Famous
Doctors
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820 in Florence,
Italy and died on August 13, 1910 in London,
England. She
was named after her city of birth. Florence
was raised in Derbyshire, England.
She was a founder of modern nursing. Nightingale was a nurse, hospital
reformer, and a humanitarian {someone who dedicates a lot of time helping
others, especially people who need a lot of help.}
She received a thorough classical education from her father.
Florence felt that she had a
call from God which told her to help sick people and the poor by becoming
a nurse. Florence
went to the Institute of Deaconesses
in Kaiserswerth,
Germany to learn about
nursing. In 1850 she began teaching nursing at the Institute of Saint
Vincent de Paul in Alexandria, Egypt.
Florence Nightingale established a school for nurse training and improved
sanitary conditions in hospitals. In 1853 she became a superintendent
of the Egypt
hospital to gentlewomen in London.
She wrote a letter to the British secretary of war, volunteering as a nurse
in the Crimean War. The war minister told her to be in all operations
at the war front. She went to the Crimean War to reduce the deaths
of soldiers from 40% to 12%.
In 1860, Nightingale found the Nightingale
School and home for nurses at
Saint Thomas’s Hospital in
London. This school marked
the beginning of professional nursing education. She treated sick people,
distributed medicine, and assisted during operations. With Florence
hospitals became clean and sanitary. Today Florence Nightingale is
still honored as the first great nurse of the world. Monuments, plaques,
and museums still exist today in order to honor Florence Nightingale.
Joseph Lister
Joseph Lister
was born in Upton, Essex. He was a professor
of surgery at Glasgow University.
Lister was educated in the University
of London and Edinburgh.
Joseph reduced deaths to 12% in 1869. He reduced deaths by improving
cleanliness in operations.
To prevent infections he needed to ensure that the air didn't get into
wounds. He read about the discovery of germs from Louis Pasteur.
Joseph developed the first method of preventing infections during an operation.
Lister experimented on an 11 year old boy. He left the leg exposed,
then he cleaned the wound, later he placed a dressing covered with carbolic
acid.
Later he decided to develop his theory further because of his success.
Lister then invented a carbolic spray, used to spray in operating areas.
He also said that surgery rooms had to be kept clean, doctors had to wear
clean clothes, and the tools had to be disinfected. The deaths of
blood poisoning and gangrene were reduced. His services to medicine
were recognized. Joseph Lister was awarded “knighthood.” Today
terms, like “Before Lister” and “After Lister” are used to describe surgeries.
Edward Jenner
Edward Jenner
was born on May 17, 1749 Berkeley,
Gloucestshire, England. He was orphaned at the age of six.
His brothers and sisters set his career on medicine. So he finished his training on medicine with the
help of a good surgeon named John Hunter. In
his time, smallpox was the most dangerous and feared disease of all. Smallpox was known to kill 20% of Berkley’s
population. The doctors had been using
live smallpox virus, in the vaccine which made some people sick. Jenner realized you could keep from getting sick
by contracting cowpox vaccine. Cowpox is a disease
that does not harm and it comes from cows. He
is famous for the discovery of vaccination. He
died on 1823 from a mild stroke.
Elizabeth Blackwell
Elizabeth
Blackwell was a British physician. She was born
in Bristol, England
on February 3, 1821. Her father died not long after her family moved to
Cincinnati, Ohio. Her mother opened a school and Elizabeth
was a teacher. Later, she got bored with teaching and decided that her new
career would be medicine. She applied to many
schools such as Harvard, Yale, and Bowdoin but none of these schools accepted
her. In 1848, Geneva
College accepted her as a student. Interestingly, Cynthia DeFelice, the author of The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker,
attended to Geneva College,
the same college that Elizabeth Blackwell attended.
Later Philadelphia Hospital
let her practice medicine. In 1851, she graduated
from college.
Soon after
she graduated, she got Opthamia, an eye infection that left her blind in
one eye. In 1851 she returned to New York
not able to work because nobody would hire her. Then
she wrote some papers “The Importance of Good Hygiene.”
After a while she won the support of The Quakers. A religious group The Quakers sent patients to her and her practice
began to grow and grow. Later she purchased a
house with her sister Emily Blackwell. Emily
was also a British physician. In 1859, Elizabeth returned
to England to practice some more about medicine. She
left the college to her sister Emily. One year
later she became the first women to have her name placed on “The Medical Register of the United Kingdom.” Elizabeth was famous
for being the first woman doctor in Spain and
England.
LOUIS PASTEUR
Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822 in Dole, France. He was
a French chemist. He founded microbiological
science. He also claimed that microbes could
separate from each other. He said, “Each type
of fermentation is caused by a certain kind of germ.”
He studied scientific education. He provided
the germ theory of disease by inventing the process of pasteurization. Pasteurization
is used to preserve milk, food, and beer. It
kills microbes that could cause disease by heating the food or beverage.
He solved mysteries such as rabies. Rabies
is a disease that humans get by infected animals. You
get rabies from an animal that bites. He also
solved mysteries like anthrax. Anthrax is a disease that cattle, sheep and
quadrupeds carry and human being can get. Chicken
cholera is another disease that he solved. The
last disease that he solved was silkworm disease. He
also contributed the first vaccinations. Jenner
died on September
28, 1895. Thanks
to him, we have healthy milk to drink each day.