Medical Advances In The 1800s

There were numerous advancements in the medical world in England throughout the 1800’s. Many things that are being used in hospitals today were developed in this time period, such as anesthesia, x-rays, and many other things. The Germ Theory was an important discovery for the medical field in the 19th century. Louis Pasteur proved that the souring of milk was caused by living organisms. He would boil liquids known to ferment in a “swan necked flask” and let them cool, he found that none of them went through fermentation after being boiled. This confirmed the theory that living microorganisms were the cause of many diseases and illnesses. This changed pathology forever and Pasteur's work led to the introduction of antiseptic procedures into
Water and air-borne infection was not generally accepted because they did not yet know this was a major cause of developing an illness. Many medicines were simple -and often deadly- concoctions of elements like Arsenic, Mercury, Iron, or Phosphorus.
Thus the 1848 edition of Buchan's Domestic Medicine, with its colorful illustrations, showed the symptoms of smallpox, scarlet fever and measles. Among the general causes of illness were: 'diseased parents', night air, sedentary habits, anger, wet feet and abrupt changes of temperature. The causes of fever included injury, bad air, violent emotion, irregular bowels and extremes of heat and cold. Cholera, which would become a terrible epidemic in many British cities, was said to be caused by rancid or putrid food, by 'cold fruits' such as cucumbers and melons, and by passionate fear or rage. Treatments relied heavily on a change of air, for example together with emetic and laxative purgation and bleeding by cup or leech to clear 'impurities' from the body. A limited range of medication was employed, and the power of prayer was regularly used because people were largely religious and had no faith in science at this point in medical or scientific
Well in the 1800’s people had a morbid obsession with digging up the dead to cut them open and find out how our bodies work. While the idea was very taboo, many still did it out of scientific curiosity. This of course led to the job of autopsy reports to explain exactly how the person died and even how long ago they died. Doctors began to specialize in areas in order to gain a deeper understanding of the subject they were most passionate about. Doctors began to undergo trainings in order to gain more experience before entering the field to insure more knowledgeable and trustworthy