-
Period: 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE
Early Beginnings
-
3900 BCE
Diseases Caused by
Evil Spirits -
3600 BCE
Treatment for the Sick
Tribal ceremony’s to get rid of evil spirits -
3100 BCE
Medicines used Today
Digitalis for helping the heart, Quinine for controlling fever, Belladonna and Atropine for GI pain, and Morphine for treating serve pain. -
Period: 2999 BCE to 399
Ancient Times
-
2900 BCE
Ancient Egyptians
Egyptians were superstitious and kept all Health Records. In the Egyptian culture priest acted as physicians. They also called upon the gods to heal them and used medicines to heal diseases. -
1900 BCE
Ancient Chinese
They used stone tools to practice Chinese acupuncture theripies -
900 BCE
Ancient Greeks
Physicians often housed in sacred temples of healing because they thought illnesses were caused by natural causes. And they also their religious custom did not allow bodies to be dissected. And the father of medicine based his knowledge of anatomy and physiology on observations on the external body. -
100
Ancient Romans
They brought clean water into the cities by way of aqueducts and built public baths with filtering systems, this was the beginning of public health and sanitation. They also sent medical care and physicians with their armies to care for their wounds and were very organized. The Roman physicians kept a room in their houses for the ill which then was the start of hospitals where then the Roman government started paying public buildings to help care for the sick. -
Period: 400 to 800
Dark Age
-
500
The Dark Ages
They stopped practicing medicine when the Roman Empire was conquered by the Huns/Nomads from the North. They stopped for a period or 1,000 years because the church believed life and death were in the hands of God because monks and priest had no interest in how the body functioned. -
700
Dark Ages - How Did they Treat Diseases?
Medicines consisted herbal mixtures, and care was custodial. They also prayed a lot and left it to god. And their primary treatment was prayer. -
Period: 800 to 1400
Middle Age
-
1100
Epidemics
Terrible Epidemic caused millions of deaths. The Bubonic period killed 60 million people by itself. Other uncontrolled diseases were smallpox, diphtheria, syphilis, and tuberculosis, today these diseases are not life threading but people in the epidemic weren’t vaccinated like we are today and got very ill because of these diseases. -
Period: 1350 to
Renaissance
-
1450
Rebirth?
During the renaissance period there were many developments in the scientific process. Like the building of universities and medical schools for research, the search of new ideas about diseases rather than the unquestioning acceptance of disease as the will of god, the acceptance of dissection of the body for study, and the development of the printing press and publishing books. These changes influenced the future of medical science and the knowledge for research greatly. -
Period: 1501 to
16th and 17th Centuries
-
1515
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci studied and recorded the anatomy of the body. -
1550
Gabriele Fallopius
Gabriele Fallopius discovered the fallopian tubes of the female anatomy. -
1563
Bartolommeo Eustachio
Bartolommeo Eustachio discovered the tube leading from the ear to the throat which is known as the Eustachian Tube. -
William Harvey
William Harvey used this knowledge for learn physiology and was able to describe the circulation of blood and the pumping of the heart. -
Antoine von Leeuwenhoek
Antonie von Leeuwenhoek invented the microscope, and the discovery that there’s life smaller than what you can see with a human eye. He also scraped his teeth and found bacteria that causes tooth decay. -
Apothecaries
In Medieval England these apothecaries engaged in a flourishing trade in drugs and spices from the East. -
Period: to
18th Century
-
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin’s discoveries affected us today in many ways. His study included bifocals, and found out that colds are able to get passes from person to person. -
Medical Students Learning
In the 18th Century there were a wide range of students that studied medicine. But students not only attend lectures and laboratories but also observed patients from their bedside. And when patients died they were able to dissect the body and were able to observe the disease process. Which then lead to a bigger understanding of the causes of illnesses and deaths. -
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley discovered the element of oxygen and he also observed that plants refresh air that has lost it’s oxygen which makes it unable for respiration. -
Edward Jenner
Edward Jenner discovered a method of vaccination for smallpox. Since smallpox killed many people in epidemics. His discovery saved millions of life’s, and his discovery also led to immunization and to preventive medicine in public health. -
Rene Laënnec
Rene Laënnec invented the stethoscope. It increased the ability to listen to the heart and the lungs, which allowed doctors to find/determined if diseases were present. -
Period: to
19th and 20th Centuries
-
Ignaz Semmelweis
Ignaz Semmelweis identified the cause of childbed fever. Many women died after giving birth. He discovered many midwives who weren’t physicians had fewer deaths. The difference is that physicians went into the “dead room” where they would dissect the dead bodies. But since these physicians did not wash their hands or change aprons before delivering babies. Their hands would be dirty and would have infected the women. -
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale came from a very cultured, middle-class family who gave her interest in caring for the ill. During the Crimean War, Florence and 38 other women took care of dying soldiers from cholera. More soldiers were dying from cholera than injuries from the war. During and after the war, she became a legend because of her dedication to nursing. After the war, devoted her life to reports on the need of a better sanitation and construction and management of the hospitals. -
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur was known as the “father of Microbiology”. He discovered that tiny microorganisms were everywhere. Through many experiments and studies he proved that microorganisms cause diseases. He also discovered that heating milk prevented the growth of bacteria. Pasteurization kills bacteria in milk, we still use this method today to treat milk today. Also, in 1885 he created a vaccine for rabies. -
Dmitri Ivanovski
Dmitri Ivanovski discovered that some diseases are caused by microorganisms, that can’t be seen without a microscope, they were called viruses. These viruses weren’t studied until the electron microscope was invented in Germany. -
Joseph Lister
Joseph Lister learned about Pasteur’s discovery that microorganisms caused infections. He used carbolic acid on wounds to kill germs that causes infections. He then became the first doctor to use an antiseptic during a surgery or operation. -
Ernst von Bergmenn
Ernst von Bergmenn developed asepsis. He knew that from Lister’s and Pasteur’s research that gets caused infections in wounds. He then developed a method to keep an area germ-free before and during a surgery. -
Robert Koch
Robert Koch discovered many disease causing organisms. He created a system to identify pathogens and also isolated the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. He also introduced and told why cleanliness and sanitation is important. -
Paul Ehrlich
Paul Ehrlich discovered the effect of medicine on disease causing microorganisms. His treatment was effective against some microorganisms but wasn’t effective in killing other bacteria. His discoveries brought about the use of chemicals to fight other diseases. His chemical he created was used to treat syphilis, after completing 606 experiments and tests, and on the 606th test he found that his treatment actually worked. -
Wilhelm Roentgen
In 1895, Wilhelm Roentgen discovered x-rays. He was the first one to take pictures using x-rays of his wife’s hand. His discovery made a new way that doctors could see the inside of a humans body which also helped then know what was wrong with people. -
Anesthesia
Before anesthesia was created, physicians used herbs, hashish, and alcohol to help relieve the patients pain during surgery in a safe way. Some physicians would even choke their patients to cause them to become unconscious to stop from pain. Many of the patients that had died from shock and pain. But then during the 19th century nitrous oxide (which was used for dental care) and chloroform were discovered. -
Sir Alexander Fleming
Sir Alexander Fleming found that penicillin killed life threatening bacteria. The finding of penicillin is considered one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century. Before penicillin was founded, many people died of illnesses that are curable today, like pneumonia, gonorrhea, and blood poisoning. -
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud discovered the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind. He studied the affects of the unconscious mind of the body and he knew that the mind and body worked together. This led to him finding an understanding of psychosomatic illnesses. His studies were basis of psychology and psychiatry. -
Gerhard Domagk
Gerhard Domagk discovered sulfonamide compounds. Which was the first effective compound that killed bacteria. They then changed the practicing of medicine by killing deadly diseases. -
Jonas Salk
Jonas Salk discovered that a dead polio virus would cause immunity to poliomyelitis. This was a virus that paralyzed many children and adults every year and seemed to affect the more active and athletic people. -
Albert Sabin
Along with Salk’s virus, Albert Salk used a live polio virus vaccine which was more effective. This today would immunize babies against this dreaded disease. -
Francis Crick and James Watson
Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the molecular structure of DNA. Their model served to explain how DNA replicates and how hereditary information is coded on it. Also in 1962, they won a Noble Prize in medicine for this discovery -
Christian Barnard
In 1968, Christian Bernard was the first person to perform a successful heart transplant. -
Ben Carson
Ben Carson continued in separating twins and preforming hemispherectomies, surgeries on the brain to stop seizures. -
Period: to
21st Century
-
21st Century - 5 Advancements
- The possibility of eliminating disabling diseases through genetic research
- The ability to transplant organs from a donor to a recipient
- The ability to reattach severed body parts
- The use of portable and handheld computers to aids in diagnosis which keep accurate health care records
- The way for caring for unborn fetuses