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Medicine in the Victorian age 1837 – 1901 By Becky Akbar Contents • • • • • Context 19th Century diseases People responsible for modern medicine Florence Nightingale Medical Breakthroughs Context • In the Victorian era medical people includes both – Practitioners who believed in bloodletting as a cure for their patients. – Many people though that they could be cured by prayer. – Visionary doctors who made amazing discoveries regarding disease. • In the Victorian era, if you weren’t feeling very well, there were lots of people who could help you – There were doctors with educations looking after patients. – There were chemists who gave medical advice for a fee. – And even sometimes homemade cures passed between neighbours. • Unfortunately, some of the people who claimed to have medical knowledge ended up causing an ill person more harm than good because some people didn't understand what causes disease. 19th Century Diseases • Chicken Pox: common disease in children, highly contagious • Cholera: Highly infectious, caused by drinking contaminated water • Diptheria: another childhood disease, which makes breathing hard • Polio: Attacks the spinal cord and brain, resulting in temporary paralysis. • Consumption: (tuberculosis) the bacteria that causes it is found in milk and other foods • Small pox: especially fatal in small children, blisters appear over the body and can make it difficult to breathe People responsible for modern medicine • Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (9 June 1836 – 17 December 1917) – First woman doctor in England. • Joseph Lister (1827-1912) – who perfected the microscope, – discovering shape of blood corpuscles – Joseph Lister is the surgeon who introduced new principles of cleanliness which transformed surgical practice in the late 1800s – He read Pasteur's work on micro-organisms and decided to experiment with using one of Pasteur's proposed techniques, that of exposing the wound to chemicals. He chose dressings soaked with carbolic acid (phenol) to cover the wound and the rate of infection was vastly reduced. Lister then experimented with hand-washing, sterilising instruments and spraying carbolic in the theatre while operating, in order to limit infection. • Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895) – Pasteur was a French chemist and biologist who proved the germ theory of disease and invented the process of pasteurisation. – He was able to demonstrate that organisms such as bacteria were responsible for souring wine and beer (he later extended his studies to prove that milk was the same), and that the bacteria could be removed by boiling and then cooling the liquid. • Mary Seacole (1805- 1881 ) – She set up and operated boarding houses in Panama and the Crimea to assist in her desire to treat the sick. Seacole was taught herbal remedies and folk medicine by her mother, who kept a boarding house for disabled European soldiers and sailors – She was well know for her Crimean War battlefield nursing and her Cholera treatment in Panama • John Snow (1813-1858) • During the Cholera outbreak of 1854 he was able to prove that cholera was a water borne disease and proved the fact by removing a pump handle in Soho. He recommended boiling water before use to make it better. • Snow was also a pioneer in the field of anaesthetics. By testing the effects of controlled doses of ether and chloroform on animals and on humans, he made those drugs safer and more effective • Sir James Young Simpson (1811-1870) • Was a Scottish doctor and an important figure in the history of medicine. Simpson discovered the anaesthetic properties of chloroform and successfully introduced it for general medical use Florence Nightingale • Florence Nightingale was born on the 12th of May 1820 . Florence Nightingale was the founder of modern nursing. • Soldiers who were injured in the Crimean War were taken to hospitals. Many ended up dying from the diseases they caught in hospital. She changed the death rates of soldiers from 42% to 2% because she kept the hospitals clean, flushed out the sewers and improved ventilation. Medical Breakthroughs • Importance of cleanliness in hospitals (and life) • Development of microscope • Use of anaesthics • Pasteurisation • Development of X ray machines • Understanding of how disease spreads Conclusion • Because the standards for cleanliness and medicine in the Victorian era were very important in order to successfully fight largely unknown, unseen enemies, they can still prove useful today for people who suffer from chronic disorders of all sorts. • These medical measures are often good at protecting small children from infections or diseases that their parents had, and also to help the patient not get it again as their surroundings improved by increased ventilation and systematic cleansing. • While the Victorian era is often known for its quack cures playing on new cultural knowledge and ignorance, Victorian medicine still has a lot to offer to those willing to apply some common sense.