The History of Medicine

Why study this?Many things we practice and use in our

profession come from things that we developed over the years. We learn from our past and improve our future by examining what works and what doesn’t. As discoveries happen, we

adjust our beliefs and practices to be able to treat patients and animals

more effectively.

Example:• Morphine

• Powerful pain reliever

• Comes from poppy plant

• Still used today

Leech Therapy

Ancient Times• Commonly belief that you got sick

because you had evil spirits or demons in you.

• Treatment focused around eliminating them.

• Religious communities believed illness was a punishment for some type of sin and rites or ceremonies would help you get well.

Ancient Times• Study of the human body was very

limited, because human dissection was not allowed.

• Animals were dissected and studied instead.

Egyptians (3000BC-300BC)• First to record medical health records.• Wrote them on stone.• Limited because most people couldn’t read.• Priests still acted as physicians.• Medical schools were at the temples.• Believed your body was a system of channels for

air, tears, blood, urine, sperms, and feces. Blood carried water and air. You got sick because a channel was clogged. Treatment focused around unclogging the channel. Heart pumpedthe channels.

• Life span was about 20-30 years.

EgyptiansEye of Horus, represented as the falcon-headed god, was an important god in Egyptian legend. The symbol representing his eye, Eye of Horus, was a powerful symbol used to protect from evil.

Horus-Modern day Rx sign.

Ancient Chinese (1200BC-220AD)• Believed in need to treat the whole body

by curing the spirit and nourishing the body.

• Holistic-mind, body, spirit.• Acupuncture to relieve pain or

congestion.• Moxibustion (a powdered substance that

was place on the skin and then burned to cause a blister) to treat disease.

Moxibustion

Greeks (1200BC-200BC)• Began modern science by observing the

human body and effects of disease.• Beliefs changed to illness results from

natural causes not spirits, demons, or sins.• Therapies such as massage and herbs

used to treat illness.• Stressed diet and cleanliness as a way to

prevent disease.• Life span was about 25-35 years.

Greeks• Hippocrates (460-377 BC)• Called the “Father of Medicine”• Developed an organized method to

study the human body (observation, diagnosis, and treatment).

• Recorded signs and symptoms of many diseases.

• High standard of ethics, the Oath of Hippocrates, used by physicians today.

Greeks• Aristotle (384-322BC)• Dissected animals• Considered the founder of

comparative anatomy

Romans (753BC-410AD)• Realized that some disease was

connected to filth, contaminated water, and poor sanitation.

• Developed aqueducts (to deliver clean water) and sewers to carry away waste.

• Drained swamps and marshes to decrease malaria.

• Created laws to keep streets clean and eliminate garbage.

Romans• First to organize medical care-used to

treat soldiers.• First hospitals • Early hospitals-physicians cared for

patients in the rooms of their homes.• Later hospitals were set up in

monasteries or convents.• Life span was about 25-35 years.

Romans• Claudius Galen (129-199AD?)• A physician who established many medical

beliefs.• One was that the body was regulated by

four fluids or humors: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. (black bile-melancholic-brownish sediment with platelets;yellow bile-anger, residue in bilirubin from the liver).

• An imbalance in the humors resulted in illness.

The Dark Ages (400-800AD)• After the fall of the Roman empire, the

emphasis was placed on saving the soul and the study of medicine was prohibited.

• Once again prayer and divine intervention were the treatment of choice.

• Monks and priests provided care for sick people.

The Middle Ages (800-1400 AD)• Renewed interest in medical practices.• Monks translated the writings of the Greeks

and Romans.• Medical universities were created and and

began to train physicians how to use this information.

• Arabs began requiring physicians pass examinations and obtain licenses.

• Rhazes (al-Razi) became know as the Arab Hippocrates.

The Middle Ages• 1300’s major epidemic of the

bubonic plague killed almost 75% of the population of Europe and Asia.

• Other diseases like smallpox, diphtheria, tuberculosis, typhoid, and malaria killed many others.

• Average life span was 20-35 years.

The Black Death

The Renaissance (1350-1650 AD)• The “rebirth” of medicine.• Human dissection allowed and studied.• New major source of information about the

human body.• Artists like da Vinci and Michelangelo were

able to draw the body accurately.• Development of the printing press. First

medical books came out. Knowledge spread.• Life span increased to 30-40 years.

16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries• Causes of disease still not known and

many still died from infections or in child birth.

• Ambroise Pare’ “Father of Modern Surgery” 1510-1590.

• Anton van Leeuwenhoek invented the microscope-1666.

• Apothecaries (early pharmacists)

18th Century• Gabriel Fahrenheit 1714-first mercury

thermometer.• Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals.• Edward Jenner 1796-developed

vaccine for smallpox.• Lifespan was about 40-50 years.

19th Century • Industrial Revolution• First federal vaccination legislation

1813• First successful blood transfusion on

human. • Rene’ Laennec invented the

stethoscope.• Elizabeth Blackwell began the first

female MD is the USA.

Smallpox and Jenner

19th Century• Florence Nightingale-the founder of

modern nursing.• She established efficient and sanitary

nursing units.• Credited with beginning the

professional education of nurses.• Joseph Lister-started using

disinfectants and antiseptics during surgery to prevent infection.

19th CenturyClara Barton-founded the Red Cross.

Louis Pasteur-pasteurizing milk kill bacteria.

Average life span was 4o-60 years.

19th Century• Another major development during

this time period was infection control. Physicians began to associate the tiny microorganisms seen in the microscope with disease. Methods to stop the spread of these diseases were developed.

20th CenturyMost rapid growth in health care.

Physicians were now able to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases and cure patients.

A major development was Francis Crick and James Watson discovery of DNA.

20th Century• Health care plans started to help pay

for the cost of medical care.• Standards were created to make sure

everyone had access to quality health care.

• Life span 60-80 years.

20th Century Highlights• 1900 Walter Reed demonstrated that

mosquitoes carry yellow fever.• 1901 Carl Landsteiner classified the

ABO blood groups.• Sigmund Freud’s studies form the basis

for psychology and psychiatry.• 1928 Sir Alexander Flemming discovers

Penicillin.• 1944 First kidney dialysis machine.

20th Century Highlights• 1952 Jonas Salk developed the polio

vaccine.• 1953 First open heart surgery using first

heart-lung machine.• 1965 Medicare and Medicaid.• 1978 First test tube baby born.• 1981 HIV was identified.• 1996 HIPPA • 1997 Sheep Cloned

21st Century• Stem cells• Human Genome Project (20-25,000

genes identified)• Face transplant 2005• Gardasil 2006

Future • Cure for AIDS, cancer, and heart

disease.• Antibiotics that don’t develop

resistance.• Nerves that can be regenerated.

Future