteur had a bit of a rivalry with a German scientist called Robert Koch. Germany and France were at war in this period, so their scientists were also determined to outdo each other! In the end their competition really helped develop knowledge about disease: they helped each other in a sense.
1. KOCH'S DISCOVERY: Koch was determined to find specific microbes (germs) which cause specific diseases. He would then use this knowledge to develop vaccines. He found the germs which causes diseases like cholera, anthrax and tuberculosis.
2. KOCH'S METHOD: Koch set up a scientific procedure to follow to help isolate specific germs. It involved putting the germs into a PETRI DISH filled with a substance called AGAR: In this substance the germs could grow. After staining the germs in a certain colour, he could examine this using a microscope.
This method is still used today: Have you used it in biology class yet?!
Louis Pasteur had a bit of a rivalry with a German scientist called Robert Koch. Germany and France were at war in this period, so their scientists were also determined to outdo each other! In the end their competition really helped develop knowledge about disease: they helped each other in a sense.
1. KOCH'S DISCOVERY: Koch was determined to find specific microbes (germs) which cause specific diseases. He would then use this knowledge to develop vaccines. He found the germs which causes diseases like cholera, anthrax and tuberculosis.
2. KOCH'S METHOD: Koch set up a scientific procedure to follow to help isolate specific germs. It involved putting the germs into a PETRI DISH filled with a substance called AGAR: In this substance the germs could grow. After staining the germs in a certain colour, he could examine this using a microscope.
This method is still used today: Have you used it in biology class yet?!
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THE FATHER OF MODERN SURGERY:
Joseph Lister was a Scottish surgeon born in 1827. The problem with surgery up to this point was that surgeons normally left wounds unprotected. Bandages were reused and surgeons did not even wash their hands or medical equipment before surgery.
1. LISTER'S THEORY: Lister found that half of people who have had surgery would died and realised there something was strange about this. He learnt about invisible germs from Louis Pasteur's work. He knew this had something to do with people dying after surgery.
2. LISTER'S METHOD: Lister began experimenting with different chemicals to clean patients wounds. Up until now, no one used any sort of antiseptic. He discovered that using antiseptic made survival rates much higher. His chemical of choice was carbolic acid, this actually damaged wounds so would eventually stop being used. However, his use of antiseptic reduced death rates by 45 percent which was an amazing achievement.
Do you use antiseptic gel when entering the school grounds? An important way to get rid of any unwanted germs!
Joseph Lister was a Scottish surgeon born in 1827. The problem with surgery up to this point was that surgeons normally left wounds unprotected. Bandages were reused and surgeons did not even wash their hands or medical equipment before surgery.
1. LISTER'S THEORY: Lister found that half of people who have had surgery would died and realised there something was strange about this. He learnt about invisible germs from Louis Pasteur's work. He knew this had something to do with people dying after surgery.
2. LISTER'S METHOD: Lister began experimenting with different chemicals to clean patients wounds. Up until now, no one used any sort of antiseptic. He discovered that using antiseptic made survival rates much higher. His chemical of choice was carbolic acid, this actually damaged wounds so would eventually stop being used. However, his use of antiseptic reduced death rates by 45 percent which was an amazing achievement.
Do you use antiseptic gel when entering the school grounds? An important way to get rid of any unwanted germs!
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Florence nightingale: the founder of modern nursing
Florence Nightingale was born in 1820 in Florence, Italy. However, she spent most her life in England. She was from a wealthy family who were determined for her to marry an important man, but she had other plans. She loved reading and had a passion for helping those in need.
She became very famous in England due to her success: Queen Victoria even wrote to her!
- NIGHTINGALE'S CAREER:
- In 1854 The Crimean War broke out: This was between Russia and a coalition including France and Britain. She volunteered to go over to help wounded soldiers along with 38 nurses, all intensely trained by herself.
- She found the hospital conditions to be terrible. In fact, 40 percent of wounded men were dying! There were maggots on the sheets and nothing was being cleaned properly. She managed to convince the head doctor to let her take control of organising the daily arrangements of the hospital. Florence and her nurses worked 20 hours a day: This is why she picked up the nickname 'the lady with the lamp'.
- HER THEORY: Although Pasteur's germ theory ideas were now becoming popular, Florence instead believed in MIASMA. 1. She insisted the hospital must be clear of foul air. 2. Everything should be clean: Beds, bandages, clothes, hospital equipment. 3. Patients should be looked after: Making them comfortable and feeding them hot meals.
She became very famous in England due to her success: Queen Victoria even wrote to her!
The impact of florence nigtingale on nursing
Florence Nightingale changed nursing forever. Up until the 19th century, nursing was not taken seriously as a profession: They were not professionally trained and often were paid with gin or some other alcoholic substance!
- When Nightingale got home, she wrote a book 'notes on nursing' which became a best-seller straight away in 1860.
- There was a fund set up in her honour: £44000 was raised which she used to set up the first nurse training school in London. This was at Saint Thomas' Hospital. By 1900, there were 64000 trained nurses.
- Nightingale lived until she 90. Before she died, she was given an Order of Merit by King Edward VII in 1907. She was the first woman to win this award.
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