Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mr. Merchant and thank you for joining me for today's history lesson.

I'll be guiding you through all of our resources today.

And my top priority is to make sure that by the end of our lesson, you are able to successfully meet our learning objective.

Welcome to today's lesson, which is part of our Edexcel unit on Medicine in Britain and our AQA unit on Health and the People.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to evaluate the impact of Germ theory on approaches to treating and preventing disease in the 19th century.

There are two keywords, which will help us navigate our way through today's lesson.

Those are quack and public health.

Quack is a term used to refer to people or medical practises, which are useless and untrustworthy.

And public health refers to actions and systems intended to prevent disease and maintain good health within communities.

Today's lesson will be split into three parts and we'll begin by focusing on common forms of treatment and prevention.

During the 19th century, some effective methods to protect people from disease were in use.

However, for much of the century, the actual causes of many diseases were not understood.

This led to many ineffective methods of treatment and prevention remaining in use.

In the 19th century, there were few effective treatments available to cure diseases and ill health.

As a result, many people continued to purchase quack medicines, not least as their sellers designed eye-catching bottles and promised that their medicines could cure a wide range of conditions.

In the 19th century, these quack medicines were commonly referred to as patent medicines, but generally remained useless and unreliable.

For instance, one patent medicine, Daffy's Elixir was sold widely under false claims that it could cure health conditions ranging from gout and poor digestion to scurvy and seizures.

In the 19th century, the theory of the four humours, which had stated imbalances between liquids in the body caused ill health, was no longer accepted by most doctors.

Nevertheless, bloodletting which had initially been inspired by the theory of the four humours remained popular.

It was believed that bloodletting, could effectively treat many different conditions, even those as different as epilepsy and tuberculosis.

Indeed, in 1838, a member of the Royal College of Physicians argued that when used well, bloodletting is a practise, which is almost impossible to praise too much.

In the 19th century, bloodletting most commonly involved applying leeches to a patient's body to suck their blood.

During the 1840s, 6 million leeches were brought into England from France for this purpose.

It was not until the second half of the 19th century that bloodletting's popularity declined as doctors finally accepted that it was often ineffective or even harmful for patients.

So, let's reflect on everything we've just had.

I want you to write the missing word for the following sentence.

In the 19th century, quack medicines were usually referred to as blank medicines, but remained untrustworthy.

So, what's the missing word? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Now, okay, well done to everybody, who said that the missing word was patent.

In the 19th century, quack medicines were usually referred to as patent medicines, but remained untrustworthy.

And this time, we have an illustration shown on the screen.

Studying that illustration, which common medical treatment does it show? Pause the video here and press play when you are ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody, who said that the illustration shows bloodletting being carried out.

You can tell this, because we can see a doctor placing a leech on the patient's neck, so that it could suck out some of her blood.

The ineffectiveness of most available treatments meant that many doctors emphasised the importance of preventing disease and ill health in the 19th century.

In the case of one disease, smallpox, the work of Edward Jenner meant that an effective vaccine existed, which gave people immunity from the disease.

In the second half of the 19th century, the British government passed new laws requiring newborns to receive smallpox vaccinations, leading to a significant decrease in the death rate from smallpox over the last quarter of the 19th century.

However, for most of the century, the reason why genus smallpox vaccination worked, was not understood, meaning that vaccines could not be developed to grant people immunity against other deadly diseases such as cholera.

The spread of many infectious diseases, was still often explained through the idea of miasma, a belief in bad air.

This encouraged some ineffective medical responses, such as the burning of barrels of tar to try and combat the bad air.

However, belief in miasma, did also encourage some doctors and politicians to support public health reforms, like the improvement of sewers to create cleaner environments.

These reforms were beneficial as they helped protect people from harmful microbes, like those responsible for causing cholera, which were more likely to infect people living in unsanitary environments.

So, let's check how well we've understood everything we just heard.

"What method was able to give people immunity to smallpox in the 19th century?" Was it bloodletting, patent medicines or vaccination? Pause video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody, who said that the correct answer was C.

Vaccinations were able to give people immunity to smallpox in the 19th century.

And let's try another question.

This time, we have a statement, which reads, "Belief in miasma helped encourage, some effective approaches to preventing disease." But is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody, who said that that statement was true.

But we need to be able to justify our response.

So, why is it that that original statement is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you are ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said, "Although miasma was an incorrect theory, it did encourage public health reforms, like improving sewers, which did protect people from harmful microbes." So, we're now in a good position to put our knowledge of common forms of treatment and prevention into practise.

On the screen, we can see that Andeep and Laura disagree with one another.

Andeep says that treatments were often more effective than methods of prevention in the 19th century, whereas Laura says that methods of prevention were usually more effective than treatments in the 19th century.

But whose view is correct, Andeep's or Laura's? Explain your answer in one paragraph.

Pause the video here and press play when you are ready to reflect on your response.

Now, okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So, I asked you whose view was correct, Andeep's or Laura's? And your answer may have included, "Laura's view is correct as methods of prevention were generally more effective than treatments for disease in the 19th century.

For example, very few effective cures were available and so ineffective or even harmful treatments remained in use.

This included patent medicines like Daffy's Elixir and methods of bloodletting, especially the use of leeches.

By contrast, there were some effective methods of prevention in use at the time.

For instance, smallpox vaccines were available throughout the century and gave people immunity against the disease.

Meanwhile, public health reforms, like the improvement of sewers occurred, which by cleaning local environments, helped protect people from some infectious diseases such as cholera, even if the intent behind them was misguided." So, really well done if your own answer looks something like that model, which we've just seen.

And so, now, we're ready to move on to the second part of our lesson for today where we are going to think about Germ theory and vaccines.

Germ theory was developed during the 1860s and 1870s.

Knowledge that microbes were responsible for causing some diseases influenced approaches to developing new vaccines.

Germ theory demonstrated that microbes were responsible for causing some diseases.

And by the late 1870s, methods for identifying and isolating these microbes, had been developed.

Utilising this knowledge, scientists such as Louis Pasteur began to investigate whether new vaccines could be developed to protect people from harmful microbes.

In 1879, whilst investigating chicken cholera, Pasteur proved that if chickens were first infected with a weakened strain of the disease, they would develop immunity against stronger strains of the disease.

In this way, the first animal vaccine was developed.

In the early 1880s, Pasteur applied the same methods to the virus responsible for causing rabies, a disease which affects both animals and humans.

Pasteur and his team created a weakened strain of the rabies virus for their vaccine and conducted many tests to confirm it worked on animals.

Building on this success, Pasteur and his team used their rabies vaccine on a human for the first time in 1885.

The test proved successful and clearly demonstrated that effective vaccines could be developed from weakened strains of disease-causing microbes.

This meant that unlike after Jenner's discovery of the smallpox vaccine, other scientists were able to replicate Pasteur's methods to begin developing vaccines against other diseases.

During the 1890s, successful vaccines were developed to prevent diphtheria, typhoid and bubonic plague.

So, let's check our understanding of everything we've just heard.

"In 1885, Pasteur first developed a vaccine to protect humans from which disease?" Was it cholera, rabies or smallpox? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Now, okay, well done to everybody, who said the correct answer was B.

In 1885, Pasteur first developed a vaccine to protect humans from rabies.

And this time, we have a statement on the screen that reads, "Other scientists were unable to replicate Pasteur's method for developing vaccines." But is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody, who said that that statement was false.

But we need to be able to justify our response.

So, why is it that that original statement is incorrect? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody, who said Pasteur's methods could be replicated by developing weak strains of other diseases to try and create new vaccines.

And let's try one more question.

I want you to identify two diseases, which new vaccines were successfully developed for in the 1890s.

So, pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answers.

Okay, so, well done to anybody, who mentioned any two of the following diseases, diptheria, typhoid and bubonic plague.

These were similar diseases, which new vaccines were successfully developed for in the 1890s.

So, we're now in a good position to put our knowledge about Germ theory and vaccines into practise.

I want you to study Sam's view.

Sam says that "Pasteur's work on vaccines was insignificant, because Edward Jenner had already developed a vaccine." I want you to explain why Sam's view is not correct.

So, pause the video here and press play when you are ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So, I asked you to explain why Sam's view is not correct and your answer may have included, "Many historians would argue that Pasteur's work on vaccines was significant, even though Edward Jenner, had already discovered a vaccine before him.

Although Jenner's vaccine for smallpox was effective, he had not understood why it worked.

This prevented scientists from using it to help them discover vaccines for other diseases.

By contrast, Louis Pasteur proved that once a disease-causing microbe had been identified, it was possible to create a weakened strain of the disease it caused and use this to develop vaccines.

This was how Pasteur developed a vaccine for rabies in 1885.

Pasteur's method could be followed by other scientists and allowed them to develop vaccines for other diseases, including diphtheria and typhoid in the 1890s." So, really well done if your own response looks something like that model, which we've just seen.

And so, now, we're ready to move on to the third and final part of our lesson for today where we are going to think about the broader impact of Germ theory on approaches to treatment and prevention.

Germ theory certainly benefited the development of new vaccines.

However, historians have debated the broader impact of Germ theory on other aspects of treatment and prevention in 19th century Britain.

Germ theory didn't just improve prevention by helping scientists to develop new vaccines.

It also gave new justifications to support public health reforms. For example, once it was proved that some diseases like cholera were spread by a bacteria found in contaminated water, it became easier to convince local authorities to spend large amounts of money on schemes, which would guarantee clean water supplies.

Indeed, in 1897, the town of Maidstone became the first in England to have its entire water supply chlorinated.

This involved adding chlorine to water supplies to kill any disease-causing microbes.

All the same, many of the most significant public health reforms in major British cities had begun before it was possible for Germ theory to influence decision-makers.

For example, in London and Glasgow, the fret posed by cholera was wiped out by the 1870s through the construction of new water supply and sewage systems. However, the construction of these systems in both cities began in the 1850s, years before Pasteur had even developed his Germ theory.

Germ theory did help to encourage improvements in surgery.

Joseph Lister was inspired by Pasteur's work to develop methods aimed at preventing microbes from infecting patient's wounds during operations.

By the 1880s, Lister's methods had become widely accepted in Britain and led to a significant decline in death rates for surgical patients.

The success of vaccines against some disease-causing microbes, also inspired scientists to look for methods, which might attack and destroy harmful microbes, which had already infected the body.

This research, if successful, would allow scientists to provide treatments, which could cure people of certain diseases, even if they had not been vaccinated.

However, while scientists conducting this research, were ultimately successful, they did not achieve any breakthroughs until after 1900.

So, during the 19th century itself, there continued to be a lack of cure for infections.

So, let's make sure we have a secure understanding of everything that we've just heard.

"Joseph Lister used his knowledge of Germ theory to make improvements in which area?" Was it medication, surgery or therapy? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody, who said that the correct answer was B.

Joseph Lister used his knowledge of Germ theory to make improvements to surgery.

And this time, we have a statement on the screen, which reads, "Knowledge of Germ theory led Glasgow and London to construct new systems for water supply and sewage." But is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody, who said that that statement was false.

But we need to be able to justify our response.

So, why is it that that original statement was incorrect? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Now, okay, well done to everybody who said, "In both cities, construction of these major new systems began in the 1850s, years before Germ theory had even been published for the first time." And let's try one more question.

Which statement is correct, that many new medicines were developed by 1900, which could destroy microbes in a body, that just one new medicine was developed by 1900, which could destroy microbes in a body, or that no new medicines were developed by 1900, which could destroy microbes in the body? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody, who said that the correct answer was C, no new medicines were developed by 1900, which could destroy microbes in the body.

So, we're now in a good position to put all of our knowledge into practise.

I want you to answer the following question.

"How significant was Germ theory for the treatment and prevention of disease in the 19th century?" You should explain your answer in two paragraphs.

So, pause video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So, I asked you to explain how significant was Germ theory for the treatment and prevention of disease in the 19th century.

And your answer may have included, "Germ theory was significant for the improvement of approaches to preventing disease in the 19th century as it allowed scientists and authorities to develop effective methods targeted at removing disease-causing microbes.

For example, new vaccines were developed to give people immunity to diseases like rabies and methods like adding chlorine to water were introduced to ensure water was not contaminated by microbes.

Without knowledge of the role microbes played in causing some diseases, it is unlikely that these effective and beneficial methods would've been developed.

Nevertheless, the significance of Germ theory should not be overstated.

For example, cities like Glasgow and London began building new water supply and sewage systems, which protected their populations from disease-causing microbes in contaminated water before Germ theory had been published.

Furthermore, Germ theory had little impact on treatment during the 19th century as no new cures, which destroyed microbes were developed before 1900.

Therefore, Germ theory did encourage many significant improvements, which helped protect people's health.

But knowledge of Germ theory was not always responsible for key improvements during the 19th century." So, well done if your own response looks something like that model, which we've just seen.

And so, now, we've reached the end of today's lesson, which puts us in a good position to summarise our learning about 19th century approaches to treatment and prevention.

We see that ineffective treatments such as bloodletting and patent medicines remained common in the 19th century.

It was not known why smallpox vaccines worked, so scientists could not use them to help develop new vaccines for other diseases.

Louis Pasteur's method of developing weakened strains of diseases, allowed new vaccines to be developed for rabies and other diseases.

There were no new treatments to destroy infection-causing microbes in this period.

And many effective public health reforms were introduced, but without knowledge of the role microbes played in spreading disease.

So, really well done for all of your hard work during today's lesson.

It's been a pleasure to help guide you for our resources today.

And I look forward to seeing you again in the future as we continue to think about Medicine in Britain and Health and the People.