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Period: 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE
Early Beginnings
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3900 BCE
Disease Caused by?
Supernatural spirits/evil spirits -
3600 BCE
Treatments for sick?
Tribal doctors would perform ceremonies to force the evil spirits out of the person. For example, one ceremony would surgically remove circular sections in the body (trephining) to get the evil spirits to leave. Also, herbs and plants were used for medicine. -
3100 BCE
Medicines used today
Digitalis: to treat heart conditions
Quinine: controls fevers, relieves muscle spasms, and helps prevent malaria
Belladonna: relieves muscle spasms
Morphine: treats severe pain -
Period: 2999 BCE to 399
Ancient Times
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2900 BCE
Ancient Egyptians
The Egyptians were the first people to keep accurate health records. The priests were the physicians. They learned how to splint fractures, use medicines to heal disease, and used leeches to treat disorders by having the leeches suck the blood around the wound. -
1900 BCE
Ancient Chinese
The ancient Chinese were the first to use acupuncture which is still used today. These people learned to treat illnesses and diseases with stone tools. -
900 BCE
Ancient Greeks
The ancient Greeks were the first to study the causes of diseases. They found that the cause of disease is more led to be caused by natural causes and not spiritual causes. In the ancient times, religious customs wouldn’t allow bodies to be dissected. Hippocrates is considered the father of medicine and discovered that diseases aren’t caused by supernatural spirits. -
100
Ancient Romans
The ancient Romans were the first to organize medical care. They would send medical equipment to their armies for the wounded soldiers. They also created sanitation systems where they brought clean water into the cities by aqueducts. The Roman physicians had a room in their house for sick people. This is what led to the start of hospitals. -
Period: 400 to 800
Dark Age
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500
Stopped the study of medicine, why?
The Roman Empire was controlled by the Huns and they stopped the study of medicine. They did this because the church believed that life and death was in Gods hands. -
700
How do they treat disease?
Treated disease by prayer. Medication was herbal mixtures. -
Period: 800 to 1400
Middle Age
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1100
Epidemics
Epidemics caused millions of deaths during the Middle Age. The Bubonic plague killed 60 million people. There’s many other uncontrolled diseases that have gone around like smallpox and diphtheria. However, some of these diseases today aren’t as life threatening. This is because scientists discovered vaccines and medications to help stop and prevent the spread. -
Period: 1350 to
Renaissance
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1450
Rebirth?
Scientists made many new developments during this period including:
-Making universities and medical schools
-Dissection of the body
-Development of the printing press which helped publish books allowing great knowledge of research to spread -
Period: 1501 to
16th and 17th Centuries
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1515
Leonardo da Vinci
Studied and recorded the anatomy of the body -
1550
Gabriele Fallopius
Discovered the fallopian tubes of the female anatomy. -
1563
Bartolommeo Eustachio
Discovered the tube leading from the ear to the throat (Eustachian tube). -
William Harvey
He studied physiology. He could describe the circulation of blood and the pumping of the heart. -
Antonie von Leeuwenhoek
He invited the microscope. He also discovered that there is life smaller than the eye can see. -
Apothecaries
These are early pharmacies that in medieval England they engaged in a trade in drugs and spices from the East. -
Period: to
18th Century
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Benjamin Franklin
Discovered bifocals and found colds can be passed from person to person. -
Medical students learning
The students attended lectures in class and labs, but also observed patients at the bedside. When a patient would die they would dissect the body and observe the disease process. -
Joseph Priestley
Discovered the element oxygen. Also, he observed that plants refresh air to use for respiration. -
Edward Jenner
Discovered the vaccination for smallpox. This saved millions of lives. -
Rene Laennec
He invented the stethoscope, which was first made out of wood. It helped doctors determine if a disease was present by listening to the heart and lungs. -
Period: to
19th and 20th Centuries
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Ignaz Semmelweis
He discovered childbed fever. Childbed fever is a fever where women die after they gave birth. This would happen because physicians would be dissecting dead bodies and not wash their hands properly leading to infecting the women then while they give birth. -
Florence Nightingale
She is the founder of modern nursing. She would take well educated women and put them into her nursing school. -
Louis Pasteur
He is known as the “Father of Microbiology.” He found that microorganisms were everywhere and they they caused diseases. He also found that heating milk prevents bacteria growth. -
Dmitri Ivanovski
He discovered that some microorganism diseases can not be seen by a microscope. These are called viruses. -
Joesph Lister
He learned about Pasteurs discovery that microorganisms cause diseases. He was the first doctor to use antiseptic during surgery. This helped prevent infections. -
Ernst von Bergmann
He found asepsis which is a sterile condition, free from germs. He used Pasteurs and Listers research to develop this method to keep and area germ free for surgeries. -
Robert Koch
He discovered many disease causing organisms. He invented the culture plate method which is a way to find pathogens. He also made the importance of sanitation to prevent the spread of disease. -
Paul Ehrlich
He discovered the effect of medicine on disease causing microorganisms. It was effective to some microorganisms but not all. He also found out how to use chemicals to fight diseases. -
Wilhelm Roentgen
He discovered x-rays in 1895. He took the first x-ray picture of his wife’s hand where it allowed him to see what was inside the body. -
Anesthesia
Before anesthesia people had to go through serious amounts of pain that lead to many patients dying from the shock and the pain. Nitrous oxide, ether, and chloroform were discovered and used to put people into a deep sleep so they wouldn’t undergo and pain during surgery. -
Sir Alexander Fleming
He discovered that penicillin killed life threatening bacteria. This discovery is one of the most important discoveries in the 20th century. -
Sigmund Freud
He discovered the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind. He found that the mind and body work together. From this he found psychosomatic illness which led his studies to be based around psychology and psychiatry. -
Gerhard Domagk
He discovered sulfonamide compounds. These medications were the first to be effective in killing bacteria. It also killed deadly diseases. -
Jonas Salk
He discovered that a dead polio virus would cause immunity to poliomyelitis. This virus would paralyze many children and with the vaccine discovered he saved many people from death or crippling. -
Albert Sabin
He used Salks idea and made a vaccine more effective that is used today to immune babies against the disease. -
Francis Crick and James Watson
They discovered the molecular structure of DNA. This led to major advances in molecular biology. -
Christian Barnard
He was the first person to successfully perform the heart transplant. -
Ben Carson
He continues to separate Siamese twins and perform hemispherectomies, which is surgeries on the brain to stop seizures. -
Period: to
21st Century
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Artificial organs
This advancement allows organs from a donor to be transplanted to a recipient. Scientists have started growing artificial organs in labs which include, eyes, hearts, skin, bone, muscles, brains, and liver. -
Functional MRI
MRIs allow doctors to see how the brain looks. Where functional MRIs make it possible for the doctors to virtually read minds. -
Controlling Heart Disease
There has been many advancements to cardiovascular heath. The advancements has increased the survival rate of heart patients. -
3-D printed body parts
People found that living cells could be put into inkjet printers without being harmed. This allows it to then grow into a living functional tissue. -
HIV Treatment
HIV treatment is a vaccine for patients to prevent getting the disease. In 2019, the first two-drug single-dose treatment was approved for people who have not been on antiretroviral therapy.