1. By Miss Norton www.SchoolHistory.co.uk
Medicine Through Time
Factors
By Miss Norton

2. What are factors?
Factors are the causes that have made things happen in the history of medicine.
Each factor plays an important role in medicine’s changes over time.
Factors can help or hinder change.

3. How do factors work?
Almost always the factors work together to produce or prevent development in medicine (multiple factors are better!).
Although we will examine them separately remember that it would be very unusual for a single factor to alter the history of medicine.

4. How do we examine factors?
Identify the factors - see how they worked together - examine which was most important, if any.
For example - Penicillin
Individuals - Fleming, Florey and Chain
Second World War
The need for an antibiotic
Chance - the discovery of mould!

5. So what factors play a part in Medicine?
Government
Attitudes & Beliefs
Technology
War
Individuals
Chance
Knowledge

6. Warfare
War increased the need for medicine - without effective medicine there would be no army to fight!
Roman army hospitals
Paré’s ointment and ligatures
Nightingale and the conditions in hospitals
Penicillin
X-rays & Skin grafts

7. Govt involvement means health for all, not just the rich
Governments
A government needs to get involved in medicine if it wants to stay in power.
Public Health means health for all, controlled by the government.
Romans - aqueducts, baths
19th Century - Public Health act
Mass vaccinations
1948 Start of NHS
Medieval towns - Plague
Industrial Cities - cholera, typhoid, high death rates
Govt involvement means health for all, not just the rich

8. Did Religion help or hinder?
It spread ideas and education
Provided care for the needy
Kept the ideas of Galen
Some helped as they were called by God
Prevented dissection
Prevented new ideas as Galen’s fitted the Churches teachings
Dissection allowed around Protestantism began

9. Chance Chance has played a large role in medicine
What if Pare had not run out of oil?
Pasteur’s work on Chicken cholera was an accident.
What if Fleming had not seen the mould? Or what if he had cleaned up?

10. What was their effect on medicine?
Individuals
Hippocrates - father of modern medicine
Galen - Roman creator of medicine for 1500 years.
Vesalius, Pare, Harvey - the new men of the Renaissance
What was their effect on medicine?

11. Without these people would there have been a change?
Individuals
Nightingale, Simpson, Lister - nursing, anaesthetic and antiseptic
Koch and Pasteur - where does disease come from?
Fleming, Florey and Chain - penicillin
Without these people would there have been a change?

12. Other Factors
Communications - new methods of sharing ideas, and of stopping ideas!
Science and Technology - new poor technology prevents advances, new machines, such as microscopes help it
Conservatism - the desire for no change can stop good ideas from spreading

13. Factors Factors are essential - without them nothing would happen.
All the factors play a role in medicine, helping and hindering.
In groups examine the following questions -
Which factor do you consider the most important and why?
Which factor advanced medicine the most and why?
Which factor held medicine back and why?