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Period: 200 to
History of Medicine
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Period: 500 to Dec 31, 1500
Middle Ages
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Sep 12, 650
Medical Compendium in Seven Books
These books are basically a compilation of knowledge of former writers. The subejects of these books include things suchs as intestinal worms, venomous bites, hygiene, and fevers. Also things pertaining to bites form a person, properties of medicines, surgeries, tropical infections, etc. -
Sep 12, 1025
Ibn Sina; "The Canon of Medicine"
The Canon of Medicine is an encyclopedia of the medical knowledge from Ibn Sina's time period. It covers a wide range of different diseases. As well as talking about others things dealing with human anatomy. -
Period: Jan 1, 1300 to
Renaissance
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Sep 8, 1300
Ibn Al-Nafis; first to comprehend respiratory/circulatory system
Ibn Al-Nafis was the first to understand the respiratory and cirulatory systems even though his knowledge was incomplete. He understood that the heart is divided into halves and that there weren't any pores connecting the two halves. He knew the only way blood could get to one side from the other was by passing through the lungs. -
Sep 11, 1348
Black Death
The Black Death was an epidemic that had a huge inpact in Europe. It came out of the east and by the time it had ended around three years later it had killed anywhere between 25% and 50% of Europe's population. There was no real medicine that could overcome this disease. Although some people tried to avoid getting sick by avoiding the sickness all together and forming their own communities and never even speaking about the Black Death. -
Sep 8, 1400
Frenchwomen Jacoba Felicie tries to practice medicine but is denied
Jacoba Felicie was a French midwife. She was brought to trial for attempting to practice medicine during a time period when women were not allowed to do so. There were many testimonials saying that she cured her patients but these were only used against her in court. -
Sep 11, 1543
Andreas Vesalius; "De Humani Commis Fabrica"
Vesalius' book "De Humani Commis Fabrica" is the earliest known precise knowledge of human anatomy. HIs book showed over 200 anatomical drawings/pictures. The seven volumes of his book gave an understanding of human anatomy that laid a foundation for medical practice. -
Zacharius Jansen; invention of microscope
Jansen was a was a Dutch glasses maker who has been given the credit for inventing the microscope. He is generally understood to be the creator of the microscope, however, some believe that his father may have played an important role in the creation. -
William Harvey; heart/blood
Harvey published the book "An Anatomical Study of the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals". It described how blood pumped through the body by the heart, then goes back to the heart and continues circulating. This became the foundation of modern studies on the heart and blood vessels. -
Robert Hooke; reflective microscope
Hooke wote a book by the name of "Micrographia", which gave a look at the microsopic world. He is also known for making major improvements to the compound microscope. Furthermore, he had many skills such as making his own mirrors and lenses to be used in his microscopes and telescopes. -
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek describes bacteria
Leeuwenhoek is known as the "father of microbiology". He is known to have discovered bacteria. He is also known to be the first microbiologist to have studied muscle fibers and bacteria is capillaries. -
Period: to
Industrial Revolution
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Edward Jenner discovers first vaccination
Jenner is known for contribution to the eventual ereadication of smallpox. He is regarded as the foundation of immunology, even though he wasn't the first to suggest or attempt using cowpox to immunize against smallpox. -
René Laënnec invents stethoscope
Laënnec invented the stethoscope when he wasn't able to feel someone's heartbeat through their chest. The first stethoscope was a hollow wooden tube and the doctor would use it by pressing one side to the patient's chest and the other to his/her ear. -
William Thomas Green Morton; anesthesia
Morton, dentist, concluded that Joseph Priestley's of nitrous oxide relieving pain was indeed correct. However, the gas wasn't strong enough. He began doing experiments with sulfuric ether and after mutiple trials on both animals and dental patients he publically demonstrated the use of ether to remove a tumor from a patient's neck. The procedure was both successful and painless. By the end of 1847 books and such on anesthesia were "floating" around and a safe, consistent anesthesia was formed. -
Ignaz Semmelweis shows importance of hand washing
Semmelweis created a germ theory when he made the connection between puerperal fever and the unwashed hands of the hospital personnel. He set up handwashing standards after realizing puerperal fever could be prevented by hand washing. He suggested using a chlorinated lime solution to prevent the disease from spreading. -
John Snow stops cholera outbreak
Snow found that a certain water pump had been contributing to the cholera outbreak. Snow examined the water coming from the pump. He decided that the pump was the source of infection. He took his findings to the parish where the pump was. They agreed to remove the handle of the pump as an expirement and the spread of cholera stopped greatly. -
Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen; Invention of x-rays
Rontgen discovered x-rays while experimenting at the University of Wurzberg with electron beams in a gas discharge tube. He published three total papers on x-rays and none of his findings have been proven to be false. -
Felix Hoffman; invention of aspirin
Hoffman made a stable version of acetylsalicylic acid, or aspirin. He studied the expirements of Charles Gergardt, a French chemist, and "rediscovered" aspirin. He used sodiom salyclate to make it easier on the stomach, thus improving the ideas of Gergardt. -
Period: to
Modern World
Still in the modern world today -
Alexander Fleming; antibiotics
Fleming discovered penicillin accidentally when he left an unwashed petri dish in his lab. He then found that penicillin had grown on it and killed the bugs, thus giving the start to modern-day antibiotics. -
Francis Crick and James Watson; DNA
Crick and Watson, using x-ray data and model building, solved the structure of DNA. They found that DNA had a double helix. Their findings were published in "Nature" in April 1953. They then received and shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. -
John H. Gibbon Jr.; heart-lung machine
Gibbon Jr. used a heart-lung machine to preform an extracorporeal circulation on a cat with successful results. He used this machine successfully on a person in 1953. Heart-lung machines are now commonly used for procedures. -
First test tube baby born in UK
Louise Brown was the first test-tube baby to be born in the United Kingdom. Dr. Partick Steptoe and Dr. Robert Edwards had been working to find a solution for couples having trouble conceiving since 1966. However, they were having trouble with the pregnancies from their procedure lasting only a few weeks. Leslie Brown was the first to pass through her pregnancy completely. -
Period: to
History of Medicine
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Braingate team helps paralyzed
A team from Braingate put a sensor into Carly Hutchinson's, paralyzed for brain in 2005. They spent the next few years fine-tuning it so that she was able to operate a robotic arm and take a drink by herself for the first time. The Braingate team is working on turning the system wireless, and scientists think that one day it will be able to control a person's muscles, not just an external device. -
Robot surgeries
The surgeons at Cleveland Clinic began removing kidneys with a small incision in late 2007. The greatest benefit of small incisions rather than large ones make surgeries shorter and have less painful recovery time. Doctors have said it makes for more accurate procedures. They have also said robotic tools can help lower medical costs. -
Breakthrough in stem cell research
Europpean researchers manipulated bone marrow cells taken from two seven-year-old boys, put the altered cells back into the boys, and supposedly stopped the progress of a deadly brain disease. Scientists can now make embryonic-like stem cells from skin cells which allows them to model a wide range of human diseases. -
Doctors save baby by "freezing" him
Doctors diagnosed Edward Ives with supraventricular tachycardia and sent him to University College London Hospital for treatment. They wrapped his body in a cold gel which dropped his body temperature. A defribillator also helped to slow down his heart rate. After a few days, the doctors started to raise his temperature one degree Celsius per day. He was then a normal, healthy baby. -
Rhazes discovers difference between smallpox and measles
Rhazes made the first work ever written on smallpox and measles to be able to differintiate between the two. He noted the cause of these diseases was yeast transferred by blood. He classified the infections by color and location of rashes. Also the location and when the symptoms first showed. -
Al Tabari; "The Paradise of Wisdom"
Tabari based his book mainly on the early work of Galen and Hippocrates. His book included subjects such as general pathology and diseases of the head, eyes, nose, chest, etc. Like many other physicians of his time, he worked on better, more detailed encyclopedias with the medical knowledge available to him.