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460 B.C.
Birth of Hippocrates. Greek physician and founder of the first university. Considered the father of medicine. Hippocrates bases medicine on objective observation and deductive reasoning. -
300 B.C.
Diocles writes first known book of anatomy. -
280 B.C.
Herophilus studies the nervous system. -
1489
Leonardo da Vinci dissects corpses. -
1543
Vesalius publishes findings on human anatomy in De Fabrica Corporis Humani. -
1628
William Harvey publishes An Anatomical Study of the Motion of the Heart and of the Blood in Animals which forms the basis for future research on blood vessels, arteries and the heart. -
1670
Anton van Leeuwenhoek discovers blood cells. -
1763
Claudius Aymand performs the first successful appendectomy -
1818
James Blundell performs the first successful transfusion of human blood. -
1895
Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers X rays. -
1901
Karl Landsteiner introduces the system to classify blood into A, B, AB, and O groups -
1921
Edward Mellanby discovers that lack of vitamin D in the diet causes rickets. -
1950
John Hopps invented the first cardiac pacemaker