Medicine and Treatment

An infectious disease that spreads quickly through the population. This is never good news, but if the disease is a killer, it can have a terrible impact on the society.

The opposite of progression. Regression is when things get worse not better.

One organisation or person controls every aspect of a trade or profession.

When the Reformation happened in Britain, Henry VIII founded the Church of England, destroying monasteries and other Catholic institution in the process.

A phrase used in the Middle Ages to describes bubonic plague. The 'backness' was caused by bleeding under the skin.

The study of the planets and how they might influence the lives of people.

The practice of cutting a patient and draining away some blood. This might be done with a knife and a bleeding cup, or with leeches. Monastery records show that monks were bled regularly; the blood was often kept and used  as a fertiliser in the fields.

People who beat themselves with a stick to punish themselves for their sins.

A bit like today's pharmacists, they mixed medicine which had been prescribed by doctors. Even though they were not supposed to give medical advice, they often did.

Another name for a healer with no training, who could make a lot of money selling remedies or charms.

Doctors of medicine who trained at university.

The set of facts or circumstances that surround a particular event.

People employed by the local authorities to keep the streets clean.

Separating sick people from healthy people to prevent disease spreading.

A cause of disease or disaster.

The name Jenner gave to his method. It comes from vacca, the Latin word for cow.

Bad air, or smells from rubbish and human waste rotting in the streets, which were thought to cause disease.

Another word for micoorganisms or germs.

Someone who stole the bodies of dead criminals or dug up recently buried corpses to sell the bodies, or pieces of them, to eager medical students.

Meaning 'leave it alone', a key part of the government's policy in the nineteenth century. The government felt it was not its job to interfere in people's day-to-day lives by providing medical care.

When British industry changed quickly and grew rapidly from 1750-1900.

A toilet located in a small shed outside a house.

A water-borne disease that brings on extreme sickness and diarrhoea. Sufferers die quickly from dehydration.

Chemical drugs which only killed the disease without affecting the person.

DNA is like a long list of instructions which, grouped together into genes, decide things like what colour your eyes will be, or whether you will develop a disease.

Provenance is who wrote or created the source, when, and for what purpose. This can have a big impact on what the sources tells us. For example, a medical textbook written before the first successful blood transfusion might tell a different story to a newspaper article written during the First World War.

A transfer of blood from one person or animal to another. Successful transfusions can only take place between two humans of the same blood type.