Industrial Medicine

• Anaesthetics 


  solved the problem of pain
• patients could die from the trauma of extreme pain
• Nitrous Oxide

  possible anaesthetic

  ignored by surgeons
• James Simpson

  discovered the effects of chloroform
• Chloroform

  1847

  used by Queen Victoria so became widely used

  sometimes effected the heart causing patients to die suddenly
• longer operating times led to higher death rates from infection because surgeons used unhygienic methods
• early anaesthetics led to a rise in death rates
• antiseptics

  used to kill germs that get near surgical wounds
• aseptic methods

  stop any germs getting near wound
• Joseph Lister

  used carbolic acid spray in the operating theatre

  starred using it on instruments and bandages
• use of carbolic acid reduced death rates

  50% 1864-66

  15% 1867-70
• antiseptics allowed surgeons to operate with less fear of the patient dying
• use of antiseptics increased the number of operations between 1867 and 1912
• many deaths were prevented because of antiseptics and anaesthetics
• problems with surgery:

  pain - no anaesthetics

  blood loss - common cause of death

  infection - no idea about germs from surgery
• Nitrous Oxide (laughing gas) (1842)

  first used painkiller

  impractical
• James Simpson

  discovered that Chloroform could be used as an anaesthetic
• Chloroform (1847)

  discovered as the first effective anaesthetic

  • didn't know what dosage so caused death by overdose
  • 1853 Queen Victoria used it and became popularised
• Joseph Lister

  used carbolic acid as the first antiseptic during surgery

  long term led to A-septic surgery
• Carbolic Acid

  • 1867
  • first used antiseptic
  • sprayed on surgical equipment and everything used in surgery
  • caused blisters
• Joseph Lister's ideas led to A-septic surgery
• blood loss not solved 20th century
• The Great Stink (18858)

  • hot weather so Thames water level was very low
  • Parliament couldn't meet because of smell of exposed sewage
  • 1300 miles of new sewers
• Cholera Epidemic (1854)

  • miasma believed to be cause until John Snow
  • disease carried though water
  • little was done to stop the spread
  • led to 1875 public health act
• John Snow

  • removed Broad Street pump handle
  • showed the connection between contaminated water and cholera
  • brought the Cholera outbreak to an end
  • findings had little impact not until Germ Theory was he widely accepted