The Changes In Medicine In The Nineteenth Century

The Changes In Medicine In The Nineteenth Century

The nineteenth century was one of the most important eras in the

history of medicine as many new cures and technologies were

discovered. At the beginning, many poor people still lived in houses

without proper sanitation, worked in dangerous factories and drank

water from polluted rivers.

By the end of the century, social conditions had improved, medicine

was more complex, treatments were more widely offered and technology

was more advanced along with many other improvements. But why did

these changes occur? What caused them? Why did they occur during the

nineteenth century and not before.

During the nineteenth century, Britain became the first industrialised

nation in the world and with the machines came problems. Many rural

people, finding themselves out of work, moved to the towns in search

of a new job in the factories. Even though new industrialised towns

were built such as Manchester or Leeds, the towns could not cope with

the amount of people. Houses were illegally built in cramped

conditions next to factories that heavily polluted the air. In these

slums, disease was rife and many died from cholera, typhoid,

tuberculosis and many more. Some died from injuries at work, where an

arm was cut off and the wound turned septic.

According to Edwin Chadwick's 'Report on the Sanitary Conditions of

the Labouring Population of Great Britain' which was published in

1842; the average age of death depended on class and on where you

lived. The results show that people generally lived longer in the

countryside and people of a higher class lived longer than those who

worked in the f...

... middle of paper ...

...access to medicine and

health care. Although medical advances are still being made rapidly,

not all medical problems have been solved. AIDs still remains a life

threatening illness with no known cure. The completion of this essay

shows that throughout the past 3000 years there have been many bursts

of progress, however there have also been some periods of regression

(for example 400-500AD). Progress was slow until about 1400AD. Things

seemed to get much better as religion declined as a big influence on

people's lives. Technology, science and education have all been

factors influencing the rate of change in medicine. However overall

the pace of progression has become more rapid. Medical progress

changes as attitudes change, which predicts that there will be many

more advances in the field of medicine in the near future.