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Causes and cures
Causes
Roman
God, curse, miasma, four humours
Cures/treatment
Galen and the Theory of Opposites - Galen a Roman doctor developed the Theory of the Four Humours. He
believed in bloodletting as a treatment for most illnesses but also used the Theory of opposites ie too much
phlegm (water and cold), eat chilli peppers, a temperature eat cucumber.
Purging, bloodletting
1350-1750
Galen and the Theory of Opposites - Galen a Roman doctor developed the Theory of the Four Humours. He
believed in bloodletting as a treatment for most illnesses but also used the Theory of opposites ie too much
 The Four Humours – the phlegm (water and cold), eat chilli peppers, a temperature eat cucumber.
Ancient Greeks identified four
different liquids or humour in Purging, bloodletting
the body, blood, phlegm, yellow
Physicians also prescribed medicines based on herbs, plants and the bezoar, a stomach found in goats’
bile, black bile.
stomachs which was believed to have supernatural properties.
The Greeks believed everyone had
their own mixture of humours and
Physicians used a handbook called ‘vade mecum’ – included urine charts to help diagnose illness, zodiac
when they became unbalanced, you
chart to help the physician know when to avoid certain treatments. ‘Compendium of medicine’, written by
became ill. If you had a temperature,
Gilbertus Anglicus, in Latin to educate physicians and helped the physicians to treat a range of illnesses.
you were red because you had too
Herbals, which described plants and their uses in medicine, were in English, and were used by ordinary
much blood.
people.
They also thought the these humours
were linked to the seasons therefore in
winter, which is linked to water, your
body would produce too much phlegm
Fires, ringing church bells
and you have to sneeze and cough to
get rid of it. The cures were to restore
prayer
the four humours e.g. bloodletting.
Hippocrates believed most treatment
should be based on rest, diet and
leaving the body to heal itself.
 Also developed was an interest
in the stars and astrology.
Scholars linked these star signs
to the Greek ideas of the
elements, which were then
linked to Galen’s medical ideas.

Miasma
 Punishment from God
1750-1900
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Beginning four humours,
miasma, spontaneous
generation(disease caused by
germs that were produced by
flesh and vegetables as they
rotted)
1861 Germ Theory
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1900 –
Germ theory
Treatment for cholera – burning clothes and bedding of dead person, praying, cleaning the house and
scattering chloride of lime around, smoking cigars, using lucky charms, burning barrels of tar/vinegar,
special mixture of liquids/pills
Jenner’s vaccination against smallpox
Patent medicines – fewer herbal medicines because more people lived in cities, apothecaries sold
many ‘preparations’, advertised as a cure for everything, potions, ointment and pills made from such
things as coloured liquids, alcohol, lard, wax, turpentine, ginger, arsenic
Ingredients for pills made into paste, shaped by hand, rich customers covered in gold/silver leaf, pills
in medicine revolutionized in 1844 when William Brockedon invented a machinre to standised pills ,
produced more quickly
Thomas Beecham began selling pills in 1847, Jesse Boot transformed his shop into a chain of
pharmacies in the late 19th century
Government regulation stopped harmful ingredients in medicine
First Magic Bullet
Von Behring – developed Koch’s work to isolate antitoxins used by the body to fight diptheria, found a way to
inject them to cure the disease
Ehrlich – (Koch’s team) set up research team, knew certain dyes stained specific microbes(Koch’s work) and
antitoxins only attacked the disease microbes(Behring’s work), tried to combine a dye with other chemicals
to find a disease for syphilis, a ‘magic bullet’ to attack disease not the body, researched for several
years(received government grants)
1909 –Hata joined the team, reviewed the work and found mistakes, the 606th compound actually effective
Treatment called SALVERSON 606 – important breakthrough to use chemical drugs to target and cure
disease
Second magic bullet
1932 Domagk discovered a red dye was effective against some cases of blood poisoning, developed the drug
Prontosil – many people had died from scratches being infected, key ingredient in prontosil was
sulphonamide, other sulphonnnamide drugs were developed to cure pneumonia, scarlet fever,meningitis
These discoveries important because medicine could now cure many infections/diseases previously killers,
firstly by injection but as pharmaceutical industry developed pills produced
Penicillin
Fleming – chemistin St Mary’s Hospital, 1928 noticed a culture of bacteria growing in a petri dish was
attacking and killing an unknown mould, decided to research the mystery killer mould, discverd it was an
excellent antibiotic, penicillin, only tested on bacteria in lab, not living organisms, published his work in 1929,
unable to get funding to develop, so abandoned it
Difficult to produce pure penicillin, so impractical as medicine
Florey and Chain two scientists read Fleming’s work and in 1939 set up a team to develop penicillin.
1940 tested on mice, 1941 tested on patient, acted as a miracle drug who were dying of infection, only a small
amount available and the patient dies when it ran out
Florey determined to mass produce it, couldn’t be synthesized like chemicals(Salverson 606). Mould had to
be cultured on a broth to grow, and exposed to air to grow, used a collection of baths, bedpans etc, hired 6
assistants
No British firm able to create technology to mass produce(WW2)
Florey refused to patent penicillin
June 1941 Florey and Heatley went to US to get funds, at first unsuccessful, but December 1941, US entered
war, US government now prepared to fund mass production- likely to be many soldiers dying from infection,
and penicillin could save their lives
Florey discovered that drying the mould at low temperatures most successful, method of purifying penicillin,
scientists at a chemical company used an ice-cream freezer to develop a methods of freeze-drying led to
large-scale production 1944
Factors – government, war, accident, technology
x-rays 1895 developed by Roentgen, photos of within the human body,1902 realised could be used to burn
and shrink tumours – radiotherapy
electron microscope 1931 using technique called cystallogy Crick and Watson developed DNA (1953), led to
better understanding of genetic illness
Cures - pacemakers and kidney dialysis, hypodermic needles and intravenous drips to give precise doses of
medicine, chemotherapy
Diagnosis –endoscopes – a flexible tube containing a camera can be passes inside the body, ultrasound scans,
CAT scans, MRI scans
Nuclear medicines – radioactive elements can be injected into the body to help track what is happening inside
the body
Kits available to help people monitor their own health eg blood pressure, diabetic kits for blood sugar
Blood transfusions, 1901 landsteiner discovered blood groups and transfusions on successful if donor and
patient the same blood group, only not able to store until the high number of injuries in WW1 sped up the
search for the solution, 1915 discovered adding sodium citrate prevented clotting, but the blood cells soon
deteriorated, 1916 new scientific techniques made it possible to store blood for longer periods
‘Alternative’ medicine –herbal, natural methods, acupuncture