This chapter will be devoted to the history of medicine. The most effective means to do so is via a time line. The source I am using here is from the website PubMed Central and is by Rachel Hajar, M.D.
History of Medicine Timeline
2600 BC The Egyptian Imhotep describes the diagnosis and treatment of 200 diseases
500 BC Alcmaeon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries
460 BC Birth of Hippocrates, the Greek father of medicine begins the scientific study of medicine and prescribes a form of aspirin
300 BC Diocles wrote the first known anatomy book
280 BC Herophilus studies the nervous system
130 AD Birth of Galen. Greek physician to gladiators and Roman emperors
c60AD Pedanius Dioscorides writes De Materia Medica
910 Persian physician Rhazes identifies smallpox
1010 Avicenna writes The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine
1249 Roger Bacon invents spectacles
1489 Leonardo da Vinci dissects corpses
1543 Vesalius publishes findings on human anatomy in De Fabrica Corporis Humani
1590 Zacharius Jannssen invents the microscope
1628 William Harvey publishes An Anatomical Study of the Motion of the Heart and of the Blood in Animals which forms the basis for future research on blood vessels, arteries and the heart
1656 Sir Christopher Wren experiments with canine blood transfusions
1670 Anton van Leeuwenhoek discovers blood cells
1683 Anton van Leeuwenhoek observes bacteria
1701 Giacomo Pylarini gives the first smallpox inoculations
1747 James Lind publishes his Treatise of the Scurvy stating that citrus fruits prevent scurvy
1763 Claudius Aymand performs the first successful appendectomy
1796 Edward Jenner develops the process of vaccination for smallpox, the first vaccines for any disease
1800 Sir Humphry Davy discovers the anesthetics properties of nitrous oxide
1816 Rene Laennec invents the stethoscope
1818 James Blundell performs the first successful transfusion of human blood
1842 Crawford W. Long uses ether as a general anesthetic
1844 Dr. Horace Wells uses nitrous oxide as an anesthetic
1846 William Morton, a dentist, is the first to publish the process of using anesthetic properties of nitrous oxide
1849 Elizabeth Blackwell is the first woman to gain a medical degree from Geneva Medical College in New York
1847 Ignaz Semmelweis discovers how to prevent the transmission of puerperal fever
1853 Charles Gabriel Pravaz and Alexander Wood develop the syringe
1857 Louis Pasteur identifies germs as cause of disease
1867 Joseph Lister develops the use of antiseptic surgical methods and publishes Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery
1870 Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur establish the germ theory of disease
1879 First vaccine developed for cholera
1881 First vaccine developed for anthrax by Louis Pasteur
1882 First vaccine for developed for rabies by Louis Pasteur
1882 Koch discovers the TB bacillus
1887 First contact lenses developed
1890 Emil von Behring discovers antitoxins and develops tetanus and diphtheria vaccines
1895 Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers X-rays
1896 First vaccine developed for typhoid fever
1897 First vaccine developed for Bubonic plague
1899 Felix Hoffman develops aspirin
1901 Karl Landsteiner introduces the system to classify blood into A, B, AB, and O groups
1913 Dr. Paul Dudley White pioneers the use of the electrocardiograph – ECG
1921 Edward Mellanby discovers that lack of vitamin D in the diet causes rickets
1921 Earle Dickson invented the Band-Aid
1922 Insulin first used to treat diabetes
1923 First vaccine developed for diphtheria
1926 First vaccine developed for whooping cough
1927 First vaccine developed for tuberculosis
1927 First vaccine developed for tetanus
1928 Sir Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1935 First vaccine developed for yellow fever
1935 Percy Lavon Julian synthesized the medicines physostigmine for glaucoma and cortisone for rheumatoid arthritis
1937 First vaccine developed for typhus
1937 Bernard Fantus pioneers the use of the first blood bank in Chicago
1942 Doctor Karl Theodore Dussik publishes the first paper on medical ultrasonic – ultrasound
1943 Selman A. Waksman discovers the antibiotic streptomycin
1945 First vaccine developed for influenza
1950 John Hopps invented the first cardiac pacemaker
1952 Paul Zoll develops the first cardiac pacemaker
1952 Jonas Salk develops the first polio vaccine
1952 Rosalind Franklin uses X-ray diffraction to study the structure of DNA
1953 James Watson and Francis Crick work on the structure of the DNA molecule
1954 Gertrude Elion patented a leukemia-fighting drug
1954 Dr. Joseph E. Murray performs the first kidney transplant
1955 Jonas Salk develops the first polio vaccine
1963 Thomas Fogarty invented the balloon embolectomy catheter
1964 First vaccine developed for measles
1967 First vaccine developed for mumps
1967 Dr. Christian Bernard performs the first human heart transplant
1970 First vaccine developed for rubella
1974 First vaccine developed for chicken pox
1975 Robert S. Ledley invents CAT-Scans
1977 First vaccine developed for pneumonia
1978 First test-tube baby is born
1978 First vaccine developed for meningitis
1980 Smallpox is eradicated
1981 First vaccine developed for hepatitis B
1983 HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is identified
1984 Alec Jeffreys devises a genetic fingerprinting method
1985 Willem J. Kolff invented the artificial kidney dialysis machine
1992 First vaccine developed for hepatitis A
1996 Dolly the sheep becomes the first clone
2006 First vaccine to target a cause of cancer
The most influential doctors in the history of medicine
The following information was taken from the web site wellnessbeam.org.
1.Hippocrates
Hippocrates is considered to be the father of modern medicine. He lived in Greece between 469 and 470 B.C., establishing the doctrine of Hippocratic medicine and initiating a revolution in this field of knowledge.
The hippocratic doctrine was separated from mysticism and philosophical thought. Through observation and deduction, specific procedures were established to promote patient improvement – such as the use of clean water or wine to clean wounds or giving importance to rest as part of treatment.
Hippocrates was the first physician to describe diseases as “acute,” “chronic,” or “epidemic, laying the foundation for today’s medical language. His knowledge of thoracic surgery is relevant even to modern medicine, and his school gave rise to the Hippocratic Oath, a document that indicates the ethical basis to follow during the practice of medicine.
2. Pergamon Galen
Galen was a doctor who lived approximately between 130 and 210 A.D. He is credited with creating an empirical model for medical knowledge, rooted in experimentation with animal models that allowed him to draw conclusions about the human body.
Galen was an avid anatomist and physiologist, who came to discover both the function of blood-bearing arteries and that urine originates in the kidneys. Thanks to him, rapid progress was made in the identification and description of various physiological structures, such as the seven pairs of cranial nerves or the genitourinary system.
3. Ibn Sina – Avicenna
Ibn Sina, known as Avicenna in the West was a great thinker within the Muslim culture. Ibn Sina was originally from Persia, where he participated in the creation of medical, philosophical, mathematical, and physical knowledge, among other categories. His medical knowledge was incredibly influential, especially between the 11th and 17th centuries.
“The Canon of Medicine,” a five-volume encyclopedia, was a book written by Ibn Sina that was used as a basic medical textbook practically until the 18th century. In it, he considered that every disease has natural causes, not necessarily theological.
It was within this framework that he brought together all the medical knowledge available at that time in an incredibly concise form.
4. Andrea Vesalio
Andrés Vesalio wrote one of the most important books in the field of anatomy. His work, “De humani corporis manufactures“translated as “On the tissue of the human body”, elevates him as the father of modern anatomy.
Vecellio was born in 1514 in Brussels. a city that at that time was part of the Netherlands, but later became a professor at the University of Padua before becoming the imperial court doctor of Charles V, emperor of the Habsburgs, as his father and grandfather had done before him.
5. René Laënnec
René Laënnec, born in Brittany in 1781, was a renowned French doctor in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Their contribution to modern medicine is key, mainly because of the invention of the stethoscope and the foundation of the clinical practice of auscultation.
In addition to characterizing and classifying various lung diseases, such as pneumonia or emphysema, he was also the first person to describe cirrhosis in detail, common liver disease in alcoholics.
6. Edward Jenner
Edward Jenner was an English doctor, born in 1749. He is considered by many to be the father of immunology, in addition to having been a member of the Royal Society as a zoologist.
He was the inventor of the vaccination (whose name refers to the cattle used to carry out the procedure). The first vaccine was used to immunize patients against smallpox, developed from the smallpox virus, also pathogenic but of much lesser severity.
It is considered to be the first person to use vaccination to slow the epidemic progression of a disease.
7. Ignaz Semmelweis
Semmelweis was a Hungarian doctor who became nicknamed “the savior of childbirth.” since the patients who gave birth in her clinic had mortality rates much lower than was usual for most hospitals at the time, at the beginning of the 19th century.
The contribution of Ignaz Semmelweis was enormous, although went unnoticed by the scientific community due to the explosive character of Semmelweis himself, who was remarkably reluctant to be criticized for his theories.
The simple fact of cleaning hands after autopsies and before intervening on women in labor, devised by Semmelweis, was incredibly innovative, as at that time the pathogenic effects of bacteria were unknown.
8. Sir Joseph Lister
Another champion of antiseptic practices At the clinical level, Joseph Lister was born in 1827 and died in 1912. Lister used the knowledge Louis Pasteur generated about microbes to improve his clinical practice, linking the theory of germs with medicine and surgery.
Lister’s aseptic practices included disinfection of the operating room, clothing, instruments, and the hands of surgeons, to avoid the appearance of infections and gangrene in patients undergoing surgery.
Despite the initial rejection of his theories (as well as Semmelweis’), the visible positive results of his practices made them very popular, becoming key aseptic practices in today’s surgery.
9. John Snow
Unfortunately called just like an important character in the Throne Game – the fantasy saga “Song of Fire and Ice”, John Snow was an important doctor in the early 19th century. considered the founder of modern epidemiology.
His epidemiological investigation into the origin of cholera outbreaks in Victorian London enabled him to detect contamination problems in the city’s water supply, demonstrating the importance of epidemiological studies for public health.
10. Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud needs virtually no introduction. He is the father of the doctrine of psychoanalysis, which he founded while practicing as a neurologist in Austria.
He delved into the unconscious mechanisms of the psyche, and how these influence our preferences, desires, longings, and phobias.
Despite several of his erroneous theories about the psyche and human behavior, his vision initiated research into the psychological element as part of individual health. His life and work continue to be studied in different disciplines.
11. Sir William Osler
Sir William Osler (1849 – 1919) is known as the “Doctor of Doctors”, a well-deserved honor.
Canadian in origin but settled for most of his professional and academic career in Oxford, UK, his contributions are of immense importance to modern clinical practice.
Much of its success lies in his bedside learning educational doctrine. Through this, curricular practices and contact with patients became key pillars in the training of any physician today.
12. Robert Koch
Dr. Robert Koch was an instrumental German physician in the establishment of modern bacteriological knowledge.
It established a methodology to identify the causal agents of bacterial diseases, such as cholera, tuberculosis or even anthrax.
He received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1905 for his research on tuberculosis. Many of his students also had a great impact on far-reaching scientific and medical breakthroughs.
13. Sir Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming was a doctor born in 1881, in Darvel, Scotland.
It is known by the entire medical-scientific community for the crucial discovery of penicillin the first antibiotic used by humans consciously, which opened the way for the research and application of other antibiotic substances, saving countless lives since then.
In addition to this famous discovery, Fleming also discovered the antimicrobial enzyme known as lysozyme.
14. Jonas Salk
Dr. Jonas Salk (1914 – 1995) is known for having created the first polio vaccine relatively common viral disease for much of the last century.
Jonas Salk was the first to generate a polio vaccine that used non-infectious viral particles, unlike other vaccines of the time that used “attenuated” versions of the viruses, which could still present a risk of infection and transmission and, therefore, a significant health risk.
15. Jean-Martin Charcot
Jean-Martin Charcot was a 19th-century French neurologist, known today for his work on hysteria and hypnosis (two concepts in controversy today). He was also the first to describe multiple sclerosis.
Curiously, although hysteria was considered a mainly female disease, Jean-Martin Charcot struggled to prove that this disease also affected men, being according to him a psychological rather than a neurological disease, usually derived from past traumas suffered by the patient.
Top 10 Greatest Medical Discoveries of All Time
The following information was taken from the website healthguidance.org and was written by Adam Sinicki.
10) Vitamins – The discovery of vitamins by Frederick Hopkins and contemporaries, accomplished through feeding studies using animals at the start of the 1900s, led to a far better understanding of nutrient and helped to prevent many illnesses and conditions that resulted from deficiencies.
9) HIV – HIV was discovered in the 1980s by Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier and following an influx of patients around the time. This discovery of course led to a greater awareness of the dangers of unprotected sex as well as to the various treatments that exist today to make the condition manageable.
8) The Circulatory System – The concept of the circulatory system was first described in 1242 by the physician Ibn al-Nafis, and first brought to prominence in 1628 by William Harvey. This led to a far better understanding of the human body in general and to many of the treatments and techniques we now take for granted.
7) X-Ray – Before x-rays repairing broken bones and identifying the cause of many other problems would have been hugely more difficult and has played a role in colouring our understanding of the human body even further. When Conrad Rontgen first discovered the technique in 1895 he used it to create an image of his wife’s hand.
6) DNA – DNA was discovered by the Swiss physician Friedrich Miescher and was at first known as ‘nuclein’ (what was wrong with that name?). This has led to a much better understanding of a range of diseases and illnesses, but is likely to lead to many more discoveries in the future as gene therapy becomes more widely used. Of course the discovery of DNA has also lead to many important discussions on the nature of humanity and our role in our own evolution.
5) Insulin – Before the discovery of the hormone insulin in 1920 by Frederick Banting, diabetes was a condition that would lead to a slow and unpleasant death. Today, thanks to this finding, most diabetic patients manage to live normal and full lives which has affected the lives of millions of people around the world.
4) Anesthetic – If you ever had to have an operation without any form of anesthetic then you would likely have a whole new appreciation for just how important this discovery was. Before anesthetic you had a rope to bite into and a shot of vodka…
3) Germ Theory – While we’ll get to penicillin soon enough, it wouldn’t have been possible with Louis Pasteur’s initial ‘germ theory’ which shed light on the causes of diseases and lead to many of the hygiene practices we now take for granted.
2) Vaccination – Originally in the Western World the concept of vaccination – using small doses of disease to teach the body to protect itself from certain viruses – was a controversial one. However it is only thanks to vaccinations that we have managed to stop the spread of many epidemics and even completely eradicate some of the world’s most deadly diseases.
1) Penicillin – Discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928, this is the one that everyone learns about in school, and was the big ‘game changer’ for modern medicine. Essentially the discovery of penicillin is responsible for the development of all the antibiotics that we use today to combat bacteria. Before that, if you got a cut on your leg and it became infected you would have had to choose between death or amputation…