Setting the Scene: 800 Years of Sickness and Health
📖 Setting the Scene: 800 Years of Sickness and Health
It is 1348. A terrifying disease sweeps across England, killing one in three people within two years. Doctors are helpless — they cannot explain it, and their treatments make no difference. The disease is the Black Death, and the best advice physicians can offer is: pray, flee, and burn herbs to clear the foul air.
Now fast-forward to 1948. The National Health Service opens its doors for the first time. For the first time in history, every British person — rich or poor — can see a doctor for free. Within months, millions of prescriptions are written, millions of glasses dispensed, millions of teeth treated.
What changed between 1348 and 1948? That is the core question of this thematic study. The People's Health spans 800 years of medical progress — and sometimes, frustrating stagnation. By the end, you will understand not just WHAT changed, but WHY change happened when it did.
History glossary
- What was Miasma Theory?
- The belief that disease spread through foul-smelling 'bad air' from rotting matter, sewage, and corpses. Wrong about the cause, but accidentally encouraged avoiding infected areas.
- What were the Four Humours (Galen)?
- Blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile. Galen taught that disease was caused by imbalance of these fluids. Treatments aimed to restore balance — bleeding, purging, vomiting. Dominated medicine until the 19th century.
Medieval doctors had two main theories to explain disease, and both were completely wrong.
Earn the mark scheme marks
🧠 Memory Aids
The Five Factors of Change — "SWIGC"
Science (Germ Theory, penicillin)
War (WW1 surgery, WW2 penicillin + Beveridge)
Individuals (Snow, Chadwick, Fleming, Bevan)
Government (1848 voluntary, 1875 compulsory, NHS 1948)
Chance (Fleming's mould, Great Stink heat wave)
Key Dates to Know Cold
| Date | What |
|---|---|
| 1348 | Black Death arrives in England |
| 1543 | Vesalius — anatomy corrects Galen |
| 1628 | Harvey — blood circulation |
| 1854 | Snow — Broad Street pump |
| 1861 | Pasteur — Germ Theory |
| 1875 | Compulsory Public Health Act |
| 1928 | Fleming — penicillin |
| 1948 | NHS founded |
Black Death Responses — "FFS PQ"
Flagellants (whipping themselves)
Fleeing cities
Scapegoating Jews
Prayer and religious processions
Quarantine (the only measure with any effect)
Now try it yourself