Role of Individuals (Edexcel GCSE History) : Revision Note

How important were individuals in the development of medicine?

• Understanding themes helps explain how and why medicine developed between c1250–present

  • The 12- and 16-mark questions may ask about these themes to test your ability to spot change, continuity, and key turning points over time

• Individuals have played a key role in driving medical breakthroughs

• Some worked against popular beliefs, such as Vesalius and Harvey

• Others built on new discoveries, like Pasteur and Koch

• Not all individuals had an immediate impact

• Turning points often began with an individual, but lasting change required support from the Church or the government

Individuals in Medieval England

Cause of Disease

• Hippocrates (Ancient Greece)

  • Developed the Theory of the Four Humours

• Galen (Ancient Rome)

  • Created the Theory of Opposities, based on the Four Humours

  • He believed in a Creator, aligning with Church teachings

Treatment

• Galen's teachings influenced treatments, such as bloodletting and purging

• No new individuals challenged him due to the Church's control over education

Prevention

• No individual made efforts to prevent illness

• The Church dominated ideas about prevention

Individuals in the Renaissance

Cause of Disease

• Thomas Sydenham grouped diseases by symptoms instead of humours

Treatment

• Andreas Vesalius proved Galen was wrong about human anatomy by dissecting corpses

  • Published The Fabric of the Human Body (1543)

  • His work didn’t change treatment immediately

• William Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood (1628)

  • He proved that the heart was a pump and that blood moved around the body in one direction

  • Like Vesalius, his discoveries had a limited short-term impact, but were vital for future advances in physiology and surgery

Prevention

• No major individual impacted the methods of prevention

Individuals in Industrial Britain

Cause of Disease

• Louis Pasteur (France)

  • Created Germ Theory in 1861, which proved that microbes cause disease

• Robert Koch (Germany)

  • Identified the specific microbes for diseases such as tuberculosis and cholera

    • Used improved microscopes and agar jelly

Treatment

• Joseph Lister introduced antiseptics using carbolic acid (1867)

• James Simpson discovered chloroform as an anaesthetic in 1847

Prevention

• Edward Jenner developed the first vaccine

  • Used cowpox to protect against smallpox in 1796

  • Although he did not understand Germ Theory, his method worked

• John Snow’s cholera investigation showed that hygiene was key to preventing the spread of epidemics

Individuals in Modern Britain

Cause of Disease

• James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the double-helix structure of DNA (1953)

  • Led to an understanding of inherited diseases

  • The Human Genome Project (2003) mapped all human genes

Treatment

• Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, but did not believe it could be used on humans

• Howard Florey and Ernst Chain turned penicillin into a usable antibiotic with government funding (1940s)

• Individuals now work in large teams, often backed by governments and universities

Prevention

• Mass vaccination continues, often based on scientific work by teams of researchers