Medical Advancements In The 1800's Essay

In 18th century America, medicine was in a transition mode. While some pre-modern practices were still around, the 18th century saw the beginnings of a new modern medical practice. Replacing the passed down wisdom from the ancient world was clinical observation, the first American medical school, and experimental science, along with many physicians beginning to replace midwives. During the 18th century, a transition from pre-modern practices and theories to modern medical practice occurred because of medical education and the growth of hospitals, advances in medical procedures, and different types of medical practitioners.

As expected, with war comes extensive injuries. During WWI, it took a wounded soldier about 24 hours to travel from the battlefield to a hospital. Many times, the soldiers did not live through that excruciating 24 hours. The wounds inflicted on many soldiers led to the development of new medical techniques and improvements (iWonder 2015). The quickly rising death toll during WWI led to the creation of blood transfusion techniques. Prior to WWI, blood transfusions were nearly impossible without cross-matching blood types. An article published by Medical History argues that, “Though the technique (blood transfusions) caused several deaths, it did save dozens of other men, proving its lifesaving

has been documented in the United States starting around 1907, was commonly used on poor,

New discoveries spawn more medical research in medical colleges. In 1910, Abraham Flexner of the Carnegie Foundation publishes his study on medical education, and induces major medical education reform. Medical knowledge flourishes and specialists account for 20% of physicians in 1940. Hospitals begin to embellish new medical technology as physicians relied on the hospital as a source of access to new technology and as a facility in which to care for their sickest patients. (Writer, Dominguez, 2011, 2-6)

Medicine has always been improving throughout the years, but the 1940s were one of the most critical times of how medicine is still practiced today. There were a lot of medical advancements in the 1940s. New antibiotics were discovered, new medical practices helped in the war effort, tests and organizations set up to help find problems in health or health care.

In the late 1800's the Healthcare System was just in the infancy stages of becoming what it is today. The importance in relation to U.S is that if no one pioneered, created, and helped developed what the system is now we'd still be backwards in late 1800 thinking where bone saws were allowed ,

Medicine has been developed and discovered for thousands of years; however, the 1920’s was the first decade that fashioned a pathway for new developments and discoveries. Medical professionals have taken a huge hit for their fight in finding new inventions that can save patients from death’s hands. In the 1920’s, medicine has also taken a tremendous leap in controlling fatal diseases such as diabetes (Pendergast 110). Medicine in the 1920’s has altered the way medicine is shaped today; furthermore, the development and discovery of the iron lung, penicillin, and insulin were the first pertinent breakthroughs in medical history (“Iron” par. 7; Grimsley par. 15; “Banting” par. 13).

Healthcare in America was very limited during the early 1800s but advanced during the 1900s. One of the most critical scientific discoveries was made by Alexander Fleming in 1928 when he found a way to fight infection utilizing penicillin (Ho, 1999). This provided a way to treat infection and save lives. Also, facilities, organizational structure and training of health care were limited along with advancements in medicine and technology. However the expansion of heath care facilities advanced with the adoption of the Hill-Burton Act that provided federal funds matched by state/local governments to construct 10,748 healthcare facilities ranging from nursing homes, mental health and public hospitals (Thomas, 2006). Prior to this there were

Penicillin and insulin were discovered which allowed the first treatment available for diabetes possible. The Band Aid was invented in 1920 by Earle Dickson. You might think that it is a common sense invention but that is not so. Today you can use band aids from a paper cut or sliver to a deep cut or possibly laceration. The iron lung was a huge advancement in medical technology as it assisted those who could not breath properly and kept them alive like life

They were working on it around World War II, they believe that the medicine had potential. They wanted to find a way to use the medicine on humans to help reduce the bacteria infections in a wound. When they did find a way, it mass-produced and used in the war. The medicine saved many lives. The scientist Florey, Chain, and Fleming were awarded the Nobel Prize. Fleming was alone credited with the penicillin discovery. Even though the discovery of penicillin was a simple accident, but all the series of events that led up to being a very useful medicine.

The early 1900s lacked the information on illness prevention methods and the technology for treatments. As living conditions improved and more attention placed on the importance of nutrition

Before the Renaissance medicine was a surprisingly spiritual side of science, scientific advancements were usually either rejected or condemned by the church and if they were not the general public usually ignored them due to the Church's influence. After the Renaissance, medicine has become an undoubtedly sanitary, academic study where new ideas are able to flourish and save lives. Excluding modern times, medicine has made most of it’s progress during Ancient Greek and Roman times and the Renaissance which can mostly be attributed to the ancient Greeks and Romans because the Renaissance was a revival of the progress that was made by them. Hippocrates was one of the most famous Greeks and is considered the father of medicine by many. Medicine

Since the beginning of time, man has been plagued with diseases that have destroyed hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of months. Illness surrounding the home and city made it so children died at the tender age of 4 and made it a miracle to live past 12. If it weren’t for innovative people like Dr. Edward Jenner, Louis Pasteur, and men and women like them, the world would never have experienced the benefits of modern medicine and the human race would still live in the harsh reality that is talked about in history books. The innovations in medicine have a vast and crucial history that has lead to the richness and fullness of life that we know of today.

The anesthetic was developed by scientists at Baxter Laboratories. It was used in clinical use in Japan in 1990.

There have been many advances in the medical field such as; anesthesia, drugs, machines, etc. This has helped the doctors find alternative solutions to problems, and in return has helped them save more lives. In the article “Medicine” by Britannica, “Many new advances in anesthesia, and these in turn depend upon engineers who have devised machines and chemists produced new drugs. Other operations are made possible by new materials, such as the alloys and plastics that are used to make artificial hip and knee joints.” Advances in the medical field have truly helped modern doctors. Without the medicine, machines, technology they have now there’s no way the doctors could have saved the same amount of lives. As Brian Ward, the author of “The Story of Medicine”, states in his book, “Despite opposition, revolutionary scientists and doctors persevered and made some ground breaking discoveries,” (Ward 22). Even though the doctors during the Renaissance had little technology, they still made discoveries that impacted the medical field. The discoveries made by the Renaissance doctors were life saving. However, with the given technology that is commonly found in modern day society doctors are able to impact the medical and scientific fields and by doing so, save more lives than thought possible during the Renaissance. Within the article “Medicine” written by Britannica, it shows the importance of, “Many other developments in modern surgical treatment rest on a firm basis of experimentation, often first in animals but also in humans; among them are Renal dialysis (artificial kidney), arterial bypass operations, embryo implantation, and exchange transfusions.” Although testing on animals is cruel, it shows that modern doctors were not just experimenting on people. The modern doctors had a thought process to reduce the amount of deaths due to