Page 74 - SST Class 05

be cut open. It pains greatly. In the past, it was an unbearable exercise for a patient.
When a patient was feeling intense pain, it was difficult to keep him in a static
position. If he kept moving, the doctor found it hard to operate upon him. So, in the
past, the patient was bound to the bed tightly, but it was so inhuman. Fortunately,
chloroform was first effectively used as anaesthesia. It was invented by James
Simpson . It helps to make a body part numb. When a patient is cut open for surgery,
he does not feel any pain.

Research and development is a continuous process in the medical field. Doctors and
scientists are at work to look for cures for different diseases. They are making an effort
to improve upon cure and find exact causes of a disease. Despite all this, there are

some diseases for which effective cure has yet to be found. They kill a large number of
people across the world. Some of the life-threatening diseases are cancer, AIDS, swine
flu etc. Let us hope that we find effective cure for them soon.
Surgery is now a very vast field. It can transplant many body organs, such as liver,

,
kidney etc. This science is also used for other purposes, like plastic surgery cosmetic
surgery etc. Dental surgery is also used for beautification purposes now.

Vaccination

When a disease has broken out, a treatment becomes necessary. How
good it would be if it could be prevented altogether. The scientists
have discovered a method to prevent certain diseases. This method is
called vaccination, in which a medicine, called vaccine , is
administered before the onset of a disease. Dr. Edward Jenner

It was Dr. Edward Jenner who in 1796 first discovered a vaccine for smallpox. How he
found it has an interesting story behind it.

During the course of his practice, Dr. Jenner observed that all people, except the
milkmaids, in the area contacted smallpox. These milkmaids rather suffered from
cowpox, a mild form of smallpox. He thought over this and concluded that those who
suffered from cowpox did not catch smallpox. He decided to undertake a dangerous
experiment. He took water from a cowpox blister and
injected it into a healthy boy, named Phipp. As a

result, this boy suffered from cowpox for a few days
and recovered. After this, Dr. Jenner injected Phipp
with the fluid from a smallpox blister. To his relief
and surprise, Phipp never contacted smallpox. This
proved his theory that if a person were vaccinated
with cowpox water, he would not suffer from
smallpox. This medicine was called vaccine for
smallpox. It helped to eradicate smallpox completely. Pulse Polio programme

74 Contemporary Social Science-5