History of Medicine

By emmabrashear1
  • Knowledge of diseases
    2600 BCE

    Knowledge of diseases

    In Egypt, diagnosing and treating illnesses became common. There were over 200 sicknesses discovered. This new idea contrasted the old idea that there was no differential between sick people, even if they had completely different symmptoms.
  • First anatomy book
    300 BCE

    First anatomy book

    Diocles wrote a book that described many parts of the male body. This was an important historical step since this was the first step towards understanding the issues that each patient experienced.
  • Identification of smallpox
    910

    Identification of smallpox

    A Persian doctor named Rhazes identified the smallpox disease. This identiifcation was essential to the future scientific acheivment of vaccines. Smallpox would eventually become the first disease to have a vaccine.
  • Human Anatomy book published
    1543

    Human Anatomy book published

    Andreas Vesalius publsihed a human anatomy book that was mostly accuarate. His book was called "De Fabrica Corporis Humani" This was a paradigm shift because it created a new field of anatomy for scientists. Also, this book revolutionized the field of biology because of the anatomical influence in biology.
  • Blood transfusions experiments

    Blood transfusions experiments

    Sir Christopher Wren began experimenting with blood transfusions using blood from dogs. This was a revolutionary idea since beforehand there were no transfusions at all. So, blood transfusions between dogs allowed future blood tranfusions and organ transplants between humans possible.
  • First vaccines created

    First vaccines created

    Edward Jenner created the first smallpox vaccine. This vaccine will eventually eraticate any naturally-occuring smallpox outbreaks. This process of creating the smalpox vaccine is the same process that other scientists will use to create other vaccines.
  • First human blood transfusion

    First human blood transfusion

    James Blundell successfully tranfused human blood into another human. This was an achievement based upon the work of Sir Christopher Wren. This was the first time that doctors had used a substance from one human to improve the condition of another human. Before this event, many people believed that each person's blood was unique to that person. With further research and eventually this event, this theory was proved to be incorrect.
  • First human heart transplant

    First human heart transplant

    Dr. Christian Bernard was able to transplant a human heart to another human. Before this transplant it was believed that the heart held the soul of the person, so replacing someone's heart would have also replaced their soul. This transplant disproved this belief and had a huge impact on medical advancements.