Medicine Through Time key words

C1250-c1500: Medicine in medieval England Four Humours Black bile, yellow bile, blood, phlegm – four elements that

make up the body, if they become unbalanced you become sick.

Hippocrates Created the theory of the four humours, said you should observe a patients symptoms.

Galen Developed the theory of the four humours and said you should treat the opposite humour in order to balance them.

Barber surgeon

Can bleed, lance, pull out teeth and perform amputations. Fairly cheap, no qualifications.

Apothecary Can mix medicines, trained in a similar way to an apprentice.

Women Childbirth and herbal remedies, respected, freeTrained Physician

Studied Galen and Hippocrates, very expensive, cannot treat you but can tell you what’s wrong so that the apothecary can treat you more accurately.

Miasma The air is filled with harmful fumesUrine charts Used by trained physicians to diagnose diseasePilgrimage A journey to a place of religious importance.Blood-letting Removing bad blood to balance humoursPurging Making someone throw up or have diarrhoea to balance

humours.Regimen Sanitatis

Instructions provided by physicians to help a patient maintain good health.

Endowment Leaving money to the church to help set up a hospital when you die.

Penance Punishing yourself to show you are sorry for your sins.Buboe Puss filled boil associated with the Black DeathLazar House Hospital for people suffering from leprosy

C1500-c1700: Medicine in Renaissance England

Alchemy A form of chemistry in which one material is turned into another.

Thomas Sydenham

Said you should treat the disease as a whole (rather than individual symptoms), believed in close observation of patients and did not believe treatments should vary from person to person.

Printing Press Printed books, allowed the spread of ideasHumanism A love of learning, humans should investigate to find the

truthRoyal Society A group of scientists that shared new discoveries and ideasTransference Transfer your disease into something else – some slept with

sheep in their room hoping the disease would transfer to the sheep

Iatrochemistry Using chemicals to cure disease instead of herbs and plantsAnatomy Study of the human bodyAndreas Vesalius

Humanist, believed you could only learn anatomy by studying the body through dissection. Wanted to share discoveries through on the fabric of the human body. Found 300 mistakes in Galen’s work.

Dissection Cutting open the body so that you can examine inside it, had been banned by the church in the medieval period.

Pest houses hospital set up for people with plague or poxWilliam Harvey

Developed understanding of blood circulation and the heart

C1700-c1900: Medicine in early modern EnglandSpontaneous Generation

Microbes are the product of decay rather than the cause of it. They appear from nothing!

Microbe Any living organism that is too small to see without a microscope (EG bacteria)

Germ Theory Microbes are not evenly distributed in the air, the air contains microorganisms, microbes can be killed by heating them, microbes cause decay – Said that if these germs were in the air they might also cause disease

Louis Pasteur Developed Germ Theory, not a doctor so people didn’t listen at firstJohn Tyndall Linked Germ Theory to disease, discovered small particles in the air

that he said carried germsRobert Koch Developed Pasteur’s ideas, identified microbes that caused disease.

He stained, photographed and grew them, these methods helped future scientists build on his work. He found the germ that caused cholera in 1883.

Bacteriology Study of bacteria – Robert Koch known as the ‘father of bacteriology’Florence Nightingale

Worked in Crimea and developed methods to keep hospitals clean, wrote notes on nursing to train other nurses, believed in miasma theory.

Anaesthetic Used to put someone to sleep so that they can go through surgery safely

James Simpson Found chloroform, the first effective anaesthetic.Joseph Lister Developed the use of carbolic acid for aseptic surgeryAseptic surgery Surgery where microbes are prevented from getting into a wound in

the first placeInoculate Deliberately infecting oneself with a disease in order to avoid a more

serious caseVaccination An injection that prevents someone from catching a serious diseaseEdward Jenner Discovered the vaccination for small pox. Other scientists used this to

create many vaccinations for other diseases.Laissez-Faire ‘let them be’ – the government should not get involved in people’s

lives.Public Health Act 1848

Focused on improving living conditions, optional so had limited impact.

PHA 1875 Same focus but compulsory, clean water, sewage, new housing etc.Edwin Chadwick Fought for conditions of the poor, he said the health of the nation

affects the wealth of the nation.Cholera A disease caused by drinking dirty waterJohn Snow Discovered that cholera was caused by dirty water through his

experiment with the Broad Street Pump.

C1900-present: Medicine in modern England Biopsy Taking a sample of flesh for testingGenetics The study of DNA to work out the causes of diseaseHereditary Passed on from a parent, for example HaeomphilliaDNA Your coding, it defines your hair colour, eye colour and any hereditary

diseasesJames Watson Worked together to discover the structure of DNA, they used X-rays

created by Rosalind Franklin and built the first model of DNA.Francis CrickHuman Genome Project 1990

Project run by Watson and Crick to map the information that is held in DNA, it took teams of scientists 10 years to complete the project.

X-ray Allows you to see inside the bodyCT scan A scan that allows you to see inside organsAntibiotic Means against life, it destroys the growth of bacteria in the bodyMagic Bullet Targets a disease specifically, leaving the rest of the body unharmedPenicillin The first true antibiotic found by Fleming.Alexander Fleming

Found penicillin when he left a culture whilst he went on holiday, gave up his research though because he didn’t think it would work on humans.

Florey and Chain

Developed the use of penicillin to work on humans.

NHS 1948 National health service, aimed to provide free health care for all.Beveridge Report

Said that Britain could not recover from war until ‘five giants’ were tackled, one of which was disease.

Clean Air Acts 1956

A law passed to provide a healthier environment for people to prevent disease.

Lung Cancer A type of cancer often caused by smoking.Stoptober A government campaign in which you stop smoking for a month.Blood Transfusion

Blood taken from a healthy person and given to another person.

Plastic surgery Repairing parts of the body by transfer of tissue.

The British sector of the Western Front 1914-1918Blood transfusion

Blood taken from a healthy person and given to another person

Blood Bank Blood stored for blood transfusion, first successful at CambraiTrench Either side of no-man’s-land where attacks are launched fromNo-man’s-land An area between trenches in which fighting occursCreeping barrage

Artillery launched from the trenches towards the German lines ahead of the British as it advanced forwards.

Tanks First used in WW1 – many technical problemsStretcher-bearer Transport injured soldiers from the front line to the RAP

Horse-drawn/motor ambulances

Used to transport soldiers. Horse-drawn ambulances used more often because it was so muddy and hard for vehicles to cross. Bumpy- led to worse injuries.

Trench foot Painful swelling of the feat caused by standing in cold mud and water. Can lead to gangrene.

Trench fever Caused by lice, flu-like symptoms, high temperature, headache and aching.

Shellshock Could lead to a complete mental breakdown, often mistaken for cowardice.

Shrapnel Bits of metal, caused very serious injuries.Gas Chlorine, phosgene and mustard. Caused breathing problems.Chain of Evacuation

The system used to transport and treat injured soldiers.

RAP Regimental aid post, 200m from frontline, immediate first aid.ADS/MSD Advanced/main dressing stations, abandoned buildings, field

ambulance (part of RAMC) runs them, could deal with 150 injured men. Could keep them there for up to a week.

CCS Casualty clearing stations, specialised in operating on critical injuries, near to railroads, triage system in place.

Triage System Walking wounded those in need of hospital treatment, no chance of recovery.

Base Hospital Located near the coast so soldiers can be transported home, usually continued treatment that had begun at the CCS. Carried out operations.

Blighty wound A wound so serious the soldier had to return to Britain.Wound excision Cutting away dead/damaged skin from a wound, closed by stitching.Amputation Chopping off a limbCarrel-Dakin This method used a sterilised salt solution to prevent infection.Thomas Splint A splint to stop joints from moving.Plastic surgery repairing parts of the body by the transfer of tissue