Industrial (c.1700-c.1900)
Cards (6)
- Changes in Britain
- Resulted from developments in science and technology
- Resulted from a change in the government's attitude towards its role in the everyday lives of the population
- By 1750, the Church and classical ideas had lost their dominant influence and scientific ideas were much more accepted
- Britain experienced more changes in the 18th and 19th centuries than in any period before
- KEY IDEA: These changes happened slowly, but they had a revolutionary impact on medicine
- Industrial Revolution
- The process that transformed manufacturing from handmade to machine-made, mass-produced goods using water, steam & coal power transported by canal, rail & steamship
- Britain was the first country to have an Industrial Revolution
- Many people moved from the countryside to urban centres, leaving rural jobs in farming & agriculture, finding work in factories, mills & mines
- By the end of the 19th century, most people in Britain were employed in factories and workshops
- City Life - problems in Industrial Period
- Cities became the main centres of production
- By 1900, London had a population of 4.5 million
- These cities could become overcrowded/overpopulated, result: the growing workforce was accommodated in poor-quality housing; the streets became filled with waste
- Without fresh water and a sewerage system, disease spread easily
- Laissez-faire
- Translated as 'leave well alone' or 'let the people choose'; a government policy of interfering as little as possible in social and economic policy
- Throughout most of the 18th and 19th centuries, the government adopted this laissez-faire approach to medicine and public health
- Continuity in theories of causes in disease
- spontaneous generation - where germs were produced by decaying matter
- miasma - bad air
- Joseph Lister (1827–1912)- Surgeon who pioneered antiseptic surgery at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, then at King’s College Hospital in London - Used carbolic acid to clean wounds and prevent infection- Led to a dramatic fall in deaths due to postoperative infection- His methods were widely adopted throughout Europe and America (but never used again after a decade)