Kill or Cure! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Generally in the region of 35 years.

According to 'The British Population' by Colman and Salt, the life expectancy at birth, generally was higher than the reality of living and dying in squalid town conditions. The infant mortality rate dramatically impacted the life expectancy levels. One baby in six failed to reach their first birthday. Because of the dreadful, unhygienic conditions in most hospitals, women had a far greater chance of survival by having the baby at home. 1 in 29 hospital births ended in the mother dying, while with home births the mortality rate for the mother was 1 in 212.

Almost unbelievably, 3 out of every 4 urban working poor died under the age of 40. However, by 1901 life expectancy had risen to 49, in spite of the infant mortality rate changing little.

Answer: Smallpox

Jenner, in his practice as a country doctor, observed that milk-maids that had been infected with cow pox proved to be impervious to smallpox attacks. However, perhaps his greatest contribution was that he made very detailed and precise notes of all of his experiments and findings, in true scientific manner.

His findings were then presented to the Royal Academy of London. Although Jenner was not the first to make these observations, he was the one that brought the findings to people's attention.

As Sir William Osler (eminent physician) commented "...in science the credit goes not the one that first thinks of the idea, but to the one that convinces the world." As a result of Jenner's early development of a vaccine and the introduction of general immunization, smallpox was eventually eradicated throughout the world by 1974. Jenner laid the groundwork for future research and major breakthroughs.

Answer: Carbolic Acid

Somewhat fortuitously, Lister happened to read in the newspaper that the utilization of a chemical called Carbolic Acid in sewage treatment, had greatly reduced the incidences of infection amongst the people of Carlisle, England. In particular, in cases where cattle had grazed on sewage-treated fields.

Lister had operating rooms sprayed with carbolic acid. He went on to perfect the details of antiseptic surgery by introducing sterile instruments, thread for closing wounds and gauze dressings. Lister was instrumental in bringing surgery into the modern age, for which he received worldwide acclaim.

Answer: Mr. Smith

In 1800, many surgeons broke away from the Barber Surgeon designation, and formed the Royal College of Surgeons. Surgeons began to seek formal training and education at approved medical schools, together with the introduction of antiseptic operating practices, patients began to survive in far greater numbers.

However, in the UK, because of the long association with barbers, surgeons were never permitted to be called Doctor. To this day they are referred to as Mister, a designation which has now taken on an exclusivity of it's own.

Answer: Queen Victoria demanded chloroform during the birth of her eighth son, Leopold

Having been forced to experiment on rats, to prove the efficacy of chloroform, Simpson then experimented on himself and his assistants. At issue, was the correctness of his calculations to show the optimum amount needed for each patient, to keep them anesthetized.

Professional and theological, but ignorant, abuse was piled on Simpson's head. Medical prejudice was overcome by successful demonstration of the use of chloroform, but ill-informed theological prejudice was harder to silence. However, when Queen Victoria herself had chloroform successfully administered, at the birth of her son Leopold, the opposition was quieted. As head of the Church of England, with a supposed direct line to God, there left no viable theological argument against the universal use of the anesthetic.

Simpson was a tireless worker, who finally succumbed to over-work, and died in 1870. Victoria wished for him to be buried in Westminster Abbey. However, he had chosen Warriston as his final resting place, over-looking Edinburgh, the city and people that he had labored so diligently to heal. And to all of Britain he was "the beloved physician, who never tired of doing good".

Answer: Blood transfusion.

James Blundell performed the first successful blood transfusion. Initially having experimented on animals, he was then presented with a patient that was having severe postpartum hemorrhaging. With a syringe he managed to extract blood from the patients husband, which he then successfully transfused into the patient.

With the development of successful blood transfusion, Blundell was able to move into more innovative surgical procedures for women, including tubal ligation. ovariotomy and Cesarean section.

In letters to the Lancet, Blundell also identified correctly the infectious nature of puerperal fever. This fever was prevalent in childbirth in unhygienic conditions, particularly with Cesarean sections and abortions. Quoting 'Christa Colyer. "Childbed fever: a nineteenth-century mystery," National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, December 8, 1999', we can see that the mortality rate at the end of the 20th Century in Western Europe and the US was about 3 women in 100,000. In the mid 19th century the death rate was around 6-9 women per 1000. A woman's survival rate has improved dramatically with sterile conditions and the availability of antibiotics. In the 19th century one of the major spreaders of the disease was the unwashed hands of doctors and midwives.

Answer: The disease was transmitted via water contaminated by human waste.

In 1854, there was yet another cholera outbreak in London. John Snow mapped the onset and spread of the outbreak. In his belief that the disease was spread by contaminated water, he realized that 500 cholera deaths had occurred within close proximity to one particular water pump, at Broad Street. He had officials remove the pump handle, and the outbreak faded away in that area.

Snow went on to expand his study to 300,000, which included both sexes from every age group and strata of society. He confronted the government with his findings, and forced the whole of the London sewage system to be updated. However, it was not until the 20th century that the medical world fully substantiated that the primary cause of the spread of cholera was contaminated water.

Answer: Malaria

Malaria was rampant in British India. Treatment with quinine had proven successful, but many who went untreated died of the disease. Among Ross' areas of research apart from the causes and treatment of the disease, was his quest for ways to limit the mosquito population.

One of his early observations noted was a swarm of mosquitoes around a water barrel. He realized that they deposited their larva in the still water, which hatched in enormous numbers. His suggestions that standing water either be treated or eliminated fell on the ever deaf ears of the government departments responsible. He also presented a detailed analysis of how much the disease of malaria cost the army in terms of deaths and time lost for sickness. Despite the professional and scientific recognition attained by Ross, he was a prophet ahead of his time. For decades after Ross laid the correct scientific paths for the eradication of malarial mosquitoes, successive administrations have dragged their feet in taking positive action. The majority of the papers pertaining to his extensive work on malaria (some 30,000 catalogued items) are held at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Answer: Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale had experience in various charitable institutions, during which time she wrote highly critical reports on the needs of hospitals. This led to Sidney Herbert, the secretary of war, to ask her to take a contingent of nurses to Scutari, to help care for the British army wounded from the Crimean War.

The conditions that she found were quite dreadful in lack of space, equipment and cleanliness. The mortality rate reaching 40%. Local military officials were vehemently against her presence, but with rising casualties and deaths, note was taken of her extraordinary administrative and organizational skills.

In military and civilian life she had raised the role of nursing to an essential
element in the healing arts. However, there were many who disagreed with her methods of nursing care, which virtually excluded the more scientific methods of teaching. One quite extraordinary fact is that she still believed in a miasma as the source of disease, and never embraced the 'Germ Theory of Disease', being very sceptical about bacteria being the root cause. However, she changed forever the state of hospitals, which contributed overwhelmingly to the advances in medicine and medical care.

Answer: It is a disorder of the adrenal glands

Addison's disease is a rare endocrine disorder where the adrenal glands produce insufficient steroid hormones. Addison devoted years of research into hormone producing glands, establishing endocrinology as a separate speciality. With Richard Bright, Addison wrote the 'Elements of the Practice of Medicine'.

Bright's disease is a kidney function ailment. However Dr. Bright did research into diabetes, convulsions, tuberculosis of the larynx and condensation of the lung in whooping cough, to name but a few. They both painstakingly recorded all their observations and findings which greatly enhanced the understanding and treatment of a large number of acute diseases.

Both doctors were known for their 'spirit of inquiry, respect for evidence, and careful observation'.