Timeline of medicine and medical technology
Timeline of medicine and medical technology
- c. 1500s BC - Saffron used as a medicine on the Aegean island of Thera in ancient Greece
- c. 500 BC¹ - Sushruta wrote Sushruta Samhita describing over 120 surgical instruments, 300 surgical procedures and classified human surgery in 8 categories. Performed cosmetic surgery
- 420 BC - Hippocrates begins the scientific study of medicine by maintaining that diseases have natural causes and puts forth the Hippocratic Oath, marking the birth of modern medicine
- 280 BC - Herophilus studies the nervous system and distinguishes between sensory nerves and motor nerves
- 250 BC - Erasistratus studies the brain and distinguishes between the cerebrum and cerebellum
- 50-70 - Pedanius Dioscorides writes De Materia Medica - a precursor of modern pharmacopeias that was in use for almost 1600 years
- 180 - Galen studies the connection between paralysis and severance of the spinal cord
- 1242 - Ibn an-Nafis suggests that the right and left ventricles of the heart are separate and describes the lesser circulation of blood
- 1249 - Roger Bacon writes about convex lens spectacles for treating long-sightedness
- 1403 - Venice implements a quarantine against the Black Death
- 1451 - Nicholas of Cusa invents concave lens spectacles to treat myopia
- early 16th century: Paracelsus, an alchemist by trade, rejects occultism and pioneers the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine
- 1543 - Andreas Vesalius publishes De Fabrica Corporis Humani which corrects Greek medical errors and revolutionizes medicine
- 1546 - Girolamo Fracastoro proposes that epidemic diseases are caused by transferable seedlike entities
- 1553 - Miguel Serveto describes the lesser circulation of blood through the lungs
- 1559 - Realdo Colombo describes the lesser circulation of blood through the lungs in detail
- 1603 - Girolamo Fabrici studies leg veins and notices that they have valves which only allow blood to flow toward the heart
- 1628 - William Harvey explains the vein-artery system and structure of the heart in De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis
- 1701 - Giacomo Pylarini gives the first smallpox inoculations
- 1747 - James Lind discovers that citrus fruits prevent scurvy
- 1763 - Claudius Aymand performs the first successful appendectomy
- 1790s - Samuel Hahnemann rages against the prevalent practice of bloodletting as a universal cure and founds homeopathy
- 1796 - Edward Jenner develops a smallpox vaccination method
- 1800 - Humphry Davy announces the anaesthetic properties of nitrous oxide
- 1816 - Rene Laennec invents the stethoscope
- 1842 - Crawford Long performs the first surgical operation using anasthesia
- 1847 - Ignaz Semmelweis studies and prevents the transmission of puerperal fever
- 1870 - Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch establish the germ theory of disease
- 1881 - Louis Pasteur develops an anthrax vaccine
- 1882 - Louis Pasteur develops a rabies vaccine
- 1890 - Emil von Behring discovers antitoxins and uses them to develop tetanus and diphtheria vaccines
- 1906 - Frederick Hopkins suggests the existence of vitamins and suggests that a lack of vitamins causes scurvy and rickets
- 1907 - Paul Ehrlich develops a chemotherapeutic cure for sleeping sickness
- 1921 - Edward Mellanby discovers vitamin D and shows that its absence causes rickets
- 1923 First vaccine for Diphtheria
- 1926 First vaccine for Pertussis
- 1927 First vaccine for Tuberculosis
- 1927 First vaccine for Tetanus
- 1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
- 1932 - Gerhard Domagk develops a chemotherapeutic cure for streptococcus
- 1935 First vaccine for Yellow Fever
- 1952 - Jonas Salk develops the first polio vaccine
- 1962 First Oral Polio Vaccine
- 1964 First vaccine for Measles
- 1967 First vaccine for Mumps
- 1970 First vaccine for Rubella
- 1981 First vaccine for Hepatitis B
Footnote
1. The date at which the Sushruta Samhita was compiled is uncertain. A Tribute to Hinduism and other sources agree that Sushruta lived in the 5th century B.C., and so even the date 500 B.C. may be too early.