VICTORIAN MEDICINE

The 19th century was a period of rapid technological change, and huge shifts in scientific understanding. As medical knowledge increased, the prospect of surgery was no longer a likely death sentence, and great leaps were made in medical procedures, equipment and knowledge of how the body worked.

By the 1860s what would become known as cell theory was widely accepted: that all living organisms are composed of one or more cells; that the cell is the basic unit of structure and organisation in organisms and that cells are created from pre-existing cells. New methods in cell staining and the development of technology, such as the microscope, also played crucial roles in furthering biological breakthroughs and aiding new research.

One of the most important medical breakthroughs of the 19th century was French chemist Louis Pasteur’s discovery that germs cause disease, following on from Italian bacteriologist Agostino Bassi’s work on silkworm infections. Pasteur’s work