The item that I would take back to the year 1800 is Phenoxylmethylpenicillin, most commonly referred to as Penicillin V. I would take this with me due to many reasons, which I will mention later on in the essay. When I was thinking about this question I was considering a treatment for Tuberculosis as well, because there was an outbreak of Tuberculosis in 1800, but in order to treat this illness up to three different antibiotics are used in a combination and hence I could not take this. I have found too, that many individuals in the 1800 died or got ill due to malnutrition and infections, which made them weak and very susceptible to Tuberculosis. Therefore I wanted to take a medicine, which helped to decrease the infection rate of the people during that year. An improvement in hygiene in combination with Penicillin would help to reduce infections and consequently would help to advance medicine and science as it would save the lives of many people and would also prevent many individuals of getting ill. Penicillin would advance science, as procedures such as surgeries would become less risky as it would prevent treat infections, which is always a problem during and in particular after the surgery.
To find out which illnesses lead most commonly to death in 1800 I looked at the epidemiological transition. Epidemiological transition is described as focusing “on the complex change in pattern of health and disease and the interaction between these patterns and their demographic, economic and sociologic determinants and consequences”[1]. In other words, it is a phase were the pattern of mortality and disease is changed and epidemics affecting population, e.g. infections, get reduced or replaced by others, e.g. man-made diseases. The demographic transition model is a model made by Warren Thompson and it shows the change of population over time. It is split into five different stages. The 19th Century is said to be stage 1 of the demographic transition, also known as pre-industrial society. During this time life expectancy was very short and there was a high death and birth rate, which meant that there was a constant number of population. This stage can be seen on the diagram on the right[2]. Looking at the diagram we can see that this stage, which can be seen in the first box, links with the epidemiological transition stage of pestilence and famine. During the 18th Century and the middle of the 19th century it was the phase of epidemics and famines and this lead to infections and epidemics being the most common cause of death during that period of time[3].
During the year 1800 many different historically important events happened. First of all it was the year that Napoleon crossed the Alps and invaded Italy. This might seem like it is not relevant to medicine and science during that period of time, however some historians state that the reason for Napoleon invading Italy is due to famines in Europe, which is said to be caused by the cold weather and political reasons. This must have meant that the people during that time were weak and therefore very likely to catch epidemics or infections. In 1800 Napoleon furthermore fought the battle of Marengo near the city Alessandria. During this battle 1,700 soldiers were wounded or killed. Between 1792 and 1815 Europe was, apart from a few breaks, constantly involved in war. Around 2.5 million to 5 million inhabitants had lost their life due to these wars. One of the major reasons of death during wars are infections. During the wars many soldiers and other inhabitants got injured and they were either not treated at all or were treated under bad hygienic conditions and so there was a high risk of infections. Penicillin would have been able to treat these soldiers, as it cures and correspondingly prevents infections.
As previously mentioned before 1800 was additionally the year where the Tuberculosis outbreak was. Tuberculosis affected Europe and North America from 1800 to around 1922. Around 70% to 90% of the urban population were affected and 80% of those infected died[4]. Tuberculosis is an illness that is caused when Mycobacterium Tuberculosis bacteria are inhaled into the lungs. Normally the infection stays in the lungs, besides the bacteria can travel through the bloodstream into other parts of the body and can result in death. During the 19th Century a lot of people died of this, as stated above, but I chose against taking the medicine for treating Tuberculosis with me as more than one medication is needed. Another reason for me not taking a medicine to treat Tuberculosis is because Robert Koch did not identify the Tuberculosis bacillus until 1882[5] and hence I would not be able to help many individuals, as they would not believe that they all had the same illness. There also would not be a test for Tuberculosis yet and I could not take one with me. Diagnosing infections is easier and therefore I would be able to help more people. Linking to this idea, as I would be travelling back to the year 1800 and 1800 was the year of the outbreak of tuberculosis so, not that many people would be aware of the dangers of Tuberculosis.
The medicines in the year 1800 were very different to what we are used to today. An example of this is that Cocaine was used as an anaesthetic and as a painkiller. Nowadays Cocaine is a drug, which is illegal in most countries and not used as a medicine apart from TAC, which is a mixture made up of tetracaine, adrenaline and cocaine. It is used as a local anaesthetic, for example before stitching up a wound. Another medicine used that would be illegal nowadays, was the use of Heroine to relieve Asthma symptoms. Most treatments and medicine used in the 18th and 19th century are completely different to what we know today and some people might even say that the procedures used back then were barbaric, nonetheless what we have to remember is that during that period the scientific and medical knowledge wasn’t as advanced as today and maybe some treatments used nowadays will be seen as barbaric in 200 years time. Due to them using these ‘barbaric’ procedures, I believe that they would be happybe happy to takee Penicillin orally as it is not that different to what they are used. For example if I would take an MRI with me, although that it would not fit in my pocket, the inhabitants in 1800 would not know what it is and would not have anything to compare it to and therefore would probably not be happy to use it, as they would be scared of it.
I choose Penicillin V as the medicine I would take with me as in my opinion
it would help the communities during the year 1800 a lot. Penicillin is a medicine found in 1928 by Alexander Fleming and it helps to eliminate infection-causing bacteria. Fleming discovered it by accident. At the time of his discovery he was working on growing staphylococci on agar plates to find ways to destroy bacteriaa “wonder drug”[6]. Before leaving his lab he forgot to close the lid on his petri dishes and his window and he furthermore did not sterilise his plates. When he came back he noticed that a lot of his culture plates were mouldy, but that some plates had a clean ring around spots of mould. From there he concluded that something must have killed the bacteria in those place. He tried to isolate this ‘juice’, which he called Penicillin, however at the end he gave up because he could not isolate much bacteria and he did not have a way to keep them fresh for a long time as they went off quickly. Around four years later two other scientists, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, continued his work on Penicillin and were able to treat some patients who suffered of infections successfully.[7] This showed that Penicillin was able to destroy bacteria, though the works of many other scientists were needed so that the mass production and application of Penicillin was made possible. Fleming, Florey and Chain shared the Nobel Price in 1945 for their work on Penicillin. The Chemical structure of Penicillin is shown on the right. [8]From the different types of Penicillin I choose Penicillin V as it is given orally and so risks of spreading infections through the use of needles is reduced. Penicillin V is an antibiotic, which works by stopping bacteria from dividing and growing. They do this by damaging and infiltrating the bacteria’s cell wall, which the bacterium constantly tries to rebuild in order to protect itself.
Nowadays Penicillin is used to treat or prevent infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria. Penicillin is also a good medicine to take back to 1800 because its possible side effects are not severe. Side effects can vary from diarrhoea and fever to headaches and skin rash. Side effects don’t occur that commonly and normally also stop when the patient stops taking Penicillin. It is possible for humans to be allergic to penicillin; still the risk of being allergic to it is less likely than the risk of dying of an infection.[9] Another problem nowadays is antimicrobial resistance, which I will talk about later.
A study in Australia showed that at the end of 1907 258.9 per 100,000 of the popoluationpopulation died, at the end of 1997 only 7.2 out of 100,000 population. Penicillin was used from 1940s onwards, so therefore this provides evidence that Penicillin decreases the mortality rate of people with infections.[10] Another study, conducted in America between 1900 and 1996, verifies the Australian study. During this time period a decrease in the mortality rate of societies with infections was observed. In 1900 there were 797 deaths in every 100,000 population, in 1980 only 36 deaths in the same number of population[11] and there are many other studies that provide evidence for this trend in other countries too.
Penicillin would advance science or medicine, because it would make scientists curios about infections and they would then do research about it and how to treat it. They might also research preventive medicine or other ways to improve the treatment of Penicillin. Penicillin would allow the doctorsdoctors’ back then to do more surgeries, as one of the biggest problems with surgeries is that the patientspatients’ wounds could get infected and Penicillin would prevent and treat this. Surgeries have been performed since a long time. The Greeks used them to treat patients with pneumonia or broken bones and in the medieval times, barber surgeons would travel around the country to implement surgeries such as tooth extraction or bloodletting. Yet all this surgeries were very dangerous and they were the last resort of doctors and patients, due to surgeries having a very high mortality rate. In the early 19th Century Anaesthetics were developed, which improved surgeries because the surgionsurgeon could now work slower and with more precision, due to the patient now being unconscious during the procedure. However it was still very dangerous as infections were likely to occur. In the mid 1800s the Germ theory was developed, which gave the doctors an awareness of why some diseases occur. Nevertheless it wasn’t until the 1940s that surgeries became relatively safe due to Penicillin being used. Penicillin was and still is normally normally given to patientss before they undergo surgery, in order to prevent medicine and is given to them afterwardsafter an operation, if an infection has occurred. This shows that if Penicillin would have existed earlier it would have eased surgeries and made them safer, and so more people could have been treated like this. It was during the 18th Century too that the barber-surgeons began to visit Universities and became respected surgeons. An example of Penicillin being used during a surgery is with Osteomyelitis, which is an inflammation of bone caused by infections.
In the Medical history, Penicillin was one of the most successful drugs and the first type of antibiotic used to treat major infections and diseases. During World War II, Penicillin was widely used and it saved around 12%-15% of lives. Without it many more soldiers would have died and it in particular helped soldiers who had infected wounds as now the infection could be cured instead of amputating. The Poster on the right provides evidence that Penicillin was seen as one of the reasons why so many lives of soldiers could be saved.[12] It would have saved even more lives,lives, conversely as it still was relatively new, the availability was limited. This was due to the inability of the drug being manufactured in large quantities and it being used so frequently, as more than one dose had to be given due to rapid renal clearance (the measurement of how long it takes the kidneys to clear waste substances from blood). This could similarly be a problem when I go back to the year 1800, as back then, scientists would not have developed a system to mass-produce this drug, nonetheless I could overcome this problem by bringing plans of how it gets produced nowadays and then building those types of factories. As in 1800 the Napoleon war was going on and as in the 19th Century most of Europe was constantly in a state of war, Penicillin would be very useful because it can be used, as shown on the example during the World War II, to cure infections caused by wounds and like this prevent death and amputations.
Antimicrobial resistance of penicillin is, like mentioned above, a big problem nowadays, but in 1800 this resistance would not have been as problematic as today and consequently Penicillin would have treated almost all infections. Antimicrobial resistance occurs when a microbe acquires a genetic mutation, which will make them resistant to the medicine that is meant to treat it. Due to Darwin’s idea of Natural Selection, will the microbes with this genetic mutation be more likely to survive and therefore replicate more. This progress is accelerated by misuse of the antibiotic, for example if the antibiotic prescribed is not taken for the full amount of time. In the case of Penicillin, the bacteria have to make ß-lactamase, as this defends the bacteria’s cell wall and hence Penicillin is not able to damage it, which is, like mentioned before how Penicillin works. Penicillin resistance occurs naturally and so in 1800 they might have already existed, but to a lower degree than now a days. Genes of non-disease causing bacteria being transferred to disease causing bacteria cause naturally occurring resistant antimicrobial. In order to counteract this, I could combine the Penicillin with ß-lactamase inhibitors. However as in 1800 Penicillin did not exist yet and therefore could not have been misused I doubt that the Penicillin resistance was very high.
Another thing that I think would be useful in 1800 is a general knowledge about hygiene as i. In the 1800 that time period the hygiene was veryincredibly bad. The people often did not shower regularly and in urban areas human faeces, animal dung and other rubbish was were just dumped on the street. I am aware that I am only allowed to take one item with me, however having knowledge of hygiene would be very vital too and knowledge doesn’t even have to fit in a pocket and it would advance science and medicine. Therefore the knowledge that I think would be most important for the year 1800 is to pasteuris?epasteurize milk and diary products to stop the spread of Tuberculosis by killing the bacteria in the milk, as cows can carry the Tuberculosis virus bacteria too. A general knowledge of hygiene is significant too, because bad hygiene leads to infections being caught very easily, especially if you have an open wound. This knowledge of hygiene would include washing yourself regularly and throwing old and gone off food to a place far away from the city, which will stop rats coming to the town as rats are probably best known to spread illnesses, and to not go close to sick people, especially if they have a disease like Tuberculosis as it is a disease that spreads very easily.
The biggest problem that exists with bringing Penicillin as my chosen item is that I will not be able to take that many tablets with me and besides one person will have to take Penicillin more than just once. I already mentioned earlier that in 1800 ways to mass-produce medicine such as Penicillin did not exist yet and the knowledge was missing to build these machines. Therefore I would like to take a book with me, which will provide information on Penicillin, how it is produced and how it treats infections. But as I am only allowed to take one item I would either have to take the book instead of the Penicillin and then when I am in 1800, use this book to produce Penicillin, or I will have to take Penicillin and memorise the book and from this knowledge then find ways to produce Penicillin.
In conclusion I think that Penicillin V would be the best item to take with me. My item can fit in my pocket and did not exist in 1800. Penicillin V would help to treat and also, if necessary prevent infections. However I would rather not use it as a preventative drug, as this leads to many people going to be resistant to it and this will then cause problems in the future. During the 1800 infections were a big problem, as there were many battles where the soldiers could get infected wounds and because, like shown on my first diagram, epidemics and infections were the most common cause of death during that period. I would use Penicillin to treat infections and I would give it to individuals who just had surgery done and resulting from this have gotten infections , as Penicillin averts infections and I would also give it to the soldiers with infected wounds. I have provided evidence that Penicillin reduces mortality rate of people dying of infections and I have shown how it will advance science and medicine and how it was used in surgeries.
I have talked about how Penicillin V would be useful to treat patients during 1800 but it would furthermore interest scientists and so they will do more research on the topic of how to kill bacteria and preventive medicine. For all these reasons I believe that Penicillin V would be the best item, that fits in my pocket, to take back to the year 1800 with the goal of advancing science or medicine.
[1]The Epidemiologic Transition: A Theory of the Epidemiology of Population Change by Abdel Omran
[2] DIAGRAM: Ian R.H. Rockett. Population and Health: An Introduction to Epidemiology
3 Epidermiologischer Übergang- Wikipedia
[4] And 5 Harvard University Library Open Collections Program- Contagion Historical views of Diseases and Epidemics- Tuberculosis in Europe and North America, 1800–1922
[6] http://history1900s.about.com/od/medicaladvancesissues/a/penicillin.htm
[7] Abpi- bringing medicines to life- resources for schools: Alexander Fleming and the discovery of penicillin
[8] DAGRAM: pharmacopeia
[9] Drugs.com -Penicillin
[10] PubMed.gov Trends in mortality rates for infectious and parasitic diseases in Australia: 1907-1997[11] PubMed.gov Trends in infectious disease mortality in the United States during the 20th century.
[12] DIAGRAM: http://www.smashinglists.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/05/penicillin.jpg
To find out which illnesses lead most commonly to death in 1800 I looked at the epidemiological transition. Epidemiological transition is described as focusing “on the complex change in pattern of health and disease and the interaction between these patterns and their demographic, economic and sociologic determinants and consequences”[1]. In other words, it is a phase were the pattern of mortality and disease is changed and epidemics affecting population, e.g. infections, get reduced or replaced by others, e.g. man-made diseases. The demographic transition model is a model made by Warren Thompson and it shows the change of population over time. It is split into five different stages. The 19th Century is said to be stage 1 of the demographic transition, also known as pre-industrial society. During this time life expectancy was very short and there was a high death and birth rate, which meant that there was a constant number of population. This stage can be seen on the diagram on the right[2]. Looking at the diagram we can see that this stage, which can be seen in the first box, links with the epidemiological transition stage of pestilence and famine. During the 18th Century and the middle of the 19th century it was the phase of epidemics and famines and this lead to infections and epidemics being the most common cause of death during that period of time[3].
During the year 1800 many different historically important events happened. First of all it was the year that Napoleon crossed the Alps and invaded Italy. This might seem like it is not relevant to medicine and science during that period of time, however some historians state that the reason for Napoleon invading Italy is due to famines in Europe, which is said to be caused by the cold weather and political reasons. This must have meant that the people during that time were weak and therefore very likely to catch epidemics or infections. In 1800 Napoleon furthermore fought the battle of Marengo near the city Alessandria. During this battle 1,700 soldiers were wounded or killed. Between 1792 and 1815 Europe was, apart from a few breaks, constantly involved in war. Around 2.5 million to 5 million inhabitants had lost their life due to these wars. One of the major reasons of death during wars are infections. During the wars many soldiers and other inhabitants got injured and they were either not treated at all or were treated under bad hygienic conditions and so there was a high risk of infections. Penicillin would have been able to treat these soldiers, as it cures and correspondingly prevents infections.
As previously mentioned before 1800 was additionally the year where the Tuberculosis outbreak was. Tuberculosis affected Europe and North America from 1800 to around 1922. Around 70% to 90% of the urban population were affected and 80% of those infected died[4]. Tuberculosis is an illness that is caused when Mycobacterium Tuberculosis bacteria are inhaled into the lungs. Normally the infection stays in the lungs, besides the bacteria can travel through the bloodstream into other parts of the body and can result in death. During the 19th Century a lot of people died of this, as stated above, but I chose against taking the medicine for treating Tuberculosis with me as more than one medication is needed. Another reason for me not taking a medicine to treat Tuberculosis is because Robert Koch did not identify the Tuberculosis bacillus until 1882[5] and hence I would not be able to help many individuals, as they would not believe that they all had the same illness. There also would not be a test for Tuberculosis yet and I could not take one with me. Diagnosing infections is easier and therefore I would be able to help more people. Linking to this idea, as I would be travelling back to the year 1800 and 1800 was the year of the outbreak of tuberculosis so, not that many people would be aware of the dangers of Tuberculosis.
The medicines in the year 1800 were very different to what we are used to today. An example of this is that Cocaine was used as an anaesthetic and as a painkiller. Nowadays Cocaine is a drug, which is illegal in most countries and not used as a medicine apart from TAC, which is a mixture made up of tetracaine, adrenaline and cocaine. It is used as a local anaesthetic, for example before stitching up a wound. Another medicine used that would be illegal nowadays, was the use of Heroine to relieve Asthma symptoms. Most treatments and medicine used in the 18th and 19th century are completely different to what we know today and some people might even say that the procedures used back then were barbaric, nonetheless what we have to remember is that during that period the scientific and medical knowledge wasn’t as advanced as today and maybe some treatments used nowadays will be seen as barbaric in 200 years time. Due to them using these ‘barbaric’ procedures, I believe that they would be happybe happy to takee Penicillin orally as it is not that different to what they are used. For example if I would take an MRI with me, although that it would not fit in my pocket, the inhabitants in 1800 would not know what it is and would not have anything to compare it to and therefore would probably not be happy to use it, as they would be scared of it.
I choose Penicillin V as the medicine I would take with me as in my opinion
it would help the communities during the year 1800 a lot. Penicillin is a medicine found in 1928 by Alexander Fleming and it helps to eliminate infection-causing bacteria. Fleming discovered it by accident. At the time of his discovery he was working on growing staphylococci on agar plates to find ways to destroy bacteriaa “wonder drug”[6]. Before leaving his lab he forgot to close the lid on his petri dishes and his window and he furthermore did not sterilise his plates. When he came back he noticed that a lot of his culture plates were mouldy, but that some plates had a clean ring around spots of mould. From there he concluded that something must have killed the bacteria in those place. He tried to isolate this ‘juice’, which he called Penicillin, however at the end he gave up because he could not isolate much bacteria and he did not have a way to keep them fresh for a long time as they went off quickly. Around four years later two other scientists, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, continued his work on Penicillin and were able to treat some patients who suffered of infections successfully.[7] This showed that Penicillin was able to destroy bacteria, though the works of many other scientists were needed so that the mass production and application of Penicillin was made possible. Fleming, Florey and Chain shared the Nobel Price in 1945 for their work on Penicillin. The Chemical structure of Penicillin is shown on the right. [8]From the different types of Penicillin I choose Penicillin V as it is given orally and so risks of spreading infections through the use of needles is reduced. Penicillin V is an antibiotic, which works by stopping bacteria from dividing and growing. They do this by damaging and infiltrating the bacteria’s cell wall, which the bacterium constantly tries to rebuild in order to protect itself.
Nowadays Penicillin is used to treat or prevent infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria. Penicillin is also a good medicine to take back to 1800 because its possible side effects are not severe. Side effects can vary from diarrhoea and fever to headaches and skin rash. Side effects don’t occur that commonly and normally also stop when the patient stops taking Penicillin. It is possible for humans to be allergic to penicillin; still the risk of being allergic to it is less likely than the risk of dying of an infection.[9] Another problem nowadays is antimicrobial resistance, which I will talk about later.
A study in Australia showed that at the end of 1907 258.9 per 100,000 of the popoluationpopulation died, at the end of 1997 only 7.2 out of 100,000 population. Penicillin was used from 1940s onwards, so therefore this provides evidence that Penicillin decreases the mortality rate of people with infections.[10] Another study, conducted in America between 1900 and 1996, verifies the Australian study. During this time period a decrease in the mortality rate of societies with infections was observed. In 1900 there were 797 deaths in every 100,000 population, in 1980 only 36 deaths in the same number of population[11] and there are many other studies that provide evidence for this trend in other countries too.
Penicillin would advance science or medicine, because it would make scientists curios about infections and they would then do research about it and how to treat it. They might also research preventive medicine or other ways to improve the treatment of Penicillin. Penicillin would allow the doctorsdoctors’ back then to do more surgeries, as one of the biggest problems with surgeries is that the patientspatients’ wounds could get infected and Penicillin would prevent and treat this. Surgeries have been performed since a long time. The Greeks used them to treat patients with pneumonia or broken bones and in the medieval times, barber surgeons would travel around the country to implement surgeries such as tooth extraction or bloodletting. Yet all this surgeries were very dangerous and they were the last resort of doctors and patients, due to surgeries having a very high mortality rate. In the early 19th Century Anaesthetics were developed, which improved surgeries because the surgionsurgeon could now work slower and with more precision, due to the patient now being unconscious during the procedure. However it was still very dangerous as infections were likely to occur. In the mid 1800s the Germ theory was developed, which gave the doctors an awareness of why some diseases occur. Nevertheless it wasn’t until the 1940s that surgeries became relatively safe due to Penicillin being used. Penicillin was and still is normally normally given to patientss before they undergo surgery, in order to prevent medicine and is given to them afterwardsafter an operation, if an infection has occurred. This shows that if Penicillin would have existed earlier it would have eased surgeries and made them safer, and so more people could have been treated like this. It was during the 18th Century too that the barber-surgeons began to visit Universities and became respected surgeons. An example of Penicillin being used during a surgery is with Osteomyelitis, which is an inflammation of bone caused by infections.
In the Medical history, Penicillin was one of the most successful drugs and the first type of antibiotic used to treat major infections and diseases. During World War II, Penicillin was widely used and it saved around 12%-15% of lives. Without it many more soldiers would have died and it in particular helped soldiers who had infected wounds as now the infection could be cured instead of amputating. The Poster on the right provides evidence that Penicillin was seen as one of the reasons why so many lives of soldiers could be saved.[12] It would have saved even more lives,lives, conversely as it still was relatively new, the availability was limited. This was due to the inability of the drug being manufactured in large quantities and it being used so frequently, as more than one dose had to be given due to rapid renal clearance (the measurement of how long it takes the kidneys to clear waste substances from blood). This could similarly be a problem when I go back to the year 1800, as back then, scientists would not have developed a system to mass-produce this drug, nonetheless I could overcome this problem by bringing plans of how it gets produced nowadays and then building those types of factories. As in 1800 the Napoleon war was going on and as in the 19th Century most of Europe was constantly in a state of war, Penicillin would be very useful because it can be used, as shown on the example during the World War II, to cure infections caused by wounds and like this prevent death and amputations.
Antimicrobial resistance of penicillin is, like mentioned above, a big problem nowadays, but in 1800 this resistance would not have been as problematic as today and consequently Penicillin would have treated almost all infections. Antimicrobial resistance occurs when a microbe acquires a genetic mutation, which will make them resistant to the medicine that is meant to treat it. Due to Darwin’s idea of Natural Selection, will the microbes with this genetic mutation be more likely to survive and therefore replicate more. This progress is accelerated by misuse of the antibiotic, for example if the antibiotic prescribed is not taken for the full amount of time. In the case of Penicillin, the bacteria have to make ß-lactamase, as this defends the bacteria’s cell wall and hence Penicillin is not able to damage it, which is, like mentioned before how Penicillin works. Penicillin resistance occurs naturally and so in 1800 they might have already existed, but to a lower degree than now a days. Genes of non-disease causing bacteria being transferred to disease causing bacteria cause naturally occurring resistant antimicrobial. In order to counteract this, I could combine the Penicillin with ß-lactamase inhibitors. However as in 1800 Penicillin did not exist yet and therefore could not have been misused I doubt that the Penicillin resistance was very high.
Another thing that I think would be useful in 1800 is a general knowledge about hygiene as i. In the 1800 that time period the hygiene was veryincredibly bad. The people often did not shower regularly and in urban areas human faeces, animal dung and other rubbish was were just dumped on the street. I am aware that I am only allowed to take one item with me, however having knowledge of hygiene would be very vital too and knowledge doesn’t even have to fit in a pocket and it would advance science and medicine. Therefore the knowledge that I think would be most important for the year 1800 is to pasteuris?epasteurize milk and diary products to stop the spread of Tuberculosis by killing the bacteria in the milk, as cows can carry the Tuberculosis virus bacteria too. A general knowledge of hygiene is significant too, because bad hygiene leads to infections being caught very easily, especially if you have an open wound. This knowledge of hygiene would include washing yourself regularly and throwing old and gone off food to a place far away from the city, which will stop rats coming to the town as rats are probably best known to spread illnesses, and to not go close to sick people, especially if they have a disease like Tuberculosis as it is a disease that spreads very easily.
The biggest problem that exists with bringing Penicillin as my chosen item is that I will not be able to take that many tablets with me and besides one person will have to take Penicillin more than just once. I already mentioned earlier that in 1800 ways to mass-produce medicine such as Penicillin did not exist yet and the knowledge was missing to build these machines. Therefore I would like to take a book with me, which will provide information on Penicillin, how it is produced and how it treats infections. But as I am only allowed to take one item I would either have to take the book instead of the Penicillin and then when I am in 1800, use this book to produce Penicillin, or I will have to take Penicillin and memorise the book and from this knowledge then find ways to produce Penicillin.
In conclusion I think that Penicillin V would be the best item to take with me. My item can fit in my pocket and did not exist in 1800. Penicillin V would help to treat and also, if necessary prevent infections. However I would rather not use it as a preventative drug, as this leads to many people going to be resistant to it and this will then cause problems in the future. During the 1800 infections were a big problem, as there were many battles where the soldiers could get infected wounds and because, like shown on my first diagram, epidemics and infections were the most common cause of death during that period. I would use Penicillin to treat infections and I would give it to individuals who just had surgery done and resulting from this have gotten infections , as Penicillin averts infections and I would also give it to the soldiers with infected wounds. I have provided evidence that Penicillin reduces mortality rate of people dying of infections and I have shown how it will advance science and medicine and how it was used in surgeries.
I have talked about how Penicillin V would be useful to treat patients during 1800 but it would furthermore interest scientists and so they will do more research on the topic of how to kill bacteria and preventive medicine. For all these reasons I believe that Penicillin V would be the best item, that fits in my pocket, to take back to the year 1800 with the goal of advancing science or medicine.
[1]The Epidemiologic Transition: A Theory of the Epidemiology of Population Change by Abdel Omran
[2] DIAGRAM: Ian R.H. Rockett. Population and Health: An Introduction to Epidemiology
3 Epidermiologischer Übergang- Wikipedia
[4] And 5 Harvard University Library Open Collections Program- Contagion Historical views of Diseases and Epidemics- Tuberculosis in Europe and North America, 1800–1922
[6] http://history1900s.about.com/od/medicaladvancesissues/a/penicillin.htm
[7] Abpi- bringing medicines to life- resources for schools: Alexander Fleming and the discovery of penicillin
[8] DAGRAM: pharmacopeia
[9] Drugs.com -Penicillin
[10] PubMed.gov Trends in mortality rates for infectious and parasitic diseases in Australia: 1907-1997[11] PubMed.gov Trends in infectious disease mortality in the United States during the 20th century.
[12] DIAGRAM: http://www.smashinglists.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/05/penicillin.jpg