Victorian medicine, diseases and poison!

Today we had a very exciting visit to the Castle Museum to bring our Victorians topic to life! We were able to see the difference between a wealthy and poorer Victorian’s house and we even got to explore a Victorian street with the little alley ways, a Victorian school, a Victorian prison and different shops that were all based on real Victorian shops in York!

We also got a little insight into Victorian medicine, looking at medical artefacts they used and how they dealt with illnesses using herbal remedies, making pills and lozenges and we even found out they used poison!

Following on from our visit to Castle Museum in the morning, this afternoon we explored Victorian medicine in more detail. We looked at the different diseases around in Victorian times and heard some ‘evidence’ from Victorian characters about the diseases and symptoms they had.

In those days, the Victorian’s didn’t understand how they caught diseases or how to cure them – and we found out they had some very funny remedies!

We then learnt about the changes in medicine, and who was responsible, such as Louise Pasteur and Florence Nightingale. To apply all our new knowledge we created some short pieces of drama based on a Victorian chat show, showcasing all the facts and dates accurately!

Class 9 – What was your favourite part of today? What did you find out that you didn’t before? Did anything surprise you?!