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510 BCE
Alcmaeon
Alcmaeon was one of the most eminent natural philosophers and medical theorists of antiquity. He studied the optic nerves and the brain, arguing that the brain was the seat of the senses and intelligence and suggested that health was a state of equilibrium between opposing humors and that illnesses -
496 BCE
Herodotus
Herodotus was a Greek historian. He tells us Egyptian doctors were specialists: Medicine is practiced among them on a plan of separation; each physician treats a single disorder, and no more. Thus the country swarms with medical practitioners, some undertaking to cure diseases of the eye, others of the head, others again of the teeth, and others of the intestines, -
425 BCE
Diogenes of Apollonia
Diogenes of Apollonia was an ancient Greek philosopher, and was a native of the Milesian colony Apollonia in Thrace. His most famous work was On Nature, some fragments of which are preserved, chiefly by Simplicius. Diogenes believed air to be the one source of all being, and all other substances to be derived from it by condensation and rarefaction. -
400 BCE
Hippocrates
Hippocrates was a Greek physician known as the founder of medicine and was regarded as the greatest physician of his time. Hippocrates founded a medical school on the island of Cos where he taught his ideas. Today this Oath is known as the Hippocratic Oath and is taken by newly qualified doctors as a pledge of ethical behavior towards patients. -
Period: 400 BCE to 400 BCE
Ancient Time
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200
Galen
Galen was a physician, writer and philosopher who became the most famous doctor in the Roman Empire. Galen was the originator of the experimental method in medical investigation, and throughout his life dissected animals in his quest to understand how the body functions. For example, he proved that urine was formed in the kidney. -
Period: 400 to 1400
Middle Ages (400s-1400s)
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865
Rhazes
Rhazes was a persian physician. He was wrote a pioneering book about smallpox and measles providing clinical characterization of the diseases. His works were widely circulated in Arabic, and Greek versions and were published in Latin in the 15th cent. -
1000
Barber Surgeons
The Barber Surgeon was one of the most common European medical practitioners of the Middle Ages. It was practiced " bloodletting", cupping, pulling teeth, enemas, etc. and also served with the military. In the Middle Ages in Europe barbers would be expected to do anything from cutting hair to amputating limbs. -
1018
Ibn Butlan
Ibn Butlan was an Arab Nestorian Christian physician. He wrote the Taqwim al-Sihhah, This work treated matters of hygiene, dietetics, and exercise. .The continued popularity and publication of this medieval text of Middle Eastern origin into the sixteenth century is thought to demonstrate the influence that Arabic culture had on early modern Europe. -
1030
The Cannon of Medicine
The Cannon of Medicine is an encyclopedia of medicine in five books compiled by Persian philosopher Avicenna. It presents an overview of the contemporary medical knowledge, which had been largely influenced by Galen. The Canon of Medicine remained a medical authority for centuries. -
1140
Regulations
Bandages were hung to dry & for advertisement (modern day barber pole) Norman king Roger II degrees a license is required to practice medicine. Physicians were licensed after training. Women not allowed to practice. -
Period: 1400 to
Renaissance (1400s-1700s)
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1493
Pracelsus
Pracelsus 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. He is credited as the "father of toxicology". -
1543
Anatomy
1510 Leonardo da Vinci dissects human beings, makes anatomical drawings. 1543 First profusely illustrated printed anatomy, Vesalius' De Humani Corporis Fabrica. First art academies founded; anatomy is a key part of the curriculum. -
1559
Realdo Colombo
Realdo Colombo was an Italian professor of anatomy and a surgeon. Colombo was the first to propose the pulmonary circuit in an intellectual climate that could expand on his theory and describes the circulation of blood through the lungs in detail -
Girolamo Fabrici
Girolamo Fabrici was a pioneering anatomist and surgeon known in medical science as "The Father of Embryology." He was the first to describe the membranous folds that he called "valves" in the interior of veins. In his Tabulae Pictae, Fabricius described the cerebral fissure separating the temporal lobe from the frontal lobe. -
William Harvey
William Harvey was an English physician who made seminal contributions in anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely and in detail the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped to the brain and body by the heart. He had provided precursors of the theory. -
Period: to
Industrial Revolution (1760s-1840s)
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Edward Jenner
Edward Jenner was an English physician and scientist. He was the pioneer of smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. He used it in 1796 in the long title of his Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae known as the Cow Pox, in which he described the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox. -
James Marion Sims
James Marion Sims was an American physician and a pioneer in the field of surgery. He known as the "father of modern gynecology". His most significant work was to develop a surgical technique for the repair of vesicovaginal fistula, a severe complication of obstructed childbirth. -
Rene Laennec
Rene Laennec was a French physician. He invented the stethoscope in 1816, while working at the Hôpital Necker, and pioneered its use in diagnosing various chest conditions. He became a lecturer at the Collège de France in 1822 and professor of medicine in 1823. -
James Blundell
James Blundell was an English obstetrician. In 1818, Blundell proposed that a blood transfusion would be appropriate to treat severe postpartum hemorrhage. He was performed the first successful transfusion of human blood to a patient for treatment of a haemorrhage. -
Joseph Lister
Joseph Lister was a British surgeon and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery. He promoted the idea of sterile surgery while working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Lister successfully introduced carbolic acid to sterilise surgical instruments and to clean wounds. -
Modern Era (1840s +)
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First Painless Surgery with General Anesthetic
With Dr. Morton's tenacity driven by enthusiasm and discovery, he and renowned surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, John Collins Warren made history with the first successful surgical procedure performed with anesthesia. Largely because of the associated pain, many patients with surgical disorders chose certain death rather than undergo surgery. -
Female Medical College of Pennsylvania
The college built a new campus in East Falls in the 1920s, which combined teaching and the clinical care of a hospital in one overall facility. It was the first purpose-built hospital in the nation. later renamed as The Medical College of Pennsylvania after opening its doors to men -
Germ Theory of Disease
The germ theory of disease states that many diseases are caused by microorganisms. A transitional period began in the late 1850s as the work of Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch provided convincing evidence; by 1880, the miasma theory was struggling to compete with the germ theory of disease. -
Wilhelm Conard Röntgen
Wilhelm Conard Röntgen was a German mechanical engineer and physicist. He produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays or Röntgen rays. He earned the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. -
Karl Landsteiner
Karl Landsteiner was an Austrian biologist and physician and immunologist. He distinguished the main blood groups in 1900, having developed the modern system of classification of blood groups from his identification of the presence of agglutinins in the blood. -
Frederick Hopskin
Frederick Hopskin was an English biochemist. He discovery of vitamins, even though Casimir Funk, a Polish biochemist, is widely credited with discovering vitamins. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929 -
Frank Pantridge
Frank Pantridge was a physician. And cardiologist from Northern Ireland who transformed emergency medicine and paramedic services with the invention of the portable defibrillator. He was installs the first portable defibrillator. -
Organ Transplant
the mid-20th century, scientists were performing successful organ transplants. Transplants of kidneys, livers, hearts, pancreata, intestine, lungs, and heart-lungs are now considered routine medical treatment. -
Stem Cell Therapy
Stem-cell therapy is the use of stem cells to treat or prevent a disease or condition. In the mid 1800s it was discovered that cells were basically the building blocks of life and that some cells had the ability to produce other cells. In 1998, the first bone marrow transplant was performed to successfully treat two siblings with severe combined immunodeficiency. -
The Human Genome Project
The Human Genome Project was an international scientific research project. The Human Genome Project was a 15-year-long, publicly funded project initiated in 1990 with the objective of determining the DNA sequence of the entire euchromatic human genome within 15 years.
