History

Hippocrates was born in 460 b.c. a Greek physician and founder of
the first university.Considered the father of medicine.

Galen was born in 130 a.d. considered to be the person who most
contributed to medicine after Hippocrates. Galen had greek
parents and was a phyisician to gladitators and a personal
physician to some emperors.He published 500 treatises, and lived
primarily in Rome.

In 910 Rhazes, a Persian physician, was the first person to
diferentiate smallpox from measles. He also suggested blood as the
cause.

In 1590 Dutch lens grinder Zacharius Jannssen invented the
microscope.

In 1628 William Harvey published An Anatomical Study of the Motion
of the Heart and of the Blood in Animals.

In 1670 Anton van Leeuwenhoek refines the microscope and
creates nearly 500 diferent types. He discovers blood cells and
views plant and animal tissues and micro-oraganisms.

In 1747 James Lind, a Scottish naval surgeon, finds a way to
prevent scurvy using citrus fruits. He published the Treatise of
scurvy in 1754.

In 1800 Sir Humphrey Davy announces anesthetic properties of
nitrous oxide, but they weren't used until 45 years later.

In 1816 Rene Laennec invented the stethoscope.

In 1829 James Blundell a British obstetrician executed the first
successful human blood transfusion.

In 1846 William Morton shows ethers's anesthetic properties during
a tooth extraction.

In 1849 Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman to receive a
medical degree.

In 1867 Joseph Lister publishes Antiseptic Principle of the Practice
of Surgery. As a way to help keep infections from spreading, he
used carbolic acid to clean wounds and surgical instruments.

1870's Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch develop the germ theory of
disease. Germ theory states a specific disease caused by a specific
organism.

1879-1882 saw the first vaccines for anthrax, cholera, and
forrabies.

1890 Emil von Behring discovers antitoxins and wth them
discovers tetanus and diptheria vaccines.

1895 Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers X-rays.

1896 first vaccines for typhoid fever and an inactivated
polio vaccine were licenced.

In 1902 Sir Ronald Ross won an nobel prize for his work on
malaria. Another nobel prize winner was Karl Landsteiner
in 1930 for his research on human blood groups.

1959 world health assembly passes initial resolution calling
for global smallpox eradication

1961-1963 the monovalent oral polio vaccine and trivalent
oral polio vaccine were licenced.

1970-1981 saw the first vaccine for ruebella,the first
vaccine for chicken pox, the first vaccine for pneumonia,
the first vaccine for meningitas, and the first vaccine for
hepatitis B.

1983 HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is identified

1992 first vaccine for hepaititis

2003 Carlo Urbani alerted the world heath organization to
the threat of the SARS (severe acute respiratory
syndrome) virus.