Yeni Rubio

Period 7
1/20/17
Advancements of Medical Technology in Western Europe
Prompt: Describe some of the changes and continuities that occurred in medical technology
from 1750-1900 in Western Europe.
Thesis: In Western Europe throughout 1750 to 1900 there has been major discoveries in medical
technology. Approximately 400,000 people were dying each year in Europe due to smallpox. However,
some of the biggest changes throughout this time period was the discovery of vaccines for smallpox, the
first blood transfusion, and x-rays. Nevertheless, a continuity is how there are still some diseases which
have not been successfully cured.
Before the discovery of smallpox, blood transfusion, and x-rays the world was a very tough place
to live in whether you were sick, or got injured. Smallpox was transmitted by skin to skin contact, spread
through contaminated objects such as bedding or having direct contact with bodily fluids. Smallpox began
in Europe by all of the domesticated mammals which caused animal infections to spread and become
deadly to people. Smallpox was occasionally an epidemic in Europe during the middle ages and affected
Western Civilization. Thousands of people died, including Louis XV, but those who survived gained
immunity, which was passed on to the next generations. To add on, the Europeans introduced smallpox to
the New World, a place that was never exposed to these germs and infections before. The outcome of this
was a large epidemic which wiped out about ninety percent of the Native Americans population. Moving
along, before the discovery of blood transfusions many people who had a disease that caused loss of
blood, like anemia, or got injured and could not stop bleeding, would have no chance of surviving.
Moreover, those who had a tumor, or a broken bone were all diagnosed by a doctors best guess.
Therefore, if a tumor was not visible, or someone had a disease such as cancer, one would be clueless that
their life was coming to an end.
The turning point in Western Europe was when Edward Jenner discovered vaccines, James
Blundell successfully accomplished the first blood transfusion from a human to a patient, and Wilhelm
Conrad Roentgen discovered x-rays. The discovery of smallpox vaccine occurred in 1796 when Edward
Jenner got pus from a cowpox lesion and inoculated it to an eight year old boy. About six weeks later, he
exposed the boy with smallpox and noticed he was not affected by it, and that the disease did not develop.
Edward Jenner came to the conclusion that cowpox develops immunity towards smallpox. Since Edward
was the first to successfully create a vaccine, it changed medicine completely. People were undecided
when Jenner first made the discovery and found it absurd, but thirty years after individuals realized the
benefits from the vaccine of smallpox, it was made mandatory in England and Wales to receive it. In 1818
James Blundell was able to do the first blood transfusion from a human to a patient as a treatment for
postpartum hemorrhage. After his first successful blood transfusion, he did ten more from 1825-1830, five
of which were advantageous for the patients. Later at St. Georges School in London in 1840, Samuel
Armstrong Lane and consultant Dr. Blundell challenged themselves to do the first whole blood
transfusion to treat hemophilia. In result, the blood transfusion was a success. As time went by after the
achievement of James Blundell, it seems as if others became more ambitious to gain more knowledge
about the blood humans have, and even expand the blood transfusions such as how Samuel Armstrong
Lane and Dr. Blundell did. Another discovery that really changed medicine in Western Europe was x-rays.
Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen studied cathode radiation. In 1895 he was working on an experiment with the
passing of electric current through gases at extremely low pressure, and unintentionally discovered x-rays.
This led to other doctors examining the interior bodies of patients, and even engineers using them to look
at the interior of mechanical components. As years went by, this invention became valuable for doctors to
discover diseases and injuries in a different method than they initially used.

Annotated Resources:
Yeni Rubio
Period 7
1/20/17
Advancements of Medical Technology in Western Europe
Riedal, Stefan. "Edward Jenner and the History of Smallpox and Vaccination." Proquest.com. N.p., Jan.
2005. Web. 19 Jan. 2017. In this article, I was able to read a brief summary over smallpox and the effects
it had worldwide, as well as in Europe. I was able to use some of the facts mentioned in my thesis in order
to support my beginning, portion of the thesis. This eventually encouraged me to find other sources
since there was not much in this particular source. However, I now have an idea of what I need to do or
what specific details I am looking for.
"James Blundell, Pioneer of Blood Transfusion." British Journal of Hospital Medicine (2007): 447. Web.
19 Jan. 2017. I used this resource in order to get some background information about the person who was
the first to successfully do blood transfusion. I will be using some of the facts in this article in order to
explain the change in Western Europe and support it. However, I also realized I would still need more
sources in order to get a more in depth detail on the effect it had in Western Europe and the rest of the
people in the area.
Cannon, Abram H. "WILHELM CONRAD ROENTGEN." (n.d.): 148. Web. 20 Jan. 2017. I used this
information to get a more in depth glance of the background of the founder of x-rays such as his
education experience and the things that lead him to discover x-rays. I will use this evidence in order to
support my findings and changes with X rays in my essay. However, since this is more of a biography
about the founder, I know to look for other sources but am not familiar with the basic components and
details I will need to use throughout my essay.
Timeline:
1. John Bell (1763)- founder of the modern surgery
2. Dominique Jean Larrey (1766-1842)- first modern military surgeon
3. Victor Horsely (1855)- Successfully treated a brain aneurysm
4. Chanes Bell (1744-1842)- noted difference between nerves, and motor nerves in spinal cord (also
noted for describing Bells Palsy)
5. Joseph Priestly (1744)- discovered nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, ammonia, hydrogen chloride, and
oxygen.
6. James Blundell(1818-1829)- first blood transfusion
7. John Hughes Bernett (1845)- 1st to describe leukemia as a blood disorder
8. 1846- first painless surgery with general anesthetic
9. Edward Jenner (1798)- founder of smallpox vaccine
10. Louis Pasteur(1882)- develops a rabies vaccine
11.Wilhelm Cohrad Rontgen(1895)- discovers x-rays