“Those who fail to read the history are destined to suffer the repetition of mistakes”

The History of Medicine

Primitive Medicine

• It is truly said “Medicine was conceived in sympathy

and born out of necessity”.• Due to limited Knowledge Primitive men attributed the

disease to ‘wrath of gods’ or ‘invasion of body by evil spirits’- supernatural theory of disease.

• As a logical sequence, the medicine they practiced consisted of appeasing the gods by prayers, rituals etc

e.g. treatment of snake bite by mantras.

• Primitive medicine is timeless and rudiments are seen in many parts of world like Asia, South America

Indian Medicine

• 5000 BC• ‘Dhanvantari’ Hindu god of medicine is said to be born

out of churning of ocean in a tug of war between gods and demons.

• Some believe that ‘Atharvaveda’ gradually developed into Ayurveda.

• Ayurveda=Knowledge of life

• Believed in ‘Tridosha theory of disease’.

• Vata(wind), Pitta (Gall) and Kapha (Mucous).• Celebrated Authorities are Atreya, Charaka,

Sushruta

• Charaka - Charake samhita

- Mentioned about 500 drugs• Sushruta - ‘Father of Indian Surgery’

-Sushruta Samhita

-Midwifery, Ophthalmology• Other medicine of Indian origin- Siddha. • Other medicines not of Indian origin

Unani, Homeopathy etc• Arabic-Drug, alcohol, syrup, sugar

Chinese Medicine

• 2700 BC • First organized body of medical knowledge• Based on ‘yang’ and ‘yin’ • Pioneers of immunization

• Bare foot doctors

• To Chinese ‘The great doctor is the one who treats not some one ill but some one not yet ill.

Egyptian Medicine

• 2000 BC• Imhotop – considered as both Doctor and

divine• Believed in Pulse-speech of heart.• God of health is ‘Horus’.• Ebers Papyrus- mentioned 700 drugs.• Specializations prevailed.• Treatment with enema.• Oldest treatise of Surgery, Mentioned

about paralysis following cerebral fractures.

Mesopotamian Medicine

• 2000 BC• Religion Based concepts.• Herb doctors, Knife doctors and

Spell doctors roughly equal to interns, surgeons and psychiatrists respectively.

• Hammurabi- King formulated Code of Hammurabi for Physicians.

• Oldest medical prescription was traced.

Greek Medicine

• 460-136 BC

• Taught men to think in terms of “why

and How”• Leader of Greek Medicine is “Aesculapius”(staff

entwined by serpent is symbol of medicine)

Hygiea Panacea

Preventive Medicine

Curative Medicine

Fashion among Intellectuals

Gets the cash

Hippocrates

• Father of Medicine• Hippocratic oath• Clinician and Epidemiologist• “Airs, water and places”-Book is considered as

treatise to Social Medicine and Hygiene.

Roman Medicine• 136 AD• Borrowed from Greek• Keen sense of sanitation• Galen – physician, contributed to Comparative

Anatomy, Experimental physiology.• Disease due to Predisposing ,Exciting and

Environmental factors.

Middle Ages

• Period of Lull i.e. Pause• The practice of medicine reverted back to

primitive medicine dominated by superstitions due to dominance of religion.

Revival of Medicine• Paracelsus-First to Attack superstitious beliefs

• Fracastorious-Theory of contagion• Andreus Vesalius-1st Man of Modern Medicine.• Ambriose Pare-Father of Surgery.• William Harvey-Blood circulation

• Thomas Sydenham-Classification of Fever.

• Leeuwenhoek –Microscope• Edward Jenner-Vaccination-1796

• 1800 –sanitary awakening.• 1854 – Florence Nightingale; beginning of

modern nursing.• Rise of Public Health

• John Snow- NATURAL EXPERIMENT ON LONDON CHOLERA-1849

• Chadwick-sanitary reforms.

• Louis Pasteur-1860-germ theory of disease

• 1864- International Red Cross

• 1882-Koch; Anthrax, Tuberculosis and study of bacteria

• 1898- Sir Ronold Ross –Malaria transmitted by Anopheles

• 1900-• Multifactorial cause of disease• 1st Blood transfusion.

• 1921-Banting & Best- isolated hormone Insulin

• 1940- Fleming -penicillin• 1948-

• World Health Organization• Modern hard contact lens were introduced

• 1953-Watson and Crick; DNA• 1954-Salk; polio vaccine• 1956-Kidney dialysis• 1967-1st Heart transplant.• 1977-1st coronary Balloon

Angioplasty was done.

Health care revolution

• Primary health care -1978

• Health for all-1981

• Millennium Development goals-2000

• NRHM- April 12th2005

Primitive Medicine

Egyptian Medicine

Sushruta

Hammurabi

Hammurabi- King formulated Code of Hammurabi for Physicians.

Rhazes

Galen

A. Vesalius

Thomas Sydenham

James Lind -Scurvy

Robert Koch

Lennec

SemmelWeiss

Edward Jenner

Rudolph Virchow

L. Pasteur

Hopkins

Roentgen

Thank you