Timeline of medicine and medical technology

Timeline of medicine and medical technology

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 ventricless 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.