The State of Medicine in the 19th Century - Research Paper Example

The medicine of the 19th century The history of medicine is a worth-discussing issue. In order to find the valuable information, we can turn to the encyclopedias, however, there is an alternative. Much important information can be also found in the works of people who saw all the changes in the field of medicine with their own eyes. In general the state of medicine in the 19th century was very unstable. By analyzing some historical annals and books, which were created during this period in history it is possible to learn about the state of medicine and the main principals and methods that were typical for that time. Michael Foucault wrote a book “The birth of clinic: an Archeology of Medical Perception” where basing on the views of his teacher theorist Louis Althusser he shed the light on the main approaches and the main principals of medicine in the 19th century. Another prominent example is “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, where she provided different cases from the life of pregnant women and showed the situation in the field of medicine in the 19th century. It is well-known that events preceding the great changes are even more important that these changes. Michael Foucault provides interesting information about medicine in the 18th century that is very important in order to understand what caused changes in the 18th century. Right diagnosis is the most important in modern medicine, but in the 18th century there was another approach. The author emphasizes the important question that doctors liked to ask: “What is the matter with you”. This testified that physicians failed to reveal the real reason of the disease and could not find its location. The approach consisted in the unimportance of location or relocation of disease in order to reveal the real nature of it. In the 18th century medicine was based on classificatory structure. The author mentions primary and secondary spatialization and also mentions the third type - tertiary spatialization, the main goal of which was “… heterogeneous figures, time lags, political struggles, demands and utopias, economic constraints, social confrontations that create nothing else that social experience of illness”. Considering the experience of the 18th century, it is essential to find the answer to the question what caused the revolution in medicine. In the 19th century the main question changed and sounded as follows: “Where does it hurt”. The necessity of right diagnosis was realized. This already was an approach that is used in modern medicine. Classificatory structure of medicine was abolished. These changes were caused by the connection of the 18th century’s private home care with the governmental supervision. At that time it was supposed that home and family were that places of natural location of illness thus, some hospitals had to acquire official status that was given by the state. Thus, the change in the field of medicine was very important. Many official hospitals appeared and they were under strict governmental supervision. “Good medicine would be given status and legal protection by the state; and it would be the task of the state ‘to make sure that a true art of curing does exist” (Foucault 40). Much attention was paid to doctors’ education. The second step was important as well. The epidemic medicine and the process of its institutionalization was a radical change in the whole system. The totalization of knowledge happened due to some findings that were done by Societe Royale de Medecine in 1776. Many animals were killed in order to do the research in the field of medicine. The so-called totalization of knowledge initially had good intentions but as a result it turned into “…a place for the centralization of knowledge, an authority for the registration and judgment of all medical activity….it had become the official organ of a collective consciousness of pathological phenomena.” (Foucault 28). The revolution in medicine brought two famous myths. The first one was connected with the attitude of people to the doctors. People started thinking that doctors are all-powerful. These myths resulted in the great misunderstandings. The second myth referred to the fact that a doctor became the adviser of body, soul and even nation. “The first task of the doctor is therefore political: the struggle against disease must begin with a war against bad government (Foucault 33) In some understanding these myths combined theory with practice that was an important achievement. It became clear that hospitals should exist and they changed the essence or natural environment of illnesses. The existence of hospitals brought many advantages. It provided people with the workplaces and guaranteed funding. As a result we can trace the convergence of both classificatory and normality medicine. From that moment hospitals had become the place where the disease could be revealed and cured. Moreover the disease could be studied in details. Foucault provided us with the general information about the 18th and 19th century medicine. In order to understand what problems the medicine really had, it is enough to turn to real example. It is essential to analyze narrow area in medicine. As an example we can take a book of Kate Chopin “The Awakening” and some facts from her biography. The interesting facts about medicine of the 19th century can be found in the biography of the author and in her book that is based on the real events. The biography of Kate Chopin tells us that her life was not an easy one. Kate was only nineteen when she got married and gave birth to six kids. She carefully fixed her experience in the diary. One of the main problems that existed that time was birth control and methods of pregnancy termination. In case with Kate and her husband Oscar the birth control was implemented by timely separation, but many women went through abortions. At that period of time women were given chloroform during the birth of the child in order to relieve the pain, but doctors did not appreciate any drugs. It was considered that this pain was normal and if a woman felt much pain, she would love her child more. American South was famous for its midwives who helped during the deliveries. At the beginning of the 19th century the help of the doctors was not usually used. Kate was happy to have a positive experience, her delivery was not too painful and problematic. Her own experience that she describes in autobiography differs much from her characters’ one. The heroine of her book “The Awakening” went through very painful and complicated delivery: “an ecstasy of pain, the heavy odor of chloroform, a stupor which had deadened sensation, and an awakening to find a little new life to which she had given being added to the great unnumbered multitude of souls that come and go” (Chopin Ch. XXXVII). Kate showed such an experience because she really witnessed many cases of women’s and infants’ deaths. A lot of Kate’s friends and relatives, suffered a lot during the delivery and even died. The rate of the infants’ deaths was very high, moreover the rate of women’s deaths was rather high as well. Such situation was typical for America in the 19th century. certainly, the problem demanded urgent resolution. Later, when doctors started to present at the delivery the chance to stay alive became much higher in contrast to those deliveries where the help of midwives were used. The government started to pay more attention to the childbirth and to implement the corresponding birth control. In the 19th century the women’s health was already under the supervision and many new opportunities appeared for them. It is also interesting to talk about the methods of contraception that were popular at that time. Unfortunately, the level of research does not allow women to have safe sex and very often the consequences of the sexual act were negative. In most cases women in order to prevent the birth had to make abortion or even infanticide. Male withdrawal was considered to be one of the safeness ways of contraception, but not all the men agreed to it, due to the fact that women did not have enough rights in the society. Men did not care much about the life or health of the women. Another method was special cover (diaphragms, caps etc) for cervix, all of them were put into vagina. The main function of the latter was to kill spermatozoa or just take them away. There were condoms and pills, which were not safe. The rhythm method was popular at that time period. The main idea of it was the determining women’s fertile period. Certainly, such method was not effective enough. Using such method women were allowed to have sex ones or twice a month. Speaking about abortions, it is essential to mention that in spite of the fact that they were very popular among women that time, they were still considered to be immoral. The situation was appalling; the statistics showed that one out of a thirty pregnancies was ended by abortion. This method had many variations. It could be done surgically, medically, with the help of home remedies, by mechanical means. Moreover, abortions were illegal in America up to the middle of the 19th century and were allowed only if the life of a woman was in danger. Illegal abortions very often led to women’s death. All the methods of contraception, which were applied in the 19th century, were not worked out carefully due to the lack of the research in this field. So, their effectiveness was low and they were not able to protect women from undesirable pregnancy. All the contraceptives were almost ineffective. Condoms and diaphragms were made of vulcanized rubber, so they helped prevent the venereal illnesses and were not able to control the birth rate. The most effective way was simply not to have sex, but it was impossible for most of couples. The situation changed by the middle of the 19th century. In most states of America an abortion was considered a crime. The main changes lied in replacing the midwives with the doctors, which had good qualification. Most of them did not ask women, if they would like to terminate the pregnancy or not, they tended to make their own decision. The resolution of this problem appeared only in the middle of 20th century, when safe control pills were worked out for women. Nevertheless, the role of doctors was significant and it changed greatly due to the revolution. Kate Chopin and Michael Foucault provided us with interesting information about the state of medicine in 19th century. While Foucault gives us the general information about the main changes, Kate Chopin turned her attention to one specific field. The conclusion can be made that the field of medicine underwent many changes by the end of 19th century. To sum up, the medicine of the 19th century could be characterized by several changes and improvements. It is necessary to recollect the first line of Foucault book “the book is about space, about language, and about death; it is about the act of seeing, the gaze” (Foucault 2). This book provides you with the opportunity to see the interdependence between life, disease and language. In the 18th century the main principal of communication between patient and doctor can be depicted by the single question “What’s the matter with you”. In the 19th century the question has changed to the question “What does it heart”. This question determined the direction of all the changes in the field of medicine. Works Cited Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York, NY: Bantam Classic, 1981. Foucault Michel. The Birth of the Clinic, New York: Pantheon, 1973 Read More