medicine people

Question 1

Wilhelm Röntgen

Answer 1

A German scientist who discovered X-rays in 1895. Within months of him publishing his discovery, the first X-ray machines were being used in hospitals to identify diseases and broken bones.

Question 2

Marie and Pierre Curie

Answer 2

Polish scientist who worked with her French husband to develop radiation therapy. Building on Röntgen’s discovery of X-rays, they noticed that their hands were being burned by the material they were handling. They investigated this further and this led to the discovery of radium, which has been used ever since to diagnose and treat cancer, often reducing the need for surgery.

Question 3

Karl Landsteiner

Answer 3

Discovered the existence of blood groups in 1901. After this, successful blood transfusions became possible, but only if the donor and the patient were in the same place, because the blood would quickly clot and become useless. This problem was solved during WW1. There was a huge need for blood, so scientists researched ways that blood could be stored without clotting. Sodium citrate was added to blood, which solved the problem.

Question 4

Archibald McIndoe

Answer 4

Used skin grafts to reconstruct faces and hands destroyed by fire. He carried out 4000 operations on soldiers who had been burned during WW2.

Question 5

Asclepius

Answer 5

Greek God of healing. His daughters were Panacea and Hygieia. The Greeks believed that he had a snake that could cure blindness by licking patients eyelids. He is usually shown with his snake twined around his staff (this is now an internationally recognised symbol for medical care/hospitals)

Question 6

Aristotle

Answer 6

One of the great Greek philosophers. His interest in biology led him to dissect animals and plants. This method was copied by others for centuries. He suggested that the heart and the brain are the most important organs, and they work together to control the body.
William Harvey (who discovered the circulation of blood in the 1600s) admired his approach.

Question 7

Christiaan Barnard

Answer 7

South African heart surgeon famous for carrying out the world’s first heart transplant in 1967. The patient died after 18 days, but much was learned from the process, and since then many successful heart transplants have been performed.

Question 8

Hippocrates

Answer 8

Father of modern medicine. Lived in Ancient Greece. He is remembered for:
The Hippocratic Oath that all doctors take to this day
The Hippocratic Collection of books
His emphasis on observing and recording symptoms. He was the first to say that this would help doctors diagnose patients.
He encouraged doctors to look for natural treatments for illnesses rather than praying to the Gods
The Four Humours (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile). He believed that if the humours become unbalanced then a person becomes ill.

Question 9

Dioscorides

Answer 9

A Greek surgeon in the Roman army. He wrote a book describing many herbal remedies. These remedies contained ingredients such as honey and garlic, that would have helped patients by killing infections.

Question 10

Galen

Answer 10

Greek physician and surgeon who lived in the Roman empire. He built on the work of Hippocrates in several ways.
He believed that illness was caused by imbalances of the four humours, and thought careful observation was vital.
He prescribed a healthy diet and exercise to cure illness
He developed a ‘Theory of opposites’ to help balance the humours. (EG: Runny nose – too much phlegm – eat hot peppers)
Focused more on anatomy than Hippocrates, thought dissection was an important learning tool, usually of apes
Publicly dissected a pig to demonstrate his discoveries about the nervous system
Wrote hundreds of books, that were used by medical students for 1500 years
His ideas fit in with the Bible, so for centuries Christians did not question his teachings.

Question 11

Ibn Sina

Answer 11

An Arab doctor. Known in Europe as Avicenna. Wrote a medical encyclopedia called ‘The Canon’. This was used to teach European physicians until the 1600s. He included the work of the Greeks and his own methods. He was known as the ‘Galen of Islam’.

Question 12

al-Razi

Answer 12

An Arab doctor. Known in Europe as Rhazes. He wrote over 200 books, including his own ideas, but also believed it was important to learn from the work of ancient physicians.

Question 13

Ibn al-Nafis

Answer 13

Arab doctor. Investigated the anatomy of the heart, and was brave enough to challenge Galen. Galen said that blood moves from one side of the heart to the other side through ‘invisible channels’ – al-Nafis observed that these channels did not exist. He said that blood moves from the heart to the lungs and back again, therefore circulating around the body. (Nobody built on his work, and it wasn’t until the 1600s that this discovery was made in Europe)

Question 14

Henri de Mondeville

Answer 14

Military surgeon from the early Medieval period. He taught his students to bathe and cleanse wounds, and close them up quickly without trying to form pus. (Doctors used to believe that pus was a sign that a wound was healing)

Question 15

John Bradmore

Answer 15

Royal surgeon from medieval times. Designed a forcep to help remove arrowheads on the battlefield. The wound would then be spread with honey to stop infection

Question 16

Hugh and Theodoric

Answer 16

Two surgeons (father and son) from Medieval Italy. They were the very first to claim that pus does not help a wound to heal. They encouraged the use of wine to help heal wounds.

Question 17

Roger of Salerno

Answer 17

Medieval surgeon. Wrote the first European textbook on surgery in 1180.

Question 18

Leonardo da Vinci

Answer 18

Renaissance polymath (polymath = somebody who is very good at a large number of things). He encouraged young artists to understand human anatomy (sinews, muscles, nerves…). He thought if they understood the human body they could better represent it in art.

Question 19

Andreas Vesalius

Answer 19

Renaissance doctor and surgeon. Wrote ‘The Fabric of the Human Body’ (1545), a detailed and fully illustrated description of human anatomy. He respected Galen’s work, but proved that Galen was wrong in three ways:
The human jaw bone is made from one bone (Galen said it was two)
The breastbone has three parts (Galen said seven)
Blood does not flow into the heart through invisible holes in the septum – such holes do not exist.
NOTE: Many doctors disputed this and he was criticised. Also, Vesalius didn’t actually make anyone healthier, his work was only a start.
He also showed that doctors could learn more about anatomy, and had to carry out human (not animal) dissection to learn more.

Question 20

William Harvey

Answer 20

Renaissance doctor. King Charles I’s personal physician. Wrote ‘An Anatomical Account of the Motion of the Heart and Blood’ (1628). This book described how blood circulates around the body, and that the body has a one way system for blood. Harvey proved that the heart acts as a pump. He proved this with dissection of humans and animals. NOTE: His discovery was only gradually accepted, as it contradicted Galen. Many patients stopped seeing him as they thought he was mad. Also, his ideas did not make anyone better, it was only a start.

Question 21

Ambroise Paré

Answer 21

Renaissance surgeon. Spent 20 years as an army surgeon, and then was surgeon to kings of France. Most famous surgeon in Europe because of his books ‘Ten Books on Surgery’ and ‘Apology and Treatise’. He changed the treatment of gunshot wounds, as he replaced the use of boiling oil on wounds with his own mixture of egg yolks, rose oil and turpentine. He used ligatures to stop bleeding (silk threads tied around individual blood vessels) rather than using a cauterising iron, which he thought was cruel. He also designed and made the first false limbs for wounded soldiers, and included drawings of them in his books to spread the idea.
NOTE: Stopping bleeding with ligatures was slow – cauterisation was more practical on the battlefield. Ligatures could also encourage deadly infection. Also, his discoveries were small scale: there was still no antiseptics/knowledge of blood groups.

Question 22

Edward Jenner

Answer 22

18th century doctor. Wrote ‘An Enquiry into the Causes and Effects of Variola Vaccinae, known by the name of Cowpox’. (1798) This showed that vaccination could save people from catching smallpox. He called his method ‘vaccination’ because the Latin word for cow is ‘vacca’. By 1803, vaccination was being used in the USA, and Napoleon has the whole French army vaccinated in 1805. In 1852, vaccination was made compulsory in Britain. By 1980, smallpox was globally wiped out. Remember that he didn’t know that germs caused disease.
NOTE: Many people opposed vaccines because they thought illness was a punishment for sin, a lot of doctors said it was too revolutionary, and it was against Gods law to give people an animal disease. They also didn’t want to trust the word of a ‘country doctor’, and thought the government should not be interfering in people’s lives.

Question 23

Louis Pasteur

Answer 23

Published his ‘Germ Theory’ in 1861. Carried out a series of experiments to prove that bacteria (germs) make milk and beer go bad, and that bacteria causes diseases in animals. In 1864 he convinced other scientists that his theory was correct. He also developed vaccines for animal diseases, and for treating rabies in humans. Pasteur was mocked by scientists who believed in theory of spontaneous generation.

Question 24

Robert Koch

Answer 24

Developed the scientific methods during the 1870s that helped scientists to identify specific bacteria. He discovered the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB). Other scientists used his methods to discover the bacteria that causes other diseases.

Question 25

Alexander Fleming

Answer 25

Discovered penicillin by chance in 1928, and thereby revolutionised the way that doctors treated disease and infection in patients. Discovered that the mould in his petri dish had created a bacteria-free circle around itself. He named the active substance in the mould ‘penicillin’. The development of penicillin marked the start of modern antibiotics, and saved an estimated 200 million lives in less than 70 years.

Question 26

John Snow

Answer 26

Public heath and surgery pioneer. Wrote a book in 1849 sharing his opinion that cholera spread through dirty water, not ‘bad air’, but other doctors mocked him. In 1854, he proved his theory by pointing out that the majority of the people who died of cholera in the Broad Street area all used the same water pump. His report was called ‘On the Mode of Communication of Cholera’.
NOTE: Even though Snow proved that clean water was essential for preventing the spread of cholera, the government still did not take action. Many scientists also still clung to the ‘bad air’ theory (this was before Pasteur published his germ theory in 1861.

Question 27

David Lloyd George

Answer 27

Prime minister of Britain (1916 – 1922). Became a Liberal MP in 1980, and was the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Liberal government that introduced all the social welfare reforms between 1902 – 1912. He insisted on raising taxes on the well-off to pay for old-age pensions. He also introduces the National Insurance Act of 1911.

Question 28

James Simpson

Answer 28

Professor of Midwifery at Edinburgh University. Experimented with chloroform in 1847, and established that it is an effective anaesthetic without some of the drawbacks of ether.

Question 29

Robert Liston

Answer 29

Famous London surgeon from the 1800s who was well known for carrying out operations quickly. This was a desirable skill because there were no reliable anaesthetics, so the quicker an operation was carried out, the better. He once amputated a leg in 2 and a half minutes, but accidentally cut off the patient’s testicles as well.

Question 30

Joseph Lister

Answer 30

Famous 19th century surgeon. Came up with the idea of using carbolic acid to prevent infection. He knew all about Pasteur’s germ theory, and discovered in his experiments on patients with compound fractures that if carbolic acid was applied to the wound, then patients would not develop gangrene, and would therefore not have to have their limb amputated.

Question 31

William Halstead

Answer 31

19th century surgeon who came up with the idea of surgeons wearing rubber gloves during operations

Question 32

Florence Nightingale

Answer 32

A wealthy 19th century woman who trained to be a nurse. She took 38 nurses to the Crimea when the Crimean War broke out in 1854. She was appalled by the conditions of the hospital in Scutari, and cleaned up the hospital and the patients, making sure the environment and the medical equipment was spotless. The death rate at the hospital fell from 40% to 2%. She wrote two books which were influential all over the world: ‘Notes on Nursing’ (1859) and ‘Notes on Hospitals (1863).
NOTE: She paid little attention to Pasteur’s Germ Theory (1861), but associated disease with dirt. She thought that a nurse should focus on the practical, and not on theory/science.