History of Medicine

Caduceus How 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 Medicine 80% of primitive man died by age 30 Many 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 Physicians Priests 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.

Romans Did 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??? Amputation Why? Infection

Hippocrates The Father of Medicine. Best known for his code of Behavior known as the Hippocratic Oath. Medical schools still teach this And physicians repeat it as They 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.

Galen Became 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.

Physician Most prestigious. They had a university degree. Limited their practice to upper classes only. They preferred studying over actually taking care of the sick.

Surgeon Considered inferior to physicians. Few had university degrees. Performed surgery on nobility, high clergy, and wealthy merchants.

Barber-Surgeon

Barber-Surgeon Cont No 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 Nightingale Founder of Modern Nursing Treated patients during The Crimean War

Marie Curie Discovered Radium Nobel Prize Winner

Clara Barton Founded American Red Cross Civil War

Elizabeth Blackwell First woman Doctor in the U.S.

Walter Reed Treatment Yellow Fever Panama Canal

Jonas Salk Polio vaccine 1954

Christian Bernard First Heart Transplant 1968

Alexander Fleming Penicillin mold 1932

Gerhard Domagk Sulfa Drugs 1932 which cured Diptheria

Elias Metchnikoff WBC protect from disease- Nobel Prize

Wilhelm Roentgen Discovered Xrays

Joseph Lister Asepsis and disinfectant Noticed that if you cleaned instruments before using them on another patient, patients didn’t get sick.

Louis Pasteur Pasteurization Rabies Vaccine

Laennec Stethescope in 1816

Gabriel Fahrenheit Mercury thermometer

Edward Jenner Smallpox vaccine Gave first vaccination using the pus from a cowpox lesion on a milkmaids hand.

William Harvey Circulation of blood Realized that the blood circulated in the body.

Vesalius Disproved Galen’s theory Improved knowledge of anatomy in surgery.

Morton Introduced ether during surgery

Simpson Introduced Chloroform During Surgery

George Papanicolaou First pap smear for cervical cancer

Hindus Had first hospitals, nurses, did surgery.

Chinese Used acupuncture to restore Equilibrium and relieve Congestion.