2,600 BC Imhotep is a famous doctor. After his death he is worshiped as a god.

1,500 BC The Ebers Papyrus is the first known medical book

500 BC Alcamaeon of Croton in Italy says that a body is healthy as long as it has the right
balance of hot and cold, wet and dry. If the balance is upset the body falls ill.
460-377 BC Hippocrates lives. He stresses careful observation.
384-322 BC Aristotle lives. He says the body is made up of 4 humours or liquids, phlegm, blood,
yellow bile and black bile.
130-200 AD The Roman doctor Galen lives. He becomes a very influential writer for centuries.
9th Century Hunain Ibn Ishaq translates Greek writings about medicine into Arabic
12th and 13th Centuries Schools of medicine are founded in Europe. In the 13th century barbersurgeons begin to work in towns. The church runs the only hospitals.
1493-1541 Paracelsus lives. He denounces all medical teaching not based on experience and
experiment.
1536 Ambroise Pare mixes egg whites, rose oil and turpentine to put on wounds.
1543 Andreas Vesalius publishes The Fabric of the Human Body
1628 William Harvey publishes his discovery of how the blood circulates in the body
1658 Jan Swammerdan observes red blood corpuscles
1661 Marcello Malpighi discovers capillaries
1732 Laura Bassi is made professor of anatomy at Bologna University
1753 James Lind publishes his discovery that fresh fruit or lemon juice prevent scurvy
1796 Edward Jenner invents vaccination against smallpox
1816 Rene Laennec invents the stethoscope
1847 Chloroform is used as an anesthetic by James Simpson
1851 The ophthalmoscope is invented
1854 John Snow discovers that cholera is spread by water
1865 Joseph Lister develops antiseptic surgery.
1880 Louis Pasteur invents a cure for chicken cholera
1884 Cocaine is used as a local anesthetic
1885 Pasteur cures rabies. The first successful appendectomy is performed.
1890 Immunization against diphtheria is discovered. Rubber gloves are first used in surgery.

1895 X-rays are discovered

1896 A vaccine for typhoid is discovered
1910 Salvarsan, a drug used to cure syphilis is discovered
1914 The first non-direct blood transfusion is made
1928 Penicillin is discovered. The iron lung is invented.
1935 Protonsil is used to treat food poisoning
1943 The first artificial kidney machine is made
1953 Jonas Salk announces he has a vaccine for polio
1963 A vaccine for measles is discovered
1967 The first heart transplant is performed by Christiaan Barnard
1978 The first test tube baby is born
1983 MRI scanning is introduced

A modern hospital in Portsmouth

2005 The first face transplant takes place
2011 The first leg transplant takes place
2012 The first womb transplant takes place

MEDICINE IN THE 17TH CENTURY

In the 17th century medicine continued to advance. In the early 17th century an Italian called
Santorio invented the medical thermometer.
In 1628 William Harvey published his discovery of how blood circulates around the body. Harvey
realized that the heart is a pump. Each time it contracts it pumps out blood. The blood circulates
around the body. Harvey then estimated how much blood was being pumped each time.
Unfortunately in the 17th century medicine was still handicapped by wrong ideas about the
human body. Most doctors still thought that there were four fluids or 'humors' in the body, blood,
phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. Illness resulted when you had too much of one humor.
Nevertheless during the 17th century a more scientific approach to medicine emerged and some
doctors began to question traditional ideas.

Apart from Harvey the most famous English doctor of the 17th century was Thomas Sydenham
(1624-1689). He is sometimes called the English Hippocrates because he emphasized the
importance of carefully observing patients and their symptoms.
In the 17th century medicine was helped by the microscope (invented at the end of the 16th
century). Then in 1665 Robert Hooke was the first person to describe cells in his book
Micrographia.
Finally in 1683 Antoine van Leeuwenhock observed microorganisms. However he did not realise
they caused disease. Meanwhile in 1661 Robert Boylepublished the Skeptical Chemist, which laid
the foundations of modern chemistry.
In the early 17th century doctors also discovered how to treat malaria with bark from the
cinchona tree (it contains quinine).
The Chinese invented the toothbrush. (It was first mentioned in 1498). Toothbrushes arrived in
Europe in the 17th century. In the late 17th century they became popular with the wealthy in
England.
MEDICINE IN THE 18TH CENTURY
During the 18th century medicine made slow progress. Doctors still did not know what caused
disease. Some continued to believe in the four humors (although this theory declined during the
18th century). Other doctors thought disease was caused by 'miasmas' (odorless gases in the
air).
However surgery did make some progress. The famous 18th century surgeon John Hunter
(1728-1793) is sometimes called the Father of Modern Surgery. He invented new procedures
such as tracheotomy.
Furthermore during the 18th century a number of hospitals were founded. In 1724 Guys Hospital
was founded with a bequest from a merchant named Thomas Guy. St Georges was founded in
1733 and Middlesex Hospital in 1745. Hospitals were also founded in Bristol in 1733, York in
1740, Exeter in 1741 and Liverpool in 1745. The first hospital in America opened
in Philadelphia in 1751.
In the late 18th century and early 19th century dispensaries were founded in many towns. They
were charities were the poor could obtain free medicines.
In the 18th century many sailors suffered from scurvy (vitamin c deficiency). However a Scottish
surgeon named James Lind discovered that fresh fruit or lemon juice could cure or prevent
scurvy. He published his findings in 1753 as A Treatise on the Scurvy.
In 1792 Luigi Galvani discovered that frogs legs twitch if given an electric shock, showing that
electricity plays a part in the nervous system.
A major scourge of the 18th century was smallpox. However in 1796 a man named Edward
Jenner (1749-1823) realized that milkmaids who caught cowpox were immune to smallpox. He
invented vaccination. (Its name is derived from the Latin word for cow, Vacca). The patient was
cut then matter from a cowpox pustule was introduced. The patient gained immunity to
smallpox. Unfortunately nobody knew how vaccination worked.

During the 18th century superstition declined. In 1700 many people believed that scrofula (a
form of tubercular infection) could be healed by a monarch's touch. (Scrofula was called the
kings evil). Queen Anne (reigned 1702-1714) was the last British monarch to touch for scrofula.
Despite the decline of superstition there were still many quacks in the 18th century. Limited
medical knowledge meant many people were desperate for a cure. One of the most common
treatments, for the wealthy, was bathing in or drinking spa water, which they believed could cure
all kinds of illness.
During the 18th century the mentally ill were not regarded as 'truly' human. It was thought that
they did not have human feelings. They were therefore confined in chains. People paid to visit
asylums and see the insane as if they were animals in a zoo.
However in 1793 a doctor called Philippe Pinel argued that the insane should be released and
treated humanely. As an experiment he was allowed to release some patients. The experiment
worked and attitudes to the insane began to change.
In 1792 a Frenchman named Dominique-Jean Larrey created the first ambulance service for
wounded men.
Life in the 18th Century
MEDICINE IN THE 19TH CENTURY
During the 19th century medicine made rapid progress. In 1816 a man named Rene Laennec
invented the stethoscope. At first he used a tube of paper. Later he used a wooden version.
In 1822 a trapper named Alexis St Martin was shot in the stomach. The wound healed leaving a
hole into his stomach. A doctor named William Beaumont found out how a stomach works by
looking through the hole.
During the 19th century there were several outbreaks of cholera in Britain. It struck in 1832,
1848, 1854 and 1866. During the 1854 epidemic John Snow (1813-1858) showed that cholera
was transmitted by water. However doctors were not certain how.
Later Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) proved that microscopic organisms caused disease. In the early
19th century many scientists believed in spontaneous generation i.e. that some living things
spontaneously grew from non-living matter. In a series of experiments between 1857 and 1863
Pasteur proved this was not so. Once doctors knew what caused disease they made rapid
headway in finding cures or prevention.
In 1880 Pasteur and a team of co-workers searched for a cure for chicken cholera. Pasteur and
his team grew germs in a sterile broth. Pasteur told a co-worker to inject chickens with the germ
culture. However the man forgot and went on holiday. The germs were left exposed to the air.
Finally, when he returned the man injected chickens with the broth. However they did not die.
So they were injected with a fresh culture. Still they did not die.
Pasteur realized the germs that had been left exposed to the air had been weakened. When the
chickens were injected with the weakened germs they had developed immunity to the disease.
Pasteur and his team went on to create a vaccine for anthrax by keeping anthrax germs heated
to 42-43 degrees centigrade for 8 days.

In 1882 they created a vaccine for rabies. A co-worker dried the spines of rabbits that had
contracted the disease in glass jars. Pasteur tried giving a series of injections made from the
dried spines to animals to test the remedy. Then, in 1885, Pasteur successfully used the vaccine
on a boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog.
Pasteur also invented a way of sterilizing liquids by heating them (called pasteurization). It was
first used for wine (in 1864) and later for milk.
Meanwhile In 1875 Robert Koch (1843-1910) isolated the germ that causes anthrax. In 1882 he
isolated the germ that causes tuberculosis and in 1883 he isolated the germ that causes cholera
in humans.
Meanwhile the organism that causes leprosy was discovered in 1879. The germ that causes
typhoid was isolated in 1880. The germ that causes diphtheria was discovered in 1882 by Edwin
Klebs. In 1884 the germs that cause tetanus and pneumonia were both discovered.
Immunization against diphtheria was invented in 1890. A vaccine for typhoid was invented in
1896.
Surgery was greatly improved by the discovery of Anesthetics. As early as 1799 the inventor
Humphrey Davy (1778-1829) realized that inhaling ether relieved pain. Unfortunately decades
passed before it was actually used in an operation in 1842.
James Simpson (1811-1870), who was Professor of Midwifery at Edinburgh University, began
using chloroform for operations in 1847.
In 1884 cocaine was used as a local anesthetic. From 1905 Novocain was used.
In 1865 Joseph Lister (1827-1912) discovered antiseptic surgery, which enabled surgeons to
perform many more complicated operations. Lister prevented infection by spraying carbolic acid
over the patient during surgery. German surgeons developed a better method. The surgeons
hands and clothes were sterilized before the operation and surgical instruments were sterilized
with super heated steam.
Rubber gloves were first used in surgery in 1890. Anesthetics and antiseptics made surgery
much safer. They allowed far more complicated operations.
In 1851 Herman von Helmholtz invented the ophthalmoscope. In 1895 x-rays were discovered
by Wilhelm Roentgen. The same year aspirin was invented.
Nursing was greatly improved by two nurses, Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) and Mary
Seacole (1805-1881) who both nursed soldiers during the Crimean War 1854-56.
Meanwhile in the 19th century several more hospitals were founded in London including Great
Ormond Street Children's Hospital (1852). In 1864 Jean Henri Dunant founded the international
Red Cross.
During the 19th century the ancient practice of bloodletting declined. (It was still used in France,
to treat pneumonia, until the 1920s).
Life in the 19th Century

MEDICINE IN THE 20TH CENTURY

Medicine made huge advances in the 20th century. The first non-direct blood transfusion was
made in 1914. Insulin was first used to treat a patient in 1922. The EEG machine was first used
in 1929. Meanwhile many new drugs were developed. In 1910 the discovered salvarsan, a drug
used to treat syphilis was discovered. In 1935 prontosil was used to treat blood poisoning
Later it was discovered that the active ingredient of the dye was a chemical called sulphonamide,
which was derived from coal tar. As a result in the late 1930s a range of drugs derived from
sulphonamide were developed.
Antibiotics were discovered too. Penicillin was discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming but it
was not widely used till after 1940. Another antibiotic, streptomycin was isolated in 1944. It was
used to treat tuberculosis. They were followed by many others.
Meanwhile the iron lung was invented in 1928 and in 1943 Willem Kolf built the first artificial
kidney machine. (The first kidney transplant was in 1963).
In Britain the health of ordinary people greatly improved when the National Health Service was
founded in 1948.
In 1953 Dr Jonas Salk announced he had a vaccine for poliomyelitis. A vaccine for measles was
discovered in 1963.
Meanwhile surgery made great advances. The most difficult surgery was on the brain and the
heart. Both of these developed rapidly in the 20th century. The external pacemaker was invented
by a Canadian called John Hopps in 1950. The first implantable pacemaker was given to a
patient in 1958. The first heart transplant was performed in 1967 by Christiaan Barnard. The
first artificial heart was installed in 1982. The first heart and lung transplant was performed in
1987.
The laser was invented in 1960. In 1964 it was used in eye surgery for the first time.
Meanwhile the invention of fiber optics in the 1950s made possible the development of
endoscopes in the 1960s.
Treatment for infertility also improved in the late 20th century. The first test tube baby was born
in 1978.
In the late 20th century medicine continued to develop rapidly. In 1980 the World Health
Organisation announced that smallpox had been eradicated. However in 1981 a terrible new
disease called AIDS was isolated.
Meanwhile in 1975 Computerized Axial Scanning or CAT was introduced. In 1983 Magnetic
Resonance Imaging or MRI was introduced. Synthetic skin was developed in 1986 and gene
therapy was introduced in 1990.
MEDICINE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
In the early 21st century new types of transplant were performed. In 2005 the first face
transplant took place. Then in 2011 the first leg transplant was carried out. Finally in 2012 the
first womb transplant was carried out.