Key Individuals

• 384-322BC
• Developed the Hippocratic balance of elements to suggest that the body was made up for four humours-Blood, Phlegm, Yellow Bile, Black Bile
• They needed to be in balance for good health
• He attempted to link them with the elements and seasons
• But he failed to see how these humours are symptoms/effects of disease
• Although he thought they were the causes

• 980-1037 AD
• Wrote the "Canon of Medicine"
• This book brings together the ideas of Aristotle, Galen and Hippocrates
• Had an interest in Greek Philosophers
• Did not believe in personal immortality, or that God was interested in individuals
• He did not believe the world creation story either which goes against the othodox Islamic tradition
• Althoughh he was still one of Islam's most influential philosophers
• His book was translated from Arabic into Latin in Spain and Italy
• His ideas were rejected by many including Paracelsus

• 1922-2001
• He performed the second kidney transplant
• Experimented for several years with animal heart transplants 
• Carried out the first successful heart transplant on 3rd December 1967
• The patient was already suffering with diabetes and heart disease
• The operation lasted nine hours and used a team of thirty people
• The patient only survived for 18 days-he died of pneumonia
• The poor life expectancy of patienets led to a temporary stop of heart transplants

• 1819-1891
• Chief engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Works responsible for public works in London
• In 1859 he was appointed to build a massive sewer system for London
• The sewers collected waste being dumped in the Thames and transported it away from heavily populated areas
• It was opened i n 1865 by the Prince of Wales
• Approximately 1300 miles of sewers were constructed
• They helped to stop cholera outbreaks in London by removing the contamination
• He was knighted for his work on the London sewers

• 1852-1908
• Helped to discover the first radioactive isotopes used:
• to treat cancers as part of radiotherapy
• in immunosuppression
• as traces in diagnosis-mildly radioactive material is swallowed/injected and medics can detect its movement around the body

• 1897-1960
• Labour Minister for Health
• Introduced the National Health Service
• This would provide medical care free in need to all Britains
• He resigned when the government transfered funds for the National Insurance fund to pay for rearmament

• 1879-1963
• Economist and social reformer working for the Board of Trade
• Worked with Winston Churchill to create a minimum wage for workers
• Also helped to pass the Labour Exchanges Act
• Published a hugely influencial reprt in 1942
• In it he argued that all people should have the right to be free from want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness

• 1821-1910
• Gained a medical degree in America
• First woman to graduate in the US
• Set up the New York Infirmary for Poor Women
• Helped establish the US Sanitary Comission
• Set up a private practice in London and was a lecturer at the London School of Medicine for Women
• She was finally accepted onto the Medical Register in England after her work

• 1840-1916
• Investigated the poverty in London
• Published the first edition of "Life and Labour of the People" in 1889
• Showed that 30% of those in London were living in severe poverty and it was sometimes impossible to find work
• Also showed that wages for some jobs were too low to be able to support a family

• 1800-1890
• Poblished a "Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain"
• His idea was that improved public health and a healthy workforce would save money 
• The report and statistics descrbing levels of sickness and mortality shocked many of the privileged
• The government then introduced a Public Health Bill
• This was only passed when a new cholera epidemic broke out
• It became the first Public Health Act in 1848
• This caused the setting up of the Central and Local Health Boards

• 1836-1914
• Became Mayor of Birmingham
• Oversaw a series of reforms to transform the city
• Persuaded the city authoritites to buy the local gas and water companies so they could make sure the inhabitants had a good supply of both
• Founded a Drainage Board and introduced new drainage systems
• Used the Artisans Act to clear a large area of the city's slums
• He wanted to build a new street their for shops/offices so raised funds as well as contributing £10,000 for the scheme
• Many inhabitants of the slums had to relocate and all houses were either destroyed or improved

• 1916-2004, 1928-present
• They were the first to describe the structure of DNA
• Relied heavily on the work of previous scientists
• Published the news of their discovery
• Shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1962 as well as recieving numerous other awards and prizes for their work
• They later played an important part in the research of the Human Genome Project

• 1867-1934
• Investigated radioactivity and built on the work of Becquerel
• Her research was crucial in the development of x-rays in surgery
• Set up mobile x-ray units called "Little Curies"
• They were positioned near the front line to help treat soldiers
• They were used to find broken bones as well as bullets and shrapnel in a soldier's body
• Awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903
• Revieved a second Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1911

• c.40-90 AD
• Greek doctor born in Turkey
• Worked for the Roman army in the 1st century AD
• Wrote a book "De Materia Medica"
• Was the first book on using plants as medicines without lots of superstitions
• Very influencial book and became the starting point for many individuals' work 

• 1804-1881
• Prime Minister of the UK, brought in Public Health Act in 1875 and Artisans' Dwellings Act which forced local counsils to act upon it
• Towns had Health Inspectors and Sanitary Inspectors making sure the laws on water supplies, hygiene and food standards were being followed
• He was the Chancellor of the Exchequer so had to pass the 1867 Reform Act
• This put pressure on the government and councils to listen to concerns of health as it allowed working class men to vote
• Introduced the 1875 Sale of Food and Drugs Act which prevented the sale of certain drugs and any harmful food
• In 1876 he passed the River Pollution Act preventing people from dumping sewage/industrial waste into rivers

• 1895-1964
• Found that red dye, prontosil, stopped the streptococcus microbe(which causes blood poisoning)  from multiplying in mice without being poisonous
• His daughter pricked herself on a needle and caught the disease
• He gaver her a large dose of prontosil which turned her bright red although she recovered
• The active ingerdient was identified as a sulphonamide, many drugs are based on this
• More dangerous side effects of liver and kidney damge were discovered later
• His work eventually led to a development of the drug to avoid the tuberculosis epidemic later on

• 1854-1915
• Set out to find chemicals that could act as synthetic antibodies
• Discovered dyes that could kill malaria and sleeping sickness germs
• Identified the bacterium that causes syphilis
• Him and his team decided to search for an arsenic compounf that was a magic bullet for syphilis
• Over 600 compounds were tried and none appeared to be successful
• Rechecked the results and found that number 606 worked

• 304-250 BC
• Was a Greek anatomist and royal physician
• Identified the differences between arteries, veins and nerves
• Saw that nerves were not hollow and so could not be vessels for fluid
• Wrote many works on anatomy, practical medicine and pharmacy
• Realised that some things in humans were useless to animals

• 1881-1955
• Saw that many soldiers died of septic woulds caused by bacteria
• Worked for an army hospital during WWI
• He identified the antiseptic substance in tears which worked on some germs
• One day he came to clean up old culture dishes and a fungal spore had grown on one
• The colonies of bacteria in the dish around the mould had stopped growing
• The fungus produced a substance that killed bacteria, it was named penicillin
• Awarded a Nobel Prize in 1945

• 1898-1968, 1906-1979
• Devised the freeze-drying technique which was an important part in the purification process
• At first they didn't have the resources to produce penicillin in large amounts
• Made it for their first clinical trial by growing it in every container they could find
• The patient recovered only dying when the penicillin ran out
• They knew that penicillin could be vital in treating wounds recieved by soldiers in WWII
• Chemical firms in Britain were too busy making explosives to mass produce it
• So went to American Firms which helped when they joined the war
• A few years later mass production was sufficient for the needs of military medicine
• They were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945

• 129-199 AD
• Greek doctor, began training at an Asclepion
• Removed an infected breastbone from a patient
• Supported the theories of Hippocrates-four humours and the treatement by opposites
• Dissected animals decsibing the role of the spine in controlling the rest of the body
• Couldn't dissect humans or study skeletons outside of Alexandria
• Decieved by only using animals:thought a network of blood vessles in animals were in humans too, described the liver as the wrong shape
• Only recorded his successful cases
• Wrote over 100 medical texts, many were copied and survived
• Had great influence on doctors of the Arabic World

• 1836-1917
• Trained privately before being accepted as a qualified doctor in 1865
• Emplyed a tutor to study anatomy and physiology
• Eventually she was allowed into the dissecting room and chemistry lectures
• Awarded a medical degree in 1870
• Society of Apothecaries immediatley changed its regulations preventing other women doing the same

• 1385-1468
• Introduced printing 
• His invention accelerated the rate of progress in medicine and everything else
• It became easier for ideas to spread and be debated widely
• Making a single copy of a book could take months-years therefore books remained rare
• New ideas would have to be thouroughly accepted before copying
• More complete copied of Galen's works were produced and translated

• 1852-1922
• Contributed to the surgical treatment of breast caner
• Changed the training of surgeons from disorganised apprenticeships to the programmes used today
• Performed the first emergency blood transfusion
• Invented surgical gloves to prevent infection
• Investigated the use of cocaine as an anaethetic
• However, his self-experimentation led to a severe addiction

• 1578-1657
• Studied medicine and anatomy at Padua before working as a lecturer and doctor in London
• He then became a Royal Physician
• Did comparative studies on animals and humans
• Realised that he could observe living animals hearts in action and his findings would apply to humans
• Harvey realised Galen was wrong of thinking that blood was formed, carried to tissues and consumed and that actually it was being pumped out of the heart and circulated
• Identified the difference between arteries and veins, building on Erasistratus's discoveries
• Notices that the blood changed colour when being passed through the lungs

• 1838-1912
• Concerned with the terrible condirions which people were living in 
• She developed a model housing scheme
• She was determined that people should have access to green spaces for their health and well-being
• Campaigned to save open spaces from being built on
• Ended up co-founding the National Trust in 1895

• c.460-c.377 BC, born in Kos
• Founding father of modern medicine
• Influenced by early thinkers-especially Pythagoras
• Associated with the Hippocratic Oath: promise made by doctors to obey rules of behavioiur
• And the Hippocratic Corpus: collection of medical books written by Hippocrates of his followers
• He saw the healthy body as being in balance, thought illness was an imbalance of elements
• Looked for environmental causes for deisease rather than gods or spirits
• Improved on the Egyptian ideas of diagnosis, by studying enough cases a doctor could learnt to predict the course of an illness
• They encouraged the use of the clinical method of observation: Diagnosis, Prognosis, Observation, Treatment
• Suggested that no action should be taken until a reliable diagnosis is made

Ibn al-Nafis

• 1213-1288
• Correctly suggested that the blood flowed from one side of the heart to the other through the lungs 
• This was different to Galen's idea that it passed through the septum

Rhazes

• 865-925 AD
• Distinguished smallpox and measles as separate diseases
• Brought together ideas of Aristotle, Galen and Hippocrates

• 1749-1823
• Doctor in Gloucestershire
• Discovered that milkmaids didn't get smallpox but caught a milder disease, cowpox
• Tested this discovery on a small boy called James Phipps
• He injected him with pus from the sores of a milkmaid with cowpox
• The boy caught cowpox and recovered
• After this Jenner injected him with smallpox
• James didn't catch the disease as he became immune

• 1843-1910
• Began to try and link diseases to the microbe which causes them
• Developed a solid medium to grow cultures and dyeing techniques to colour microbes
• Used his daughter's pet mice to experiment with
• Identified anthrax spores and later, the bacteria that causes septicaemia, tuberculosis and cholera

• 1857-1912
• He had seen carbolic acid sprays used in sewage works to keep down the bad smells
• Heard about the germ theory so realised germs could be in the air, on surgical instruments and people's hands
• He started using carbolic acid on instruments and bandages
• Carbolic acid is unpleasant to get on skin or breathe in so many didn't like to use it
• The use of antiseptic conditions reduced death rates from about 50% to 15%

• 1863-1945
• Appointed as president of the Board of Trade
• Named Chancellor of the Exchequer in the government
• Influenced by Rowntree's report
• Lloyd George and Churchill worked hard to help the poor and were keen to make a name for themselves
• He overcame opposition to introduce these reforms still in place today:
• 1906-Free school meals
• 1907-School medical inspections
• 1908-Old Age Pension Act
• 1909-Labour Exchanges
• 1911-National Insurance Act
• He had to raise taxes to pay for these reforms

Harold Gillies

• 1882-1960
• Worked on skin graft techniques
• Was able to set up a plastic surgery unit for the British Army during war
• Reconstructed facial injuries so patients could have normal appearances
• Developed the use of pedicle tubes, kept detailed drawings and records of his achievements

Archilbald McIndoe

• 1900-1960
• Assistant of Harold Gillies, but still most famous plastic surgeon
• Took advantage of new developments in anitbacterial drugs and surgical techniques
• Worked hard to help patients through the psychological effects of their injuries

• 1689-1762
• Leant about inoculation and introduced it to Britain at the time of smallpox outbreaks
• Discovered that a healthy person could be immunised agains it using pus form the sores of someone suffering with a mild form of the disease
• Used a thread soaked in pus whichw as drawn through a small cut, after a mild reaction they were immune
• However, sometimes it led the full-blown disease and death
• The fear of smallpox however led them to take the risk of inoculation
• Many doctors became rich by doing inoculations 

William Morton

• 1819-1868
• Carried out the first public demonstration of ether as an anaesthetic
• Using it was risky as it is an irritant and fairly explosive

Ignaz Semmelweis

• 1818-1865
• Used chloride of lime solution as a hand wash for doctors to control the spread of puerperal fever, an infection suffered following childbirth
• It wasn't used widely as it was unpleasant to use

• 1820-1910
• Brought discipline and professionalism to nursing
• The Secretary of War requested that she went to Scutari to sort out nursing care in the hospital in the Crimean War
• She went with 38 hand-picked nurses
• Before arriving the death rate was 42%
• Two years later it fell to 2%
• This was down to the huge improvement she made to ward hygiene
• Wrote "Notes on Nursing" book explaining her methods
• Set up the Nightingale School of Nursing
• 1919 Registration of Nurses Act made training compulsory for nurses

• 1493-1541
• Criticized many accepted views
• Began his lecturing carrer by burning one of Galen's books and calling him a liar
• As well as this he owuld call Avicenna a kitchen master
• He rejected the idea of the four humours
• Gave his lectures in German instead of Latin
• Opened his lectures up to anyone who wanted to attend

• 1510-1590
• Barber-surgeon
• Worked for a public hospital before becoming an army surgeon
• Severed blood vessels left by amputation were sealed using cauterisation
• This caused extreme discomfort
• Paré invented the method of ligatures and designed quite sophisticated artificial legs
• Gunshot wounds caused infections as the bullet carries cloth and skin into the wound
• However they though they were poisonous so often poured boiling oil onto the wound
• During a battle he ran out of oil so used a cool salve made of: oil of roses, turpentine and egg yolk which worked a lot better
• He became surgeon to the King of France 

• 1822-1895
• Employed to find the explanation for the souring of sugar beet used in fermenting alcohol
• He blamed germs in the air
• Proved this by sterilising water and keeping it in a flask which stayed sterile
• But sterilised water kept in an open flask bred micro-organisms
• Also looked for cures to anthrax and chicken cholera
• His team managed to produce a weakened version of the anthrax spore making sheep immune
• Demonstrated this in a public experiment
• Pasteur also took Emile Roux's idea  of dried rabbit spines for rabies and created a series on inoculations to lead to immunity
• Tested this out on a woman's son who was bitten by a rabid dog and would die if nothing was done, his new treatment was successful

Pythagoras

• c.580-c.500 BC
• Thought life was about the balance of opposites

Thales of Miletus

• c.580 BC
• Founder of Greek philosophy, thought water was the basis of life

Anaximander

• c.560 BC
• Said all things were made of four elements: earth, air, water and fire

• 1871-1954
• Had a factory in York
• Didn't believe the problem was as bas there as in London
• He did a survey of living conditions
• Published a report of his findings called "Poverty, a Study of Town Life"
• This showed that 25% of people in York were so poor they couldn't afford basic food and housing

• 1805-1881
• Learnt nursing from her mother
• She came to England to volunteer as a nurse in the Crimean War
• She was rejected but went anyway paying for her own passage
• She financed herself by selling goods
• She nursed the soldiers on the battlefields and built the British Hotel-a small group of makeshift buildings including a hospital for soldiers
• She couldn't find work as a nurse after and went bankrupt-although she did recieve support due to press interest in her story
• She wrote and autobiography 

• 1811-1870
• Experimented on himself to find an alternative anaesthetic to ether
• He discovered the effects of chloroform during an experiment with friends
• He help sniffing parties in his dining room to try new chemicals
• When they tried chloroform they firslty sound that they had a better mood before collapsing only to regain consciousness the next morning
• However it was only by chance that he survived as if he had had a little more he would have over-dosed 
• This would then have made it seem dangerous, or if he had not had enough then it would be seen as useless
• It was widely used in operating theatres and to reduce pain during childbirth
• However sometimes it affected the heart causing patients to die suddenly

• 1813-1858
• He discovered the connection between contaminated water and cholera
• Studied the occurrence of a cholera outbreak in London and noticed that the victims all used the same water pump
• He then removed the handle from the pump and ended the outbreak
• Thought that diseases were caused by bad air or pollution
• This was before the germ theory which backed it up

• 1514-1564
• Studied anatomy in Paris
• Was allowed to perform dissections but not to boil up bodies to get skeletons
• He became a profeddor of surgery and anatomy
• Did his own dissections rather than employing a menial demonstrator 
• Wrote books based on his observations using accurate diagrams to illustrate his work
• His illustrations were carefully annotated so he could refer to specific parts of the text
• His work pointed out some of Galen's mistakes-the same as Ibn al-Nafis did but 300 years later

Imhotep

• 2650-2600 BC
• Pharoah Zoser's doctor
• Adopted as a god of healing 
• Author of medical works without any magical thinking
• His works described many injuries in detail

Sekhmet

• Goddess of War
• Could supposedly send and cure epidemics

Thoth

• God who gave doctors their ability to cure people
• Wrote "Book of Thoth", they included accepted treatments and spells

Humphry Davy

• 1728-1828
• Identified nitrous oxide as a possible anaethetic
• But he was ignored by surgeons

Horace Wells

• 1815-1848
• Suggested that it be used in dentistry
• He did a public demonstration but unluckily picked a patient unaffected by nitrous oxide
• So it was ignored again until much later on

• 1868-1943
• Discovered blood groups 
• Showed the importance of compatibility of blood types
• Found that certain groups of blood couldn't be mixed together as they clogged the blood vessels
• This led to doctors noticing that blood also clotted if stored outside the body
• At this time many soldiers were dying of blood loss so being able to store it was very important
• They then discovered the use of sodium citrate to prevent this

Harvey Cushing

• American surgeon who specialised in brain surgery
• Went to France during WWI to treat wounded soldiers
• Developed methods of using x-rays to find shrapnel fragments in soldierss' brain and magnets to remove them
• His techniques halved the number of deaths casued by intracranial surgery during the war

Harvey Cushing

• 1869-1939
• American surgeon who specialised in brain surgery
• Went to France during WWI to treat wounded soldiers
• Developed methods of using x-rays to find shrapnel fragments in soldierss' brain and magnets to remove them
• His techniques halved the number of deaths casued by intracranial surgery during the war

Agot and Hustin

• 1868-1954, 1882-1967
• Discovered that adding sodium citrate to blood prevented it from clotting
• It was also found that blood could be kept for longer if it was added to a citrate glucose solution