History Medicine

History Medicine

Ancient Medicine
1. Prehistoric times
  1. they thought evil spirits, or demons, caused illness
  2. Had 'the medicine man' who was thought to have cured illneses
  3. Sick people waited in caves for 'Shaman', A god that cured ilness
  4. All prehistoric medicine is based on archealogical fingings
  5. they probably did have witch-doctors to turn to when they were ill.
  6. Primitive peoples knew next to nothing about the true nature of disease.' 'Primitive peoples that survive in the modern age seem to have built up a system of skills and behaviours that keeps them healthy in their environment.'
2. Egyptian Medicine
  1. Egyptian doctors believed that the gods caused disease,
  2. the first people to develop empirical methods to cure disease, rather than seeking spiritual explanations for it.
  3. They made the break from superstition, and began the march towards modern medical care
3. Greek Medicine
  1. First individual Genius
  2. Hipocrities
  3. they knew about the inner workings of the body
  4. they studied the natural history of diseases
  5. they realised that diseases had natural causes and cures
  6. they developed the theory of the Four Humours and the 'use of opposites'
  7. they wrote and used medical textbooks
  8. they were professional and took the Hippocratic Oath
  9. they were skilled at setting broken bones and slipped discs
  10. Opposites
  11. they knew hundreds of herbal remedies
4. they developed clinical observation
5. Roman Medicine
  1. The need for a healthy army led Romans to think about public health. The capture of slaves brought Greek doctors to Rome. The Roman army developed some of the earliest hospitals. Anatomical and surgical skill developed as army doctors treated war wounds.
  2. Roman medicine was dominated by ideas derived from the needs of the Army
  3. Medicine centered around treating wounds and injuries fo rthe army
Medieval and Renaissance Medicine
1. Medevil
  1. Medieval Europeans believed in the Christian God, so medicine was dominated by the Roman Catholic Church
  2. The Church
    1. forbidding dissection of human corpses
    2. insisting that people agree with the writings of Galen
    3. encouraging people to rely on prayers to the saints and superstition to cure them of disease
    4. encouraging the belief that disease was a punishment from God - this led to fatalism and prevented investigation into cures
  3. Knowledge went reverse in Medieval times. Many of the books of the Greeks and Romans were lost, and the knowledge they contained was replaced by mere speculation and superstition.
  4. They had their own version of the Greek's Programme for Health.
  5. realised the importance of a good diet, and that a poor diet made people more vulnerable to the plague.
  6. Nobles took regular baths (perhaps two a year).
  7. :)
2. Renesance
  1. Study of body for painters
  2. Renaissance saw an improvement in medical knowledge, many people rejected the new ideas.
  3. they had still not discovered the role that germs play in causing disease.
  4. Early physicians were well educated and trained did 'scientific' research were prepared to contradict the accepted authority disseminated their findings relied on royal support had limited success
    1. The church couldnt get its nose out of galens but
Galen
1. He thought that muscles attach to the bone in the same way in humans and in dogs.
2. He thought that blood was created in the liver.
3. He made mistakes about the blood vessels in the brain.
4. was wrong about the shape of the human liver.
5. :)
Medeivil refused to deny galen
Modern Medicine
1. 19th Century
  1. Urbanisation
  2. growth of empires
  3. growth of immense wealth
  4. advances in technology
  5. Improved communications
  6. growth of science and research
  7. Democracy and socialism
  8. New ideas about evolution (Darwin) and genetics (Mendel)
  9. Wars were waged on a greater scale
  10. William Beaumont (America: 1822) studied the digestive system of Alexis St Martin, a Canadian who had an open hole into his stomach.
  11. :)
  12. Theodor Schwann (Germany: 1839) realised that animal matter was made up of cells, not 'humours'. This was the vital breakthrough of knowledge that at last destroyed belief in the old 'humoral' pathology of the Greeks.
  13. Henry Gray (Scotland: 1858) wrote 'Gray's Anatomy', which had over 1,000 illustrations. Many people bought a copy to own at home. After the 1870s, pupils started studying anatomy in schools.
  14. Starling and Bayliss discovered the first hormone.
  15. Casimir Funk (Poland: 1912) discovered the first vitamins, and realised that some diseases were caused simply by poor diet.
  16. Robert Koch (Germany: 1878), who discovered how to stain and grow bacteria in a Petri dish (named after his assistant Julius Petri). He was thus able to find which bacteria caused which diseases: septicaemia (1878) TB (1882) cholera (1883).
    1. In the same period other bacteria were discovered, including those that caused: typhoid (1880s) pneumonia (1880s) plague (1894)
  17. Louis Pasteur's first commission was to find a cure for sour wine, which set him off on his revolutionary course.
  18. Louis Pasteur started as a research chemist. He set up a team of researchers at the Pasteur Institute (1888).
  19. Elizabeth Blackwell: gained a medical degree in America (1849) and set up the New York Infirmary for Poor Women before returning to England
  20. Elizabeth Garrett: acquired a licence from the Society of Apothecaries (1865) then set up the Dispensary for Women.
  21. Sophia Jex-Blake: studied medicine at Edinburgh University (1869), but had to take her degree in Switzerland and get her licence to practise medicine in Ireland. In 1874 she founded the London School of Medicine for Women.
  22. Edwin Chadwick argued that disease was the main reason for poverty,
2. 20th Century
  1. 1931: The invention of the electron microscope allowed doctors to see bacteria and viruses for the first time.
  2. the first contraceptive pills.
  3. Francis Crick and James Watson (Britain) discovered DNA.
  4. Gunther von Hagens (Germany) performed live dissections on TV
  5. There was a great explosion of scientific understanding and technological innovation.
  6. Many societies became hugely rich, though wealth was still unequally shared.
  7. There was considerable urbanisation
  8. Communications technology made the world seem smaller and more cosmopolitan. This allowed medical ideas to spread rapidly
  9. People became less religious - so more inclined to look for medical solutions even to spiritual and psychological problems.
  10. Wars, epidemics and famines killed more people in the 20th century than they had in the whole of the rest of history.
  11. Christiaan Barnard (South Africa) performed the first heart transplant
  12. 1970s: The development of plastic lenses allowed cataract surgery. Since 1991 laser eye surgery has obviated the need for glasses.
  13. 1972: John Charnley (Britain) developed hip replacements.
  14. A Ministry of Health was set up to look after sanitation, health care and disease, as well as the training of doctors, nurses and dentists, and maternity and children's welfare.

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	Created by Fred Gill about 11 years ago