Post by Mr Modica on Sept 26, 2015 20:32:44 GMT
World War One made an important impact on medicine. Although it took 14 000 doctors away from their usual jobs, they worked on the battlefield to adapt new treatments and then bought them back to England after the war and set themselves up as specialists. During the war, doctors had to deal with wounds they had never seen before and invented new ways of treating people. Surgeons developed new ways of treating burn wounds through plastic surgery, brain and eye surgery was improved as shrapnel wounds caused facial injuries, X-rays were used on the battlefield to find metal from bullets in the body, blood transfusions were developed an saline was used to clean wounds. After the war, the government promised a ‘home fit for heroes’ to aim to deal with the poor standard of health the recruits had suffered from in 1914.
X-rays had been invented in 1895 by Wilhelm Rontgen but were used effectively for the first time during WWI. Many of the hospitals on the Western Front had them and they were used to find bullets and shrapnel in wounds that could have killed the soldiers without the X-ray machines. In 1901, different blood groups had been discovered and during WWI doctors developed a way of separating the blood and packing it in ice to preserve it, stopping the blood from drying out and becoming useless. Saline was developed to treat infection and wounds, especially as wounds happened in the mud of the trenches and the bullets and shrapnel took bacteria deep into the body.
After Pasteur had discovered Germ Theory in 1861 and Koch and Pasteur had developed vaccines for diseases such as anthrax, the next step was to find drugs to kill the diseases in the body. The first person to attempt this was Paul Ehrlich, a member of Koch’s research team. He developed a drug in 1909 called Salvarsan 606, a ‘magic bullet’ that sought out syphilis (an STI) bacteria and killed it. It was called ‘606’ as it took 606 attempt to find a combination that worked. However, it wasn’t always successful, the drug contained cyanide which often killed the patient as well as the germs. This was developed in 1932 by Gerhardt Domagk who invented Prontosil, a red dye which found and killed the bacteria that caused blood poisoning. He discovered this worked after his daughter, Hildegarde, was playing with her guinea pig in his laboratory and pricked her finger on a needle. After she developed blood poisoning, he injected her with Prontosil and she survived. These drugs were called sulphonamides because the thing that made them work was a chemical that came from coal tar (something that could only be seen under an electron microscope) and were soon used to attack meningitis, scarlet fever, gonorrhoea and pneumonia. These drugs massively reduced deaths of women in childbirth.
The discovery of sulphonamides and magic bullets led to the development of penicillin. John Sanderson had discovered that penicillin mould killed everything around it and Lister had used penicillin mould on a nurse’s infected wound in the 1880s. Other scientists picked up and dropped research into penicillin until in 1928, Alexander Fleming from St Mary’s Hospital, London, started his research. He was made more determined by watching the suffering of the soldiers in WWI who were affected by the staphylococcus bacteria and often died in pain. Fleming generally worked in a messy laboratory and had left some plates of staphylococcus germs on the side when he went on holiday. When he returned, the germs were dead. Penicillin mould, which was being grown in the laboratory above him, had flown into the window and landed on his petri dish, killing the staphylococcus germs. Fleming made a list of all the germs that penicillin mould would kill and published his findings in 1929. He used the mould as an antiseptic to kill infection in a colleague’s eye but didn’t take it any further as he didn’t have the facilities to carry out the research. He didn’t inject it into animals or people.
In the 1930’s, Florey and Chain read Fleming’s research and three days after WWII broke out, asked the government for money to develop Fleming’s idea. However, with WWII starting, the government only gave them £25. With the help of a team of people, they made enough penicillin for tests on mice. They injected them with infections and then penicillin and the mice lived. They needed 3000 times more to test on humans and so turned their lab into a penicillin factory, growing it in milk bottles. In early 1941 they treated Albert Alexander who had got an infection after being scratched by a rose bush. No other drugs had worked on him and he had to have one of his eyes removed. The infection responded to penicillin and Alexander started to recover. However, the penicillin ran out and he died. This confirmed to Florey and Chain that the drug was worth pursuing and in 1941, Florey got funding from America (who were not yet involved in WWII) to mass-produce penicillin. By 1944, penicillin was being used at D-Day and 15% more wounded soldiers would have died without it. After the war, penicillin was mass-produced for the public to treat infections such as pneumonia, tonsillitis and meningitis.
The Second World War also helped to develop other ways of treating people. Doctors found ways of storing blood for longer and people like Harold Gillies developed pioneering skin grafts for burnt airmen. The war also improved the health of the general public. City children were evacuated into the countryside where their health, diet and hygiene improved and rationing improved people’s diet by adding vitamins. In 1940 a national diphtheria campaign vaccinated all children.
Also due to WWII, the NHS was introduced. People had to pay for a visit to a doctor and for their medicine so in 1911, the government had introduced National Health Insurance so workers could get help when they were ill. This was only effective for those who were working however, and women and children still didn’t get medical help. In 1942, William Beveridge wrote a report explaining the problems facing people living in Britain. He said there were five ‘giants’ that needed to be overcome:
- squalor – poor housing should be pulled down, new towns should be built the countryside
- diseases – people who really needed medical help couldn’t afford it, so dentists, injections and health care should be free (this would become the NHS)
- ignorance – schools and teachers should be found, children should stay in education until the age of 15 so they are more capable of looking after themselves
- idleness – people needed jobs so new factories would be opened
- want – people weren’t able to pay for the things they needed, so family allowance, free schooling and health care were suggested
The Labour Party came to power promising that they would implement Beveridge’s suggestions. In 1948, the NHS started. It was initially opposed by doctors who preferred being paid privately and by tax payers who thought it would be too expensive. Bevan, the Minister for Health, promised the doctors a salary and by the time the NHS opened, 90% of doctors were behind the plan.
Public health care from ‘cradle to the grave’ had a massive impact on the health of the people, especially on the health of women and children.
Make sure this is just the basis for your revision, using your class notes too!
springwoodgcsehistory.blogspot.co.uk/p/medicine-through-time-overview.html (Reminder, just use this is background information, check against our exam board's topic map in your course booklet)
X-rays had been invented in 1895 by Wilhelm Rontgen but were used effectively for the first time during WWI. Many of the hospitals on the Western Front had them and they were used to find bullets and shrapnel in wounds that could have killed the soldiers without the X-ray machines. In 1901, different blood groups had been discovered and during WWI doctors developed a way of separating the blood and packing it in ice to preserve it, stopping the blood from drying out and becoming useless. Saline was developed to treat infection and wounds, especially as wounds happened in the mud of the trenches and the bullets and shrapnel took bacteria deep into the body.
After Pasteur had discovered Germ Theory in 1861 and Koch and Pasteur had developed vaccines for diseases such as anthrax, the next step was to find drugs to kill the diseases in the body. The first person to attempt this was Paul Ehrlich, a member of Koch’s research team. He developed a drug in 1909 called Salvarsan 606, a ‘magic bullet’ that sought out syphilis (an STI) bacteria and killed it. It was called ‘606’ as it took 606 attempt to find a combination that worked. However, it wasn’t always successful, the drug contained cyanide which often killed the patient as well as the germs. This was developed in 1932 by Gerhardt Domagk who invented Prontosil, a red dye which found and killed the bacteria that caused blood poisoning. He discovered this worked after his daughter, Hildegarde, was playing with her guinea pig in his laboratory and pricked her finger on a needle. After she developed blood poisoning, he injected her with Prontosil and she survived. These drugs were called sulphonamides because the thing that made them work was a chemical that came from coal tar (something that could only be seen under an electron microscope) and were soon used to attack meningitis, scarlet fever, gonorrhoea and pneumonia. These drugs massively reduced deaths of women in childbirth.
The discovery of sulphonamides and magic bullets led to the development of penicillin. John Sanderson had discovered that penicillin mould killed everything around it and Lister had used penicillin mould on a nurse’s infected wound in the 1880s. Other scientists picked up and dropped research into penicillin until in 1928, Alexander Fleming from St Mary’s Hospital, London, started his research. He was made more determined by watching the suffering of the soldiers in WWI who were affected by the staphylococcus bacteria and often died in pain. Fleming generally worked in a messy laboratory and had left some plates of staphylococcus germs on the side when he went on holiday. When he returned, the germs were dead. Penicillin mould, which was being grown in the laboratory above him, had flown into the window and landed on his petri dish, killing the staphylococcus germs. Fleming made a list of all the germs that penicillin mould would kill and published his findings in 1929. He used the mould as an antiseptic to kill infection in a colleague’s eye but didn’t take it any further as he didn’t have the facilities to carry out the research. He didn’t inject it into animals or people.
In the 1930’s, Florey and Chain read Fleming’s research and three days after WWII broke out, asked the government for money to develop Fleming’s idea. However, with WWII starting, the government only gave them £25. With the help of a team of people, they made enough penicillin for tests on mice. They injected them with infections and then penicillin and the mice lived. They needed 3000 times more to test on humans and so turned their lab into a penicillin factory, growing it in milk bottles. In early 1941 they treated Albert Alexander who had got an infection after being scratched by a rose bush. No other drugs had worked on him and he had to have one of his eyes removed. The infection responded to penicillin and Alexander started to recover. However, the penicillin ran out and he died. This confirmed to Florey and Chain that the drug was worth pursuing and in 1941, Florey got funding from America (who were not yet involved in WWII) to mass-produce penicillin. By 1944, penicillin was being used at D-Day and 15% more wounded soldiers would have died without it. After the war, penicillin was mass-produced for the public to treat infections such as pneumonia, tonsillitis and meningitis.
The Second World War also helped to develop other ways of treating people. Doctors found ways of storing blood for longer and people like Harold Gillies developed pioneering skin grafts for burnt airmen. The war also improved the health of the general public. City children were evacuated into the countryside where their health, diet and hygiene improved and rationing improved people’s diet by adding vitamins. In 1940 a national diphtheria campaign vaccinated all children.
Also due to WWII, the NHS was introduced. People had to pay for a visit to a doctor and for their medicine so in 1911, the government had introduced National Health Insurance so workers could get help when they were ill. This was only effective for those who were working however, and women and children still didn’t get medical help. In 1942, William Beveridge wrote a report explaining the problems facing people living in Britain. He said there were five ‘giants’ that needed to be overcome:
- squalor – poor housing should be pulled down, new towns should be built the countryside
- diseases – people who really needed medical help couldn’t afford it, so dentists, injections and health care should be free (this would become the NHS)
- ignorance – schools and teachers should be found, children should stay in education until the age of 15 so they are more capable of looking after themselves
- idleness – people needed jobs so new factories would be opened
- want – people weren’t able to pay for the things they needed, so family allowance, free schooling and health care were suggested
The Labour Party came to power promising that they would implement Beveridge’s suggestions. In 1948, the NHS started. It was initially opposed by doctors who preferred being paid privately and by tax payers who thought it would be too expensive. Bevan, the Minister for Health, promised the doctors a salary and by the time the NHS opened, 90% of doctors were behind the plan.
Public health care from ‘cradle to the grave’ had a massive impact on the health of the people, especially on the health of women and children.
Make sure this is just the basis for your revision, using your class notes too!
springwoodgcsehistory.blogspot.co.uk/p/medicine-through-time-overview.html (Reminder, just use this is background information, check against our exam board's topic map in your course booklet)