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Digitalis comes from the foxglove plant. Today it is given in a pill form.
Quinine comes from the bark of a cinchoma bark.
Belladomma and atropine are nomade from the poisonous nightshade plant
Morphine-is made from the opium poppy. -
Physicians were highly respected an often worked in temples. -
they used a combination of spiritual healing, prayers and spices.
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used papyrus scrolls like the ebers papyrus and Edwin smith papyrus to record diagnosis, treatments, and spells. -
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Acupuncture is believed to have developed around 1900–1000 BC.
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Universities
The growth of universities in Europe, such as those in Paris, Bologna, and Padua, helped revive medical education. -
Common Epidemics:
Diseases like smallpox, leprosy, tuberculosis, and plague were present in Europe and parts of Asia. -
Dissection was rarely practiced due to religious taboos.
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Introduced the Humorism theory: health depends on balance of four bodily fluids (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile).
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Initially believed in spiritual causes (punishment from gods).
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With the fall of central Roman authority, many of the public health, educational, and infrastructural systems (e.g. libraries, medical schools, hospitals, the maintenance of sanitation) that supported medical learning decayed or were abandoned.
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First recorded human dissections by Herophilus and Erasistratus in Alexandria.
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Built aqueducts to supply fresh water.
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Adopt many Greek medical ideas but enhance public health systems.
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By 700 AD, Europe still lacked formal medical practice, but various methods were used, mostly based on religion, superstition, and folk remedies:
Prayer and religious rituals: People believed illness was caused by sin or divine punishment. -
The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440 dramatically changed medicine.
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Around this time, human dissection became more accepted and practiced—especially in Italy.
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Italian anatomist known for discovering the Fallopian tubes in the female reproductive system.
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Italian anatomist who discovered the Eustachian tube (connecting the middle ear to the throat). -
English physician who discovered and described the circulation of blood.
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Developed powerful microscopes and was the first to observe and describe bacteria, protozoa, and sperm cells.
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Early pharmacists who prepared and sold medicines.
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Besides being a founding father and inventor, Franklin contributed to public health.
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Medical education became more structured
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Discovered oxygen (called “dephlogisticated air” then).
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English physician.
Developed the first successful smallpox vaccine using cowpox material. -
French physician.
Invented the stethoscope to listen to the sounds of the chest. -
Hungarian physician known as the “father of infection control.”
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Improved sanitation, hygiene, and patient care during the Crimean War.
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French microbiologist.
Developed pasteurization to kill bacteria in food and drinks. -
Discovered viruses as infectious agents smaller than bacteria.
Pioneered the field of virology. -
Pioneered antiseptic surgery using carbolic acid (phenol) to sterilize instruments and clean wounds.
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Introduced sterile surgical techniques and heat sterilization of surgical instruments.
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Introduced sterile surgical techniques and heat sterilization of surgical instruments.
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Developed the first chemotherapy drug (Salvarsan) to treat syphilis.
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Discovered X-rays in 1895; by 1920 their medical use was widespread.
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Advances in anesthetic drugs and techniques allowed safer, pain-free surgeries.
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Discovered penicillin, the first true antibiotic.
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Founder of psychoanalysis.
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Developed Prontosil, the first commercially available antibiotic (sulfonamide).
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Developed the first effective polio vaccine using inactivated virus.
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Developed the oral live attenuated polio vaccine.
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Discovered the double helix structure of DNA.
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Performed the world’s first successful human heart transplant.
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Renowned neurosurgeon.
Pioneered surgical techniques for separating conjoined twins and other complex brain surgeries. -
This groundbreaking project mapped the entire human genome, providing invaluable data for understanding genetic diseases and enabling personalized medicine.
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Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell therapy revolutionized cancer treatment by engineering a patient’s immune cells to target and destroy cancer cells, especially in blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma.
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This powerful gene-editing tool allows precise modifications of DNA, opening doors for potential cures of genetic diseases and advanced research into gene therapies.
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Drugs like pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and nivolumab (Opdivo) enhanced the immune system's ability to fight cancer, significantly improving outcomes for patients with melanoma and other cancers.
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The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines marked a revolutionary step in vaccine technology, using messenger RNA to induce immunity quickly and effectively, drastically altering pandemic response strategies.
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Digitalis- it comes from the foxglove plant. -
Evil spirits, we believed we got sick because evil spirits attached us.