The improvements in medicine since the 19th century has been truly amazing. They have gone from not having any anesthesia to the anesthesia being a normal thing now for operations from a simple tooth being pulled to major surgeries like open-heart surgery. Other things that has improved majorly is the cleanliness of the operating rooms and the surgical tools. And lastly the doctors are in school a lot longer then they ever was back in the 19th century. Anesthesia has been an ever-changing item in medicine since the 19th century.
It started out that the only anesthesia there was back then was the patients consuming high volumes of alcohol. Because ether was such a safe anesthetic, its administration was largely relegated to non-physicians in the United States, while in England chloroform quickly became the anesthetic of choice. This preference might have arisen out of a sense of national pride, being that ether anesthesia was introduced in America, which had only recently gained its independence. Chloroform, a more dangerous drug than ether, required more skillful and careful titration.
The resulting challenges of chloroform administration attracted the attention of brilliant physicians and investigators including the Scottish obstetrician, James Young Simpson (1811-1870) and the English anesthetist, John Snow (1813-1858). This may explain why there were few developments in anesthesia within the United States for many decades after the introduction of ether, while in Britain, great progress was made.
Cleanliness of the Operating rooms are defiantly a big thing that really decrease’s the chance of infection in the area that is being operated on. Now operating Rooms are very sanitary places to be. Back in the 19th century they really didn’t know that the infection’s was caused by uncleanliness. The hospitals weren’t that big either so they could only operate where they could. Improvements in Medicine The schooling of doctors were way different from then to now because then they only had doctors and then they had dentist. The doctors then did everything from surgery to being even cardiologist.
They really didn’t have anyone have cancer because the people didn’t live long enough to be diagnosed with any kind of cancer or diseases. there really was only one school back in the 19th century and it was Penn’s Medical School which was founded in 1765. So to sum up my research the improvement in medicine has really increased and as the years go on now medicine is still improving everyday. They are always researching different ways to cure cancer or even HIV AIDS. Medicine will only get better in the years to come. Im excited to see it improve more.