History : The doctors

Hippocrates:

He believes that the gods dont create disease but that disease comes from more natural causes.

He comes up with the theory that there are 4 liquid humours in the body and when you become ill the humours are unbalanced.

His theory says that Yellow bile comes from the liver, Black bile comes from the spleen, Phlegm comes from the brain and blood from the heart.

E.G.If there was too much blood then Hippocrates would say you need to bleed the patient. To cure them he would allow leeches to **** the blood out.

He used his wealth, rest and time to look at his patients and he write down his thoughts in notes. He then used these to them create his theory. All doctors are made to take a Hypocratic oath.

Galen:

Galen used Hippocrates ideas on the four humours. However he believed that the body is confronted by the brain and not the heart.

He create his theory of 'Opposites'. This means that if you had a cold u need to be treated for something hot such as taking pepper. This would balance out the humours.

Galen dissects animals as dissecting humans at this time wasnt allowed. From this he made the assumption that blood is made in the liver. He was very interested in anatomy.

He also showed that all the different parts of the body fit together perfectly and that they all have there own role.

Harvey:

Harvey worked on the veins, arteries and capillaries. He showed that blood flows around the body. It is carried away from the heart by the arteries and is returned by the veins. He proved that the heart acts as a pump in the body and that blood is made there. THIS PROVES GALEN WRONG!!

He dissected live animals to prove his theory.He also began to dissect humans. He dissected,observed and experimented on the bodies.

He managed to prove that veins and arteries exist and his theory was right. However, he could not prove that capillaries exist because they are too small to see with the naked eye. You need microscopes which they dont have at this time.

Harvey was no use to the progress of medicine at the time but was very useful later.

Vesalius:

Vesalius proved Galen wrong. He showed that humans only have 1 Jaw bone instead of 2 and that the septum in the heart was too thick for the blood to pass through. This leaves the thought....if galen was wrong about this what else was he wrong about??

Dissecting humans was still forbidden, he was only allowed to dissect the corpses of dead criminals. When he had no bodies he sometimes had to steal them from the graves.

He proved Galen wrong but many people didnt have an allternative to believe in. They had also believed in Galen for so long that they didnt want to except new ideas.

Pare:

He was a surgeon. He discovered that wounds heal more quickly without cauterisation. He made his own ointment: egg yolks, oil of roses and turpentine.

He created ligatures. These were thin threads of silk that were tied round the blood vessels to close them up. It was a very effective way to stop the bleeding. He also used bandages.

Many people followed thsi method. However, some surgeons didnt agree with his methods.

Pasteur:

He discovered the Germ Theory.He showed that Germs made Beer go off in a Brewery. He also discovered that the germs were all around us.He linked it to animal disease by showing that the germs were making the silkworms ill. Which then showed that GERMS cause DISEASE.

He also creates innoculation: this is where a small amount of a certain disease is introduced into the body to help gain immunity to that disease.The amount is small enough for the body to produce antibodies which will fight off the disease in the future.

Koch:

He experimented on rats to test wether he had the right form of the disease. If he could do this for one disease he could do this for any.

He grew the bacteria in agar jelly.He managed to show that the different baceria causes different diseases.

He stained the solution purple so he could see the bacteria more easily.

He told people to BE SCIENTIFIC, BE SYSTEMATIC and RECORD EVERYTHING.

Lister:

He used cat gut ligatures, this stopped the flow of blood and using cat gut means it dissolves in the body without having to remove it. Lister created carbolic spray which prevents further infection on the wound.

Problems with carbolic spray: cracked skin, nasty smell, more expensive, slow and prevents defences operating properly.

Lister read Pasteurs theory and used it to create his own.

He also used chloroform which was an antiseptic. It helped to create a cleaner surgery and kill bacteria.