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Surgenos
A great surgen in the 16th century Ambroise Pare would use poil on wounds which was meant to calm the pain. -
Standard Treatment
Syphilis (a chronic bacterial disease that is contracted chiefly by infection during sexual intercourse) was common in the 16th century. The stanard treatment was mercury administered with a urethral syringe. In the 16th century syringes were also used to irrigate wounds with wine. -
Girolamo Fabrici
Studies leg veins and notices that they have valves which allows blood flow only toward the heart. -
Harvey and the circulation of the blood:
A book is published in 1628 which provides one of the greatest breakthroughs in the understanding of the human body - indeed perhaps the greatest until the discovery of the structure of DNA in the 20th century. -
Malpighi and the microscope
Marcello Malpighi, a lecturer in theoretical medicine at the university of Bologna, has been pioneering the use of the microscope in biology. One evening in 1661, on a hill near Bologna, he uses the setting sun as his light source, shining it into his lens through a thin prepared section of a frog's lung. In the enlarged image it is clear that the blood is all contained within little tubes. -
Blood Transfusion
At a meeting of the recently established Royal Society in London, on 14 November 1665, an experiment is made in transferring blood from one dog to another. The artery of a small mastiff is joined by a quill to the vein of a spaniel. Another of the spaniel's veins is opened to let out an equivalent amount of its own blood. -
Succes in Blood Transfusion
Two years later, in France, a much more ambitious step is taken along these same lines. Jean Baptiste Denis, royal physician to Louis XIV, conducts a bold experiment in 1667 in Paris. In an attempt to save the life of a 15-year-old boy, weakened by too much blood-letting, he inserts into his veins, through a quill, about half a pint of the blood of a lamb. Contemporary reports say that the condition of the boy is greatly improved. -
Blood Transfusion not so successful
Following his success in 1667, Jean Baptiste Denis has given blood to several other patients with continuing success. But in 1668, after a third transfusion, one of his patients dies. Denis is sued by the widow. He loses the case, though he is cleared of murder. -
Blood Transfusion Illegal
In 1670 a law is passed in France making blood transfusion illegal. For another two centuries no more is heard of it anywhere - until it is again attempted fairly regularly in mid-19th century England, now usually with human blood. But it remains a hazardous procedure until the discovery, in 1900, of the human blood groups. -
Bacteria
Anton Van Leeuwenhoek was the first to see and describe bacteria, yeast plants, the teeming life in a drop of water, and circulation of blood corpuscle in capillaries. -
Treatment for Malaria
In the early 17th century doctors also discovered how to treat malaria(an intermittent and remittent fever caused by a protozoan parasite that invades the red blood cells. The parasite is transmitted by mosquitoes in many tropical and subtropical regions.) with bark from the cinchona tree (it contains quince). -
Thermometer
Gabriel Fahreheit invents the first mercury thermometer. -
Child Birth
From 1741 Smellie gives midwives and medical students in London unprecedented practical lectures on childbirth. He achieves this by offering his services to poor women on condition that his students may attend the birth. In this way he is able to develop a scientific account of the mechanism of labour, describing previously unobserved details - such as how the child's head is adapted for the passage through the pelvic canal. -
Scurvy
James Lid, a Scottish naval surgeon, discovers that citrus fruits prevent scurvy. He publishes his Treatise of the Scurvy in 1754, identifying the cure for this common and dangerous disease of sailors, although it takes another 40 years before an official Admiralty order dictates the supply of lemon juice to ships. -
Cowpox
Cowpox is a relatively rare disease, unrecognized at the time by the medical profession, and it is not until 1796 that Jenner has an opportunity to test this theory of immunity. In that year a dairymaid develops the symptoms. Jenner takes material from an eruption on her hand and (using a thorn) inoculates an 8-year-old boy, James Phipps, with the substance. Phipps develops cowpox and soon recovers. -
Jenner Publishes his Findings
Jenner publishes his findings in 1798 in the splendidly titled An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, a disease discovered in some of the Western Counties of England, particularly Gloucestershire, and known by the name of Cow Pox.
