History of Medicine

CaduceusHow did the caduceus get it’s

name? Priests in the temples of Asklepios used massage, bathing, and exercise in treating patients. The god carried a staff with a serpent coiled around its staff. This is known as the medical symbol today. When people got sick, they went to the temples and let the snakes lick their wounds to heal them.

History of Medicine80% of primitive man died by

age 30Many from infectious diseases,

plagues, epidemics.Medical practice was aimed at

ridding people of evil spirits and demons-exorcism. They thought this is why people got sick.

Egyptian PhysiciansPriests who studied medicine and

surgery in temple medical schools. Believed that blood flowed thru body like canals in Nile River. If blood was clogged they applied leeches which produced HIRUDIN-prevents clotting.

RomansDid not help the cause of

medicine but had superior methods of sanitation and water supply. Drained swamps.

Real cause of the Roman empire-disease- Malaria, smallpox, bubonic plague-caused by bacteria from fleas or rats

Most common Form Surgery during Roman Times???AmputationWhy? Infection

HippocratesThe Father of Medicine.Best known for his code of Behavior known as the Hippocratic Oath.Medical schools still teach thisAnd physicians repeat it asThey enter practice.

Hippocrates cont.The founder of scientific medicine-

Produced an organized method of gaining knowledge through the means of observation. Believed that a patient’s environment played a big part on his health.

Stressed the importance of diet and cleanliness to staying healthy.

Discovered that you could diagnose certain diseases by listening to a patients chest.

GalenBecame a surgeon after minimal medical

training.Received most of his experience from

treating gladiators that received wounds during battle

He ignored Hippocrates’ theory of observation of a patient. He believed that your body was regulated by the four fluids or “humors”. Blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. An imbalance of these “humors” is what made people sick.

Performed tracheotomy.

PhysicianMost prestigious. They had a

university degree.Limited their practice to upper

classes only.They preferred studying over

actually taking care of the sick.

SurgeonConsidered inferior to physicians.Few had university degrees.Performed surgery on nobility,

high clergy, and wealthy merchants.

Barber-Surgeon

Barber-Surgeon ContNo training.Lower class people were treated

here.Used their razors to cut hair,

open abscesses, and occassionally perform amputations.

Bandages represent white on barber pole and the red represents blood.

Florence NightingaleFounder of Modern Nursing.1820-1910Treated patients during The Crimean War

Marie CurieDiscovered RadiumNobel Prize Winner

Clara BartonFounded American RedCrossCivil War

Elizabeth BlackwellFirst woman Doctor in the U.S.

Walter ReedTreatment Yellow FeverPanama Canal

Jonas SalkPolio vaccine 1954

Christian Bernard

First Heart Transplant 1968

Alexander FlemingPenicillin mold 1932

Gerhard DomagkSulfa Drugs 1932 which cured

Diptheria

Elias Metchnikoff

WBC protect from disease-Nobel Prize

Wilhelm Roentgen

Discovered Xrays

Joseph ListerAsepsis and disinfectantNoticed that if you cleaned

instruments before using them on another patient, patients didn’t get sick.

Louis PasteurPasteurizationRabies Vaccine

LaennecStethescope in 1816

Gabriel FahrenheitMercury thermometer

Edward JennerSmallpox vaccine 1976-Gave first vaccination using the

pus from a cowpox lesion on a milkmaids hand.

William HarveyCirculation of blood 1578.Realized that the blood circulated

in the body.

VesaliusDisproved Galen’s theoryImproved knowledge of anatomy

in surgery.

MortonIntroduced ether during surgery

SimpsonIntroducedChloroformDuring Surgery

George PapanicolaouFirst pap smear for cervical

cancer

HindusHad first hospitals, nurses, did

surgery.

ChineseUsed acupuncture to restoreEquilibrium and relieve Congestion.