Medicine Revision

Knowledge about disease

Louis Pasteur: discovered that germs cause disease by using a swan-necked flask. Before his discovery, doctors are aware that bacteria existed, but they believed it was the disease that cause the bacteria (the so-called theory of 'spontaneous generation') rather then the other way round. 

Other spin-offs of Pasteur's discovery was the pasteurisation  of milk, which prevented it from the air.

PASTEURISATION= a process in which a liquid s heated to a specific temperature, in order to kill microorganisms in the liquid that could be damaging to health.

Robert Koch: discovered how to stain and grow bacteria in a Petri dish (named after his assistant Julius Petri). He was able to find which bacteria caused which diseases:

• septicaemia 1878
• TB 1882
• cholera 1883

In the same period other bacteria were discovered, including those that caused:

• typhoid 1880
• pneumonia 1882
• cholera 1883

Causes of improvements in physiology and pathology

The Industrial Revolution / inventions

• there was a general atmosphere of scientific research and advance.
• Louis Pasteur's first commission was to find a cure for sour wine, which set hime off on his revolutionary course
• Joseph Jackson Lister invented the multi-lens microscope, which allowed doctors to see very tiny things accurately
• Carl Ludwig invented the kymograph, which allowed more accurate measurement of the pulse

Scientific Knowledge

• Jan…