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• anaesthetics - work of Liston and Snow with Ether

  Liston - 1846 experimented with ether

  1846 - Liston used ether to amputate a leg at UCL

  1847 - John Snow began to administer ether at St George's hospital London

  the term etherisation was invented
• anaesthetics - work of Simpson and Snow with chloroform

  1847 - James Simpson - professor of midwifery - experimented with chloroform which was a powerful anaesthetic and used to relieve labour pains in childbirth

  1853 - John Snow used it during the delivery of Queen Victoria's 8th child

  It becomes standard practice during surgery
• antiseptics - work of Lister

  1860s - Lister experimented with carbolic acid as an antiseptic on surgical wounds, He also soaked dressings in it.

  He realised that compound fractures were becoming infected because of exposure to bacteria in the air

  1864-66 - death rate of his patients fell from 45% to 15%

  1867 - developed carbolic spray
• antiseptic - work of Pasteur

  • Pasteur's germ theory of 1861 made the connection between bacteria and disease
  • Pasteur wrote a paper called Research into Putrefaction.
  • Lister read this paper and argued that the same process causing fermentation was involved with sepsis
  • This paved the way for Lister to develop antiseptics to clean wounds of bacteria
• aseptic surgery - development of antiseptic methods

  • Lister developed anti-septic surgery after reading about Pasteur's germ theory. He used carbolic acid to clean wounds and reduced death rate of patients from 45% to 15%
  • This marked a turning point in surgery and he trained surgeons from 1877 using antiseptic methods.
  • These methods would be further developed into aseptic surgery by 1890s once the stream steriliser was invented in 1878 and sterilised rubber gloves in 1894
• aseptic surgery - work of Pasteur and Koch

  • Pasteur's germ theory of 1861 made the connection between bacteria and disease
  • Pasteur wrote a paper called Research into Putrefaction. Lister read this paper and argued that the same process causing fermentation was involved with sepsis
  • 1878 - Koch found the bacterium which caused septicaemia and blood poisoning which was a huge boost to the theories of cleaning the entire operating theatre.
• blood transfusions - work of Landsteiner

  Before 1901 blood transfusions had often been fatal but nobody knew why

  1901 Karl Landsteiner discovered blood groups (A,B,AB,O) and this paved the way for blood transfusions to be carried out

  This would help people who had blood disorders such as anaemia and leukaemia

  identifying blood groups therefore paved the way for safe person to person blood transfusions
• blood transfusions - better storage

  1910 - discovered that adding an anticoagulant like sodium citrate and refrigerating the blood meant it could be stored - beginning of blood banks

  1914 - first non-direct transfusion carried out by Albert Hustin using stored blood

  WW1 - plasma and cell could be separated and stored more easily

  1917 - first blood bank on the western front

  therefore better storage paved the way for non-direct transfusions and blood banks
• x-rays - work of Rontgen

  1895 - William Rontgen experiments with cathode rays and discovers x-rays

  1896 many hospitals including London Royal Hospital had installed x-ray machines

  This meant that details of broken bones could be seen and set properly. It could also show exactly where a bullet or shrapnel was
• x-rays - work of Marie Curie

  WW1 - Marie Curie used her own money to equip ambulances with x-ray equipment - became known as Petite Curies

  Injured soldiers could be x-rayed and operated on at the front

  the International Red Cross made Curie head of irs radio-logical service and Curie trained doctors in the new techniques