Beginnings of change
Key individuals
Anrdreas Vesalius
Carried out his own dissections in order to understand how the human body worked
Wrote ' Fabric of the Human Body' in 1543 which corrected over 300 of Galen's mistakes
Argued the important of doctors learning form dissections rather than books
Ambroise Pare
Army surgeon
Used ligatures to tie blood vessels to reduce blood loss
Invented a new way of sealing wounds on battlefiels instead of cauterising
William Harvey
Proved that blood circulates around the body using arteries and veins with valvues
Proved the heart acted as a pump for the system
His understanding of the circulatory system is the basis of what we know today
Methods of treatment
Traditional approaches
Praying
Wise women, who used herbs and charms
Herbal remedies
Astrology
Quackery
New approaches
Growing number of hospitals, started to treat sick rather than just providing hospitality
Many towns had pharmacies
New herbs and ingredients from around the world
Books on medicine for treating the family at home
Scientific approaches
Dishonest medical practices
Sold their own medicine that would have no effect
Most were travelling salesmen
Great Plague
What was it?
1665, Bubonic Plague returned to Britain
Carried by fleas, who were carried by rats who were attracted to cramped and dirty conditions in towns
Worst point in September 1665, over 7000 people died in one week
Beliefs about causes
People didn't understand what caused the Plague
Believed it was a punishment from God
Miasma
It was noticed that people living in poorer areas if the city were worst affected
Treatments
Balancing the humours
Bleeding patients with leeches
Burning herbs to banish foul air
Sniffing sponges soaked in vinegar
Preventative measured
Trades with affected towns was stopped
Infected houses had to be quarantined for 40 days
Plague doctors wore special suits with sweet-smelling herbs to protect them against miasma
Lord Mayor's orders
Designed to stop the spread of plague in London in 1665
People were employed to kill stray cats and dogs
Searchers had to identify houses where had died to plague
Watchmen supervised infected houses to stop people leaving
Growth of Hospitals
Public pressure led to infirmaries being set up for the poorest in society
Hospitals trained doctors and surgeons
By 1860, Londond had 36 specialist hospitals
Nurses had a more central role caring for patients, they were also trained for the first time often alongside doctors
Hospitals cleanliness improved
Florence Nightingale
Significant in bringing about change in hospitals
Challenged methods
Death rates plummeted from 42% to only 2% at Scutari during her time
Her work was widely reported in newspapers and books she publisehd which discussed hospital organisation
John Hunter
Heavily interested in dissection and gifted and anatomy
Set up Britain;s first nurse training school
Beacme and army surgeon in 1760
Set up a practice which trained many new doctors
Known as the father of scientific surgery
Vaccination and Innoculation
Small pox
Widespread in Britain in the 18th century
60% of people who caught it died
1796 - Jenner tests his theory by inserting pus taken from the cowpox pustule of a milkmaid into a cut on a boy's arm, they boy is later exposed to smallpox and is shown to be immune
1840 - Vaccination against smallpoc is made free to all children
1853 - Vaccination against smallpox is made compulsory
Eradicated in 1980
Edward Jenner
Innoculated patients against smallpox
Heard that molkmaids didn;t catch smallpox, he discovered that they caught cowpox, which was a much milder disease
Reasoned that it must make them immune to smallpox, he expiremented and proved it was true
Innoulaiton - Deliberately infecting with a disease to avoid a more sever case of it
Vaccination - Exposing the body to a weakended version of a microosganism that can cause disease, to develop immunity
Disagreed with some of Galen's work
Wrote 'Works on surgery' in 1575
Renaissance doctor
Significance - Pares treatments became more common in surgery, and it led to more lives being saved
Use drawings from artists to study the body
Where you more likely to survive disease in the Renaissance Era?
No reliable anaesthetics
Lack of sanitation
In the eighteenth century, more than half of all doctors were men who have served and apprenticeship
Only 4% of doctors had a medical degree from Uni
Royal college of physician since 1600, you could only practice if you had a licene
Doctos did beocme more skillful, and also thanks of Vesalius and Pare, they had a better understanding of the body and medicine
He practiced on dead bodies
Significance - he marked the end of barabric surgery, and created a new scientific period, which led to better survival rates
Significance - his discovery revolutionized the way we think of the heart, and his ideas rapidly spread
Stray cats and dogs
Publiuc health
Before
No sewage systems
Rates flourshed in the dirty conditions of towns
After
Bills or mortality were published to show the ocurse of diease
Houses were ordered to collect waste, which was then collected by rakers
Public latrines were provided over rivers so they would take away the waste
Infected households were boarded up
Significant, improved public health as led to cleaner environments
Black Death and Great Plague
Continuity
Still seen as a punishment from god
Streets were cleaned to remove filth
Miasma was thought to be the cause
Lack of proper treatments
Change
Money spent by governments to build public latrines and to clean up streets
Jews were no longer blamed
Significance - Paved the way for vaccines, savid millions of lives, also developed the first understadning of what caused disease