A TIMELINE OF MEDICINE
By Tim Lambert
2,600 BC Imhotep is a famous doctor. After his death he is worshipped as a god.
1,500 BC The Ebers Papyrus is the first known medical book
500 BC Alcamaeon of Croton in Italy says that a body is healthy as long as it has the right balance of hot and cold, wet and dry. If the balance is upset the body falls ill.
460-377 BC Hippocrates lives. He stresses careful observation.
384-322 BC Aristotle lives. He says the body is made up of 4 humours or liquids, phlegm, blood, yellow bile and black bile.
130-200 AD The Roman doctor Galen lives. He becomes a very influential writer for centuries.
9th Century Hunain Ibn Ishaq translates Greek writings about medicine into Arabic
10th Century Al-Rhazi is the first doctor to distinguish between smallpox and measles
980-1037 Ibn-Sina, a famous Persian doctor lives
936-1013 Abul Kasim, a great surgeon lives in Spain
12th and 13th Centuries Schools of medicine are founded in Europe. In the 13th century barber-surgeons begin to work in towns. The church runs the only hospitals.
1493-1541 Paracelsus lives. He denounces all medical teaching not based on experience and experiment.
1536 Ambroise Pare mixes egg whites, rose oil and turpentine to put on wounds.
1543 Andreas Vesalius publishes The Fabric of the Human Body
1628 William Harvey publishes his discovery of how the blood circulates in the body
1658 Jan Swammerdan observes red blood corpuscles
1661 Marcello Malpighi discovers capillaries
1753 James Lind publishes his discovery that fresh fruit or lemon juice prevent scurvy
1796 Edward Jenner invents vaccination against smallpox
1816 Rene Laennec invents the stethoscope
1847 Chloroform is used as an anaesthetic by James Simpson
1851 The ophthalmoscope is invented
1853 The hypodermic syringe is invented
1854 John Snow discovers that cholera is spread by water
1865 Joseph Lister develops antiseptic surgery.
1880 Louis Pasteur invents a cure for chicken cholera
1884 Cocaine is used as a local anaesthetic
1885 Pasteur cures rabies. The first successful appendectomy is performed.
1890 Immunisation against diphtheria is discovered. Rubber gloves are first used in surgery.
1895 X-rays are discovered
1896 A vaccine for typhoid is discovered
1910 Salvarsan, a drug used to cure syphilis is discovered
1914 The first non-direct blood transfusion is made
1928 Penicillin is discovered. The iron lung is invented.
1935 Protonsil is used to treat food poisoning
1943 The first artificial kidney machine is made
1954 Jonas Salk invents a vaccine for polio
1963 A vaccine for measles is discovered
1967 The first heart transplant is performed
1978 The first test tube baby is born
1983 MRI scanning is introduced
A modern hospital in Portsmouth
2005 The first face transplant takes place
2011 The first leg transplant takes place
2012 The first womb transplant takes place