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

My top priority today is to help guide you through all of our resources and make sure that you can meet today's learning objective.

Welcome to today's lesson, which is part of our unit on Renaissance medicine and health.

What we've been asking ourselves, what medical knowledge changed in this period? By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to explain the significance of John Hunter's medical work in the 18th century.

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

Those are scientific method and venereal.

The scientific method is an approach to testing and gaining knowledge based on observation and experimentation.

And venereal refers to something caused or spread by sexual activity with another person.

Today's lesson will be split into two parts, and we'll begin by focusing on John Hunter's life and work.

John Hunter was a British surgeon.

During the 18th century, Hunter was able to help support the development of surgery and medical knowledge in Britain.

John Hunter was a British surgeon who completed his work during the 18th century.

Hunter began developing his knowledge and skills by training under other surgeons working in London hospitals.

This included learning from William Cheselden, who worked at Chelsea Hospital, and Percivall Pott, who worked at St.

Bartholomew's Hospital.

In this time, Hunter was often involved in carrying out procedures such as bloodletting.

In 1760, Hunter joined the British Army as a surgeon.

In this period, Britain and France were at war.

So Hunter provided medical services during operations, like the British invasion of Belle Ile.

This allowed Hunter to gain new knowledge and experience as he operated on soldiers suffering from a wide range of injuries, including gunshot wounds.

So thinking about what we've just heard, which statement is most accurate? John Hunter was injured during a war, John Hunter gained medical knowledge during a war, or John Hunter was banned from training during a war.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody, who said the correct answer was B, John Hunter gained medical knowledge during a war as he worked as a surgeon in the British Army.

After leaving the army, Hunter went on to become a surgeon at St.

George's Hospital, helped to found an anatomy school, and also worked alongside James Spence, one of London's most well-known dentists.

Over the following decades, Hunter developed a good reputation in Britain's medical community.

In 1767, Hunter became a fellow of the Royal Society.

He was appointed surgeon to King George III in 1776.

And by 1790, Hunter had been appointed Surgeon General for the entire British Army.

Hunter believed strongly in the value of the scientific method.

This led him to conduct many dissections and even conduct experiments with live patients.

For example, to test whether gonorrhoea and syphilis were the same disease, Hunter deliberately infected one of his patients with pus from the source of a gonorrhoea patient.

Hunter published several medical texts based on his research in both hospitals and the army, including books on teeth, venereal diseases, blood inflammation, and gunshot wounds.

Hunter's role as a surgeon at St.

George's Hospital and as a founder of an anatomy school also meant he was responsible for training many medical students.

Hunter often emphasised the value of observation and experimentation to those he trained.

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

We have a statement which reads, "John Hunter was well-respected for his medical work." 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 how can we tell that original statement is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said Hunter became a fellow of the Royal Society and was also appointed as surgeon King George III in 1776, and a surgeon general for the British Army in 1790.

And now I want you to write the missing words from this following sentence.

John Hunter's medical experiments demonstrate his commitment to the blank, blank.

So what are the two missing words? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody, who said that the missing words were scientific method.

John Hunter's medical experiments demonstrate his commitment to the scientific method.

So we're now in a good position to put our knowledge of John Hunter's life and work into practise.

I want you to study the statements below.

They read, "Warfare helped John Hunter to develop his medical knowledge.

Hunter supported the training of new physicians and surgeons.

Hunter practised the scientific method in his own work, and Hunter was in a good position to influence other medical professionals." I want you to provide an example to support each of those four statements.

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

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

So I asked you to provide an example to support each of the statements and your answers may have included, for our first statement, that warfare helped John Hunter to develop his medical knowledge, that Hunter worked as an army surgeon, which allowed him to study injuries such as gunshot wounds, which he later published a book on.

For our second statement, that Hunter supported the training of new physicians and surgeons.

You may have said, "Hunter trained medical students whilst he worked as a surgeon at St.

George's Hospital and also helped set up an anatomy school, where students could learn through observation and experimentation." For our third statement, that Hunter practised the scientific method in his own work.

You may have said that Hunter conducted dissections and experiments as part of his research.

This included deliberately infecting one of his patients with pus from a gonorrhoea patient to test if syphilis and gonorrhoea were the same disease.

And for our fourth statement, that Hunter was in a good position to influence other medical professionals.

You may have said, "Hunter had many high profile appointments, including becoming surgeon to King George III in 1776 and working as Surgeon General for the army." So really well done if your own examples looked something like those models, which we've just seen.

And that means we're ready to move on to this second part of our lesson, where we are going to focus on John Hunter's significance.

John Hunter's work may be considered significant for a few reasons, including his support for the scientific method and his support for the learning of others.

Some historians have argued that Hunter's career demonstrates how medical knowledge and practises were able to improve during the 18th century.

Throughout his career, John Hunter was a strong supporter of the scientific method and his work helped to demonstrate the benefits of close observation and experimentation in medicine.

For instance, based on his career as an army surgeon and a patient he treated in that time, Hunter disproved the centuries-old idea that a gunshot injury poisoned the area around the wound.

This was important because the mistaken belief had previously encouraged surgeons to carry out unnecessary treatments, like cutting out the entire area around a gunshot wound, which actually exposed their patients to greater risk of infection.

Similarly, Hunter experimented to develop alternative treatments, which might be more beneficial for patients.

For instance, when treating a patient in 1785 who had an aneurysm, which is an area of blood swelling on his knee joint, Hunter refused to amputate the patient's leg as was common practise at the time.

Instead, building on knowledge he had gained from dissections, Hunter conducted a surgery, which involved restricted blood flow to the aneurysm.

This experimental approach proved effective.

The patient was able to walk out the hospital weeks later and had kept his leg because of Hunter's refusal to amputate it.

This showed how following the scientific method could lead to more effective medical practises.

So we have a statement on the screen that reads, "John Hunter failed to improve the treatment received by gunshot victims." 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 Hunter disprove the idea that gunshot injuries poison the area around the wound, so surgeons stopped cutting out these areas unnecessarily.

That meant that their patients were less exposed to the risk of infection.

Let's try another question.

How did John Hunter treat aneurysms? Was it through amputations, bloodletting, or experimental surgery? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was C, John Hunter began treating aneurysms through experimental surgery.

He hoped to avoid amputations, which he thought might be unnecessary, and his experimentation actually proved effective.

John Hunter's work benefited not only himself, but also the medical knowledge and practises of others.

Like other medical professionals at the time, Hunter published his key findings, so that they could be understood by others.

For instance, his findings on gunshot wounds, which were based on his experience in the army, were published in his work called "A Treatise on the Blood Inflammation and Gunshot Wounds." Many of Hunter's other findings were shared with the Royal Society and published in the Society's Journal Philosophical Transactions.

John Hunter's involvement in the training of medical students also meant that he was able to encourage them to adopt the scientific method themselves.

Indeed, Hunter trained hundreds of other surgeons in this approach.

Edward Jenner was one of Hunter's students and was once told by him, "Don't think, try." Jenner went on to develop an effective method to prevent smallpox infections, based on his own observations and experimentations.

Nevertheless, not all of Hunter's influences on medical knowledge were beneficial.

Indeed was Hunter conducted experiments to test whether gonorrhoea and syphilis were the same disease, he actually made a mistake in the process.

This meant that Hunter's conclusion that the diseases were the same was inaccurate.

However, because he was widely respected at the time and considered an expert on venereal diseases, it took over 50 years for Hunter's mistake to be corrected.

So let's reflect on everything we've just heard.

Why were John Hunter's incorrect ideas about gonorrhoea and syphilis accepted for so long? Was it because Hunter was respected as an expert on venereal disease? Because hunter's experiment had been conducted without fault? Or because Hunter discouraged others from following the scientific method? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

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

Although Hunter's beliefs about gonorrhoea and syphilis being the same disease were mistaken, they were accepted for over 50 years because Hunter was respected as an expert on venereal disease.

So people trusted his findings.

And let's try another question.

This time we have a statement which reads, "Edward Jenner's work on smallpox benefited from John Hunter's work." 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 was correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody, who said Jenner had been a student of John Hunter's, and was encouraged to follow the scientific method.

He was told, "Don't think, try." This helped Jenner discover a method for preventing smallpox infections.

So we are now in a good position to put all of our knowledge about John Hunter's significance into practise.

For task B, firstly, I want you to explain why some historians might argue that John Hunter's work improved the quality of surgery and medicine in the 18th century.

And then for the second part of task B, I want you to explain why some historians might argue that John Hunter's work did not improve the quality of surgery and medicine in the 18th century.

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

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

So firstly, I asked you to explain why some historians might argue that John Hunter's work improved the quality of surgery and medicine in the 18th century.

And your answer may have included, "John Hunter's work improved the quality of surgery and medicine in the 18th century because he championed the scientific method." In his own work, Hunter conducted careful observation and experimentation, which helped him make new discoveries.

For instance, he developed a new treatment for aneurysms, which avoided the need for amputation.

Furthermore, Hunter encouraged his students to follow the scientific method, allowing them to make new discoveries, too.

For example, Edward Jenner followed Hunter's encouragement to experiment, which helped him develop an effective method for preventing smallpox infections.

So well done if your own response to question one looked something like that model we've just seen, especially if you managed to highlight not only Hunter's role in developing some new methods of treatment, but also his importance for influencing the work of some other medical professionals.

And then I asked you to explain why some historians might argue that John Hunter's work did not improve the quality of surgery and medicine in the 18th century.

And your answer may have included that some historians may argue that John Hunter's work on venereal disease failed to improve the quality of medicine in the 18th century.

Hunter believed that syphilis and gonorrhoea were the same disease, and conducted an experiment to investigate this.

However, due to a mistake, the investigation suggested that Hunter's theory was correct, even though it wasn't.

However, because of Hunter's respected status, his conclusion was widely accepted, meaning that many other physicians and surgeons followed his error.

This made it harder to treat many patients effectively, and it took over 50 years for Hunter's mistake to be corrected.

So again, if your own response looked something like that model, which we've just seen, really well done, because it's important that we recognise some of the issues which were associated with John Hunter's work in the 18th century as well.

And that means we've reached the end of today's lesson, which puts us in a good position to summarise all of our learning about John Hunter.

We've seen that John Hunter gained experience working in hospitals, and as an army surgeon.

John Hunter championed the scientific method and encouraged others to learn from observation and experimentation.

By adopting the scientific method, Hunter was able to correct some medical knowledge, including ideas about gunshot wounds and discover new treatments, like for aneurysms. However, Hunter promoted incorrect ideas about venereal disease, which were widely accepted and not corrected for 50 years due to his respected status.

So really well done for all of your effort during today's lesson.

It's been a pleasure to help guide you for our resources today, and I look forward to working with you again in the future.