Health and the People: c1000 to the Present Day
What's covered
Key facts
Anaesthetics initially raised surgical mortality because longer, more ambitious operations exposed patients to infection (the "black period" of surgery before antisepsis).
Apothecaries sold herbal remedies — the precursor of modern pharmacists.
The 1942 Beveridge Report proposed a universal welfare state including free healthcare, identifying the "five giants" of want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness.
The title of Vesalius's 1543 anatomy text is De humani corporis fabrica ("The Fabric of the Human Body").
Oswald Hope Robertson established the first practical blood storage and banking system in 1917, allowing blood to be available at the CCS in advance of need.
By 1900 germ theory had explained the causes of many diseases but had produced relatively few effective cures — diagnosis ran ahead of treatment.
Medieval physicians believed the position of stars and planets could affect a patient's health and treatment timing.
Francis Crick and James Watson published the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953, drawing on Rosalind Franklin's X-ray crystallography data.
Galen's anatomical errors arose because he had dissected animals (apes, pigs, dogs) rather than humans — Roman law forbade human dissection in his lifetime.
The RAMC casualty chain ran Regimental Aid Post → Advanced Dressing Station → Casualty Clearing Station → Base Hospital.
Sample questions
A taste of the 135 questions in this topic — answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in Britain c1760–1850?
- •Britain had more natural resources than any other country in the world
- •Britain's population was already much larger than other European countries
- ✓Coal, iron, stable government, colonies, agricultural revolution, and no trade barriers
- •The government directly funded and built the first factories
What was the Black Death and what caused it?
- •A famine from consecutive harvest failures killing a third of the population
- •A form of cholera spread through contaminated water supplies
- •A respiratory disease similar to influenza, mainly killing the young and elderly
- ✓Bubonic plague caused by Yersinia pestis, spread by flea bites from infected rats
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in which year?
- •1918
- ✓1928
- •1940
- •1953
Andreas Vesalius published his ground-breaking work on human anatomy in which year?
- •1492
- ✓1543
- •1628
- •1665
What was the most common type of wound suffered by soldiers on the Western Front?
- •Bayonet wounds in close combat
- •Bullet wounds from rifles
- •Gas burns and skin blisters
- ✓Shrapnel wounds from exploding shells
What were the key inventions that drove the Industrial Revolution?
- •All key inventions came from America — Britain simply copied and applied them
- •All key inventions were electrical — telegraph and electric light transformed industry
- ✓Steam engine, spinning jenny, water frame, railways, and Bessemer steel converter
- •The revolution was driven by chemical inventions — fertilisers and medicines
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