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How has science and technology affected the development of the…
How has science and technology affected the development of the understanding of the cause of disease?
Before Science and Technology
Church
Disease was thought to have supernatural causes
Punishment from God for people's sins
To show the error of people's ways and to make them better people
Evil supernatural beings
Witches
Many people were tried as witches and executed
Demons
Roman Catholic Church were a very powerful organisation
Prevented people from trying to find cures for disease
All you could do was pray and repent
Embraced the works of Galen
Fitted with the christian belief that God made humans perfect
Stopped anyone from disagreeing with Galen
Outlawed dissection
Medieval doctors had to learn from Galen's incorrect ideas
False Theories
Four Humours Theory
Created by Hippocrates and developed by Galen
The body was made up of four fluids (humours) - blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile
Linked to the seasons
They could be treated using opposites to balance the humours
Astrology
Different star signs were thought to affect different parts of the body
Medieval doctors owned a type of calender (almanac) which included wehere particular stars and planets were at any given time
The doctor then used this to predict how a patient's health could be affected
Vaccination
In 1796 Edward Jenner tested his theory on vaccinantion
He injected a small boy with pus from a milkmade with cowpox
Jenner then infected him with smallpox
The boy didn't catch the desease
Jenner published his findings in 1798
The vaccine was a success and it contributed to a big fall in smallpox cases in Britain
Robert Koch - Microbe Hunting
Koch could link specfic diseases to the particular microbe that caused them
Microbe Hunting
Identified many bacteria that caused diseases
Anthrax (1876)
Septicaemia (1878)
Tuberculosis (1882)
Cholera (1883)
He used agar jelly to create solid cultures, allowing him to breed lots of bacteria
He used dyes to stain the baceria so they were more visible under microscope
He emplyed he newly-invented photograph to record his findings
Magic Bullet
It was known that antibodies only attacked specific microbes - so they were nicknamed magic bullets
In 1889, Paul Ehrlich set out to find chemicals that could act as synthetic antibodies
First Ehrlich discovered dyes that could kill the malaria and sleeping sickness germs
In 1905 the bacteria that causes the sexually tansmitted disease syphilis
Ehrlich and his team decided to search for an arsenic compound that was a magic bullet for syphilis
They hoped it would target the bacterua without poisoning the rest of the body
Over 600 compounds were tried, but none seemed to work
In 1909, Sahachio Hata joined the team
He rechecked the results and saw that compound number 606 actually appeared to work
It was first tested on a human in1911 under the trade name Salvarsan 606