Medicine paper

1. Believed that God and the Devil influenced health. Disease was seen as God’s punishment for sins
2. Astrology became important. Doctors studied star charts because they believed that the movement of the planets affected people’s health.
3. Doctors followed the ideas of Galen. They believed illness was caused by an imbalance in humours.

1. Did his own dissections and wrote books based on his observations using accurate diagrams to illustrate his work. His most famous book was ‘On The Fabric of the Human Body’ written in 1543.
2. Vesalius encouraged doctors to dissect and look for themselves
3. He was able to point out some of Galen’s mistakes. Vesalius said there were no holes in the septum of the heart and that the jaw bone is not made up of two bones.

1. Discovers the circulation of the blood, disproving Galen’s ideas.
2. Blood groups are discovered in 1901, which makes blood transfusions successful.
3. Identifies the difference between arteries and veins.
4. To spread his ideas he writes “An Anatomical Account of the Motion of the Heart and Blood”.  However, bleeding operations still continue after Harvey as people are unsure of what else to d

1. Spread by coughs and sneezes or by black rat flea bites – black rats were carried overseas by ships.  Arrived in Britain in 1348. Its victims were struck down suddenly and most died.
2. Symptoms included exhaustion, high temperatures, swellings and difficulty breathing.
3. Ships were made to wait 40 days before landing – they were quarantined.

1. Jenner was a country doctor. He heard that milkmaids didn’t get smallpox, but instead a milder cowpox.
2. Jenner investigated and discovered people who had already had cowpox didn’t get smallpox.
3. In 1796 he took a small boy and injected him with pus from the sores of a milkmaid with cowpox. Jenner then injected James with smallpox. James didn’t catch the disease!

1. Louis Pasteur was employed in 1857 to find the explanation for the souring of sugar beet used in fermenting industrial alcohol. His answer was to blame germs in the air
2. He proved there are germs in the air by sterilising water and keeping it in a flask that didn’t allow airborne particles to enter. This stayed sterile – but sterilised water kept in an open flask bred microbes again.

1. 1848 Public Health Act

   Nota:

   • The government did nothing at first about Chadwick’s recommendations.  However, in 1848 there was another outbreak of cholera, this put pressure on the government to do something. Parliament reluctantly agreed to pass Public Health Act.  Although it was not compulsory. The government set up a Board of Health to encourage, but not to force, local authorities to improve conditions.  They gave local authorities money to make improvements in their areas if they wanted to and had the support of local ratepayers.  Only a few local authorities took any new measures.  By 1872 only 50 Medical Officers of Health had been appointed.  The Board of Health was abandoned in 1854.
2. 1867 Second Reform Act

   Nota:

   •  Working class men were given the right to vote.  For the first time, it wasn’t just the ratepayers who got a say in improving public health.  MPs were forced to improve the living conditions of the poor.
3. 1875 Second Public Health Act

   Nota:

   • Unlike the 1848 Public Health Act, the 1975 Public Health Act actually forced local authorities to introduce the following measures:  Provision of clean water  Proper drainage and sewage  The appointment of a Medical Officer of Health

Nota:

• In 1854 John Snow proved that there was a link between cholera and water supply. He used research, observation and door-to-door interviews to build a detailed map of a cholera epidemic in Broad Street.  Nearly all the deaths had taken place within a short distance of the water pump.  Near to the pump, there was a brewery and none of the people there had cholera. The brewery had its own water pump, and the men had been given free beer. They didn’t use the Broad Street Pump at all.  After collecting evidence, John Snow removed the handle from the Broad Street pump.  There were no more deaths. It later came to light that a cesspool near to the pump had a cracked lining which allowed the contents to contaminate the drinking water.  Snow put pressure on water companies to clean up their water supplies.