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500
Alcmaeon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries
He was the first to develop an argument for the immortality of the soul. He used a political metaphor to define health and disease. -
Period: 500 to 1300
Middle Ages
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625
Paul of Aegina
Paul of Aegina or Paulus Aegineta was a 7th-century Byzantine Greek physician best known for writing the medical encyclopedia Medical Compendium in Seven Books. "He is the father of early medical books". -
900
Rhazes
He discovered the difference between small pocks and neezles. -
936
Al-Zahrawi
Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf ibn al-‘Abbās al-Zahrāwī al-Ansari, popularly known as Al-Zahrawi, Latinised as Abulcasis, was an Arab Muslim physician, surgeon and chemist who lived in Al-Andalus. He is considered as the greatest surgeon of the Middle ages, and has been described as the father of surgery. -
Period: 1301 to
Reniassace
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1493
Paracelsus
Paracelsus, born Theophrastus von Hohenheim, was a Swiss physician, alchemist, and astrologer of the German Renaissance. He was a pioneer in several aspects of the "medical revolution" of the Renaissance, emphasizing the value of observation in combination with received wisdom. -
1514
Andreas Vesaluis
Andreas Vesalius was a 16th-century Flemish anatomist, physician, and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, De humani corporis fabrica. Vesalius is often referred to as the founder of modern human anatomy. He was born in Brussels, which was then part of the Habsburg Netherlands. -
1553
Michael Servetus
Michael Servetus, also known as Miguel Servet, Miguel de Villanueva, Michel Servet, Revés, or Michel de Villeneuve, was a Spanish theologian, physician, cartographer, and Renaissance humanist. -
Zacharius Jannssen invents the microscope
A father-son duo, Zacharias and Han Jansen, created the first compound microscope in the 1590s. Anton van Leeuwenhoek created powerful lenses that could see teeming bacteria in a drop of water. Robert Hooke discovered cells by studying the honeycomb structure of a cork under a microscope. -
Printing Press
Allowed for publications for medical discoveries. -
Anton Van Discovers Blood Cells
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek is widely credited as the discoverer of red blood cells. In truth, he was not the first person to observe "red particles" in blood but his observations were more detailed and numerous than those (by Malpighi and Swammerdam) that preceded him . -
Period: to
Industrial Revolution
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Claudius Aymand performs the first successful appendectomy
The first recorded successful appendectomy was on December 6, 1735, at St. George's Hospital in London, when French surgeon Claudius Amyand described the presence of a perforated appendix within the inguinal hernial sac of an 11-year-old boy. -
James Lind publishes his Treatise of the Scurvy stating that citrus fruits prevent scurvy
The fruit, containing about half the vitamin C content of lemons, was less effective in preventing scurvy among British sailors, or 'Limeys' as they became known. Not until vitamin C was identified in 1928 was the disease effectively conquered at source. However, in the Royal Navy, Dr Lind is remembered as a hero.Oct 4, 2016 -
Edward Jenner develops the process of vaccination for smallpox, the first vaccine for any disease
Smallpox vaccine, the first successful vaccine to be developed, was introduced by Edward Jenner in 1796. He followed up his observation that milkmaids who had previously caught cowpox did not later catch smallpox by showing that inoculated cowpox protected against inoculated smallpox. -
Sir Humphry Davy discovered the anesthetic properties of nitrous oxide
Humphry Davy was a British chemist best known for his contributions to the discoveries of chlorine and iodine and for his invention of the Davy lamp, a device that greatly improved safety for miners in the coal industry. -
John Snow
John Snow was an English physician and a leader in the adoption of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered one of the fathers of modern epidemiology, in part because of his work in tracing the source of a cholera outbreak in Soho, London, in 1854. -
Period: to
Modern World
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Karl Landsteiner introduces the system to classify blood into A, B, AB, and O groups
Landsteiner and blood types. The man who discovered some of the human blood types that we know today was an Austrian, Karl Landsteiner. His work was influenced by an article on blood typing in goats, which was written by Paul Ehrlich and appeared in the 'Berliner klinische Wechenschrift' in 1900. -
Insulin first used to treat diabetes.
First use of insulin in treatment of diabetes on this day in 1922. On 11 January 1922 insulin was first used in the treatment of diabetes. Insulin was discovered by Sir Frederick G Banting (pictured), Charles H Best and JJR Macleod at the University of Toronto in 1921 and it was subsequently purified by James B Collip.Jan 11, 2010 -
Helen Flanders Dunbar
Helen Flanders Dunbar — later known as H. Flanders Dunbar — is an important early figure in U.S. psychosomatic medicine and psycho biology, as well as being an important advocate of physicians and clergy co-operating in their efforts to care for the sick. -
Gerhard Domakg
Domagk was born in Lagow, Brandenburg, the son of a school headmaster. Until he was 14, he attended school in Sommerfeld (now Lubsko, Poland). Domagk studied medicine at the University of Kiel, but volunteered to serve as a soldier in World War I, where he was wounded in December 1914, working the rest of the war as a medic. After the war, he finished his studies, and worked at the University of Greifswald, where he researched infections caused by bacteria. -
Dr. Paul Dudley White pioneers the use of the electrocardiograph - ECG
Paul Dudley White (June 6, 1886 – October 31, 1973), American physician and cardiologist, was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, the son of Herbert Warren White and Elizabeth Abigail Dudley. He was one of the leading cardiologists of his day, and a prominent advocate of preventive medicine. -
Human Genome Discoveries Reach the Bedside
In 2000, scientists in with the International Human Genome Project released a rough draft of the human genome to the public. For the first time the world could read the complete set of human genetic information and begin to discover what our roughly 23,000 genes do. -
Period: to
21st Century
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Nathan Gibbs
Gibbs was a South Sydney junior but was graded by Eastern Suburbs during his final year at school. He returned to South Sydney and made his first-grade debut in 1978. Gibbs went on to captain the club and was the Dally M Second Rower of the Year in 1980. -
Robert Llewellyn Clancy
Robert Llewellyn Clancy AM is an Australian clinical immunologist and a pioneer in the field of mucosal immunology. He is known for his research and development of therapies for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, commonly known as emphysema. -
Ranjana Srivastava
Ranjana Srivastava OAM is an oncologist and author from Melbourne, Australia. Born in Canberra, Australia in 1974, Srivastava was educated in India, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. -
First vaccine to target a cause of cancer
Human papillomaviruses (HPV) are the major cause of cervical cancer, recognised worldwide as one of the biggest killers among all cancers in women. In 2006, the release of world’s first vaccine protecting against infection with HPV was hailed as a major medical milestone.
