The 19th Century

Question 1

What did Louis Pasteur discovered with microscopes?

Answer 1

That specific micro-organisms caused things like wine to go off
When heated microorganisms died - pasteurising

Question 2

What did Pasteur do in 1864?

Answer 2

Proved that micro-organisms didn’t spontaneously appear (spontaneous generation)
Proved germs in the air by using sterile and unsterile flasks both with water in, the unsterile flask bred microbes again but the sterile flask did not.

Question 3

What did Pasteur do in 1861?

Answer 3

Published his ‘Germ Theory’

Based on idea that microorganisms cause disease.

Question 4

Who developed on Pasteur ideas?

Answer 4

Robert Koch

Question 5

What did Koch do?

Answer 5

Developed method to identify specific microbes that caused specific diseases by using dyes.

Discovered bacterium causing anthrax and tuberculosis.

Question 6

What happened that encouraged competition between Pasteur and Koch?

Answer 6

1870-71 war between France and Germany

Question 7

What were the cause of disease and infection in the 19th century?

Answer 7

Bad air/miasma - rooting food gives terrible smells

Bacteria - studied rooting food, automatically generated, due to microscope

Question 8

What were the problems with public health in the 19th century?

Answer 8

Overcrowding 
Living close together - no ventilation 
Poor sanitation - share, contaminated facilities 
Lack of clean water- cholera 
Poverty- slums, no medicine, dangerous jobs
Damp and cold houses
Animals roaming
Doctors poorly trained

Question 9

Why was nothing done to improve public health in the first half of the 19th century?

Answer 9

• lack of understanding about germs causing disease
• laissez-faire government: people believed it was not their job to keep people healthy and they shouldn’t interfere with people’s lives

Question 10

Why was there opposition to public health in the 19th century?

Answer 10

Government had to provide so taxes were raised

Question 11

When did cholera reach Britain?

Answer 11

1831

Question 12

What did John Snow do?

Answer 12

1854 proved link between cholera and water supply

Removed handle from water pump, stopped deaths, put pressure on water companies to clean their water supplies

Question 13

What did Edwin Chadwick do?

Answer 13

1842- report on the sanitary conditions of the labouring classes/ people living in towns had shorter life 
Said should:
- organisms drainage and collection
- provide pure water supply
- appoint medical officer of health

Question 14

What did the 1848 public health act do?

Answer 14

Allowed boards of health to be set up
Encouraged reforms
Not compulsory
Abolished in 1854 due to laissez faire

Question 15

What did William Farr do?

Answer 15

Made a link between poverty and I’ll health

Question 16

What did Octavia Hill do?

Answer 16

Teach the poor
Clean slum housing
Improved housing

Question 17

When did working men in towns get the right to vote?

Answer 17

1867

Question 18

When did working men in the country get to vote?

Answer 18

1884

Question 19

What was the great stink of 1858 and what did it lead to

Answer 19

Hot weather caused a ‘great stink’
Smelt most right under Parliaments nose, forced them to do something

Joseph Bazalgette hired to designed London’s new sewage systems.

Question 20

What was the public health act of 1875?

Answer 20

Cleanliness compulsory in towns 
Clean water 
Education compulsory
Shortened working hours in factories
Public toilets 
Inspectors
Enforced reform

Question 21

What happened to Pasteur by chance?

Answer 21

Containers of bacillus left on a shelf over a summer - birds didn’t die when injected
Worked with human vaccines - rabies vaccine in 1885

Question 21

What did Pasteur develop by chance?

Answer 21

Effective vaccine against chicken cholera

Accidentally gave an old weak dose of cholera to chickens, so did not die

Question 22

What was surgery like in the 1800s?

Answer 22

Dangerous
Painful
Infection was common

Question 23

Describe the problems surgeons faced.

Answer 23

Patients in pain
Infection
Bleeding

Question 24

How was the problem of pain overcome by use of anaesthetics?

Answer 24

Nitrous oxide / laughing gas:

• discovered by Sir Humphry Davy 1799
• never widely used and never completely effective
• Horace Wells convinced on it, used in public demonstration but public was in agony

Ether:

• discovered by John Warren in 1846
• unpleasant side affects, irritated eyes and lungs, causing coughing and sickness
• flammable and had vile smell

Chloroform:

• discovered by James Simpson 1847
• was experimenting to find anaesthetics, all knocked out by chloroform
• effective anaesthetic

Question 25

What were some of the reasons of opposition to anaesthetics?

Answer 25

• uncomfortable for patients
• some doctors believed pain was good for healing
• didn’t understand how they worked
• didn’t understand side affects

Question 26

How was the problem of infection overcome?

Answer 26

Ignaz Semmelweiss - called for all doctors to was hands before entering maternity ward without exception

Carbolic acid - spray used to disinfect wound area, first antiseptic 1867

Question 27

What was the opposition to carbolic acid spray?

Answer 27

• slowed down surgery
• uncomfortable for doctors, irritated skin
• surgeons didn’t copy listers methods correctly and were disappointed with results
• seemed very extreme

Question 28

What is aseptic surgery?

Answer 28

Removing all possible germs from the operating theatre and taking all effort to do so.

Question 29

What factors helped contribute to the development of surgery over time? (1d)

Answer 29

Key individuals
Technology
War

Question 30

What factors helped the development of public health over time? (1d)

Answer 30

Government
Key Individuals
War

Question 31

What factors helped the development of disease and infection over time? (1d)

Answer 31

Key individuals
Chance
War
Government