3. Health and Medicine in 18th and 19th Century Industrial Society
How was sickness caused?
There were very significant developments in health and medicine in the late 18th and the 19th centuries. By the end of the 19th century, doctors knew much more about disease and its origins, how to prevent its spread and how to cure patients. ● The great progress in health and medicine was helped by the prosperity generated by the Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the middle of the 18th century.
The most significant discovery was made in the 1860s by Louis Pasteur who discovered that germs caused disease.
Before Pasteur’s discovery, the miasma theory was the main theory for explaining how infectious diseases spread.
● It said that disease was caused by bad smelling air coming from rotting plants. It said disease was spread in the air and not from one person to the next. This theory was used to explain plagues, cholera and typhus.
Pasteur said the miasma theory was incorrect. He used experiments to show that infectious disease was caused by germs (micro-organisms, bacteria).
Pasteur’s work on the germ theory of disease:
● meant that doctors now had a better understanding of how to treat diseases. ● helped him develop the system of pasteurisation where micro-organisms in milk could be killed off by heating it to a certain temperature and the milk would stay fresh for longer.
● resulted in tools used in operations being sterilised beforehand.
In Germany, Robert Koch learned to grow bacteria and he was able to distinguish which bacteria caused certain diseases, for example, tuberculosis (TB) and cholera.
Changes in health and medicine Before the Industrial Revolution
Cause of sickness Cures and remedies
Miasma theory – bad smelling air
Bloodletting by leeches or cupping
Herbal remedies Industrial Society
Germ theory – germs cause disease – bacteria
Better diagnosis – new instruments
Cleanliness Vaccination X-rays
Anaesthetics 468 Louis Pasteur
Illustrate patterns of change in health and medicine in the 19th century