Health and the people c.1000-present

• The 'Leech Book of Bald' was written

  950
• Avicenna wrote 'Canon of Medicine'

  1025
• Gilbert Eagle wrote 'Compendium Medicine'

  1230
• The Black Death

  1348
• The Gutenberg printing press was invented

  1450
• The Royal College of Physicians was founded

  1518
• Henry VIII founded the Company of Barber-Surgeons

  1540
• Vesalius wrote 'On the Fabric of the Human Body': 1543
• Paré published 'The Method of Curing Wounds'

  1545
• Colthurst's channel to divert the River Lee and provide fresh water to London was completed: 1614
• Harvey wrote 'On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals': 1628
• The Royal Society was founded 


  1660
• Leeuwenhoek's microscope

  1668
• Sydenham wrote 'Medical Observations'

  1676
• The Company of Surgeons was founded 


  1745
• London's Lock hospital (for those with venereal disease) was founded: 1746
• St Luke's hospital in London (for the mentally ill) was founded: 1751
• William Hunter opened an anatomy theatre

  1768
• Jenner invented the smallpox vaccine

  1796
• Apothecaries Act

  1815
• Lister designed an improved version of the light microscope: 1826
• Anatomy Act 


  1832
• Simpson discovered the anaesthetic qualities of chloroform

  1847
• Snow designed the chloroform inhaler 


  1847
• Semmelweis insisted that all doctors wash their hands before delivering babies: 1847
• First Public Health Act 


  1848
• Hannah Greener died from a chloroform overdose during an operation to have a toenail removed: 1848
• Queen Victoria used chloroform during the birth of her eighth child: 1853
• The Board of Health was disbanded

  1854
• Snow proved that cholera was spread through contaminated water: 1854
• Medical Act 


  1858
• The Great Stink 


  1858
• Florence Nightingale published 'Notes on Nursing'

  1859
• The Nightingale School for Nurses was opened

  1860
• Pasteur published his Germ Theory

  1861
• Prince Albert died from typhoid 


  1861
• Elizabeth Garret Anderson became the first English woman to qualify as a doctor: 1865
• Lister first used carbolic acid during surgery

  1865
• Lister developed the carbolic acid spray

  1867
• Poor Law Act

  1867