Submitted by: Submitted by galaxygirl
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Pages: 3
Category: Science and Technology
Date Submitted: 07/14/2015 02:04 PM
Do you think the social and cultural environments of the 18th and 19th centuries helped or hindered the study of microbiology in particular and science in general? Why?
I do think that the social and cultural environments of 18th and 19th centuries helped advance science, and more specifically, microbiology in many ways, more than are probably known to us today. As in any development we all need to start somewhere. Trial and error are common practices with research of any field, especially with science and medicine, both in the 18th and 19th centuries and today.
Referencing back to the video clips we watched about Dr. Jenner and his development of vaccines, one can see that his practice was very different from how we would test new vaccines in today's era. Today, scientists would not consciously vaccinate a child with a drug they don't know will work, and then expose them to a infectious disease. They also would not take the wound scrapings of an infected woman and place them into an incision on a healthy child. Those practices today would bring a magnitude of lawsuits. The actions by Jenner and his associates, luckily worked, and gave scientists a stepping-stone into the advancement of vaccines and medicine today.
In the 18th and 19th centuries the lack of resources hindered Jenner's abilities to study his developments in science and microbiology, like scientists can today. We have state of the art labs with the best equipment money can buy. We have regulating agencies that guide every step of the trial and error processes. We can actually study the scrapings of the wound under a microscope rather than just placing them in an open wound of a child, then waiting to see what happens. We have clinical trials with informed consent, allowing individuals to be educated on any and all medical interventions and medications administered. Today, we don't have to inject children with vaccines that would possibly kill them to test their...