Here is your opportunity to show off what you know.
Read the posts carefully and see if you can argue against your peers.
Back up your comments with detailed evidence.
Which individual has made the biggest contribution to the History of Medicine?
27 comments:
Hi
I personally think that Edward Jenner made the biggest contribution to the history of medicine. Jenner found the cure for Smallpox, therefore saved many lives. Smallpox killed the most children ever killed by a disease in the 1700s. I actually think that this is one of the most horrid diseases (alongside the Black Death) ever known. It left the body completely scarred (That's if you even survived) and the body would be covered in boils,scabs and blisters. Just as you thought it couldn't get any worse, you realise that Smallpox was contageous. This meant if anyone had smallpox they were locked up in a guarded home and were not allowed to go out, just incase anyone else caught it. Well, if someone hadn't found a cure for this I don't know what would have happened. But then a man called Edward Jenner comes along claiming he has found a cure for this deadly disease.Brilliant! We all know that the cure was 'if someone caught Cowpox before they caught Smallpox, then they would be immune to the disease Smallpox.' (Obviously as Cowpox was not a deadly disease, this cure worked.)Who else could have thought of that!
You may argue that Jenner decided to carry out his experiment on an 8 year old boy, therefore this was a bit of a foolish decision. But all I can say to that is 'Well it worked!'
Hello,
I think that lots of people made their contribution to medicine in history however from all of the people it was one person that stood out to me the most. That’s right! The one and only Joseph Lister. Lister's work not only saved lives but was so significant it was the biggest breakthrough in Science since the prehistoric times.
Joseph Lister built on Louis Pasteur’s idea of the germ theory to help prevent patients from dying of infections in hospitals. He did not know how germs were created or what they were or how to deal with them as they could not be seen with the naked eye. He tried everything from cleaning hospitals and moving himself and patients to new hospitals but could not find out the cure. But it was his persistence that led him to find out that sewage was cleaned with a liquid called 'Carbolic Acid' Lister spotted a link. He wanted to put behind the theory of 'Miasmas' just as Pasteur had done and so tried using the acid by soaking it on the bandages and thread for stitching as well as using it to spray in the air.
He eventually found out that it improved immortality rates greatly but instead of being praised and having this idea put into action he faced so much opposition for various reasons such as other doctors and surgeons though that after all their hard work they were being ridiculed and criticised. Surgeons were also thought of as inferior so highly trained London physicians looked down on his idea and thought ‘well, what a surgeon could possibly know? It also cost more money and time to employ people to spray it into the operating theatre. Another point was that Lister himself knew the system and how rigorously it needed to e used but other surgeons and doctors didn’t and the therefore sometimes and got it wrong and jumped at the idea of criticising him yet again. It was also poisonous and irritant so was gain disliked. A major factor was that it was new. People opposed new ideas simply because it was new. Most top renowned doctors in that era still didn’t believe in his idea of germs and tough it was ludicrous to try and battle germs when they didn’t exist. However even after all this Lister kept his head high and eventually got his idea accepted.
Lister is the reason why we have aseptic surgery today. His revolutionary idea of wearing protective clothing that was to be washed after every operation was a total success. All instruments were now being sterilised something was before unheard of. Clean and sterile rubber gloves were also being used. With antiseptic and anaesthetics out the way more complex surgery could be carried out successful with very low mortality rates. Very soon the first appendix surgery took place successfully later following a heart surgery.
His idea has benefitted everyone; the world now is so much cleaner and healthier as a result. Doctors today still practice his idea and are very successful with so many complicated surgeries however nearly everyone will have some sort of Tcp , Dettol E.t.c and everyone knows the theory of germs. In the USA alone 53 Million surgeries take place a year that is one hundred and forty five thousand two hundred and five surgeries each day in America alone. Lister’s Idea will never go out of date but will affect people for eternity.
His ideas then lead to identifying particular germs themselves and their characteristics and how to prevent more deadly germs.
CONTINUED...
In response to Nadia, Edward Jenner’s idea only stopped one disease and is not helping people today and Lister's idea is. Although Hippocrates and Galen’s ideas were respected so much they were never any help and didn’t save any lives but instead killed people by taking too much blood from them.
Vesalius also wrote a book on the human body with a beautiful detailed account of the human body but although it was the foundation of what we know today it didn’t and hasn’t saved lives. Being able to identify muscle and bones doesn’t save lives. People needed relief from pain and death not what bones were inside them.
William Harvey then went onto explain how the heart worked but again did it help. No! Something that was going to help people there and then was needed and Harvey could not give this information.
Pare then came up with the brilliant idea of treating gunshot wounds and stopped cauterizing but again his ideas had problems and didn’t always work and ligatures caused infection, he increased the immortality rates for people using ligatures as he caused the infecting to grow deep inside the person thus killing them, yet again infection was killing and pare had no idea what that was. Although his idea did help some and save a lot of pain it is now outdated.
University trained physicians were only used but he rich and still didn’t improve anything because of lack of knowledge.
Chemist apothecaries had not successfully treated problems and instead sold exotic foods and supernatural remedies such as the bezoar stone and criminals skull.
Robert Koch again only discovered immunisations for a few diseases such as septiceamia, TB and Anthrax.
Eugene Soubeiran for me took a big leap when he made Chloroform. This did save lives because people died from the shock of pain. However this was also a dangerous substance at the time and sometimes killed people. On, the other hand it is still used today in helping women during childbirth but only eases the pain a little, so it was a very important thing however it wasn’t that idea that has saved most lives, even though the pain stopped over 50 percent of people were still dying because of infection and were left with horribly smelling and gangrenous limbs.
Women Healers were also important and don’t get the credit they deserve but they could only tackle small problems like coughs sore throats with natural remedies. They also assisted in births but weren’t fully educated and couldn’t tell if a baby was in the wrong position. It could be argues that was because of the lack of technology and that they did a great job but not saving people on the scale of Lister, no way! he would out do them at all times.
Pastures name is something that so many people see on a day to day basis without recognizing it. Every day we look at our milk carton and it says at the bottom ‘Pasteurized’ because it has been sterilized and germs killed because of Pasteur’s theory. He is someone who deserves a lot of credit. He came up with the idea of germs and explored it but he didn’t save lives he tried to understand why beer was going off. It was only a matter of time before someone would realize that.
Joseph Lister Rocks.
Beat that Everyone!
Helloooooo
I think Joseph Lister made the biggest contribution in the history of medicine because he discovered an antiseptic which killed germs and fight infection. Joseph lister knew that a chemical called carbolic acid was killing the germs in the sewers so he thought he would use the carbolic acid during surgery and use it in wounds and soaking it on the bandages. He also made sure surgeons washed their instruments and wore gloves and washed their hands. Antiseptics reduced the amounts of death.
Wow 53 million surgeries each year. Lister's ideas revolutionised surgery by ensuring that the problem of infection was resolved. However, the millions of successful operations which are carried out today are successful because of developments in technology like x ray. We cannot give Lister the credit for all the miracles surgeons can perform today.
Remember that people rarely develop ideas in isolation. They often build on the ideas of other people. Lister's carbolic acid spray was a brilliant contribution that reduced death rates and paved the way for asceptic surgery. However, Lister was only possible to develop this idea due to Pasteur's breakthrough. Pasteur's germ theory was the real turning point. All the supernatural causes for disease, miasma and spontaneous generation were all proved wrong by Pasteur. Finally somebody had discovered the real cause of disease. Lister was able to use this breakthrough to improve surgery. But it was Pasteur's determination and scintific experiments which contributed so much to improving surgery and even public health.
Well done Maaria, Haleema and Nadia. Some excellent comments.
In response to Mrs shaheen Lister would get the benefit because even if we had all the technology of today like xrays without Listers germ theory nothing would have been succesful.
P.s 53 million suregeries a year in the U.S only.A lot aint it?
BTW i thought you were grading these.
Fantastic effort Maaria. Your post was brill because you compared the achievements of different individuals.
Consider how the factors helped these individuals. Science and Technology - Without the printing press would Vesalius be remembered today? Without the French government and financial support would Pasteur have achieved the success he did?
Hi,
I think that Joseph Lister made the biggest contribution because he is the one that came up with the whole Carbolic acid idea which is great and saved many people than, when there was no Carbolic acid. If Lister hadnt come up with that idea, many people would have died after their surgeries because of the germs and bacteria around them. Lister also has helped us with our surgeries because he also came up with the idea of wearing correct clothing & gloves, sterilise their surgery equipment and to wash their hands before the surgery.
Hi
I personally think that edward jenner made the biggest contribution,his cure for smallpox is the reason why that there are no such cases of smallpox today.if jenner hadn`t gotten the idea that cowpox could be used to fight smallpax and if he hadn`t tried to prove his theory on an 8 year old boy then there might still have been cases of smallpox in todays mordern life.I do agree that jenners idea of using a 8 year old boy to test his theory out was risky and also agree that if his theory hadn`t been proved right when he infected the small boy with smallpox he would have been called a murderer but,if he hadn`t taken this risk to find a cure then thousand of men,women and especially children may have died(smallpox killed more children than any other illness and disease in the 1700`s).
However this was only one diseases he caused immunity to. His idea is outdated today.
I think that Joseph Lister made the biggest contribution to medicine because his contribution to medicine has made a big impact to us today. Today surgeons , assistants and nurses all wear gowns,caps,masks and rubber gloves that have been sterilized, this is the process of killing germs. Even the patient is treated with antiseptic agents, so those germs from their body do not cause infection. Joseph Lister improved on Louis Pasteur’s Germ Theory. Pasteur discovered that diseases were caused by living thins called ‘germs’. Lister realised it was important to kill the germs in the wounds, so if they were killed then the wound would not get infected and rotten. Lister used carbolic acid which was used to clean sewages ,by using this cattle were freed of parasites. Lister then began to clean wounds and dress them using a solution of carbolic acid. During an operation there would be someone standing there who would spray this acid randomly around the theatre also when the operation had finished the surgeon would spray carbonic acid on the wound and bandages. Lister used carbolic acid as an antiseptic. The results were a lot less rotting and infections of wounds and the number or deaths dramatically dropped, this showed that Lister’s experiments had worked. So Lister continued his experiments for two years, and in 1867 carbolic acid was used an antiseptic due to the success of Lister’s experiments. As a success of Lister's work and similar work in hospitals in Germany, cleanliness came common in hospitals and staff in operating theatres had to wear long white gowns which easily showed dirt and use surgical gauze to thoroughly clean sores and wounds. Even though it was a success people opposed to Lister’s ideas but he took no notice and carried on spreading his ideas to the world. People still believed that chemical damage from exposure to bad air (also known as miasma) was responsible for infections to wounds. in 1877, he was offered the chair of Clinical Surgery at Kings College Lister knew that this was his chance and it came. On October 26 1877, Lister, for the first time, carried out an operation under antiseptic conditions. News of the operation was widely spread which aroused much opposition. Its success was instrumental in forcing surgical opinion throughout the world to accept that his method's greatly added to the safety of operative surgery. Joseph Lister was a surgeon and medical scientist ,who lead the way of using antiseptics, the use of antiseptic chemicals to prevent surgical infections. Lister’s principle was “Bacteria must never gain entry to an operation wound", this still remains basic to surgery today.
How about Galen?
He trained at an Asclepion and a Gladiator school. He had experience treating wounds and even treated the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. Dissection was forbidden and he resorted to vivisection. His ideas were explored again in the Renaissance by both Christian and Muslim doctors. He is significant because his ideas and medical books encouraged doctors and anatomists to test and challenge his ideas.
Alright maaria fair enough!
But shouldnt Louis Pasteur get some credit atleast. I mean if it werent for him germs wouldn't have evn been discovered. It was his ideas and research of bacteria that led on to Robert Koch who also started studying germs ( even though all he did was die the bacteria!) which also led on to Joseph Lister. Surely he carried on after reading through Pasteurs work first. Right?
Nadia: If you read m last comment it says 'Pastures name is something that so many people see on a day to day basis without recognizing it. Every day we look at our milk carton and it says at the bottom ‘Pasteurized’ because it has been sterilized and germs killed because of Pasteur’s theory. He is someone who deserves a lot of credit. He came up with the idea of germs and explored it but he didn’t save lives he tried to understand why beer was going off.
Mrs Shaheen: Galen did not save lives. He belived in hippocrates idea's of the four humours.His i deads caused a lot of problmes when the church made everyone agree to them and the country went into the dark ages. Though thats not his fault , his ideas didnt help. and anyone could treat a wound , from women healers to physicias.
I personally think that Louis Pasteur should get the credit with some others in the history of medicine. Louis Pasteur did find the germ theory which helped many other scientist (such as Robert Koch & Joseph Lister ) to develop his ideas.
Maybe if Loius never knew anything about the germs no one would have found out what germs were til today.
By Farida Ahmed
hello
I think that lister made the biggest contribution to the history of medicine because in the eighteen century there was this common infection called sepsis,that killed over half of the patients undergiong major surgery.The surgeries were successfully but the patients died.Then in the 1839 this chemist called justin von liebig sugested that sepsis was caused by bad air and to prevent this keep air away from wounds by putting plasters on the wound.But lister doubted this sugestion and for many years he explored for an idea to cure sepsis.In 1865 pasteur discovered an idea that decay was caused by oranisms in the air,this made lister think about the sepsis infection.Later on lister heard that this carbolic acid was being used to clean sewages and this gave him an idea.lister start to clean wounds and spray carbolic acid on the wounds.if it was not for joseph lister germ theory.we would not wear sterilled clothing and be in sterilled rooms today.
Come on lets hear what YOU really think. No more copy and paste jobs please. You know who you are!
There was any peole who progressed aspects of medicine in the 16th century and also have used eachothers knowledge and theories to get a better understnding of medicine however I also think that it was joseph lister who made the biggest contribution to surgery as he did discover that carbolic acid would stop the infection and not only did he help medicine he saved many lives which had dramatically decreased after this discovery but it was nt all down to him and as nadia nd maaria have specfically pointed out that some credit must go to pasteur as he did discover germs and then his theories helped out other scientists such as robert koch and lister . I persoanlly don't think its about who made the most contribution i think every scientist did their part and helped get where we are today so really they all deserve credit (apart from the useless ones that actually killed more people then saving them), he made a breakthrough in surgery (ps i'm not going to write how he discovered it and so on because its already nbeen written)
My second place award goes to jenner and his small pox buisness as he discovered that if you have small pox then you won't get cowpox or other way around.
Peacee out !
Tirhas,
It does matter which way round. Cowpox first will prevent smallpox. Smallpox first will KILL YOU!
Hi
Well i think that Louis Pasteur made an impressive discovery and if it wsnt for him we would have been stranded for longer with no idea where germs come from. He contributed massively not only did he discover how germs came about but also developed techniques on how to preserve beverages such as milk and beer/wine which was known as pasteuraisation which is still used todaywhich just shows that his efforts were not wasted and that he made a difference for all of us. But he didn't stop there he wasnt the type of person who thought i've done a lot lets have a rest no! He continueth his work by moving on to immunisation and vaccination. He started off with chicken cholera and then progressed to anthrax which was a deadly disease to cattle. You may well be thinking well it didnt help humans but it has because without cattle farming would have been a disater in most places therefor causing shortages in food
Haha okay miss ,
I still think Joseph Lister made the biggest contribution to the history of medicine because he did discover that infections weren't caused due to the 'bad air' , but due to germs and microbes in the air which infested the food/liquid.
Also, Lister discovered that the use of carbolic acid in operations could stop infections occurring whilst the operation was in action. this saved many lives and it eventually got accepted by doctors and surgeons globally.
Lister also made a revolutionary breakthrough in the world of hygiene within surgery rooms etc.
Even though Maaria's comment was a little too long to read, I do agree with her point that Lister's theories have developed into many new modern products which treat infections and without these, many infections would remain untreated and would perhaps develop into something worse.
Therefore I think Lister made the biggest contribution to the history of medicine.
:)
i think louis pasteur made the biggest contrubition in the history of medicine. he helped group of French farmers when the silk industry faced a crisis due to diseased eggs. He showed the farmers how they could use a microscope to detect the diseased eggs. These eggs were then destroyed and the disease eliminated in the silkworm nurseries. Pasteur received grateful thanks from those whose livelihoods he had saved.Pasteur found the process that prevents milks from turning sour and preserve many other foodstuffs as well.If Louis Pasteur had chosen to patent this process, he would have become a rich man. Instead, he chose to make his discovery freely available so that all could benefit from it. His only reward was fame and recognition, with the new process becoming known as ‘pasteurization’.
his hard work was recognised the French government honoured Pasteur with its highest award, the Legion of Honour—much of the medical profession still resisted his ideas. Some older doctors seemed unable to cope with Pasteur’s forward thinking on germs and vaccination.
Louis Pasteur's main contributions to microbiology and medicine were;
instituting changes in hospital/medical practices to minimize the spread of disease by microbes or germs,
discovering that weak forms of disease could be used as an immunization against stronger forms and that rabies was transmitted by viruses too small to be seen under the microscopes of the time,
introducing the medical world to the concept of viruse.
if it wasn't for him we wouldn't have discovered what germs are today, however the idea had to be developed.
opposition found hard to understand considering that Pasteur is generally recognized today as having made ‘the greatest contribution of any one man to the saving of human lives.
I think that the individual who has made the biggest contribution to medicine was Joseph Lister.he discovered that illnesses and diseases weren't caused due to bad surroundings and punishments from God but were from germs that were carried in the air.Lister had also discovered if carbolic acid was used to kill germs from sewers what would be so wrong in using it in a surgical theatre.this theory from Lister had solved the problem with infections.
MISS ARFAN HASNT COMMENTED YET GIVE HIM A C'3
AND MARIAA CHILL OUT WITH THE COMMENTS...
Joseph Lister could have made an even bigger contribution had he not ignored the Penicillin spores which landed in his laboroatory. He was complacent and wanted to rest on his carbolic acid spray achievements.
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