Imagine this: you are alive in the early 1800’s and need of an important medical surgery. Now picture yourself laying on a dirty cot, and there being grimy medical instruments about to be used by the surgeon. Right before the surgery starts, you think to yourself how many other people have these instruments been used on, and how many have died? In the 19th century, a numerous amount of people died due to the lack of sterility during a medical procedure. The patient may not have died on the table, but days after they would die from an infection or a fever. That is until a man named Joseph Lister contributed an idea to science that would end up saving thousands of people.
Joseph Lister was born on April 5th, 1827 in Upton, Essex ("Joseph Lister"
…show more content…
Medical instruments were not sterilized before surgery and the doctors/surgeons were not even required to wash their hands before surgery in this specific era. Joseph’s idea for having sterilization processes in an operating room was inspired by an article written by Louis Pasteur in the 1860’s ("Joseph Lister" Famous Biologists). Louis Pasteur was one of the many scientists discovering new scientific facts around the mid 1800’s. Pasteur was working on the process of pasteurization, James Clark Maxwell was working with radio waves, and around the 1880’s, Pierre and Paul-Jacques Curie were upon their discovery of piezoelectricity (Woodford). Lister had read Pasteur’s work on micro-organisms and decided to commence an experiment dealing with the exposure of a chemical on a wound. The wounds he was experimenting with were covered in a dressing soaked in carbolic acid. Lister found the infection rate to decrease immensely when the dressings were soaked in the carbolic acid ("Science Museum.”). The method of using carbolic acid in order to help prevent bacteria to build up in a wound was proved successful on August 12, 1865. After the experiment was proved to be victorious, Lister went on to publish his results in a series of six essays entitled, “The Lancet”. Between the date in 1865 to 1869, the mortality rate surgically decreased …show more content…
Lister was granted the Royal Medal in 1880, and in 1894 he was awarded the Albert Medal. Joseph Lister also received the Copley Medal in the year 1902 to recognize his physiological and pathological investigations that had a major impact upon modern surgery practice. Along with the different medals he had collected, Joseph also became a Baronet of Park Crescent in 1883 appointed by Queen Victoria (Era). A Baronet is defined to be, “a member of a British hereditary order of honor.” Those who are appointed Baronets are to be addressed as “Sir” ("The Definition of Baronet."). Ten years after he was appointed to be a Baronet, Lister retired from surgical practice after the death of his wife. His wife, Agnes Symes, died in 1892, causing Lister to stumble upon the melancholy feeling which lead to his retirement a year later. Agnes Symes is the daughter of James Syme’s, who was one of Joseph’s major influences/mentors. Agnes and Joseph had a happy marriage, however, they did not have any children. On February 10, 1912, Lister died in Walmer, Kent, England at the age of 84
The Metamorphosis of Johnny Tremain Johnny Tremain is like a butterfly; he went through a transformation. Johnny Tremain is a book by Esther Forbes about a crippled boy during the American Revolution and the events he endures. Johnny Tremain was a very dynamic character because people and events affected him. People change main characters in many books. Johnny Tremain is no exception.
This book is about a twelve-year-old boy named Nick Hall. Nick Hall loves to play soccer, but he can only play if he reads his dad’s dictionary which he thinks is boring. Nick Hall has a best friend Coby Lee. Coby and Nick have been friends almost their whole life, they also have always been on the same soccer team accept this year. Nick also takes dance clubs with the girl he likes named April who also goes to his school. So far Nick’s life is going well, The only bad thing in Nick’s life is that he gets bullied by these twins named Dean and Don, but they soon get expelled from school so he doesn’t have to see them every day now. So now Nick’s is going even better until one day Nick’s parents announce that they’re getting a divorce because
From July 1851 to March 1852, Dr. Wythe practiced medicine in Philadelphia, where upon he moved to Port Carbon, Pennsylvania, and practiced until 1857. He next became surgeon in the collieries of Carbon County, a post he held until 1860.23 Dr. Wythe was practicing in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania during the succeeding two years, when the Civil War began and he received his commission from Abraham Lincoln to assume the position of Assistant Surgeon of the United States Volunteers. In July 1862, he was promoted to Surgeon and five months later organized the Camp Parole Hospital near Alexandria, D. C., for sick and wounded paroled soldiers. On February 28, 1863, Dr. Joseph Henry Wythe was promoted to the full rank of surgeon. After the Civil War, Wythe moved to the Pacifi...
A remarkable breakthrough in medicine occurred in the late 1800s through the work of Louis Pasteur. Pasteur's experiments showed that bacteria reproduce like other living things and travel from place to place. Using the results of his findings, he developed pasteurization, which is the process of heating liquids to kill bacteria and prevent fermentation. He also produced an anthrax vaccine as well as a way to weaken the rabies virus. After studying Pasteur's work, Joseph Lister developed antisepsis, which is the process of killing disease-causing germs. In 1865 before an operation, he cleansed a leg wound first with carbolic acid, and performed the surgery with sterilized (by heat) instruments. The wound healed, and the patient survived. Prior to surgery, the patient would've needed an amputation. However, by incorporating these antiseptic procedures in all of his surgeries, he decreased postoperative deaths. The use of antiseptics eventually helped reduce bacterial infection not only in surgery but also in childbirth and in the treatment of battle wounds. Another man that made discoveries that reinforced those of Pasteur's was Robert Koch. Robert Koch isolated the germ that causes tuberculosis, identified the germ responsible for Asiatic cholera, and developed sanitary measures to prevent disease. (1)
The setting for Mary Shelly's Frankenstein plays a very important role on both the significance and realism of the story. By the end of the 18th century, smallpox and cholera epidemics throughout Europe had claimed millions of lives and brought about a crisis of faith within both the Catholic and Protestant churches. The formerly profane practices of medicinal healing were only beginning to gain acceptance in major universities as hundreds of cities were put under quarantine for their diseases and high mortality rates. Interdisciplinary learning within the scientific community was unheard of. Had Victor Frankenstein been alive during this period, his practices would have been considered blasphemous. Much more so than Edward Jenner's research on smallpox during the same time, which would eventually save millions of lives in 1796. Frankenstein's intentions were good, but even during this modern age of genetic engineering and cloning, the story of his creation remains entirely evil. Contemporary thought has allowed for tremendous growth in genetic engineering in recent years; the evolution of science from the analytical engine to the modern PC has occurred thousands of times faster than the evolution of our own species, from ape to human.
“One man's life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought…” (Letter 4.21). If you are familiar with the story of Victor Frankenstein, then you probably already know that he procured stolen body parts in order to construct his famous monster. This form of grave robbing is an appropriate nod to similar events taking place at this time in history. The 18th and 19th centuries saw a fierce dispute between advancements in medicine and the morally skeptical. Such an issue plagued select regions of both North America and Great Britain, most prominently the United States and England, respectively.
Fradin is right. Since several analyses of archaic human bones have proven that people have suffered from disease and pain since the beginning of their existence, one can only assume the tremendous pain humans had to endure before the discovery of anesthesia. The four brilliant men who ended mankind’s suffering also had to endure immense anguish after the discovery; their involvement erupted into a maelstrom of controversy, which contributed to early deaths and insanity, even though the discovery of surgical anesthesia has had such a positive effect on humanity.1
There were no real monumental changes in surgery techniques for the first half of the nineteenth century. In fact, before 1846, the only change in surgical practices was that the newer surgeons had a greater knowledge of anatomy and pathology. Surgery during this half of the century was a horrible experience that was only turned to as a last resort. Many people would choose to commit suicide rather than live through the agony of surgery, and the suffering afterwards. Operations were very brief and were accompanied by great pain. Generally the patient would be held down screaming, while the doctor performed whatever surgery was necessary. At this point in history, surgery would have been very different from what it is today. Rather than the scalpel and surgeons mask, the doctor would use a tool like a hacksaw to cut through the bone in the area being amputated. It was not until the discovery of effective anesthesia that surgery became a relatively common phenomenon. The word Anesthesia is from greek, and means "without sensibility".
Because of the lack of knowledge about many ailments, many advances in hospitals were completed. Anesthetics were developed, as well as clinics for rehabilitation and new knowledge was gained on the matter of reconstructive surgery. As a result of scurvy, soldiers frequently required reconstructive bone and joint surgery, just to be able to walk again.
History: Humans have been trying to cure disease and illness for thousands of years, only truly succeeding in 1796. Edward Jenner created the firs...
The life and work of Ignaz Semmelweis is among the most immediately arresting and moving stories in the history of science. A Hungarian physician in mid-nineteenth century Vienna, Semmelweis discovered that if the doctors of his hospital washed their hands in a chlorine solution in between performing autopsies and delivering births, it would effectively eliminate the outbreak of fatal puerperal infections among the laboring women, saving thousands of lives. Tragically, his work would largely go unrecognized and ignored within his own lifetime, contributing to his mental decline and eventual commitment to an insane asylum where he would die from gangrenous wounds sustained from beatings received by the guards there. The story is distinct
Knowledge of medicine during the 19th century was much different than it is today. Many doctors thought of the body as a whole and not of the individual parts. Exploring Illness, a website published by University of Pennsylvania, states that treatments often weren’t considered effective unless they had a noticeable effect on the entire body. (“Early 19th Century American Medical Worldview”). Diseases were believed to come from miasma, unclean air, that would put you at high risk of disease. Exploring Illness states, “Whoever came into contact with a miasma was at great risk for becoming ill. Overall, miasma was a very flexible concept that expressed the general concerns people in the nineteenth century had about becoming sick from environmental factors” (“Early
In Fielding’s Joseph Andrews you see a variety of characters. They range from the shallow, vain and proud characters like Lady Booby and Mrs. Slipslop to the innocent, sincere, and virtuous like Joseph and Fanny. The presence of Lady Booby, and all of the people like her that are portrayed in the same selfish and dishonest way, bring out the importance of the clergy. Most of the clergy that we meet in the story don’t fit our vision of “holy people”. They didn’t fit Fielding’s vision either. Parson Adams is the only character that represents what Fielding considers to be the proper role for the clergy. He believes that the proper role for the clergy is that they should give moral guidance and they should be virtuous and charitable.
Advances in modern medical science in the near future are dependent upon the advances in methods and procedures that, by today’s standards, are considered to be taboo and dangerous. These methods will not only revolutionize the field of medicine, but they will be the forerunners to a whole new way of treating people. For these advances to take place, several key steps need to be taken both medically and politically. In this paper I will attempt to explain what methods and procedures will be the future of modern medicine, how these methods and procedures can benefit mankind, and finally what changes will be needed in the fields of medicine and politics. First, I’ll attempt to explain which methods and procedures will be the future of modern medicine.
In 1655 he received a bachelor’s degree at Trinity College in Cambridge. After two years of college being closed down because of “The Plague”, he returned and became Lucasian professor of mathematics.