HISTORY

• Al-Razi (865 - 925)


  An Islamic doctor who helped plan the building of hospitals around Baghdad. He hung raw meat around the city and concluded that the locations where the meat didn't rot or become infected were the cleanest and most suitable areas for a hospital. Like Galen, he believe in clinical observation of patients.
• Ibn Sina (980 - 1037)


  An Islamic doctor and astronomer who's remembered for publishing his work in his book, "The Canon of Medicine". This book collected the whole of Greek and Islamic medical knowledge at the time, even containing chapters on anorexia and obesity. He explored ideas about anatomy and built on many of Galen's theories.
• John of Arderne (1307 - 1392)


  Perhaps the most famous Barber Surgeon of Medieval England. His surgical manual contained illustrations of his operations and instruments. He even used opium and henbane to dull the pain of surgery.
• Ambroise Pare (1510 - 1590)


  Pare worked as a Barber Surgeon in the French army for several years where he revolutionised sterilisation. The traditional treatment for gunshot wounds involved using hot oil to cauterise wounds, when Pare ran out of oil, he used a concoction of egg yolk, rose oil and turpentine to seal the wound which worked with considerably more success. Pare soon also rejected the use of cauterisation to seal open blood vessels, instead opting to use ligatures to tie off the open ends preventing more patients dying from blood loss.
• Andreas Vesalius (1514 - 1564)

  Similarly to Galen, Vesalius' work focused on anatomy but he was able to study human bodies directly allowing him to prove Galen had made several mistakes in his work. For example, the human jaw bone is made of one bone, not two. He published much of his findings in his book, "De Humani Corporis Fabrica" (On the Fabric of the Human Body).
• William Harvey (1578 - 1657)


  Harvey focused his work on the circulation of blood around the body. Galen's ideas included the theories that blood is burnt like a fuel in the body and is produced in the liver. Through the dissection of frogs, Harvey proved that blood is actually pumped around the body by the heart. He also discovered the role of valves in blood vessels to prevent blood flowing the wrong direction. Much of his career was focused at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London before joining the Royal College of Physicians and becoming a physician of King James I.
• John Hunter (1728 - 1793)


  A prestigious surgeon, Hunter was a surgeon to King George I and a leading member of the Royal Society. He was keen to develop more scientific methods for medical research, for example, he carried out experiments to prove syphilis and gonorrhoea are caused by the same disease. He also believed it important to destigmatize medicine and science to the general public and achieved this by displaying a wide variety of his human and animal parts collection in a museum open to the public.
• Edward Jenner (1749 - 1823)


  Jenner was an English doctor who developed that first Smallpox vaccine. Having heard the claim that milkmaids cannot catch smallpox after already being infected with the less serious cowpox, he intended to test this theory. In 1796, Jenner took a sample of cowpox pus from a milkmaid, Sarah Nelmes and placed in into a incision on a young boy, James Phipps arm. Next, he gave James a sample of smallpox and the boy did not become ill. In 1853, a law was introduced that made the vaccine compulsory for all newborns and in 1980, smallpox had been eradicated. There was opposition to the vaccine as many Christians saw it as going against God's will, or the idea of being intentionally given an animal disease was seemingly unsafe.
• Robert Liston (1794 - 1847)

  Famous for the speed of his operations (he was able to amputate a leg in under 40 seconds), Liston emphasised the necessity for this due to a lack of anaesthetics and a risk of blood loss. One surgery of his infamously is associated with a 300% mortality rate, with the patient dying, an assistant who lost a finger and a bystander who died from shock after being accidentally sliced by Liston's scalpel.
• Edwin Chadwick (1800 - 1890)


  In 1842, he published his report of the living conditions in various parts of the country. He argued that the government should provide clean water and proper sanitation to labourers to raise the life expectancy and create more efficient workers. The government had adopted a 'laissez-faire' attitude but eventually were spurred to action after two serious cholera epidemics in 1832 and 1848. His contributions led to the creation of the 1848 Public Health Act which set up a Central Board of Health to encourage clean water and sewage systems being formed.
• James Simpson (1811 - 1870)

  A Scottish doctor who - with his friends - began experimenting the anaesthetic effects of Chloroform by inhaling it out of a decanter. In 1947 it was found to be incredibly effective and replaced Ether as the most widely used anaesthetic. However, Chloroform was very deadly when administered in incorrect amounts (especially to young, healthy and scared patients). People in Church regularly argued that taking away pain goes against God's will to punish those by illness, though it became more accepted after Queen Victoria used it to deliver her eighth child.
• John Snow (1813 - 1858)


  Famous for his work on investigating the cause of Cholera focused in Soho, London 1954. Snow discovered many people had died from Cholera after drinking from a pump of Broad Street, he believed the drinking water was contaminated by sewage. The people drinking beer at the local pub in place of water had not become ill further strengthening his belief that the pump was the cause. He removed the pump handle and cases of cholera stopped in the area - effectively proving cholera was a waterborne disease not airborne. Snow was also praised for devising a Chloroform inhaler which could safely administer the correct dosage of the anaesthetic to patients - preventing overdoses which could lead to death.
• Ignaz Semmelweis (1818 - 1865)


  Semmelweis worked on maternity wards to research the rise of Perpetual Fever deaths, he suggested that doctors were spreading diseases among patients through unsanitary conditions and so encouraged hand washing in hospitals. His theory was majorly dismissed as medical professionals disliked the idea they were responsible for spreading illness. At the age of 47 he was committed to a mental asylum where he died.
• Joseph Bazalgette (1819 - 1891)


  Responsible for designing the new sewerage system for London after the Great Stink of 1858 which had forced Parliament to close. The new system was completed in 1875 and helped end the cholera outbreaks in London.
• William Morton (1819 - 1868)


  Morton experimented with the use of Ether as an anaesthetic. It worked effectively for a while however the substance was highly flammable and could cause sickness in patients. In 1947, the discovery of Chloroform overshadowed Ether and it fell out of use.
• Florence Nightingale (1820 - 1910)


  Considered the founder of organized, professional nursing. She is best known for her contributions to the reforms in the British Army Medical Corps by improved hospital conditions during the Crimean War. Upon arrival at Scutari Hospital she fixed the issues of overworked staff, shortage of staff, shortage of beds, unhygienic conditions and poor sanitation - setting a new standard for British hospitals.
• Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895)

  A French chemist who developed the germ theory and disproved the theory of spontaneous generation. A French winemaker tasked him with investigating why their wine was going off, Pasteur used a microscope to find a form of bacteria in the wine which could be killed by heating it. In 1879 he found a vaccine for chicken cholera and in 1885 he developed a vaccine for rabies. His name was leant to the process of Pasteurisation which makes milk safe to drink.
• Joseph Lister (1827 - 1912)

  Basing his work of Pasteur's germ theory, Lister began searching for a method to kill germs during an operation to prevent the large risk of infected wounds which usually le to death. In 1867 he experimented with soaking bandaged in carbolic acid before applying to a wound and found it was highly successful at preventing infection. It began to be used widely in surgery to sterilise the air and equipment being used in surgery. The mortality rate of surgery fell from 40% to around 15% as a result of carbolic acid.
• Charles Booth (1840 - 1916)


  Social reformer Charles Booth investigated East End living conditions between 1889-1903 and found that 37.5% East Londoners were living in poverty. He created the colour-coded poverty map of London.
• Robert Koch (1843 - 1910)

  Koch was a German doctor who began the use of dyes on bacteria to stain them for easier viewing under a microscope. He identified the germ that caused anthrax and created the theory that different germs cause different diseases - leading to a breakthrough in the development of effective treatments and vaccines.
• Wilhelm Roentgen (1845 - 1923)

  In 1895, he accidentally discovered X-rays (named so to represent the unknown radiation it used). He refused to patent it, allowing the design to spread fast and people like George Eastman to introduce X-ray film in 1918. The design was heavily used during the wars as mobile X-ray machines to help treat soldiers.
• Thomas Barnardo (1845 - 1905)


  After moving to London to study medicine, Barnardo was shocked at the levels of child poverty he was met with in the East End. In 1867, he set up a 'ragged school' where he offered basic education to poor children to help them get better jobs in the future. A student, Jim Jarvis showed him the children sleeping in groups on roofs and in gutters, prompting Barnardo to abandon his pursuit of medicine and devote his life to helping children in need. He opened a home for boys in 1870 with a cap on the number they could board. But after an 11-year old boy was found dead, two days after being turned away, Barnardo vowed to never turn away another child. Their motto "No Destitute Child Ever Refused Admission" became synonymous with the charity. His wife soon opened a similar home for girls and by his death the charity had 96 homes looking after over 8,500 children.
• Paul Ehrlich (1854 - 1915)


  Ehrlich investigated chemicals that could kill syphilis without harming other cells, with his assistant they tested hundreds of compounds before finding one that worked. Salvarsan 606 (aptly named after the 606th compound) had become the world's first 'magic bullet'. A chemical which could kill a single type of germ without harming other body cells. This discovery led to other scientists developing more magic bullets such as Prontosil which could kill the bacteria streptococcal.
• Marie Curie (1867 - 1934) & Pierre Curie (1859 - 1906)


  Developed the idea of radiotherapy and helped distribute mobile X-ray machines during the war. They discovered the element Radium in 1898 which can destroy diseased cells and aid in cancer treatment. However this all causes radiation sickness and permanent damage to cells which contributed to Marie's death in 1934.
• Karl Landsteiner (1868 - 1943)

  In 1901 he discovered that blood cells can be grouped into different categories based on the antigens they contain, A, B, AB and O. Later, Albert Hustin added glucose and sodium citrate to blood to help store it longer for transfusions.
• Alexander Fleming (1881 - 1955)


  A Scottish doctor who researched the bacteria Staphylococcus. After leaving a petri-dish of the bacteria to wash, he discovered that mold had grown in the dish and the bacteria around it had died. Fleming investigated the mold and discovered it was Penicillium fungi. His research was published in his medical journal.
• Harold Gillies (1882 - 1960)


  Developed the practice of skin graft surgery to cover facial injuries on wounded soldiers from the wars. Over 5000 people has their injuries fixed by Gillies and his team at Queen Mary's Hospital in London. The first skin graft was completed in 1917.
• Howard Florey (1898 - 1968 CE) & Ernst Chain (1906 - 1979)

  Researchers at Oxford University, they used Fleming's work to investigate penicillium fungi and attempt to purify it. By 1941, their penicillin was tested on a policeman, Albert Alexander, and it initially began his recovery before supplies ran out and he died. During WWII, the two scientists moved to America and were funded to produce enough penicillin to use on the US Army.
• Archibald McIndoe (1900 - 1960)


  During WWII, he worked within the Royal Air Force where he improved the treatment and rehabilitation of badly burnt crew. He performed plastic surgery on many pilots to reconstruct their injured faces.