history gcse edexcel

• Germ theory

  • Pasteur was the first to suggests that Germs cause disease
  • He was employed in 1857 to explain why sugar beet went sour in alcohol
  • He blamed germs and proved it
  • In 1861, he published his germ theory.
• Impact of Germ theory

  • First met with scepticism because people couldn't believe tiny microbes caused disease.
  • It didn't help germ responsible for each disease had to be identified individually
  • It then soon gained popularity in Britain
  • Inspired Joseph Lister to develop antiseptics
  • Proved John snow findings about cholera which put pressure on the government to pass the 1875 public health act.
• Robert Koch

  • Built on Pasteur's work by linking specific diseases to the particular microbe that caused them.
  • He identified anthrax spores (1876) and bacteria that cause tuberculosis (1882) and cholera (1883)
  • He used agar jelly then used dyes to stain the bacteria and employed newly invented photograph to record his findings.
• Florence Nightingale

  • Born in 1820
  • Studied to become a nurse in 1849
  • When the Crimean war broke out, she was sent to nurse hospitals (1853)
  • She took 38 nurses and using training she had learnt from training in Europe.
  • Nightingale made sure all wards were clean and hygienic and water was clean.
  • Death rate went from 42% to 2%.
• Nightingale impact

  • In 1859, she published a book on notes of nursing. This explained her methods and emphasised hygiene.
  • Public raised 44,000 to help her training nurses, she created the Nightingale School of Nursing.
  • By 1900, there were 64,000 trained nurses.
  • In 1919, the nurse registration act was passed. This made training compulsory.
• Anaesthetics

  • Nitrous oxide was a possible anaesthetic but was ignored. There was a public demonstration in 1845 but had bad luck to pick a patient unaffected by nitrous oxide.
  • In 1842, Crawford Long discovered ether to have anaesthetic qualities of ether but didn't published his work. Ether was irritant and fairly explosive.
  • James Simpson discovered the effects of CHLOROFORM in 1847.
  • Queen Victoria gave birth to her eight child using chloroform in 1853.
• Anaesthetic effect

  • Led to longer and more complex operations. This was because surgeons found out that unconscious patients were easier to work on.
  • Longer operations led to higher death rates from infection because they didn't know poor hygiene spread disease.
• Joseph Lister

  • Used carbolic acid in operating theatres in the early 1860s and he reduced infection rates.
  • Lister heard about the germ theory in 1865 - he realised germs could be in the air , or on surgical instruments or peoples hand. He started using it on instruments and bandages.
  • The use of antiseptics reduced deaths rate from as high as 50% in 1864-66 to around 15% in 1867-1870.
  • Allowed surgeons to operate with less fear of patients dying from infection.
• Cholera

  • Reached Britain in 1831. By 1832 it was an epidemic and 21,000 people died that year.
  • Spread when infected sewage gets into drinking water.
  • Best theory at the time was miasma.
• John Snow

  • Showed connection between contaminated water and cholera.
  • When Cholera broke out in Broad Street area of London in 1854, Snow set out to test his theory.
  • He interviewed people living in Broad Street and made a map showing where the cases of disease where.
  • His investigation showed all victims used the same water pump on broad street. He convinced local council to remove the handle from the pump.
  • Discovered a nearby cesspit had its waste leaked into the water supply.
• First Public Health Act (1848)

  • 1848
  • Act set up a central Board of Health and let local councils set up their own boards of health.
  • Limited because very few people chose it and those that did refused to spend money.
• Second reform act

  • 1867
  • Because Snow discovery of the link between dirty water and cholera.
  • Gave an addition of 1 million working class men the vote.
  • Now that they had the vote, they could put pressure on government to listen to concerns about health
• 3rd Public health act

  • 1875
  • Appoint health inspectors and sanitary inspectors who made sure that laws on things like water supplies and hygiene's were being followed
  • Maintain sewage system to prevent further cholera outbreak
  • Keep town streets clean
• jenner smallpox vaccine

  1796
• chloroform is discovered

  1847
• nitrous oxide

  1799
• ether

  1842
• germ theory

  1865
• carbolic acid in operating theatres

  early 1860s
• cholera

  1831
• first public health act


  1848
• last public health act

  1875
• great plague

  1665
• crimean war

  1853
• florence nightingale becoming a nurse

  1849