Medical improvements in the 18th century

As we have studied today, medical improvements strongly contributed to the reduction of mortality and population growth in the 18th century. There were several discoveries which led to an extraordinary advance in healthcare. For example, Anton van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch scientist, improved the microscope and discovered red blood cells, bacteria, and protozoa. The Italian doctor Giovanni B Margagni founded pathologic anatomy and the French biologist Marie François Xavier Bichat developed histology. But the most transcendent improvement was made by Edward Jenner, a British doctor who improved inoculation and created the first vaccine to prevent smallpox. The story of this invention is very curious: 

The principle of vaccine is inoculating a small dose of the virus you want to prevent, so that your organism is able to create the antobodies to combat the virus by himself. Jenner discovered that milkmaids didn´t get the smallpox and thought that this might be related with the pus inside the blisters milkmaids had from cowpox (a disease cows suffer, very similar to smallpox). He extracted the pus from one of these blisters and inoculated an 8-year-old boy with this liquid and the boy became immune to smallpox. That´s why the word "vaccine" comes from "vaccinus,-a, -um" (bovine in English) and "Vacca,-ae" ("cow" in English). The cow that contributed to the invention of vaccine was called Blossom.

At the beginning people were not convinced of the effectiveness of vaccines and many thought that  if they were inoculated with cowpox they would become cows. Here you have a 1802 caricature which shows doctor Jenner vaccinating patients who were afraid of the "secondary effects" of vaccination: 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_cow_pock.jpg

There was also a Spanish contribution  to the history of medicine: the Balmis and Salvany smallpox expedition: 

Source: http://blogs.ua.es/epidemiasalicante/

In 1803 Doctors Francisco Xavier Balmis and José Salvany proposed to vaccinate all the children in the American colonies. Their expedition was financed by King Charles IV, because his daughter, infant María Luisa, had suffered from smallpox. The problem was how to transport the vaccine to the Indies, because they didn´t have means of preserving it. Balmis had the idea of taking 22 orphans and inoculating the vaccine to some of them and passing it from ones to others. This way, the virus could arrive in America and they could start the vaccination campaign. This expedition was very important. They took the vaccine to the Canary Islands, Colombia, Perú, Ecuador, México, China and the Philippines and they inoculated thousands of children in two years. This expedition is considered to be the first international healthcare expedition in history. Edward Jenner himself was admired by this important achievement.

Map of the smallpox expedition

Source: http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/41/9/1285/F1.expansion.html

If you want to learn more about other medical improvements, click on the following link: 

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/plaintexthistories.asp?paragraphid=kvb

Presentation for Unit 4

This is the presentation about the Industrial Revolution and the Labour Movement. As I have told you, one of the images of the cover is the painting called The Fourth Estate, painted by the Italian painter Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo in 1901. The name of the painting refers to the proletariat, the new estate appeared after the end of the Ancien Régime, according to the painter.

30th January 2013

30th January 2013.

Today Paqui has said that is my turn to do the journal. We have started the unit 4 which is called “Industrial Revolution and the Labour Movement” We have copied the index that contents the next points. 

1. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. 

a) Definition and stages

b) The First Industrial revolution

c) The Second Industrial revolution

d) Consequences of the Industrial Revolution

2. THE NEW CLASSIC-BASED SOCIETY

3. THE LABOUR MOVEMENT 

a) The First Worker's associations

b) Socialism 

c) Anarchism

d) The International Workingmen´s Association

Paqui has said that this unit is unit 3 on the book and she has explained how is divided the unit and its main parts, she has also said that this unit isn’t as longer as unit 3 about the French Revolution. Paqui has asked what  a revolution is, but nobody has given a complete revoluiton so she has said that revolution is a deep change of a part of the society.  She has said that the industrial revolution was an economic and social revolution and it wasn’t violent. We have started the point one of the unit and  Paqui has told us that we had to do a scheme of the point a that is called Definition and stages. We have done it in the class.

When we have finished, Paqui has asked what we have written on our schemes.  We have said that we have written the definition, and most important things. Paqui has started writing the scheme on the computer and she has shown it to us on the whiteboard with the projector.

 The scheme was about "Indusrial Revolution" Its definition is that is a big change in the way of producing which led to important changes in economy or society. 

And its stages were: 

• The First Industrial revolution took place during the last decades of 18th century and it finished on the first half of 19th century. It started in Great Britain and spread to Continental Europe and North America. 

• The second industrial revolution took place on the 2nd half of the 19th century and it finished the first decades of the 20th century. Great Britain lost initial advantage and other countries became big industrial power such as USA, Germany and Japan. 

After, we have started the point b "The First Industrial Revolution"  and we have copied the index of this point. 

1; Causes: Demographic and Agrarian Revolution. 

2; Development

3; Transport Revolution

4; Development of industrial capitalism. 

We have comented on two photos that appeared in the power point presentation of this unit. They show us  there was a lot of pollution in this period.  

http://web.educastur.princast.es/ies/snava/Industrializaci%C3%B3n%20y%20movimiento%20obrero/chimenea.jpg

Isa has read the point 1 "Causes: the Demographic Revolution" Paqui has explained this point. The causes were that there were less wars and more improvements in medicine and hygine and a better diet which, contributed to the reduction mortality, while birth rates continued to be high and the consequences were that there was a strong population growth and life expectancy increased, this created  more demand for all types of products that caused the agricultural revolution and industrial revolution. Paqui has told us that smallpox vacine was one of the medical improvements and it was invented by Edward Jenner. She has started to tell us the story about how it was created, but the bell has rung and she has told us that she will put the information on the blog.

Glossary:

• Labour movement: Movimiento obrero
• Deep change: Cambio profundo 
• Long term: De larga duración
• Smallpox vacine: Vacuna de la viruela
• Milkmaid: Lechera 
• International Workingmen's Association (IWA): Asociación Internacional de Trabajadores (Ait) It's also called "The International", and "La Internacional". 

Bye bye, I hope you like my journal. See you tomorrow and don't forget to start studing for the Social Sciences exam. 

25th JANUARY 2013

25 ^TH JANUARY 2013

Today has been the make-up exam of the first term so when we’ve arrived to the class we’ve found four classmates doing the exam. I hope that they will pass. GOOD LUCK!!!
 

First Paqui has said to us that we don’t have to make noise out of respect to our classmates. Then Paqui has switched on the whiteboard and she has put her PowerPoint presentation to correct the exercises she gave the other day: we had to do a brief scheme of revolutionary wave of 1830 and 1848
 

We have seen the situation of:

 France: The absolute king Charles X was dethroned and a new dynasty was enthroned, the Orleans. Louis Philip of Orleans established a Constitutional Monarchy.

Poland: the revolt was very strongly  repressed by Russia

Belgium: In the United States of Netherlands, the Belgians decided to separate from the Netherlands. A constitutional monarchy was established in Belgium.

Also we have done the revolutionary wave of 1848. This revolutionary wave was called the “spring of the peoples”. The revolution started againts France

We have also completed:

France: the protest expelled King Louis Philip from the throne and the 2nd Republic was proclaimed. Two year later Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was elected president.

Today we've had a big scene in class because the other day my classmate and I thought that Paqui said to us that we were going to do a project instead of the exam of this unit (that is very very very…long). Everybody left the class with a smile in the face.

But Paqui has said us that we are going to do an exam of this unit and a project too. The project will replace a part of the theory but the unit continued been very long so everyone has protested. So the people who that were doing the exam couldn't concentrate concentrated very much.

Some classmates have tried to convince Paqui that she give us a project of the whole unit. But she has said us that we are in 4th year  and we have to get used to study a lot.

Also we have voted to elect to do an exam very long or to do an exam less long and a project. We have elected to do an exam and a project.

Then we have tried to decide the date of the exam. The exam must be on the days 4^th 6^th and 8^th of February because some classmates are going to go to France and Rome. But as the people were very tense for exam it has been a scandal… Paqui has got furious and she has decided the date that she preferred: 4^th of February. 

Finally she has shown us examples of last year's project. They were very good !!! The project will consist in the Spain's history.

.

GLOSSARY:

Barricades: barricadas

To Date from: datar de, remontarse

Chancellor: canciller

Progressive Party: partido progresista

The spring time of the peoples: la primavera de los pueblos

…

So Paqui, in the name of everyone I ask forgiveness you for the scene of today.

Understand us please…

Presentations to prepare your projects

Here you have the presentations you can use to prepare your projects about th history of Spain in the 19th century: 

And these are the pages of the book where you will find the corresponding information:

- Ferdinand VII´s reign: pages 18-19

- Regencies: pages 20-21

- Isabella II´s reign: pages 21, 22, 36 and 37

- Glorious Revolution and Democratic Sexenio: pages 37-38

- Restoration: pages 38-39 and 40

Project about Spain in the 19th century

Ferdinand VII, Isabella II and Alphonse XII

Source: http://www.zumalakarregimuseoa.net/actividades/investigacion-y-documentacion/siglo-xix-en-caricaturas/una-familia-modelo

This is the basic information you will need for the projects about the history of Spain in the 19^th century: 

Deadline: 4^th March. You will have five weeks to prepare your projects.

Topic: the different periods of the Spanish history during the 2^nd half of the 19^th century:

-         Ferdinand VII´s reign (1814-1833)

-         Mª Cristina and Espartero´s Regencies (1833-1843)

-         Isabella II´s reign (1843-1868)

-         The Glorious Revolution and the Democratic Sexenio (1868-1874)

-         Restoration (1875-1902)

The project will consist of preparing either a comic strip of at least four pages or a short video (not more than 10 minutes) and explaining the main facts of every historical period.

The project will have to include some basic parts:

-         An introduction

-         The main figures of every period

-         Main facts 

-         A conclusion with the most important concepts

And, of course, the explanation has to be clear and easy to understand.

If you choose the video option, you can make your drawings on paper, on a whiteboard or you can make Plasticine puppets. Here you have some examples of what you could do:

- Paper drawings: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2QVs4tGAWU&feature=plcp&context=C3d104beUDOEgsToPDskKQ0o44nt0bFy2zAYyLtUKu

 - Whiteboard drawings: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8m8OC9aOGM&feature=plcp&context=C3034a42UDOEgsToPDskLxUDZz_svdP_3OQ0VT1pxI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0

- Plasticine puppets:

http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/films/loafanddeath/gallery.html

If you film a video, you will have to upload it to the Youtube account I will provide you. I´ll send you the password by e-mail when you´re ready to upload your work. 

Organization: groups of three students. Tomorrow we´ll have a lottery to decide what historical period every group is going to work on. You will have to make sure that every member of the group works. If you film a video, all members will have to speak. If you make a comic strip, all the members of the group will have to explain their project to the class.   

Sources of information: the text book and the PowerPoint presentations we use in class can be a good starting point. You can also use Internet sources of books of History, but remember that they have to be trustworthy.

Useful advice:

Although design is a decisive part of this project, don´t forget that content is the most important thing. That´s why you should start preparing a good scheme of the period and an outline of the different parts you are going to develop.

After this, you should research on the historical period you have to work on: the physical aspect of the most important figures, anecdotes, satirical newspapers and magazines of that time.

When you have all the information you need, it will be time to write the script of what you´re going to say/write. You can send me the script to check grammar or correct mistakes before the 24^th February.

Finally, you can start preparing the material part of the project.

Assessment: I will take different aspects into account: historical accuracy of the contents, clarity in the development of the ideas, creativity and originality. A good project should include all these requirements. When you finish your projects, you will have to fill an assessment sheet, to give a mark to every member of the group. Remember that, if you fail the project, you will have to take an exam of the whole content, not only the part you´ve worked on.

Finally, here you have the links to the projects the students of last year did. It´s just to make an idea of what you can do:
http://todayinsocialsciences.blogspot.com.es/2012/03/19th-of-march-2012.html

http://todayinsocialsciences.blogspot.com.es/2012/03/21st32012.html

http://todayinsocialsciences.blogspot.com.es/2012/03/democratic-sexenio-on-comic-strip.html

http://todayinsocialsciences.blogspot.com.es/2012/03/graphic-book-about-restoration.html

All these projects can be improved. I hope you will have original ideas and work hard. 

POSTSCRIPT: As we haven´t had time for the lottery, I´ll distribute the different topics between the 10 groups. You will receive an e-mail with the title of your project, just in case you want to start working this long weekend.