Medicine Through Time

Revision cards for OCR Medicine Through Time GCSE History course. Cards are organised by time period and then by each of the seven factors plus 'others' for any other stuff that doesn't really fit, and 'surgery'

(if the factor is crossed through, it means that particular factor did not have an impact in that time period)

PS. Hope I haven't missed anything important!

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  • Created by: Ellie
  • Created on: 28-05-11 15:22

Prehistory

WAR

  • people believed to be peaceful

CHANCE

INDIVIDUALS

RELIGION

  • Believed in 'spirits' - each person had a spirit and you became ill if a 'bad spirit' entered your body
  • Charms were worn to ward off bad spirits. 
  • Medicine men - the priests/doctors. Had no training, the role was passed from father to son. Only men, no women. 
  • Prayers were used to cure illness

GOVERNMENT

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

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Prehistory (cont.)

IMPROVED COMMUNICATIONS

SURGERY

  • evidence of setting of broken bones
  • Trephining - the act of drilling into the skull to 'release bad spirits'. What it actually did was release pressure on the brain. 

OTHER

  • Herbs used alot, mostly by women
  • Many of these treatments were psychosomatic - because the people believed they would work, they got better
  • No written records - everything is hypothesized
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Ancient Egypt

WAR

  • Peaceful
  • Due to this peace, the Egyptians had time and money that could be spent on medical advancements rather than war.

CHANCE

INDIVIDUALS

  • Irj, Guardian of the Anus/ Physician to Pharaoh Amenhotep I
  • Sekhmet,  Goddess of War

RELIGION

  • Polytheistic beliefs - believed in multiple Gods 
  • The Gods caused illness
  • Sekhmet, Goddess of War, was responsible for medical epidemics and her temples had doctors
  • Belief in the afterlife meant dissection was forbidden   
  • Embalming/ mummification: basic knowledge of anatomy
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Ancient Egypt (cont.)

GOVERNMENT

  • ruled by Pharaohs, not a government

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

  • intricate medical equipment such as the wire used for removing the brain in embalming

IMPROVED COMMUNICATION

  • discovery of papyrus meant medical discoveries could be recorded 
  • hieroglyphics
  • the Egyptians were skilled sailors and so travelled the world, picking up knowledge from other colonies
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Ancient Egypt (cont.2)

SURGERY

  • did not happen due to religious restrictions on cutting the body open

OTHER

  • Theory of The Blocked Channels - each vein was similar to an irrigation channel as used by the Egyptians to make use of the Nile. You became sick if one of your 'channels' was blocked.
  • The Egyptians were very clean
  • The first people to come up with contraception - mud wrapped around the penis as a form of barrier
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Ancient Greece

WAR

  • experience of treating battle wounds from expanding the empire
  • discovery of new herbs and remedies

CHANCE

INDIVIDUALS

  • Asclepius, Greek God of Healing
  • Hippocrates. Responsible for the theory of the four humours, the hippocratic oath, the hippocratic collection of books, treatments and observation. (HH4HOT)

RELIGION

  • Asclepius, Greek God of Healing and his daughters - Panacea and Hygeia (similarity between Hygeia and hygiene and Panacea and paracetemol). Ascelpius' symbol was a snake wrapped around a staff - this symbol can still be seen today
  • Asclepions (temples of Asclepius) were places of healing where the sick could rest, be prayed for, and be fed well. Priests were also doctors
  • Dissection was forbidden, apart from in Alexandria.
  • The idea of the Gods causing illness was beginning to be questioned
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Ancient Greece (cont.)

GOVERNMENTS

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

  • stronger medical instruments than previously

IMPROVED COMMUNICATIONS

  • a large empire meant the sharing of ideas was easier
  • ideas and discoveries were recorded in books

SURGERY

  • cutting open the body was still forbidden, but due to Alexandria, a better knowledge of anatomy was gained as dissection was allowed

OTHER

  • heavy emphasis on diet and exercise
  • The Theory of the Four Humours - corresponded to the 4 elements and the seasons. The body contained four substances, Black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm, and if one of them was coming out, they were unbalanced. 
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The Romans

WAR

  • frequently at war. this gave the Romans experience with battle wounds
  • War meant a huge army, and with the army came army hospitals - the first hospitals.

CHANCE

  • Galen dissected animals to prove his theories, and some of the anatomy was the same as that of humans, but not all. 

INDIVIDUALS

  • Antiochus - woman doctor who discovered a medicine for rheumatism
  • Galen - The Theory of Opposites. Expanded on the theory of the four humours, believing that if you had a fever, you needed something cold, if you were too cold you needed something hot. Believed that the blood was used and burnt up and the body kept reproducing more.


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The Romans (cont.)

RELIGION

  • polytheistic
  • Salus: Greek God of healing.
  • Asclepius
  • In later years, the Christian church adopted Galen's theories as it fit nicely with the bible
  • no dissection of humans

GOVERNMENTS

  • strong, centralised government.
  • the first public health system: aqueducts, latrines, public baths, lead pipes to rich homes (led to lead poisoning although this was not known at the time), drains and sewers, rules about where the dead could be buried

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

  • aqueducts and sewers


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The Romans (cont.2)

IMPROVED COMMUNICATIONS

  • the books of Hippocrates and Galen

SURGERY

  • Amputation
  • Trephining
  • Bleeding

OTHER

  • large, cramped cities led to high rates of illness
  • Doctors trained by reading the Hippocratic collection
  • while there were sewers, these were emptied into the rivers where people washed their clothes
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Middle Ages

WAR

  • The fall of the Roman Empire meant the destruction of the Public Health System as well as many important medical journals containing medical information.
  • Money spent on war rather than medicine

CHANCE

INDIVIDUALS

  • King Edward III ordered street cleaning in 1372 suggesting a link between disease and dirt
  • Deshilliac: doctor to the Pope. Convinced dissection to be permitted and observed that there were two different types of plague. 
  • Usama Ibn Muinqidh - Islamic scholar who wrote a book detailing medicine and illness of the time as he travelled the world. 
  • Ibn Sinna (980 - 1057) - author of a book detailing all aspects of medicine
  • Rhazes (852 - 925) - first accurate descriptions of measles and smallpox
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Middle Ages (cont.)

RELIGION

  • God caused illness.
  • The Catholic Church had a huge influence - Church leaders had a higher life expectancy than Kings.
  • Forbidden to be seen to challenge Galen's theories. 
  • No freedom of ideas
  • Only monks and priests were literate
  • During the Black Death, the Church's influence was such that it was believed that if you paid the church, you would be cured. 
  • Pilgrimage and prayer was believed to cure illness
  • FLAGELLANTS - People walked the streets whipping themselves believing that if they punished themselves, God would not punish them by giving them the Black Death
  • After the Black Death, belief and confidence in the Catholic Church was severely weakened. 
  • Church responsible for training doctors 


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Middle Ages (cont.2)

GOVERNMENTS

  • Public Health System introduced toward the end of the Middle Ages

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

IMPROVED COMMUNICATIONS

  • More trade meant more discoveries of illnesses and remedies but also led to the Black Death

SURGERY


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Middle Ages (cont.3)

OTHER

  • The Black Death hit the the UK between 1348 and 1351. It originated in Asia in 1346 and came to the UK through trade. One third of the UK population died during this epidemic. 
  • Miasma (bad air) caused illness. 
  • Overpopulation caused disease to spread quickly. 
  • Jews were blamed for the Black Death. 
  • Arab medicine was much more advanced than European 
  • Specialist maternity hospitals
  • Hospitals did not admit people with contagious diseases and provided food and a warm bed.
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The Renaissance

WAR

  • experience of battle wounds
  • enabled Ambroise Pare to make his discoveries

CHANCE

  • Pare discovered a 'soothing digestive' for gunshot wounds rather than 'cauterising' (burning wounds together) due to running out of oil
  • Using honey to clean wounds - they did not know it was an antiseptic
  • The Great Fire of London: killed the Plague


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The Renaissance (cont.)

INDIVIDUALS

  • William Harvey  - discovered that the heart was a pump. disproved Galen's theory of blood being burnt up. Proved that the body had a one-way circulation system of blood. Author of An Anatomical Account of the Mothion of the Heart and Blood.
  • Vesalius - Encouraged human dissection. Disproved Galen: the jaw bone is made of one part, the breastbone of 3 and blood does not flow through invisible holes in the septum. Author of the Fabrica/ Fabric of the Human Body
  • Pare - Discovered a new herbal remedy for gunshot wounds. Discovered ligatures (stitches). Designed false limps for amputees. Author of Works on Surgery. Proved that the Bezoar stone was not a cure-all
  • Anthony van Leeuwenhoek - inventor of the microscope

RELIGION

  • Faith in the Catholic Church was weakened due to the Black Death
  • This led to questioning of ideas
  • The Reformation - the formation of the Church of England by Henry VIII
  • Bill of mortality - an annual record of deaths
  • Dissection now permitted


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The Renaissance (cont.2)

GOVERNMENTS

  • Plague precautions: quarantines and banned public gatherings
  • Funded medical research
  • Basic Public Health System

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

  • new, more powerful microscopes
  • Forceps
  • Printing press
  • Water pumps inspired Harvey to think of the heart as a pump
  • Transport

IMPROVED COMMUNICATIONS

  • Transport
  • Printing press allowed more books to be printed


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The Renaissance (cont.3)

SURGERY

  • blood transfusions were beginning to be thought of
  • amputations

OTHER

  • inspiration from the ancient Greeks
  • the first universities for medical training
  • women not permitted into university but could train to be midwives
  • Tobacco discovered and believed to be a cure-all
  • The Plague caused many deaths
  • Most people were literate
  • Education improved
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Industrial Era

WAR

  • Napoleon had his soldiers vaccinated
  • The Crimean War made Nightingale's developments possible. 

CHANCE

  • Jenner did not know that smallpox was caused by a virus, he only knew that it worked. 

INDIVIDUALS

  • Edward Jenner (1749 - 1823) - vaccination against smallpox by injecting cowpox into the patients veins.  200 years after vaccination was discovered, smallpox was completely eradicated.
  • John Hunter - Surgeon who was Jenner's mentor 
  • Joseph Lister - developed the microscope and made it more accurate. Discovered the use of carbolic acid to prevent gangrene in fractures. The first person to start using sterilised thread for Ligatures 
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Industrial Era (cont.)

INDIVIDUALS CONTINUED.

  • Louis Pasteur: the scientist who came up with germ theory. discovered that microorganisms in the air cause decay. also came up with pasteurisation: the sterilisation of milk. 
  • Robert Koch - the doctor who applied Germ Theory to humans and illness. He also studied the highly contagious and fatal disease anthrax. 
  • Florence Nightingale - 'the lady with the lamp'. Went as a nurse to the Crimean War, and improved hospital conditions in battlefield hospitals. Upon her return, she campaigned to improve hospitals in England. 
  • Mary Seacole - Jamaican woman who helped Nightingale in the Crimean war. Treated soldiers on the front line. in 1867, the Seacole Fund was set up by Queen Victoria so Seacole could remain a doctoress until her death
  • Ignaz Semmelweiss - Austrain doctor who noticed that during childbirth, there was less deaths from midwives than from medical students who had just come from surgery. Made all his doctors wash their hands frompatient to patient with chlorinated water
  • Humphrey Davy - discovered the use of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) to lessen pain slightly
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Industrial Era (cont.2)

MORE INDIVIDUALS

  • James Simpson - Professor of Midwifery at Edinburgh University - discovery of chloroform to knock patients out for safer operations. 
  • Queen Victoria - the monarch of the time. Praised chloroform after the birth of her 8th child, granted funds for Nightingale and Seacole. 
  • John Snow - discoverer of the true cause of cholera. Once Pasteur discovers germ theory, this is confirmed. 
  • Edwin Chadwick: trying to improve public health. wrote a report 'the sanitary conditions of the labouring population'. was responsible for the public health acts. 1889: receives a knighthood for his work.

RELIGION

  • tolerant of other religions
  • free-thinking and medical exploration
  • no ban on dissection


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Industrial Era (cont.3)

GOVERNMENTS

  • compulsory vaccination
  • Laissez-Faire - 'leave alone' - the attitude that if anything bad happened to you, you deserved it, and the government would not get involved in the everyday lives of the people.
  • the two public health acts: 1848: public health is encouraged. 1875: public health is forced. 
  • 1802 Factory Act to improve working conditions
  • Reform Acts in 1867 and 1884 extend vote to Working Classes

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

  • Lister's microscopes
  • Discovery of anaesthetics 

IMPROVED COMMUNICATIONS

  • increased trade meant share of knowledge and material
  • Nightingale could contact UK with information whilst in the Crimea
  • large-scale books could be printed
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Industrial Era (cont.4)

SURGERY

  • very dangerous at this time 
  • excessive bleeding - no successful blood transfusions
  • ligatures often led to infection due to no sterilisation of equipment
  • 'speed amputation' - trying to amputate as quickly as possible to get the pain over with (no anaesthetic). this could lead to the wrong body part being amputated. 
  • bandages were reused leading to infection 
  • Anaesthetic discoveries were happening - Laughing gas, Ether, Chloroform. 

OTHER

  • smallpox epidemic: killed even more people than the Plague. Highly contagious disease that left survivors with horrible scarring. 
  • Before Germ Theory, the theory was Spontaneous Generation
  • The Industrial Era leads to many people moving into towns, leading to a decrease in sanitation and public health. 
  • Workhouses: places where the poor were 'kept' and forced to work. Health was very poor in workhouses. 
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Twentieth Century Medicine

WAR

  • When the Boer War broke out, 40% of recruits were too malnourished to fight. 
  • WW1 - Alexander Fleming investigating bacteria in wounds
  • WW2 sparks mass-produced penicillin for battle wounds in time for D-Day
  • WW1 means blood transfusions are needed and are perfected

CHANCE

  • Fleming left the window open and the bacteria got into the Petri dish.


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Twentieth Century Medicine (cont.)

INDIVIDUALS

  • Charles Booth defined poverty as an income of less than £1 a week for a family of five. Noticed the link between poverty and high death rate. Showed that the poor were not responsible for their poverty. 
  • Seebohm Rowntree identified the flaws of the Poor Law. 
  • Paul Ehrlich - - chemical compounds based in arsenic that killed syphilis
  • Gerhardt Domagle - discovered that Prontosil (or the sulphonamides in it) cured blood poisoning
  • Alexander Fleming - discoverer of Penicillin. Was sent to France during WW1 to study wounds infected with streptococci and staphylococci bacteria. Then he went on holiday and left a window open. A petri dish with staphylococci bacteria got mould in it. The mould killed the bacteria. Fleming wrote an article that got ignored as it hadn't been tested on animals 
  • Florey & Chain - discovered Fleming's penicillin article and investigated it. discovered it was useful and applied for funding from the British and American governments. 
  • Albert Alexander - Florey and Chain test penicillin on Alexander who was dying from septicaemia. It worked, but there wasn't enough and he died.  
  • William Beveridge: the father of the NHS   


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Twentieth Century Medicine (cont.2)

RELIGION

  • Medical figurines in stained glass windows - doctors are regarded as almost as good as god 

GOVERNMENT

  • 'Labour Representation Committee' set up for Labour candidates to stand in Parliament 
  • 1906: 53 Labour MPs elected
  • 1906 School Meals Act: free school meals being provided to the poor
  • 1907 School Medical Inspections happen once a year
  • 1912 children get free medical treatment
  • 1908 'Children's Charter' - childcare committees to support families where children were being neglected, young offenders, borstals for youth reformation, alcohol; tobacco; fireworks made illegal to under 16s, working hours for children restricted
  • 1908: Old Age Pensions. Poor people over 70 get pad once a week at the post office. Richer people got less money than poorer. 
  • 1909 Labour Exchanges Act - unemployed people register and get put in touch with employers and collect their unemployment benefit 
  • National Insurance Act to protect against poverty in the event of a lost job
  • Compulsory Health Insurance paid when in employment. in the event of an accident, covered free medical care and money for 26 weeks. 
  • 1834 The Poor Law forced anybody needing help into a workhouse but this dealt with effects not causes. 
  • UK & US governments funded Florey & Chain's penicillin research 
  • The NHS introduced as a reward to the British people for the war effort 
  • 1939: Emergency Hospital Scheme started


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Twentieth Century Medicine (cont.3)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

  • electron microscopes that discovered sulphonamide in Prontosil
  • improved microscopes allowed Fleming to investigate penicillin 
  • improved machinery means that penicillin can be mass produced 
  • improved weaponry means more extensive battle wounds are gotten 

IMPROVED COMMUNICATIONS

  • allowed Florey and Chain to get funding from America 

SURGERY

  • blood transfusions are perfected for the masses of soldiers requiring more blood

OTHER

  • major reforms were needed due to 30% of Londoners living in poverty
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Comments

Aneesa

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This has helped a lot thank you! :D

hina

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WONDERFUL! love it. thankyou so much. i really needed it =]

Nicole

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REAALLY GOOD!!!

josh cassidy

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surgery was common in ancient Egypt they had many surgery tools.

World Crusher

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josh, it wasn't dissection and surgery were banned because of Egyption beliefs. They thought the body was sacred and shouldn't be "vandalized", mummification was passed off as something else.

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