medicine 2500 - present

• hippocrates


  This greek doctor dominated medical thinking right up to the end of the 18th century. Only new research based on better scientific instruments like the microscope helped doctors to at last prove that the greek genius was wrong.
• galen believed that illnesses were caused by an imbalance between four humours (fluids) in the body, which he called blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile
• Galen


  1300 years after this doctor first developed his theory of the four humours; doctors were still using his methods to cure this disease.
• what were the four humours?

  Black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, blood
• what did it mean when one of the four humours were unbalanced?


  illness
• what were cures that people believed would cure an in balance of the four humours?

  bloodletting, purging, herbal remedies
• what did people believe the reason for getting ill was?

  miasma, or that god was punishing them for their sins.
• what were preventions took in stopping miasma?


  they would carry bunches of sweet smelling flowers, these were called posies
• when was the black death?

  1348/49
• medieval attitudes and beliefs

  people were ignorant of the causes of disease
• when was versalius?


  1540s
• why did versaliuses work not get accepted?


  his work contradicted the great Galen and was rejected by so many so it did not lead to better health in his time. However, it did show the value of experimenting and careful note taking in his future advance of medicine.
• how did versalius prove galen wrong?

  through his use of dissecting criminals.
• what did versalius particularly prove about Galen's findings that was wrong?


  in his book 'The fabric of the human body' he proves there were no holes in the septum of the heart.
• Who was Pare?


  He was a french Surgeon.
• What was pare's most famous method?

  His method of using ligatures.
• how was pare's method of using ligatures partially effective?

  because no-one would know about germs for another 300 years.
• what did pare not realise would happen when using the silk threads?

  could spread infection to the blood
• when was the great plague?

  1665
• what was the great plague?

  widespread outbreak of the bubonic plague
• who was thomas sydenham?

  renaissance physician.
• As a doctor what did he believe every doctor should do to understand the disease more?


  make detailed observations and keep accurate records.
• What book did Sydenham write?


  'medical observations'
• Why did harvey use Versalius' work?

  further his investigation into the heart and circulation
• what were the limits to harvey's work?


  not everyone belived harvey's theories. When people did attempt blood transfusions they were rarely successful because of blood loss, shock and because the wrong blood types were used.
• Before harvey's findings people believed the two bloods had differnt property's what were they?


  the purple was 'nutrition carrying' blood which was produced in the liver and then flowed through the veins to the rest of the body, where it was consumed. the bright red was 'life giving' blood which was produced in the lungs and flowed through arteries to the body, where it was also consumed.
• before jenner the only way to prevent small pox was inoculation. What was inoculation?


  it involved making a cut in a patient's arm and soaking it in pus taken from the swelling of somebody who already had a mild form of small pox.
• edward jenner discovered that milkmaids didn't get small pox, much instead got a milder case of cowpox. jenner investigated and discovered that it was true that people who had cowpox didn't get smallpox. How did he test this theory?


  he injected a small boy, james phipps, with pus from the sores of sarah nelmes, a milkmaid with cow pox. jenner then infected james with small pox, he did not catcht he disease.
• when did jenner publish his findings?


  1798
• how did jenners discovery a success?


  it contributed to a big fall in the number of small pox cases.
• how did pasteur prove that germs were in the air?


  he showed that sterilised water in a closed flask stayed sterile, while the sterilised water in an open flask bred germs.
• when did pasteur publish his findings?


  1861
• robert koch used what to identify microbes?

  dyes
• koch discovered that specific bacteria caused different diseases, such as:


  anthrax (1876), tuberculosis (1882) and cholera (1883)
• what scientific methds did koch use?


  he used agar jelly to create solid cultures, allowing him to breed lots of bacteria. he used dyes to stain the bacteria so they were more visible under the microscope. he emplyed the newly-invented photography to record his findings.
• industrial revolution 1750-1900


  new ways of communicating = thus leading to new inventions and science and technology helped medicine.
• Edward jenner and small pox 1796 - 1798, vaccinations compulsory 1852


  very important in finding out the how to prevent diseas - helped pasteur and koch: first time the government forced a health measure on the people.
• when was the voluntary public health act?

  1848
• what did paul ehrlich discover?

  the first magic bullet
• what did ehrlich do first?

  he discovered dyes that could kill the malaria and sleeping sickness germs.