History of Medicine

  • 500 BCE

    discovery (middle ages)

    Alcmaeon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries
  • 500 BCE

    acupuncture (middle ages)

    Bian Que becomes the earliest physician known to use acupuncture and pulse diagnosis
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_medicine_and_medical_technology
  • Period: 500 to 1300

    middle ages

  • 910

    Rhazes (middle ages)

    Rhazes (middle ages)
    Persian physician Rhazes is the first to see that smallpox is different from measles, and suggested blood as the cause of disease.
  • 1010

    book on healing and medicine (middle ages)

    Avicenna writes The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine
  • 1249

    invention (middle ages)

    invention (middle ages)
    invention of spectacles
  • Period: 1301 to

    renaissance

  • 1489

    Dissections (Renaissances)

    Dissections (Renaissances)
    dissection of corpses
  • Zacharius Jannssen (Renaissance)

    Zacharius Jannssen invents the microscope
  • Heart (renaissance)

    People figure out how blood is pumped throughout the body by the heart, and then returns to the heart and recirculates.
  • Blood Transfusion (Renaissance)

    experimenting on dogs, English architect Sir Christopher Wren is the first to administer medications intravenously. He also experiments with canine blood transfusions
  • microorganisms (Renaissance)

    microorganisms (Renaissance)
    blood cells are discovered and people see animal and plant tissues and microorganisms
  • Period: to

    industrial revolution

  • René Laënnec (industrial revolution)

     René Laënnec (industrial revolution)
    René Laënnec invents the stethoscope.
  • human blood transfusion (industrial revolution)

    human blood transfusion (industrial revolution)
    the first successful transfusion of human blood.
  • anesthetic (industrial revolution)

    Boston dentist Dr. William Morton demonstrates ether's anesthetic properties during a tooth extraction
  • First woman with med degree (industrial revolution)

    Elizabeth Blackwell is the first woman to receive a medical degree
  • Vaccine (industrial revolution)

    First vaccine for cholera
  • Period: to

    modern world

  • vitamins and concludes (modern world)

    Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins suggests the existence of vitamins and concludes
  • cardiologist (modern world)

    cardiologist (modern world)
    Dr. Paul Dudley White becomes one of America's first cardiologists
  • diabetes (modern world)

    diabetes (modern world)
    Insulin first used to treat diabetes.
  • diphtheria (modern world)

    First vaccine for diphtheria.
  • tuberculosis (modern world)

    First vaccine for tuberculosis.
  • human genome (21st century)

    First draft of human genome is announced
  • Period: to

    21st century

  • cause of cancer (21st century)

    cause of cancer (21st century)
    First vaccine to target a cause of cancer
  • stem cells (21st century)

    stem cells (21st century)
    Scientists discover how to use human skin cells to create embryonic stem cells.
  • Brigham and Women’s scientists (21st century)

    Brigham and Women’s scientists discover a striking subset of T cells that collaborate with other immune cells
    https://hms.harvard.edu/about-hms/history-hms/timeline-discovery
  • enhancer transcription (21st century)

    environmental stimuli activate certain sections of DNA, enhancing the process by which messenger RNAs are created, and that these “enhancer regions” play a role in driving gene expression, the first evidence of widespread enhancer transcription.
    https://hms.harvard.edu/about-hms/history-hms/timeline-discovery