Discussion Post: The Resident Patient
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sherlock60This week, the canon story we’re looking at is The Resident Patient and the chosen topic is The Victorian Doctor and Victorian Medicine.
A few facts:
💊 At the beginning of the Victorian period, medical help was limited, whatever the budget. Life expectancy had declined in some cities as more people crowded in to find work. [Cook it!]
💊 The practice of surgery… modernised with the invention of anaesthesia in the late 1840s. Although ether was initially used, chloroform soon became the anaesthetic of choice. [Bruce Robinson]
💊 The stethoscope was invented in 1817 by Rene Laennec. [This was a monaural stethoscope--from the outside it simply looks like a wooden cylinder.]
The Fergusson model of the monaural stethoscope was designed in England and became the most popular model used in the later half of 19th century medical practice. [It rather resembles a wooden candlestick--please see the links below to look at images of the various kinds of stethoscopes.]
In 1852, Dr. George Cammann of New York produced the first recognized usable binaural stethoscope… As was the case with Laennec’s model, Cammann’s was not embraced completely for quite some time. It was not until Austin Flint (who had previously spoken against the binaural in 1856) endorsed it in 1866 that it became widely used. [Medical Antiques Online]
💊 John Snow had experienced... outbreaks [of cholera] in 1832 and 1848, and was convinced that it was a water-borne disease. [In the epidemic of 1854] he provided conclusive proof by mapping out the cases in Soho, central London, implicating a single, contaminated well… Following on from [his] research, he recommended boiling water before use. [Bruce Robinson]
💊 The Medical Act of 1858 made… the General Medical Council responsible for establishing a register of qualified doctors. Prior to that time, they were “elected” by a commission with no control or defined standard of qualification. [Victorian England Revisited]
💊 Joseph Lister began antiseptic surgery in the late 1860s. [He] realized that carbolic acid inhibits bacteria growth on the tissues, and therefore protects them during operations. [He] boiled and scrubbed all instruments, tools, hands, and anything that would come into contact with the wound. Not until 1870, however, did the antiseptic idea firmly catch; prominent doctors had ridiculed it publicly until then. [Via Victorian Medicine on oocities.org]
💊 ...women remained largely unwelcome in the medical world. The exception to this was nursing. ...Florence Nightingale's exploits in the Crimean War (1854 - 6) gave the role a new respectability. Many of the nursing reforms she advocated already existed, but her training school at St Thomas's Hospital provided a model for many. Nursing enjoyed a reflected glory and, with teaching, became one of the few occupations a middle-class girl might contemplate. [Bruce Robinson]
💊 Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake and several other women ("The Edinburgh Seven") had been given permission to attend classes at the Edinburgh medical school in 1869… The Edinburgh Seven lost their battle to graduate when in 1873 the Court ruled that the University had the right to refuse the women their degrees - and noted that they should not have been admitted in the first place. Five of the seven were eventually granted medical degrees abroad, in Bern or Paris. Finally, in 1876, there was new legislation that enabled examining bodies (if they so desired) to treat candidates of both sexes equally. Jex-Blake set a practice in Edinburgh in 1878 and helped found the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women. [Peggy Kolm]
💊 [The] 1875 Public Health Act… brought together a range of Acts covering sewerage and drains, water supply, housing and disease. Local authorities had to appoint Medical Officers in charge of public health. Local sanitary inspectors were appointed to look after slaughterhouses and prevent contaminated food being sold. Local authorities were ordered to cover sewers, keep them in good condition, supply fresh water to their citizens, collect rubbish and provide street lighting. [bbc.co.uk]
💊 In January 1896 the first X-ray was taken for clinical purposes, and they were soon used to diagnose fractures, locate foreign bodies and treat a variety of skin conditions. Radiation followed in 1896, and with it the promise of treatment for… cancer. [Bruce Robinson]
Some useful resources:
Victorian Medicine - From Fluke to Theory by Bruce Robinson on the BBC website.
Victorian Hospitals On 1876 Victorian England Revisited
Victorian Medicine On oocities.org
Victorian Women Doctors On Women in Science
Did Doctors Help People Live Longer in Victorian England? by George P. Landow, Professor of English and Art History, Brown University on The Victorian Web
Health and hygiene in the 19th century by Liza Picard on the British Library website.
Nineteenth-Century British Medicine and Public Health Index of pages on The Victorian Web
Dickens's Dictionary of London, by Charles Dickens, Jr., 1879 - "Doctors" On The Dictionary of Victorian London
Five Victorian diseases - and their medical pioneers by Imogen Laycock on Patient
Medical Developments In Britain During The Nineteenth Century by Laurelyn Douglas on the Victorian Web
The Monaural Stethoscope On Medical Antiques Online
The Binaural Stethoscope On Medical Antiques Online
Victorian Health Facts On Cook it!
Victorian Adverts for Health Remedies On Mail Online
In the Victorian Era, Doctors Prescribed Beards to Help Keep Men Healthy On the Smithsonian website.
Psychiatry’s 200th birthday by Andreas Marneros (The British Journal of Psychiatry, Jun 2008)
Please feel free to discuss this topic in the comments.
Please also feel free to comment about the canon story itself or any related aspects outside this week’s theme. For example, any reactions, thoughts, theories, fic recs, favourite adaptations of the canon story… Or any other contribution you wish to make. And if you have any suggestions for fic prompts springing from this week's story, please feel free to share those in the comments as well.
A few facts:
💊 At the beginning of the Victorian period, medical help was limited, whatever the budget. Life expectancy had declined in some cities as more people crowded in to find work. [Cook it!]
💊 The practice of surgery… modernised with the invention of anaesthesia in the late 1840s. Although ether was initially used, chloroform soon became the anaesthetic of choice. [Bruce Robinson]
💊 The stethoscope was invented in 1817 by Rene Laennec. [This was a monaural stethoscope--from the outside it simply looks like a wooden cylinder.]
The Fergusson model of the monaural stethoscope was designed in England and became the most popular model used in the later half of 19th century medical practice. [It rather resembles a wooden candlestick--please see the links below to look at images of the various kinds of stethoscopes.]
In 1852, Dr. George Cammann of New York produced the first recognized usable binaural stethoscope… As was the case with Laennec’s model, Cammann’s was not embraced completely for quite some time. It was not until Austin Flint (who had previously spoken against the binaural in 1856) endorsed it in 1866 that it became widely used. [Medical Antiques Online]
💊 John Snow had experienced... outbreaks [of cholera] in 1832 and 1848, and was convinced that it was a water-borne disease. [In the epidemic of 1854] he provided conclusive proof by mapping out the cases in Soho, central London, implicating a single, contaminated well… Following on from [his] research, he recommended boiling water before use. [Bruce Robinson]
💊 The Medical Act of 1858 made… the General Medical Council responsible for establishing a register of qualified doctors. Prior to that time, they were “elected” by a commission with no control or defined standard of qualification. [Victorian England Revisited]
💊 Joseph Lister began antiseptic surgery in the late 1860s. [He] realized that carbolic acid inhibits bacteria growth on the tissues, and therefore protects them during operations. [He] boiled and scrubbed all instruments, tools, hands, and anything that would come into contact with the wound. Not until 1870, however, did the antiseptic idea firmly catch; prominent doctors had ridiculed it publicly until then. [Via Victorian Medicine on oocities.org]
💊 ...women remained largely unwelcome in the medical world. The exception to this was nursing. ...Florence Nightingale's exploits in the Crimean War (1854 - 6) gave the role a new respectability. Many of the nursing reforms she advocated already existed, but her training school at St Thomas's Hospital provided a model for many. Nursing enjoyed a reflected glory and, with teaching, became one of the few occupations a middle-class girl might contemplate. [Bruce Robinson]
💊 Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake and several other women ("The Edinburgh Seven") had been given permission to attend classes at the Edinburgh medical school in 1869… The Edinburgh Seven lost their battle to graduate when in 1873 the Court ruled that the University had the right to refuse the women their degrees - and noted that they should not have been admitted in the first place. Five of the seven were eventually granted medical degrees abroad, in Bern or Paris. Finally, in 1876, there was new legislation that enabled examining bodies (if they so desired) to treat candidates of both sexes equally. Jex-Blake set a practice in Edinburgh in 1878 and helped found the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women. [Peggy Kolm]
💊 [The] 1875 Public Health Act… brought together a range of Acts covering sewerage and drains, water supply, housing and disease. Local authorities had to appoint Medical Officers in charge of public health. Local sanitary inspectors were appointed to look after slaughterhouses and prevent contaminated food being sold. Local authorities were ordered to cover sewers, keep them in good condition, supply fresh water to their citizens, collect rubbish and provide street lighting. [bbc.co.uk]
💊 In January 1896 the first X-ray was taken for clinical purposes, and they were soon used to diagnose fractures, locate foreign bodies and treat a variety of skin conditions. Radiation followed in 1896, and with it the promise of treatment for… cancer. [Bruce Robinson]
Some useful resources:
Victorian Medicine - From Fluke to Theory by Bruce Robinson on the BBC website.
Victorian Hospitals On 1876 Victorian England Revisited
Victorian Medicine On oocities.org
Victorian Women Doctors On Women in Science
Did Doctors Help People Live Longer in Victorian England? by George P. Landow, Professor of English and Art History, Brown University on The Victorian Web
Health and hygiene in the 19th century by Liza Picard on the British Library website.
Nineteenth-Century British Medicine and Public Health Index of pages on The Victorian Web
Dickens's Dictionary of London, by Charles Dickens, Jr., 1879 - "Doctors" On The Dictionary of Victorian London
Five Victorian diseases - and their medical pioneers by Imogen Laycock on Patient
Medical Developments In Britain During The Nineteenth Century by Laurelyn Douglas on the Victorian Web
The Monaural Stethoscope On Medical Antiques Online
The Binaural Stethoscope On Medical Antiques Online
Victorian Health Facts On Cook it!
Victorian Adverts for Health Remedies On Mail Online
In the Victorian Era, Doctors Prescribed Beards to Help Keep Men Healthy On the Smithsonian website.
Psychiatry’s 200th birthday by Andreas Marneros (The British Journal of Psychiatry, Jun 2008)
Please feel free to discuss this topic in the comments.
Please also feel free to comment about the canon story itself or any related aspects outside this week’s theme. For example, any reactions, thoughts, theories, fic recs, favourite adaptations of the canon story… Or any other contribution you wish to make. And if you have any suggestions for fic prompts springing from this week's story, please feel free to share those in the comments as well.
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