Medicine

• hippocrates

  • ancient greek physician
  • clinical observation - says that a doctor should examine a patients symptoms to diagnose their illness.
  • Hippocratic oath- a promise to follow a set of ethical standards to treat their patients well and cause no harm
  • the theory of the four humours - a person needed to have balanced humours in order to be healthy.
  • (blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile)
• galen

  • ancient roman physician
  • wrote over 350 books
  • built on theory of the four humours introducing the theory of opposites. ( i.e if there was an excess of blood which was considered hot and wet, then the treatment should be cold and dry).
  • supported by church - galens opinions on the human
  • body supported the churches teachings that god created humans.
  • supported miasma theory
  • didn’t understand blood circulation (thought blood was made in the liver)
• al - razi

  • persian physician/scholar
  • identified the difference between smallpox and measles
  • taught that patients should be carefully observed
  • wrote over 150 books ( i.e “doubts about galen”)
• ibn sina

  • persian physician
  • wrote ‘Canon Of Medicine’ - encyclopaedia containing all medical knowledge.
  • knew of, and wrote about the uses and properties of 760 drugs.
  • his book was very influential to european medical schools and universities until the 1600s.
• Andreas Vesalius

  • Belgian physician
  • made discoveries through dissection of humans/ anatomical drawings.
  • stole bodies from cemeteries / corpses of criminals.
  • used dissections to show how galens understanding of the human body was incorrect.
  • published the book “Fabric of the human body” in 1543
  • disproved galen (heart pumps blood around body not liver)
  • others expanded on his work on human anatomy.
• Ambroise Paré

  • French physician
  • during a French battle in 1537 paré had to improvise when the hot oil ran out. - he instead used a mixture of rose oil, egg white and turpentine. - was effective.
  • tied ligatures around individual blood vessels to stop bleeding.
  • ligatures could sometimes introduce infection
  • had a book called “Works on Surgery” - circulated throughout Europe
• William Harvey

  • English doctor/physician
  • challenged galen that (blood was made in the liver) and instead blood circulated around the body. - but didn’t know why it did so many doctors rejected his ideas.
  • used valves from a dissected heart to demonstrate that blood could only flow in one direction.
  • his theory of circulation was the first step towards blood transfusions becoming possible, and therefore saving lives.
• Joseph Bazalgette

  • british civil engineer
  • chief designer and engineer on London sewer system
  • it was designed to remove waste from Londons streets
  • main sewers carried a distance of 83 miles and removed 420 billion gallons of sewage per day
  • started in 1858 and finished in 1875
  • the system cost 3 million pounds
• John Snow

  • a doctor who discovered that cholera was spread through dirty water.
  • in 1849 after the 1848 pandemic, he published a book on it.
  • he mapped the location of each cholera death - all had water from the same pump.
  • later discovered that a cess pit, (1m from the water pump) was leaking dirty water into the water supply.
• Chance & Luck

  • Paré ran out of oil in 1537 which resulted in his improvisation of a cream (rose oil, egg white and turpentine) to heal wounds. - Renaissance
  • Pasteurs assistants accidentally injected a chicken with a weak strain of chicken cholera. - chicken built up immunity. - early modern
  • Fleming discovered the use of penicillin by accident when he left the staphylococcus germ while he went on holiday. - modern
• Science & Technology

  • Roman water supply systems had fallen to ruin, so some new towns used pipes made of poisonous lead. - medieval
  • printing press around 1440/microscope in 1590 - renaissance
  • first x-ray machine in 1895/ jenners vaccination was safer than innoculation - early modern
  • first open-heart surgery in 1950/ and heart transplant in 1967. - modern
• War

  • john of Ardernes surgical textbook was based on his time in the hundred years war. - medieval
  • paré ran out of oil during 1537 battle and improvised a cream/ used ligatures (tying strings around individual blood vessels instead of cauterisation) - renaissance
  • the french loss in the franco-Prussian war in 1871 led to an increase in rivalry between koch and Pasteur. - early modern
  • fleming was sent to study the treatment of wounded soldiers during ww1/ due to rise in facial injuries during ww1 gillies developed plastic surgery - modern
• Religion

  • the church controlled the universities, hospitals and the production of books. - medieval
  • surgeons had more freedom to carry out human dissections to learn more about anatomy rather than sticking to the churches opinions which would've hindered the process. - renaissance
  • before 1837, churches kept records of births, marriages and deaths. - early modern
• Communication

  • Ib-Sinas book the ‘Canon of Medicine’ was printed in Europe over 60 times in the 1500s. - medieval
  • the creation of the printing press allowed for new books ideas to be spread more quickly. - renaissance
  • aseptic surgical techniques were created because of the spread of Pasteurs germ theory./ Lister brought French surgeon Pasteurs germ theory to Britain. - early modern
  • the internet allowed scientists to share their ideas widely and quickly. (and tv and radio advertisements about health) - modern