History of medicine

Antiquity

See also: Medicine Assyro-Babylonian, Medicine in ancient Egypt, Medicine in ancient Greece, Medicine under ancient Rome

The first hard copies having milked with medicine go back to the Code of Hammurabi at the XVIIIe century before J. - C. It was about a code regulating the activity of the doctor in particular his fees and the risks which he incurred in the event of professional misconduct. The constitution of a medical library with Assurbanipal in VIIe century before J. - C. mark the beginning of the medical formation.

By dissociating it from the magic, the scientists of the Greek Antiquité are the founders of the Western Médecine. The precursors are Pythagore, Thalès de Milet, Empédocle d' Agrigente or Démocrite which although more known today for their writings in Mathématiques or Philosophie also followed the occupation of Médecin.

The first known Greek scientist above all for his work in Médecine is probably Hippocrates with the O C. He is traditionally recognized as the author of the oath which bears its name and its work is with the program of the studies of medicine until the 18th century. In 320 av. J. - C. the school of Alexandria produces considerable lesson in human Anatomie. This lesson is unfortunately ignored during centuries by the doctors who preferred to base themselves on the Extrapolation S of Dissection S of animals of Aristote. The Greeks transmitted their art in the Roman Empire. At the 2nd century, Galien writes manuscripts which will make authority until the Renaissance: it takes again the theory of the there Four elements described by Hippocrates but systematizes it with producing bodies.

Tradipraticians

The Middle Ages

XVIe century

The 16th century is marked by the redécouverte anatomy. Among the scientists who dare to face the taboo, most known is undoubtedly André Vésale of the university of Padoue, author in 1543 of the Of humani corporis fabrica . In a Amphitheater, in front of students come from the whole Europe, it practices many dissections on committed suicide or condemned to death. Often these public dissections lasted until the flesh are too damaged to allow any observation. It is a true revolution of knowledge in anatomy which had remained sclerosed since work of Galien on animals at the 2nd century.

This progress of knowledge makes it possible the Chirurgie to escape its statute from minor art to become gradually a discipline with whole share of medicine. In France, Ambroise Paré incarnates with him only this change of status. By inventing in 1552 the binding of the Artery S, it saves the amputees of a nearly certain death and becomes one of the most recognized experts of its time.

XVIIe century

The 17th century is marked by several important discoveries:

First of all William Harvey discovers the blood circulation (1628) and explains all the phenomenon of it. That calls into question all the dogma humoral of Hippocrates, this discovery is so important that in all Europe the partisans and adversaries of William Harvey will clash. This quarrel ends by the installation by Louis XIV of a course on the blood circulation (1674) to the Garden of the King who is currently the Museum of natural history. For the first time the political power will take party in a scientific quarrel.

The second innovation which marks this century is the invention of the Microscope which made it possible for the first time to observe the Microbe S.

In 1658, Kircher affirms to have observed in the blood of the patients victims of the epidemic of the plague, of the thousands of worms which for him are the cause of this disease. Thanks to this discovery new medical specialities are created and knowledge on the human body is supplemented. One thus discovers the red globules and of the cells.

In 1677, the theory of the spontaneous generation is called into question because of discovered Spermatozoïde S by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, the role of the ovary S is then proposed as well as the principle of the nidation of egg. One also attends the first childbirth carried out by doctors.

Despite everything these discoveries the therapeutic one only evolves/moves very little, the studies of medicine being always founded on the reading of the old texts. The care primarily consists in practicing bleedings or purgings. However a drug will be discovered, it makes it possible to look after the Malaria or the Paludisme, it is the known Quinine in South America since the INCA S.

Louis XIV decides to create in each big city a large general hospital in order to accommodate any person in difficulty there. Already voices rise so that the hospital becomes a place of teaching but this projection will be done only in the middle of the 18th century.

This time also sees, within the frameworks of the voyages of exploration, to appear the premises of a tropical Médecine.

XVIIIe century

The 18th century is marked by the birth of the epidemiology, promoted by economists like Gottfried Achenwall. It is the beginning of the health policies public: in France Felix Vicq-in Azyr sets up an inspection network of the medical condition of the population.

Of 1700 with 1714, Bernardino Ramazzini writes the first book on the occupational diseases which will remain the reference during two centuries.

In 1721 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu imports in England the technique of the variolisation used with Constantinople by Giacomo Pylarini since 1701. This prevention consisted in inoculating on healthy subjects of the pus coming from a patient of the Variole.

In 1736 Claudius Aymand carries out the first appendicectomy.

In 1768, William Heberden gives the first clinical description of the Angina pectoris.

The May 14th 1796 the English doctor Edward Jenner manages to immunize the small James Phipps of the Variole by inoculating to him pus taken on a country-woman infected by vaccinates.

XIXe century

At the beginning of the 19th century the Tuberculose is propagated in Europe. If the bacillus is discovered by Robert Koch in 1882 it is necessary to wait 60 more years for a treatment Antibiotique. During all the century the “consumption” is the most dreaded plague.

Into France the Republic then the Empire completely transform the teaching of medicine while imposing to the medical students or into surgery a hands-on training at the hospital and exercises of dissection. The diploma for the occupation of doctor of medicine becomes obligatory to exert.

The first maternities are created and the medical profession obstetrician is invented. The mothers who are confined in these new structures are however particularly exposed with the infections and nearly 10% of them die of Fièvre puerpérale. The Austrian doctor Ignace Philippe Semmelweis discovers soon that these infections are transmitted by the hands of the doctors and gradually manages to promote a strict hygiene of looking after before each visit.

In 1867 Joseph Lister uses phenol to destroy the germs at the time of the surgical operations . In parallel, the Anesthésie develops, invented the October 16th 1846, by the dentist William Morton of the hospital of Boston.

In 1885 Louis Pasteur manages to save the child Joseph Meister by managing to him his vaccine against the Rage.

The techniques of the diagnosis improve they too. Rene Laennec invents the Stéthoscope in 1815. In 1868 Adolf Kussmaul creates the gastroscopy while taking as a starting point the exploits of a sword swallower. Scipione Rivetted-Rocci measurement the blood Pressure with the tensiometer in 1896. Willem Einthoven develops the electrocardiography. In 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen discovers the X-rays. It carries out the first Radiographie on the hand of his wife.

Philippe Pinel creates the first school of Psychiatrie in France and prohibits the sequence of the lunatics in asylums of Paris.

In 1881 Theodor Billroth carries out the first gastrectomy, it revolutionizes the surgery of the pharynx and the stomach.

By using the statistical analysis, the physicist Pierre-Charles Alexandre Louis (1787 - 1872) watch that the use of the bled S among patients reached of Pneumonie is not beneficial but harmful. This outlines the concept of study randomized as a double blind man.

XXe century

The November 25th 1901, Aloïs Alzheimer describes the clinical picture of the disease which bears its name. There does not exist always any treatment known to date.

The treatment medical make spectacular progress with the invention of new classes of drugs. Felix Hoffmann deposits the patent of the Aspirine the March 6th 1899. In 1909, the Nobel of medicine Paul Ehrlich invents the first Chimiothérapie by creating a treatment containing Arsenic against the Syphilis. In 1921 Frederick Banting of the university of Toronto insulates the Insuline and invents a treatment of the Diabète sweetened. The Antibiotic first date of 1928 with the discovery of the Penicillin by Alexander Fleming. In 1952, the discovery of the Nerve sedative S by Henri Laborit, Jean Delay and Pierre Deniker revolutionizes the Psychiatrie while making it possible to consider a resocialisation for thousands of internees. In 1957 Roland Kuhn discovers the first Antidépresseur. In 1982, J. Robin Warren and Barry J. Marshall allow the medical care of the Ulcère of the stomach by discovering that it is of bacterial origin.

The cardiac Chirurgie was also born during the century. In 1929 Werner Forssmann introduces a catheter into its own cardiac ventricle. The November 29th 1944 it is the first open-heart operation by Alfred Blalock of Baltimore. The cardiac pacemaker is invented in 1958. In 1960 the artificial cardiac valve invented by Lowell Edwards is established for the first time by Albert Starr. Christiaan Barnard carries out the first transplantation heart in 1967.

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