History

• Hippocrates


  • theory of the four humours
  • black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, blood
• Galen


  • theory of opposites
  • the four humours could be balanced by the opposite of their symptoms
  • encouraged doctors to observe patients for symptoms (this was useful)
• John of Arderne


  • surgery to remove anal abscess
  • used opium and herbane to numb pain (acted as anaesthetics)
• Hugh and Theodorric of Lucca


  • used wine as an antiseptic
  • challenged the idea that pus was healthy
  • surgery to remove arrows
• Abulcasis

  • 26 new surgical instruments
  • 30 volume medical textbook
  • popularised cauterisation
• Vesalius


  • 'the fabric of the human body' - 1543
  • encouraged dissection
  • studied at a university in Padua, Italy
  • his book provided an accurate illustration of the human anatomy
  • proved many of Galens ideas wrong - breast bone is 7 parts not 3, jaw bone is 1 part not 2
• Pare


  • ointment to sooth gunshot wounds which replaced burning oil in 1537
  • made of turpentine, egg yolk and rose oil
  • tied ligatures using silk they were less painful than cauterisation
  • false limbs
  • wrote about his ideas in several books, including Treatise on Surgery in 1564
• Harvey


  • discovered that the heart pumps blood around the body
  • disproved Galens idea that blood was being continuously burnt and replaced
  • this meant that bloodletting was reduced as a common treatment
  • 1618
  • published a book in 1628 called An Anatomical Account of the Motion of the Heart and Blood
  • dissected frogs
  • helped with blood transfusions and blood groups discovered by Karl Landsteiner in 1901
• Hunter

  • encouraged people to challenge Galens ideas and therefore helped lead to advancements in medicine
  • treated aneurysms
  • taught young surgeons
  • wrote many books on his research, e.g a treatise on the venereal disease in 1786
• Jenner


  • created a vaccine for smallpox by infecting people with cowpox as he noticed milkmaids were immune to smallpox
  • in 1980 smallpox was completely eradicated
  • given funding from the government (£10,000 in 1802, further £20,000 in 1807)
  • James Phipp (age 8) was his test subject
  • 1796
• Pasteur


  • discovered germ theory in 1861
  • proved that microbes were in the air and caused diseases in humans
  • discovered a vaccine for chicken cholera and discovered how vaccines work (weakened doses)
  • other vaccines such as anthrax and rabies
  • competed against Koch so received government funding during Franco-Prussian war
• Koch


  • matched specific bacteria to the disease that it caused
  • such as anthrax in 1876 and tuberculosis
  • competed against Pasteur so received government funding during the Franco-Prussian war
• Simpson


  • first effective anaesthetic - chloroform which replaced ether
  • used by Queen Victoria during childbirth in 1853
  • his work was opposed by many doctors
  • meant doctors could consider more complex surgeries
• Lister


  • first effective antiseptic - carbolic acid in 1863
  • made surgery safer as there was a lower risk of infection
  • opposed by many doctors as it was expensive and it cracked their hands
  • death rate in Lister's patients fell from 46% to 15%
• Chadwick


  • 1842 report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population concluded that disease was related closely with poor public health
• Snow


  • discovered in 1854 that cholera is waterborne
  • broad street pump, river thames
• Bazalgette

  • new and improved sewer system in London in 1865
  • prompted by the great stink in 1858, sewage build up in river thames
• Erlich


  • salvarsan 606 - 'magic bullet' which cured syphilis in 1910
  • significant because it was the first actual treatment for disease instead of a prevention method
• Fleming, Florey + Chain

  -penicillin - the first antibiotic which treated bacterial infection

  • discovered by chance in 1928 when mould grew in a petri dish containing staphylococcus he found that the bacteria didn't grow around the mould
  • he had no money so he couldn't share his research
  • Florey + Chain continued his research in 1939
  • they were funded by the government due to WWII so penicillin was mass produced for soldiers
• Booth


  • researched poverty and living conditions in London
  • he prompted to government to take responsibility of people in poverty (against Laissez-Faire policy) and old age pensions, free school meals and the welfare state were introduced
  • he found 36% of the population lived in poverty, not 20% that had been told by the government
  • number of policies to improve living conditions for those in poverty
  • 1886
  • 'life and labour of the London poor'
  • poverty maps
• Rowntree


  -investigated poverty and living conditions in York

  • 1901 he published 'poverty: a study of town life'
  • showed that poverty was having serious health impacts
  • he increased the wages of his workers and encouraged this from others
  • 1941 he published 'progress and poverty' report which showed 50% reduced in poverty since 1901
  • showed that poverty in the 1930s was mostly due to unemployment not low wages
• Beveridge


  • published Beveridge report in 1942
  • promised attacks on poverty and sickness
  • led to the introduction of National Health service (NHS) by the labour government post election
  • five giants (what the population needed to end to banish poverty): Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness
• Bevan


  • Labours minister for health
  • tasked with the creation and heading of the NHS in 1948
  • free national health service
• Watson and Crick


  • discovered the structure of DNA in 1953 (double helix shape)
  • crucial as it meant that genetic diseases could be understood and cures/preventions could be discovered