history: medicine through time

• May k
• Medieval ideas on the cause of disease

  • God
  • Miasma
  • Four Humours
  • Supernatural
• God


  The Church taught that God caused disease to test faith or as a punishment
• Miasma

  Bad air (called Miasma) caused disease. Caused by dirt/waste
• Four Humours

  Idea by Hippocrates that the body contained four humours (blood, bile, black bile and phlegm). When humours became imbalanced, it would make you ill
• Supernatural


  Astrologists blamed the stars and planets for illnesses. People were superstitious of 'others'/outsiders' eg. witches, bad spirits and possession by demons
• Renaissance ideas on the cause of disease

  • Traditional ideas
  • Direct Observation
  • Urine Charts
  • Miasma
  • Contact
• Traditional ideas

  Traditional ideas remained popular with people at the time, especially during the Great Plague when they were no closer to the real cause
• Direct Observation

  Thomas Sydenham encouraged direct observation of the sick alongside making notes on symptoms, rather than just using books to diagnose patients
• Urine Charts


  Discoveries into the digestive system meant that physicians no longer believed urine charts
• Miasma

  The most common idea in the period. Summer heat, waste and dunghills caused 'vapours' blamed for the Great Plague in 1665
• Contact


  The use of 'Bills of Mortality during the plague allowed people to identify that the Plague could spread between people, and their efforts to quarantine and ban meetings suggest they knew it was contagious, but did not know how to explain it
• Industrial ideas on the cause of disease

  • Miasma
  • Spontaneous Generation
  • Traditional Ideas
  • The Germ Theory
• Miasma

  Miasma theory remained popular until the late 1800s, even with Florence Nightingale. Some linked to Spontaneous Generation
• Spontaneous Generation

  In early 1700, doctors using microscopes came up the theory of Spontaneous Generation. Idea that bacteria was caused by decay and spread
• Traditional Ideas


  By 1700, God and the Four Humours theory and the supernatural were no longer believed
• The Germ Theory

  In 1861, Louis Pasteur came up with the Germ Theory and proved that bacteria in the air caused decay (rotting), this proved Spontaneous Generation wrong. In the 1870s, Robert Koch's experiments proved that specific bacteria caused disease
• Modern ideas on the cause of disease

  • Genetics/DNA
  • Germ Theory
  • Lifestyle
• Genetics/DNA


  DNA identified by Crick/Watson in 1953, and then Human Genome Project allowed doctors to identity genetics (hereditary) diseases
• Germ Theory

  Continued use, but now improved science allowed specific germs using technology
• Lifestyle

  Doctors and scientists have now linked impact of lifestyle on health e.g. STD/drugs, smoking, diet
• Modern methods of diagnosis

  • Blood Tests
  • Biopsies
  • Ultrasound
  • X Ray
  • MRI Scans
  • CT Scans
• Blood Tests

  From the 1930s, used to test for conditions like anaemia or deficiencies
• Biopsies

  A sample of human tissue can be used to identify a disease e.g. cancer
• Ultrasound

  Using sound waves to look at children in women or for kidney stones
• X Ray

  From 1890s, to spot broken bones
• MRI Scans


  Magnets and radio waves
• CT Scans


  Advanced X-Rays which can be used to diagnose tumours and cancer
• Medieval methods to prevent disease

  • Amulets or charms
  • Incantations
  • Zodiac signs
• Medieval religious methods to prevent disease

  • Flagellants whipping themselves
  • Fasting, offerings, lighting candles
  • Following a Christian lifestyle