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Period: Jan 1, 1400 to
Renaissance Period
An explosion of knowledge, wealth, and creativity nearly 600 years ago earned the years between 1400 and 1600 the title of The Renaissance Period.
It stimulated medical practice just as it did all other European intellectual pursuits. Physicans and scholars began to scientifically study medicine. -
Jan 1, 1543
First scientific study of the human anatomy published
Andreas Vesalius revealed his evidence to discredit Galen and to show that Galen’s descriptions of curved human thighbones, heart chambers, segmented breast bones, etc., better matched the anatomy of apes than humans. -
Invention of the microscope
Anton von Leeuwenhoek invented the microscope. -
William Harvey publishes ‘An Anatomical Study of the Motion of the Heart and of the Blood in Animals’
His work forms the basis for future research on blood vessels, arteries and the heart in humans.
"...I found the task so truly arduous... that I was almost tempted to think... that the movement of the heart was only to be comprehended by God. For I could neither rightly perceive at first when the systole and when the diastole took place by reason of the rapidity of the movement..." -
Invention of bifocals
Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals and discovered that colds could be passed from person to person -
Vaccine for smallpox developed
Edward Jenner took fluid from a cowpox blister and scratched it into the skin of James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy. A single blister rose up on the spot, but James soon recovered thus the vaccine was born. -
Invention of the stethoscope
The stethoscope is an acoustic medical device for listening to the internal sounds of an animal or human body.
The stethoscope was invented in France by René Laennec at the Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital in Paris -
First practical anesthetic used (Ether)
Crawford Long recognized as the first physician to have administered ether anesthesia for surgery. Surgery was involving removing a tumor from a patient's neck. -
First Woman Doctor
Elizebeth is the first woman to qualify as a doctor.
She inspired Florence Nightingale to pursue nursing. -
First school of nursing
Florence Nightingale started the first school of nursing during the Crimean war and made nursing an honorable profession. -
The American Red Cross Founded
Clara Barton and a circle of her acquaintances founded the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C.
Her understanding of the needs of people in distress and the ways in which she could provide help to them guided her throughout her life. By the force of her personal example, she opened paths to the new field of volunteer service. -
Tuberculosis
Robert Koch was convinced that the disease was caused by a bacterium and was infectious than hereditary.
He published his findings on tuberculosis, in which he found the causative agent of the disease to be the slow-growing Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
He was also known as the "Father of Microbiology" and had discovered other disease-casing organisms: anthrax and cholera. -
First vaccine for Rabies
Created by Louis Pasteur and tested first on Joseph Meister.
Pasteur produced the first vaccine for rabies by growing the virus in rabbits, and then weakening it by drying the affected nerve tissue. -
Discovery of X-Rays
Discovered by: Wilhelm Roentgen
This discovery allowed doctors to see inside the body to discover what was wrong with the patient, which was extraordinary in the late 1800s. -
Introduction of aspirin (patented)
In 1899, a German chemist named Felix Hoffmann, who worked for a German company called Bayer, rediscovered Gerhardt's (first discovered the ingredients to making aspirin) formula.
First sold as a powder. -
Period: to
World War One
World War I was an extremely bloody war that engulfed Europe with huge losses of life and little ground lost or won. Fought mostly by soldiers in trenches, World War I saw an estimated 10 million military deaths and another 20 million wounded. -
Invention of the Band-Aid
Earle Dickson invented the Band-Aid. His wife Josephine Dickson was always cutting her fingers in the kitchen while preparing food. -
First antibiotic (Penicillin) discovered
The first drug that were effective against many previously serious diseases, such as syphilis, and infections caused by staphylococci and streptococci.
Discovered by: Alexander Fleming -
Period: to
World War Two
The countries of the world aligned with either the Axis powers or the Allies and battled in a total war.
WWII was a long and bloody war that lasted for six years. Officially beginning when Germany invaded Poland, World War II lasted until both the Germans and the Japanese had surrendered to the Allies. -
Polio vaccine developed
John Salk tried a refined vaccine on children who'd already had polio and recovered. After the vaccination, their antibodies increased. He then tried it on volunteers who had not had polio, including himself, his wife, and their children. The volunteers all produced antibodies, and none got sick. -
Oral Polio vaccine
Albert Sabin created an oral polio vaccine that was more effective than Salks vaccine -
First Human Heart Transplant Surgery
53-year-old Lewis Washkansky receives the first human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa by Christian Bernard. -
First Test Tube Baby
Louis Brown - first succesful test tube baby girl in Britain. -
AIDS Identified
A disease of the human immune system caused by infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Those involved: CDC -
Gene Therapy
The insertion of genes into an individual's cells and tissues to treat a disease, and hereditary disease in particular.
A four-year old girl became the first gene therapy patient on at the NIH Clinical Center -
Dolly the Sheep
Tissue cloning is the process of creating an identical copy of an original. Dolly was the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell.
She was cloned at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. -
The Aetiology of Childbed Fever
Book published by Ignaz Semmelweis who was attacked widely by the establishment of obstetricians in Europe, who could not believe that they or their midwife colleagues were responsible for the enormous number of deaths.
He had identified the cause of maternal infections and insituted hand washing. Medical students would deliver babies after coming from the cadaver lab without washing their hands, causing the death or many newborn babies and mothers.
