Edexcel GCSE History: Medicine through time

Name: Edexcel GCSE History: Medicine through time
Rating: 4.7 (39 reviews)

Medicine through time, c.1250-present and medicine on the western Front

Last updated 4/2024

English

What you'll learn

6 sections • 30 lectures • 3h 41m total length

Historical context - 1500-17007:11
Trace how the scientific revolution, renaissance, Protestant Reformation, and age of exploration reshaped medicine by moving from reliance on God to observation and the scientific method, with new plant medicines.
Medical Renaissance8:53
Explore the medical renaissance as a rebirth in medical knowledge where the four humors faded, observation and the scientific method rose, and printing, microscopy, and classification advanced medicine.
Renaissance approaches to treatment and prevention8:00
Andreas Vesalius and William Harvey7:05
Examine Vesalius and Harvey, pioneers who advanced anatomy through dissection and precise drawings, disproving Galen and clarifying blood flow and heart function in the renaissance.
Case study: The Great Plague7:30
Explore the great plague in London (1665–66), the last major bubonic outbreak in England, caused by Yersinia pestis and shaped by miasma and astrology.
The Medical Renaissance in England, c.1500-c.1700

Causes of disease in the 18th and 19th century7:15
In industrial Britain, this lecture traces the shift from miasma and spontaneous generation to germ theory, led by Pasteur and Koch, with vaccines and disease breakthroughs.
Preventing disease - smallpox and vaccination7:43
Trace how smallpox prevention moved from inoculation to vaccination, highlighting Jenner's cowpox work, the 1798 vaccine, and Pasteur's germ theory with Koch's postulates enabling later vaccines.
Preventing and treating disease - hospital care13:17
Case study: John Snow and cholera4:59
Government intervention in preventing disease5:09
From 1848, the government intervened to prevent disease with the public health act, a national board of health, compulsory vaccination, and sewage improvements.
Medicine in 18th and 19th century England, c.1700-c.1900

The historical context of medicine in the early 20th century4:41
The context of the British sector of the Western Front7:39
Explore British sector of the western front, detailing frontline, support, and reserve trenches, no man's land, and key battles like the second battle of Eappen and the Somme, plus gas.
Conditions requiring medical treatment on the Western Front8:36
The chain of evacuation and the work of the RAMC and FANY6:58
The significance of the Western Front on surgery10:28
The historic environment: the British sector of the Western Front, 1914-18

How to structure answers to Paper 19:39
Section A - Question 13:02
Explore two features of medicine on the western front, with examples such as blood transfusions, sodium nitrate, portable kits, casualty clearing stations, and triage.
Section A - Question 2a8:24
Section A - Question 2a and 2b3:51
Learn how to follow up sources to examine the treatment of battle injuries by medical staff on the Western Front, using medical records, base hospital records, and diaries.
Section B - Question 34:59
Section B - Question 47:05
Section B - Question 5/612:04

Specifically targeted for students and teachers of Edexcel GCSE History (9-1) - Medicine through time, c.1250-present.

The course content is also suitable for AQA students, although the exam practice is specifically aimed at Edexcel examination board.

For students of A-level or university history with no background in medical history, the course makes an excellent introduction.

For maximum effectiveness, I recommend completing the course as follows:

1. Deal with one section at a time.

2. Watch all the videos in a section, taking notes and writing key questions as you watch.

3. Complete the multiple choice quiz at the end of the section.

4. Revise any topics you got wrong on the quiz.

5. Complete the resources after each lecture to consolidate learning.

6. Complete the exam zone.

There are videos talking students through the examination paper, how to structure questions and how to attain a Level 9.