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Timeline: Science, technology and communications and their influence
on medicine through time
This list is intended to provide a range of examples of the way that
science, technology and communications have been linked to medicine over
time. The list will be updated as I teach different periods of the course
to this years cohort.
| The Prehistoric period |
Evidence of Trephined
skulls shows that prehistoric man had developed surgical tools.
Cave
paintings provide us with evidence of the way of life of prehistoric
man.
Word of mouth and oral tradition would have played a role in the
dissemination of ideas.
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| The Ancient World |
Papyrus
Ebers (c1500BC) and Papyrus
Edwin Smith are the earliest written records of medical ideas.
The first
use of metals provide doctors with more effective surgical instruments.
Egyptian and Greek trade routes saw the spread of ideas, practices
and medicines. Trade routes for spices into Egypt: Overland from
Asia Minor; sea route from SE Africa; overland from Nubia and Abyssinia;
sea route from Crete.
The Library at Alexandria
sees the works of the ancient philosophers and doctors being stored
and used for teaching.
Ideas based on Ayurveda
(India, c1000BC) are recorded.
Greek philosophers discuss their ideas about the cause of disease
and note methods of curing ailments.
Roman roads and trade routes make the spread of ideas more efficient.
Hippocrates c400BC. Writes
on many areas.
China: Yellow
Emperors Manual of Medicine (c350BC) introduces concept of Ying
and Yang.
Chinese acupuncture
(drawings of)
Susruta
Samhita (Indian book, before 200AD) – provides detailed
guidance on how to dissect a body.
Galen – moved from Pergamum
(trained at an Asclepious) to Alexandria (learnt of dissection,
access to books from previous and other civilisations) to Rome (work
on Gladiators) to treating Marcus Aurelius. His ideas spread throughout
the Roman world and into Asia. |
| Medieval |
Guy de
Chauliac writes about his ideas.
Wound
man images are used by surgeons.
Rhazes
(Baghdad, c900AD) publishes Treatise on Smallpox and Measles.
Ibn Sina (aka
Avicenna) (Spain, 1037AD) publishes his Canon of Medicine which
is widely used throughout the Islamic World and in Western Europe.
Water pipes are installed at Canterbury Cathedral.
Islamic academics translated the works of the Greeks and disseminated
these through universities.
Ibn-an-Nafis
(Cairo, 1242AD) correctly challenges Galen’s work on the movement
of blood – but his ideas are not accepted by others.
Medical texts are translated and / or copied by hand.
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| The Renaissance |
The invention of the Printing
press enables the mass production of medical texts and the rapid
spread of ideas.
1531, Paris: Galen’s books are translated, printed and distributed.
1543, Padua. Publication of the
Fabric of the Human Body by Vesalius. Dissection enables him to
later revise his views and Galen’s errors are noted and corrected
by the time of the second edition in 1555.
1559, Padua. Realdo
Columbo discovers that blood moves through the arteries to the
Lungs.
William
Harvey moves from England to Padua to study (1600-1602)
Harvey returns to London and in 1628 publishes ‘On
the movement of the heart and blood in Animals’ which shows
the way in which the heart works as a pump.
1661, Padua: Marcello
Malpighi sees capilliaries using a microscope.
Leonardo Da
Vinci’s drawings of human anatomy are printed and circulated
(c1512)
High quality images by the likes of Vesalius and Harvey can be copied
and printed accurately and in large quantities.
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| Industrial Revolution |
1796 – Edward
Jenner vaccinates James Phipps against Smallpox. After testing,
his method is announced in 1798.
1861: Louis
Pasteur publishes his German theory which proves that diseases
in plants and animals were caused by germs. However he did not prove
that they caused disease in humans.
Visualise the transmission of Pasteur’s ideas to Germany, leading
to...
1878, Germany. Robert
Koch discovers the microbes that cause wounds to go septic.
1881, France. Louis Pasteur produce a vaccine against anthrax.
1884, France. Pasteur and his team produce a vaccine against Rabies.
1891: the first anti-toxin is produced by Koch’s laboratory
to cure Diphtheria.
1895, Wurzburg, Germany: Wilhelm Rontgen discovers electro magnetic
radiation which can pass through the body. X-Rays, as they became
known, are used for the first time the following year.
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| The Modern World |
1909, Germany: After 10 years of research Paul
Ehrlich’s scientific team develop a chemical treatment of
the disease syphilis. This type of medicine is called ‘the magic
bullet.’
1929, London: Alexander
Fleming identifies penicillium and notes its qualities.
1931: invention of the electron microscope
1935, France: Scientist Gerhard
Domagk uses a sulphonamide on his daughter to treat blood poisoning.
The second ‘magic bullet’ had been discovered.
1939-43, Oxford: A team of scientists led by Howard
Florey develop Fleming’s findings on penicillium and enable
the mass production of the third, and most significant, magic bullet,
penicillin.
1954, America. Jonas Salk develops vaccine for Polio.
1961, Germany: The tranquiliser Thalidomide is introduced t the market.
Unfortunately tests had not been conducted to see what effects the
drug would have on a foetus, and some 6000 babies are born with deformed
limbs, or no limbs at all. As a result laws relating to drug testing
and sale are tightened up.
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