Medical Advancements in The 1930's
“Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability.” - William Osler. This quote from William Osler a canadian physician means, that when dealing with medicine like science it is kind of like gambling you don’t know the outcome. The 1930’s was a time period full of dangerous diseases, terrifying medical tools, and peculiar procedures. This specific time period did hold many medical advancements and is home to many odd medical creations.
First of all, the 1930’s was probably one of the worst time periods to be sick in. The most common dangerous diseases would be cancer, no specific type of cancer, scarlet fever, and typhoid fever . Even though two out of the three most common dangerous diseases aren’t quite alive now, they impacted the pass help future medical advancements such as the ones we have today, our treatments are much better. Cancer was the most dangerous and deadly disease back in the 1930's, nowadays you don’t see as many people with cancer. Before you would find hospitals packed with people who had cancer and not very easily treated ones specifically. The most common cancers would be lung cancer, skin cancer, and leukemia. “...Royal Raymond Rife tests a cancer curing treatment by using radio waves on human patients” (Medical Advances ½) and some of the medical advancements would include the surgical process of getting rid of the cancerous cells physically and and not radiation. But, it took a very long time to learn and find out the exact location of where the cells were coming out of because one wrong removal and the cells would’ve kept reproducing without the doctors knowing. Also another medical advancement that has grown would be the after treatment such as hormone therapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy. And therapy for cancer in the 1930's was not common due to the high death rate and the nonsufficient working tools that they had to work with back then. After cancer following also very dangerous is the Scarlet Fever or Scarlatina, the scarlet fever was A bacterial illness that develops in people who have strep throat. The scarlet fever affected more than 20,000 people in the era. Now it is treatable with antibiotics and more rare but, it was most common in young children. then the Typhoid fever is a that spreads through contaminated foods or close contact with a person with such illness. This was not a deadly illness as the others but, could become very extreme.
The 1930's doctors used alarming tools that look straight out of a horror movie. In the 1930's doctors used tools that look like they were it not for doctors are surgeons or anyone in the medical field that such tools but, for assassins. The tools looked like they were for murder scene in a black-and-white movie. Some of the most famous ones that were actually in old movie productions would be the surgical saw, the tonsil guillotine, the dental phantom, electrocardiograph machine, the sharp knives, the hooks, and the thick needles. With these harsh tools they would call open people do very delicate surgery body parts with. A major medical advancement that we have today is the luxury of humane looking and useful tools. The tools would be very painful since anesthetics we’re not common for most doctors/surgeons. The surgical saw has been replaced with A medium to large scale scalpel and the sharp knives and hooks have been replaced with tools that aren’t as scary looking and our cleaner and more productive to these kinds of surgeries that they were used for. One of the advancements that is more productive than any of the other ones listed is the electrocardiograph Machine which is basically an EKG machine. An EKG machine or electrocardiograph machine basically helps the doctor detect electric waves traveling within the body tissue and bones before it reaches the skin. The machine can also measure a person’s heart electrical pulses. It can help identify many health issues related to heart problems. Then Another advancement would be anesthetics. the “Chloroform was popular in Europe, but it was dangerous. If the dose was even slightly too high, it could stop the patient's heart.” (The 1930s Medical and Health 1/8) so this quotes shows that we have less deadly anesthetics to help save people lives.
Besides these frightening tools there were not many surgical procedures in that time period. In the 1930's the two most common and known of surgical procedures were the cornea surgery and then lobotomy. Cornea surgery is a surgery to repair the cornea, it could also be used for examination, and holing. The repair was simply cutting a part of the cornea and replace it with a larger piece of silicone on top of the frame of where the cornea would be. Then the examination would basically be a very long needle which would be about 10 to 11 inches and stick it into your eye or eyes. Even though this sounds brutal depending on the excess left on the needle it would tell the surgeon if you needed cornea repair. Then the last cornea surgery would be holing. Holing was a very complicated surgery to cut open the corneal flap, fold it backwards, and then with a smaller needle adjust the angle of the cornea and then fold the corneal flap back over. Now a medical advancement for cornea surgery would be instead of holing we simply cut the flap, fold it back, and instead of a needle adjusting the cornea we adjust it with the laser. Then Lobotomy which is basically brain dissection. Lobotomy Was mainly used to take out pieces of the mentally ill’s brain to see if they could still function without a certain part. Before it was simply just an experiment to see if a certain part of the brain was removed the person would act and function more normally. “Developed in the 1930s, electroconvulsive therapy involves passing electrical current through the brain. It is still used today to treat the severely mentally ill.” (Psychiatric Care in the 1930s 1/4) It shows that this medical advancement hasn't changed much over the years.Even though we still use this surgical procedure till today we have made it easier to get past the skull, they would brake it with whatever was around.
Finally, through it all medical advancements big and small made huge influences to the way medical sciences works today. First of all, diseases were no joke back then and got worse due to little to no knowledge of the diseases, the terrible tools and deadly anesthetics, and lastly the inhumane surgeries. In addition to this medical advancements have to growing since medical sciences have started. William Osler once said “Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability.” In the 1930s doctors were in a bump in the road but, they kept learning and adding to their current knowledge and that gave us the medical science we have today.
First of all, the 1930’s was probably one of the worst time periods to be sick in. The most common dangerous diseases would be cancer, no specific type of cancer, scarlet fever, and typhoid fever . Even though two out of the three most common dangerous diseases aren’t quite alive now, they impacted the pass help future medical advancements such as the ones we have today, our treatments are much better. Cancer was the most dangerous and deadly disease back in the 1930's, nowadays you don’t see as many people with cancer. Before you would find hospitals packed with people who had cancer and not very easily treated ones specifically. The most common cancers would be lung cancer, skin cancer, and leukemia. “...Royal Raymond Rife tests a cancer curing treatment by using radio waves on human patients” (Medical Advances ½) and some of the medical advancements would include the surgical process of getting rid of the cancerous cells physically and and not radiation. But, it took a very long time to learn and find out the exact location of where the cells were coming out of because one wrong removal and the cells would’ve kept reproducing without the doctors knowing. Also another medical advancement that has grown would be the after treatment such as hormone therapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy. And therapy for cancer in the 1930's was not common due to the high death rate and the nonsufficient working tools that they had to work with back then. After cancer following also very dangerous is the Scarlet Fever or Scarlatina, the scarlet fever was A bacterial illness that develops in people who have strep throat. The scarlet fever affected more than 20,000 people in the era. Now it is treatable with antibiotics and more rare but, it was most common in young children. then the Typhoid fever is a that spreads through contaminated foods or close contact with a person with such illness. This was not a deadly illness as the others but, could become very extreme.
The 1930's doctors used alarming tools that look straight out of a horror movie. In the 1930's doctors used tools that look like they were it not for doctors are surgeons or anyone in the medical field that such tools but, for assassins. The tools looked like they were for murder scene in a black-and-white movie. Some of the most famous ones that were actually in old movie productions would be the surgical saw, the tonsil guillotine, the dental phantom, electrocardiograph machine, the sharp knives, the hooks, and the thick needles. With these harsh tools they would call open people do very delicate surgery body parts with. A major medical advancement that we have today is the luxury of humane looking and useful tools. The tools would be very painful since anesthetics we’re not common for most doctors/surgeons. The surgical saw has been replaced with A medium to large scale scalpel and the sharp knives and hooks have been replaced with tools that aren’t as scary looking and our cleaner and more productive to these kinds of surgeries that they were used for. One of the advancements that is more productive than any of the other ones listed is the electrocardiograph Machine which is basically an EKG machine. An EKG machine or electrocardiograph machine basically helps the doctor detect electric waves traveling within the body tissue and bones before it reaches the skin. The machine can also measure a person’s heart electrical pulses. It can help identify many health issues related to heart problems. Then Another advancement would be anesthetics. the “Chloroform was popular in Europe, but it was dangerous. If the dose was even slightly too high, it could stop the patient's heart.” (The 1930s Medical and Health 1/8) so this quotes shows that we have less deadly anesthetics to help save people lives.
Besides these frightening tools there were not many surgical procedures in that time period. In the 1930's the two most common and known of surgical procedures were the cornea surgery and then lobotomy. Cornea surgery is a surgery to repair the cornea, it could also be used for examination, and holing. The repair was simply cutting a part of the cornea and replace it with a larger piece of silicone on top of the frame of where the cornea would be. Then the examination would basically be a very long needle which would be about 10 to 11 inches and stick it into your eye or eyes. Even though this sounds brutal depending on the excess left on the needle it would tell the surgeon if you needed cornea repair. Then the last cornea surgery would be holing. Holing was a very complicated surgery to cut open the corneal flap, fold it backwards, and then with a smaller needle adjust the angle of the cornea and then fold the corneal flap back over. Now a medical advancement for cornea surgery would be instead of holing we simply cut the flap, fold it back, and instead of a needle adjusting the cornea we adjust it with the laser. Then Lobotomy which is basically brain dissection. Lobotomy Was mainly used to take out pieces of the mentally ill’s brain to see if they could still function without a certain part. Before it was simply just an experiment to see if a certain part of the brain was removed the person would act and function more normally. “Developed in the 1930s, electroconvulsive therapy involves passing electrical current through the brain. It is still used today to treat the severely mentally ill.” (Psychiatric Care in the 1930s 1/4) It shows that this medical advancement hasn't changed much over the years.Even though we still use this surgical procedure till today we have made it easier to get past the skull, they would brake it with whatever was around.
Finally, through it all medical advancements big and small made huge influences to the way medical sciences works today. First of all, diseases were no joke back then and got worse due to little to no knowledge of the diseases, the terrible tools and deadly anesthetics, and lastly the inhumane surgeries. In addition to this medical advancements have to growing since medical sciences have started. William Osler once said “Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability.” In the 1930s doctors were in a bump in the road but, they kept learning and adding to their current knowledge and that gave us the medical science we have today.
" An image of a cancer poster from the 1930's"
"The 1930's famous surgical saw"
"A surgery preformed in the 1930's"