What factors drove change in medical practice during the Age of Revolution? Enquiry focus 4

Early anaesthetics

Suitable for students aged 14+

1. Watch

Ask students to watch the Early anaesthetics video. Ask them to write down any important points about the development of anaesthetics during the Age of Revolution.

If you are watching with the students, pause the video to help them reflect on the questions below as well as considering the types of questions the historians are asking. For example, how does the historian in this video use different sources to understand the development of anaesthetics?

Can students answer the following questions?

Why were there problems in developing a reliable anaesthetic?
How were ether and nitrous oxide developed for use?
Why did chloroform become a widely used anaesthetic?

2. Test

Students can try this multiple choice quiz to see how much they have remembered from the video. Students working at home can save their answers as a PDF and email them to teachers.

3. Research

Important people have often been the cause of a change in public attitudes towards medicine and health. The video suggests that Queen Victoria encouraged the use of chloroform when she used it in the delivery of her 8^th child Prince Leopold. Ask students to carry out some independent research on the links between Queen Victoria and medical advances during her reign and write a 200 word summary. They should think about:

publicity surrounding Queen Victoria’s use of chloroform
her links with John Snow
other important developments in the period.

The focus here is the idea that high profile people can have an impact on medical practice and public opinion. Encourage students to think about other examples they know of. There is also an episode of the ITV series Victoria which deals with her association with John Snow. If in a whole class setting students could watch some of this and comment on how this has been used to build an interpretation of Victoria and medicine.

4. Connect

The Royal family have often been important in the development of medicine and other social practices. Follow this link to find out about the many objects in the Age of Revolution collection which are connected to the Royal family. Ask students to read about at least two of the objects which have links to the Royal family and make notes on how they show us the importance of the royals with regard to social attitudes.

This blog post takes a wider view of the way in which the Royal family are linked to objects in our Revolutionary collection. Students could be encouraged to follow their own interests with objects that do not relate directly to medicine.

5. Think

Are there any other examples students can think of (from any period) where important people have had an impact on attitudes towards medicine and health? In class this could be completed through paired or small group discussion. If students are studying at home they could be encouraged to use email or virtual chats to discuss these ideas.

6. Reflect

This enquiry focuses on influences on medical practice in the Age of Revolution and the causes of change. Students display their ideas using a Causation Diagram. They can structure the diagram in one of the ways shown here or think of their own idea. It should show how different factors (e.g. war) had an influence on changing medical inventions and practices. Remind students to include important names, dates and medical vocabulary.

Students can continually update this diagram as they learn about different medical developments during the Age of Revolution. Encourage them to explore other objects from the Revolutionary Collection which interest them, to extend their knowledge and understanding of the period.

As students develop their diagrams of different causal factors, encourage them to consider different ways of showing links, highlighting key names and dates, and developing ideas for revision.

7. Extend

Students can watch this short film on the medical museum Mont-Saint-Jean farm. What value do students think collections like this have for historical understanding and the heritage industry? Students could be encouraged to think about how heritage keeps people engaged with history. They could make links to places they have visited or sites in their local area.