People in Medicine and Treatment

Famous and important people

1350 - The Present Day

Hippocrates: 1350 - 1750 (M. Ages - Renaissance)

Most important for:

• The Four Humours
  • Blood
  • Yellow bile
  • Phlegm
  • Black bile

Other Details:

• Ancient Greek
• the 'Father of Medicine'
• medical traditions - clinical observation
• he was the idea behind the 'Hippocratic Oath'
• wrote medical books

Cladius Galen (AD.129)

Most Important for:

• his influence on medical treatment for the next 1000 years.

Other Details:

• his 'theory of opposites'
• wrote 350 medical texts
• dissected pigs
• bloodletting

Lady Grace Mildmay:

Most important for:

• her herbal remedies offered to the poor and the records

Other details:

• she kept records of recipes for her remedies
• she was a wealthy land owner
• shows what women could do in the M. Ages

Andreas Vesalius (1514 - 1564):

Most important for:

• proved Galen's ideas to be wrong, published drawings on human anatomy

Other Details:

• dissected corpses
• muscles connected to bone
• most complete work on the human anatomy
• used drugs - mercury, sulphur
• doctors opposed

William Harvey (1578 - 1657):

Most important for:

• discovered how the heart works

Other Details:

• the heart:
  • pump
  • not used up
  • veins and arteries
• wrote books
• how much blood in the body
• no microscope - capillaries (no proof)

Amboise Pare (1510 - 1590):

Most important for:

• cauterizing with out heat - egg yolk mix and silk stitches

Other Details:

• surgeon to 4 kings of France
• made discoveries public
• bezoar stone theory wrong
• stitches infected - death
• public demonstrations

Hunter Brothers: 1750 - 1900 (Industrial Revolution)

Most important:

• studied anatomy and discovered arthritis and its problems

Other details:

• Glaswegian
• William - doctor
• John - not qualified
• they had a scientific approach to surgery

Edward Jenner:

Most important for:

• Vaccination for Smallpox 1796

Other Details:

• inoculation - v. better method
• luck / chance (milk maids)
• the 'James Phipps' experiment
• Opposition:
  • doctors
  • church and public (superstition)
  • inoculators
• Support from the government
  • funding
  • laws passed

Louis Pasteur:

Most important for:

• the Germ Theory of Disease, pasteurization

Other details:

• proved how vaccines work
• boiling liquids to remove germs
• vaccinations for:
  • fowl cholera
  • anthrax
  • rabies
• influenced others

Robert Koch:

Most important for:

• aseptic surgery - no germs present

Other details:

• used new technology
• vaccine serums on solid substances (transport)
• inspired others
• Nobel Prize
• the 'founder of modern bacteriology'

Paul Erlich:

Most important for:

• chemotherapy

Other Details:

• Interested: chemicals could stain germs - could they kill?
• salverson 606 - 'The Magic Bullet'
• could fight flu and pneumonia
• painful
• arsenic based

Florence Nightingale:

Most important for:

• her effect on nursing during the Crimean War

Other details:

• St Thomas' Hospital London - 1871
• spaced out wards, good air circulation
• friendly and well trained nurses
• Scutari hospital in the Crimea
• 'The Lady with the Lamp'
• nothing for the WH infirmaries
• ignored Mary Seacole - racist
• rich, friends in high places

Mary Seacole:

Most important for:

• her involvement with nursing in the Crimean War

Other Details:

• knowledge of tropical treatments
• succeeded despite racial prejudices
• opened the British Hotel

Elizabeth Garret Anderson:

Most important for:

• the first British woman to qualify as a doctor

Other Details:

• met Elizabeth Blackwell - inspired by her
• turned down at British Uni's
• M.D degree - University of Paris 1870
• 1876 act of Parliament: women allowed to enter all medical professions

Alexander Fleming:

Most important for:

• Discover of Penicillin

Other Details:

• doctor WW1
• prof. of Bacteriology at St Mary's
• researched protecting people from infection in wounds
• dish left by open window = mould grown + germs stopped
• germ killing juice called penicillin
• tested on animals
• no facilities or money to produce enough
• wrote up findings

Florey and Chain:

Most important for:

• mass production of penicillin and the first antibiotic

Other details:

• read flemings paper
• could produce pure penicillin
• needed money so went to US
• saved millions in WW2
• Nobel Prizes
• mass production achieved

Watson and Crick:

Most important for:

• discovered the structure of DNA

Other details:

• great scientists - tried other methods
• didn't work alone
• had the best equipment
• funded by the government and industries

R Franklin:

Most important for:

• showed there was a mistake in Crick and Watson's model
• took the first picture of DNA

M Wilkins:

Most important for:

• expert in X-ray photography
• discovered the Double Helix structure
• showed Crick and Watson Franklin's work

David Lloyd George:

Most important for:

• National Insurance Act 1911 and the Liberal Reforms 1906-14

Other Details:

• PM of the UK
• helped to start the Welfare State with the Liberal Reforms
• introduced the People's Budget (higher taxes on the rich)

William Beverage:

Most important for:

• The Beverage report and the Welfare state 1942

Other Details:

• his report proposes a 'Free NHS'
• 'Cradle to the Grave'
• 5 Wants of the Nation:
  • Ignorance
  • Squalor
  • Social needs
  • Disease
  • Idleness

Aneurin Bevan:

Most important for:

• Minister of Health and housing and the NHS

Other Details:

• took over all responsibilities for medical services
• gave free medicine and treatment to all
• helped with rebuilding houses after the Blitz