1800-1900

• Inoculation:

  • Lady Mary Montagu brought inoculation to Britain.
  • She identified that if a small, mild dose of smallpox was given to someone, they would be immune to it.
  • However, inoculation sometimes caused smallpox and led to death.
• Edward Jenner:

  • Jenner was an English country doctor
  • He observed milkmaids who hadn't had smallpox, but instead cowpox.
  • In 1796, he experimented by injecting a boy, James Phipps, with a small dose of cowpox, which made him immune to smallpox.
• Jenner's Vaccination:

  • Many opposed Jenner's new vaccination because: he couldn't scientifically explain it, many thought it would turn them into cows and inoculaters didn't want to lose money.
• Louis Pasteur:

  • French scientist
  • 1861, published the Germ Theory that disproved ideas of spontaneous generation. He did this in his experiment with swan-neck flasks.
  • Pasteur had also discovered a chicken cholera vaccine, where he accidentally injected chickens with weakened versions of chicken cholera, which made them immune.
• Robert Koch:

  • German scientist
  • He identified different germs were the cause of different diseases. He did this by dyeing bacteria cultures, and then viewed it through a microscope.
• Problems with surgery

  Pain, Infection, and Bloodloss
• Anasthetic surgery

  • Nitrous oxide was discovered by Humphrey Davey
  • Ether had very bad side effects, it was flammable
  • Chloroform was discovered by Simpson and his friends. It was used and influenced by Queen Victoria but could not be controlled and caused deaths.
• Antiseptic surgery:

  • Lister discovered carbolic spray as an antiseptic. This allowed operating theatres and hospitals to be clean, surgical instruments to be sterilised, and allowed surgeon's to clean their hands.
  • However, Lister's methods were opposed because it slowed down surgery, and was not used correctly
• Public Health:

  • there was lots of overcrowding, where disease spread rapidly, and many towns had bad water and sewage conditions
  • however, the government believed they shouldn't interfere with public health, laissez-faire, and left locals to control their own affairs
• Edwin Chadwick:

  • 1842, wrote a report on living conditions and health of the people.
  • he concluded that ill health was caused by living conditions, and he wanted to change this.
• 1848 Public Health Act:

  • after an outbreak of cholera, the government decided to pass the Public Health Act
  • however, it was not manditory to improve conditions
• John Snow:

  • 1854, Snow recorded the deaths of people in Broad Street, which was affected by the cholera epidemic, and made a link between cholera and the water supply there
  • Snow removed the water supply and there were no more deaths.
• The Great Stink:

  • 1858, the hot weather caused the River Thames, where people dumped their waste, to stink.
  • this prompted the government to create sewage systems and funded Joseph Bazalgette to build the sewage systems in London
• 1867 Reform Act:

  • working class men were given the right to vote, this meant they could have a say in improving living conditions of the poor
• 1875 Second Public Health Act:

  • this was manditory, and forced authorities to improve local public health, which was very effective
• Florence Nightingale:

  • in the Crimean War, she helped to improve cleanliness in hospitals and made huge improvements to death rates
  • she wrote Notes on Nursing and set up hospitals all over London