Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index 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. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.