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Medicine Through Time

By Period:

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Greece

Ancient Rome

Medieval Medicine

The Black Death

Islamic Medicine

Chinese Medicine

Renaissance Medicine

Fight against Infectious Disease

Public Health in the Industrial Revolution

Development of Nursing

The Welfare State

The NHS

DNA

By Theme / Factor:

Surgery

War

Science and Technology

Chance

Religion

Public Health

Women in Medicine

Continuity and Change

Chronology

How has chance influenced the development of Medicine through time?

Chance is another way of saying 'luck'. In the development of medicine there have been several occasions where breakthroughs have happened as a result of chance. These are breakthroughs that result from no pre-planning, they are cases in which a new idea or method has come about as a result of circumstance rather than scientific processes.

The following are a few examples of chance discoveries: Pare ran out of oil and was forced to use whatever was at hand to treat gunshot wounds. By chance he came up with a much improved solution which eased pain and healed wounds much more effectively.

Another chance discovery was made by Alexander Fleming. Though working in a scientific manner he discovered Penicillin because someone had forgotten to tidy up properly! Had procedures been carried out as they should have been, Fleming would never have seen the growth of Penicillin, as the equipment should have been washed and put away before the bacteria had grown.

In this unit:

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Recommended Resources

Medicinethroughtime.co.uk - new site. Including Blog and use of twitter for free text / IM revision tips.

   

 

SchoolsHistory.org.uk highly recommends these sites:

Schoolhistory.co.uk - fantastic range of interactive games, revision materials and links.
ActiveHistory.co.uk - outstanding use of ICT to engage pupils.
Thinkinghistory.co.uk - a brilliant range of learning activities from Ian Dawson
JohnDClare.net - simply the best for Modern World GCSE students
Historyboxes.com - make your lessons 'real' with artefacts and living history provided by experts
Schoolshistory.com - same author as this site, just put together in a slightly different way!