Was There a Medical Revolution in the 18th Century?

Was there a medical revolution in the 19th century?

An essay by Theodora Dowglass 9m

By Theodora Dowglass 9M                                                                                          10th December 2016

Was there a Medical Revolution in the 19th Century?

In this essay I will be exploring the answer to the question quoted in the title, ‘Was there a medical revolution in the 19th century’ Using Examples of advances in medical understanding, improvements in hospitals and public health.

But first, to answer this question we must ask ourselves, “What is a revolution?” A revolution is either a forcible other throw of a government or social order, in favour of a new system. Or it is also known as an instance of revolving. The criteria for a revolution are:

• Cause for Change
• Uniting people who support that cause
• A way to spread the cause
• Strategy evidence to support the cause
• Enough strength to support backlash

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Advances in Medical Understanding

I am sure that at some point you have been ill enough to go and see a doctor, you sat in a clean room for a while until the doctor examined you, gave you a prescription and sent you on your way. In the 19th century this was not the case. There were no clean rooms and the doctor was more likely to drain enough of your blood to kill you than your cold.

Early Victorian ideas of human physiology involved a clear understanding of anatomy (at least among experts; but the populace often had hazy knowledge of the location and role of internal organs), allied to a concept of vital forces focused on the haematological and nervous systems that now seems closer to the ancient 'humours' than to present-day models. Little was known of biochemistry or endocrinology. 

In the 19th century there was no conception of how germs caused diseases or how dirty water can be lethal or how to prevent an epidemic, however there were two main theories people did believe:

The Miasma Theory:

People thought that disease was caused by dirty air known as ‘miasma’. Cholera, for example, was believed to be carried through the air like a poisonous gas or an infected mist.

The Contagion Theory:

People believed that disease is caused by coming into contact with a sick person, their clothes or their bedding for example.

A man known as Edward Jenner had observed that people with cowpox ( a mild and harmless disease) did not get smallpox ( a serious killer disease) So, in 1796, he took pus from the blister of a girl who had cowpox and squirted it into two cuts in the arm of an eight-year-old boy named James Phipps. Next he injected James with smallpox, a very lethal move, and the boy did not catch the disease. Jenner had now discovered a way of preventing (not curing) smallpox which at the time was one of Britain’s biggest killers. Later this method was named a vaccination, from the word ‘vacca’, the Latin word for ‘cow’.[pic 1]

Another advancement was achieved in the field of surgery. In the 19th century, before a surgery, there was no anaesthetic so two of the most common replacements for anaesthetic were either getting him drunk or knocking him out. However in 1846, an American dentist called William Morton tried out a new idea of putting his patients to sleep with a gas called ether. The results were promising however ether irritated the patients eyes and made them cough and vomit during the surgery so in 1847, a Scottish doctor called James Simpson tried chloroform as an alternative to ether. These results were even more promising than the use of ether as there were less nasty side effects; it was even used on Queen Victoria when she gave birth to her son Leopold.[pic 2]

Another lethal killer in hospitals were germs, people usually died of blood poisoning or infections because the hospitals were so filthy.  An example of this was when a strong, young farmer went into a hospital to have his nose straightened, the septum was moved and in five days he had died of Sepsis. So a French scientist named Louis Pasteur made one of the biggest breakthroughs, that germs and bacteria caused diseases and changed medical understanding forever. He later went on to discover that many of these germs could be eliminated by heat.[pic 3]

This then lead to a British doctor, called Joseph Lister, who took Pasteur’s theory one step further, he thought that germs also caused patients to die of sepsis. He believed that surely if germs were killed by antiseptic then more of his patients would survive. Lister decided on carbolic acid as his antiseptic and using a pump he sprayed anything that might possibly come into contact with the patient in hope that all the germs would die. His theory was correct and his patient did not get any infection. The results from the change were astonishing as before the changes out of ten people six died whereas afterwards one in ten people died. [pic 4]

These methods were also used by Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole in the Crimean War when caring for wounded and injured soldiers.[pic 5]

Improvements in hospitals

Before the new advances in medicine hospitals were so dirty that you died of infection, so brutal that you died of shock and there was little understanding of the medical world. However thanks to the new advances hospitals radically changed. Before any procedure antiseptic was used, the walls were scrubbed and the floors were swept and the equipment was sterilized. Surgeons were even wearing rubber gloves, surgical gowns and face masks during operations.

However these methods were not just needed in civilian hospitals, they were also needed for the soldiers fighting over sea. Two pioneering nurses called Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale served in the Crimea war in the hospitals.

Hospitals in the Crimean War were very much alike to the ones in England before medical advances, soldiers died of typhus, typhoid cholera which were rife in hospitals. There was no room so many of the soldiers slept on the floor with the blood and the poo and the rats. Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole used their understanding of germs and medicine to help clean up the hospitals in the 1850’s Mary Seacole provided medicines for jaundice, diarrhoea and cholera as well as providing shelter and food. Florence Nightingale also travelled to the Crimean war and was in charge of a team of 38 nurses in aid to prevent the appalling number of deaths in British Military hospitals. She demanded that all the surfaces were to be scrubbed (she also demanded 300 scrubbing brushes) the water was also contaminated by a nearby sewer which meant disease spread more rapidly. The mortality rate in February 1855 was 42.7% of all soldiers admitted; by June, 1855, the mortality rate was 2.2%.[pic 6][pic 7]