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Evil spirits
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Prayer, blood letting, exorcisms
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Digitalis for heart, Quinine, Belladonna, and Atropine for digestion, and Morphine for pain
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Ancient Egyptians were first to keep accurate heath records. They called upon gods to heal them and learned how to identify diseases. Their physicians were priests and they used medicines to heal diseases, learned to splint fractures, and treated disorders by bloodletting with leeches. -
Early medical pioneers treated illness and disease with with stone tools which developed into Chinese Acupuncture.
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The Ancient Greeks were the first to study causes of diseases and came to the conclusion that illnesses may have natural rather than spiritual causes. In this time, according to religious custom, bodies were not allowed to be dissected. So Hippocrates based his studies off of the external body and wrote the standard of ethics called the Oath of Hippocrates.
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The Ancient Romans the first to start hospitals, starting based out of their homes and then developing into public buildings to care for the sick. They also were the first to organize medical care by sending physicians and equipment with their armies to help wounded soldiers.
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The study of medicine was stopped for a period of 1,000 years after the Roman Empire was conquered by the Huns. During this time, medicine was only practiced in convents and monasteries and the church believed that life and death was in Gods hands.
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While the main source of treatment was prayer, herbal mixes were also used. During this time, the care was custodial.
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During this time, there were several uncontrolled diseases that killed millions of people. Some examples include, smallpox, diphtheria, syphilis, and tuberculosis.
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During the Renaissance, there were many scientific developments such as the building of universities and medical schools for research, the acceptance of dissection of the body for study, and the printing press and publishing of books.
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- studied and recorded the anatomy of the body
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- discovered the fallopian tubes of the female body
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- discovered the tube leading from the ear to the throat.
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- used his knowledge to learn physiology and was able to understand blood circulation and the pumping of the heart
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- invented the microscope so that people could see the bacteria that is smaller than the eye can see
- scraped his teeth and found the bacteria that causes tooth decaying.
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Apothecaries, now known as pharmacies started during this time.
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- discovered bifocals
- found that colds can be passed from person to person.
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Medical school expanded during this time. Students now attended in person lectures, observed patients at bedside, and dissected the patients body when they died to understand what happened on a deeper level. This opened the medical field to a wider range of people, leading Elizabeth Blackwell to be the first female to become a physician in 1849.
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He discovered the oxygen element and that plants refresh air that have lost their oxygen, making it useable for respiration.
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He discovered a method of vaccination for smallpox, saving millions and leading to immunization and preventative medicine.
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She invented the stethoscope, made out of wood. This tool increased the ability to hear the heart and lungs.
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He discovered the cause of childbed fever by finding that when midwives delivered babies the mothers were less likely to get this fever after giving birth. However, when physicians were the ones delivering the babies, they came straight from dissecting dead bodies without washing their hands. This transferred bacteria from the dead bodies to the women and caused infections. Once his studies were proved correct, hand washing became an important everyday practice to stop the spread of disease.
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She became a nurse despite many people telling her it was “unsuitable for a respectable lady”. During the Crimean War, she took a group of 38 women to care for soldiers with cholera. There, she became famous for her dedication to nursing. She then devoted her life to preparing reports on the need for better sanitation and management of hospitals. Her overall goal was to gain effective training for nurses. -
- discovered that tiny microorganisms were everywhere and proved that they could cause disease
- found that warming milk prevents the growth of bacteria -created a vaccine for rabies -known as the “Father of Microbiology”
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He discovered that some diseases are caused by microorganisms that cannot be seen even with a microscope. These are called viruses and can cause many diseases such as rabies, measles, chicken pox, and influenza. -
-used carbolic acid on wounds to kill germs that cause infection
-the first doctor to use an antiseptic during surgery -
-developed asepsis
-created a way to keep areas germ- free during surgery -
-created the culture plate method
-isolated the bacterium that causes tuberculosis
-introduced the importance of cleanliness and sanitation in preventing disease from spreading -
- discovered the effect of medicine on disease causing microorganisms
- found a treatment for syphilis
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- discovered x- rays
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Before the 19th century physicians used herbs and alcohol to ease the pain of surgery. Sometimes they would even resort to choking patients so they were unconscious during surgery. During the 19th and 20th centuries, people began to use different drugs as aesthetics to put patients into a deep sleep during surgery.
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-found that penicillin killed life- threatening bacteria
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- discovered the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind
- found that mind and body work together
- studies are the basis of psychology and psychiatry
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- discovered sulfonamide compounds (first medication effective in killing bacteria)
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- discovered a dead polio virus could cause immunity to poliomyelitis
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- used a live polio virus vaccine to immunize babies
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- discovered the molecular structure of DNA, modeling how DNA replicates itself and how hereditary information is coded on it
- won the Nobel piece prize for this discovery
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- performed first successful heart transplant
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- separated Siamese twins and preformed hemispherectomies
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- a treatment for a disease in the retina of your eye
- clears vision for 1 in 3 patients
- usually at least stabilizes vision
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Research by HMS Department of Social Medicine proved that community based outpatient treatment programs successfully treated people infected with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.
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Dana- Farber researchers find a mechanism in the liver that explains how eating foods rich in saturated- fats and trans-fatty acids causes elevated blood levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides that increase the risk of heart disease and certain cancers.
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Neurobiologists discover the mechanism behind the loss of smell- the main Covid- 19 symptom. They also identify a class of support cells in the nose and forebrain.
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HMS cell biologists discover specific airway neurons when they do a study on mice that alert the brain to the presence of influenza. This illuminates a basic mechanism of pathogen detection and its relation to the nervous system. The work could inform the design of more-effective flu therapies.