HISTORY OF MEDICINE matters which are not directly linked to the care for the

patient.

(End of the 19th Century)

OUTLINE
 Medical research flourished
I. Introduction
 “GOSPEL OF SPECIFIC ETIOLOGY” – refers to the
A. Reasons why medical students need to study the
concept that if we understand the causative agent of a
history of medicine
disease or the specific molecular events of a pathological
B. Important aspects of teaching/studying the history of
process, we can totally understand and control/manage the
medicine
disease.
II. Important dates in the history of medicine
III. The Beginning - Paleopathology and Paleo medicine “Can social media make a difference in the way we perceive diseases
A. Paleopathology while simultaneously being torn apart by the vast and growing
B. Paleo medicine difference between wealth and poverty?” Yes. It can help prevent
diseases. More and more people would be more knowledgeable (but
I. INTRODUCTION hopefully impervious to wrong information.)
A. Why do medical students need to study the history of
medicine?
(Causation)
 Lessons exist in the past (To learn from our mistakes)  Back then, diseases were believed to be caused by the
 Exploration of the past allow us to see the origins of our supernatural
customs, ideas, and institutions (Medicine is dynamic.)
 History is filled with great stories.  The practice of MEDICINE nowadays is aligned somehow to
PREVENTIVE MEDICINE or ASPECTS of the PRINCIPLE of
“There is a general agreement that medical history is not PUBLIC HEALTH. It is now more on the doctor treating one
simply an account of the path from past darkness to modern person and focusing more on treatment than prevention of
scientific enlightenment” – Lois Magner the disease.

B. Important aspects of teaching/studying the history of  When you talk about being a doctor it doesn’t mean that you
medicine are also automatically practicing prevention.

 Allow students to discover themselves a feeling of kinship  Actual Clinician - takes care of the individual
with patients, past and present practitioners, with a sense of  Public Health Practitioner - takes care of the whole
humility with respect to diseases and nature, and a critical community
approach to our present medical problems.  Public debates about medicine today no longer seem
 Studying courses in the history of medicine could play a concerned with the FUNDAMENTAL ASPECTS of the ART and
valuable role in helping students understand the SCIENCE of medicine, instead most insistently examined are:
development of science and technology, culture, tradition,  Health and care costs
and human values (Association of American Colleges).  Availability
 Knowing that we have not conquered or eradicated disease,  Access
and there is the absence of a cure for all viral diseases,  Equality
cancer & others, this has served to temper our optimism and
arrogance concerning the conquest of disease.  GOVERNMENT officials, policy makers, and analysis of health
 History of medicine may shed light on the changing pattern care professionals have focused attention on the
of health and disease including questions of medical management of COST rather than the care of the sick
practice: directly.
 Professionalism
 Institutions II. IMPORTANT DATES IN THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE
 Education
 Medicine costs The Egyptian, Imhotep,
 Innovation describes the diagnosis and
2600 BC
 Resistance to change treatment of approximately 200
diseases 
(1927) Birth of Hippocrates: “Father
460 BC
of Medicine”
“One of the essential qualities 130 BC Birth of Galen: Greek
of the clinician is interest in physician to gladiators and
humanity, for the secret of the Roman emperors 
care of the patient is in CARING 1010 Persian physician Avicenna
FOR THE PATIENT” - DR. writes “The Book of Healing”
FRANCIS PEABODY and “The Canon of
 Yet there is a finding Medicine” 
based on an exam of
1334 Bubonic plague, the “Black
some work, that there is Death” begins the sweep
uncoupling between the across the world, killing tens of
attention to the patient millions 
and a focus on scientific
1543 Andreas Vesalius published

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 his discoveries in human 
Produced dramatic paintings from France and
anatomy: “De fabrica Corporis Spain
Humani”   Practice hunting in order to have a source of food
1590 Invention of the microscope  (Hunter-gatherers)
1628 William Harvey published his  Hunters used to be a very important; nowadays
findings on the circulation of data, or information is the most important eating
blood 
commodity.
1663 Anton  Paleolithic Diet- eating of gathered food
van Leeuwenhoek uses a
B. PALEOMEDICINE
microscope to observe bacteria
for the first time 
 Evidence of diseases and injuries among ancient humans
1796 Edward Jenner develops a and other animals is sufficient to establish and be able to
vaccine for smallpox  determine how humans responded to suffering caused by
1816 Rene Laennec invented the diseases.
stethoscope
1842 William Clark and Crawford  Trepanation
Long use ether as an o the evidence of paleomedicine or an evidence of
anesthetic  ancient surgical skills
1870 Robert Koch and Louis o mistakenly referred to as “prehistoric brain
Pasteur develop the germ free surgery”
theory of disease  o successful trepanation involves removal of disk of
1895 Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen bone from the cranium, without damage to the
discovers the X-ray brain itself
1918 A new strain of influenza o first surgical procedure during this period
nicknamed the “Spanish Flu” o common in Peru
kills between 50 million-100 o the usual reason for such a daring operation was a
million people worldwide head injury or a war inflicted wound, in which case
1922 Insulin is used to treat diabetes  the new hole was made near or over the older
1928 Sir Alexander Fleming injury
discovered penicillin o the operation might have been an attempt to
1967 Christian Barnard performs relieve headaches, epilepsy, or other disorders
the first successful heart
transplant CHECKPOINT!
1980 The WHO declares smallpox to 1. Who is one of the founders of paleopathology?
be eradicated  2. It is defined as the study of diseases during ancient
times.
1983 HIV, the virus that causes AIDS
3. It is the evidence of disease and injuries among ancient

2. Paleopathology
was discovered 

3.Paleomedicine
human and other animals is sufficient to establish and be

4. Trepanation
2006 A vaccine to prevent able to determine how humans responded to suffering

1. Sir Ruffer
cervical cancer is developed caused by diseases
4. It is mistakenly referred to as “prehistoric brain surgery”

5. Peru
5. Where is trepanation common?
III. THE BEGINNING - PALEOPATHOLOGY AND
PALEOMEDICINE

5.
1.
2.
3.
A. PALEOPATHOLOGY 4.

 Sir Ruffer (1859-1857)

 One of the founders of paleopathology

 defined as the SCIENCE of the DISEASES that can be

demonstrated in human and animal remains of the ancient
times
 in order to explore the problem of disease in the
time period, we need to survey some aspect of
HUMAN EVOLUTION (both biological and cultural)
 Evidence-based medicine

 study of fossils as evidence

 about 10,000 years ago, the Great Ice Age (Pleistocene)
ended the early Human – Hunter Gatherer on opportunistic
omnivores who:
 Learned to make tools (bones and stones) to build
shelters, carry and share food and create unity in
human social structure

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