Medicine in 18th and 19th Century Britain

Before vaccinations, there were Inoculation which was cutting the patients arm and soaking it in pus taken from swelling of someone that had a small form of smallpox.

Edward Jenner found a link with Cowpox and Smallpox.  Milkmaids got Cowbox, but never smallpox.

He used this kid called James Phipps who was injected with Cowpox. And then he injected him with Smallpox, yet never got the disease.

People were still resisting. Doctors saw this as a threat.

Parliment were not resisting and gave the dude £10,000 for prostitutes to open a vaccination centre. Free for kids. Compulsory for all later on.

Unnfortunately, he had no idea why vaccinations worked. Stoopid.

People thought germs cause disease as germs were decaying matter.

Pasteur found out that sugar beet was soured by germs in alcohol as he worked in the alcohol industry.

Sterilised water in a closed Swan Neck Flask did not breed germs whereas sterilised water in an open flask did.

He concluded that germs are microbes in the air that causes decay. He then said germs cause disease :)

People were sceptical like "What the ****!?"

It took a lot of time to have effect.

"So you're telling me that diseases have induvidual named germs!?"

Scientists loved it

• Joseph Lister created antiseptics surgery
• John Snow's finding of Cholera
• Parliament's "1875 Public Health Act"

Found diseases caused by specific microbes including

• Anthrax 
• Septicaemia
• Tuberculosis
• Cholera

Experiment he did was pretty cool

• Agar jelly to create solid cultures and breed bacteria
• Dyes to stain bacteria under a microscope so it was easy to see

Before Anaethetics, pain was caused, many died

Nitrous Oxide - 1799 - basically laughing gas, was identified by Humphry Davy. Ignored by surgeons at the time. Ignored again when Horace Wells ****** up too.

Ether - 1842 - Crawford Long. Because it was irritant and explosive, it was a risky move to surgeons.

Chloroform - 1847 - James Simpson. Wanted to find a much safer anaesthetic instead of Ether. during childbirth. He experimented on himself to find the effects. It sometimes affected the heart causing patients to die.  

Anaesthetics had risen death rates because unconsious patients were easier to operate on, so they took longer over their work.

Antiseptic - Kill germs that come near surgical wounds

Asepsis - Prevent germs from coming near surgical wounds

Joseph Lister - Pioneered Antiseptic Surgery

Ignas Semmelweis - "Wash your hands to prevent infection from being passed on"

Joseph Lister - Carbolic Acid used in early 1860 and reduced infection rates.

Germ Theory helped - "If germs can go anywhere, Carbolic Acid can be used to clean up the surgical equipment and bandages!" - 1865

Reduced death rates from 50% to 15%.

Asepsis - Germ free environment

People did not understand how infectious dirty water was. Houses did not have a bathroom and would use Privy's (Toilets outside).

Below Privy's lied cesspits, a place full of **** and ****.

The waste would be thrown in the river.

Cholera was epidemic, wiping thousands. 21,000 people died in 1832.

Caused diarrhoea.

John Snow - He figured it was waterbourne, yet had very little proof.

Widespread in the area of Broad Street.

He removed the handle of the water pump. Brought cholera outbreak to an end.

Edwin Chadwick - 1842 wrote a book about the poor living conditions that people of Britain lived.

The 1848 Public Health Act - Limited. Few towns followed the Board of Health

Great Stink - 1858. This then forced the government to make a new sewage plan.

Laissez - Faire - The idea that the government should not worry about the living conditions.

The 1875 Public Health Act - Made by Benjamin Disraeli.

Discovered by Fleming

1928 - Grew staphylococci. A fungal spore had dropped and stopped staphylococci from growing.

Staphylococci - Septic wound that made many soldiers die.

No one had wanted to fund his research.

Penicillin was natural. It needed a way for it to be purified.

1938 - 1940