The Millennium's Medical Milestones 10 discoveries in the last 1,000 years that

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The Millennium's Medical Milestones

10 discoveries in the last 1,000 years that revolutionized medicine

By Neil Sherman

HealthSCOUT Reporter

MONDAY, Jan. 3 (HealthSCOUT) -- Copernicus' sun-centered solar system.

Newton's discovery of gravity. Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

Astonishing breakthroughs, without question. But of all the millennium's

scientific discoveries, perhaps none was as important as mankind's constant

efforts to defeat disease and cheat death.

While science has stretched our knowledge, medicine has given us what we

desire most -- a longer and more comfortable life.

Medical knowledge came slowly. First, humanity had to stop clinging to

ancient insights and superstitions passed down by the Greeks and Romans.

Real progress didn't occur until adoption of the " scientific system of

observation " -- or " experimental, anatomical and physiological

investigation, " says Roy Porter, medical historian at the Wellcome Institute

for the History of Medicine in London, England. Porter, considered one of the

world's experts on medical history, is the author of The Greatest Benefit to

Mankind: A Medical History of Mankind.

As a result, the millennium's medical breakthroughs began with the great

awakening called the Renaissance.

" If you want to know the most important thing that happened in the entire

millennium, it was the rise of scientific observation and the development of

the scientific method, " agrees Sherwin B. Nuland, clinical professor of

surgery at Yale University, and author of How We Die: Reflections on Life's

Final Chapter.

" Everything extends from that. "

Peering into the human body helped doctors understand that illness was not

the result of " evil spirits, sorcery, witchcraft and diabolical or divine

intervention, " Porter says.

Both men say it would be impossible to rank the millennium's most important

medical milestones in order of importance because many built upon insights

that had come before. But they agree the 10 following breakthroughs were the

highlights of the last 1,000 years:

1. Anatomy. The start of modern medicine dates to the publication in 1543 of

De humani corporis fabrica, the first complete textbook of human anatomy. The

book was composed by the great Italian professor s Vesalius. It is

considered the first effort by Europeans to break free from medical

literature written by Galen of andria, considered the greatest physician

of antiquity.

2. The circulatory system. Eighty years later, England's Harvey

published De motu cordis, " which put physiological inquiry on the map by

experiments demonstrating the circulation of the blood and the role of the

heart as a pump, " Porter says.

3. The microscope. Antony van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch tradesman with little

formal education, had the knack of polishing glass into workable microscopes.

In 1674, peering into a drop of lake water, he saw and then described

bacteria for the first time. His glass-grinding skill and powers of

observation opened up the world of germs to science.

4. Vaccines. In 1796, Jenner, a country doctor from England,

scratched an 8-year-old boy's arm with cowpox -- a relative of the deadlier

illness smallpox. Two months later, he exposed the boy to smallpox and the

child remained disease-free. Vaccination was the first step in mankind's

efforts to control disease.

5. " The germ theory of disease. " The single most important breakthrough,

according to Nuland, was the discovery that bacteria and viruses cause

disease. " That's the biggest thing to me, the theory that germs -- 'the world

of the infinitely small,' as Pasteur called it -- cause disease. That

completely transformed our understanding of disease, " he says.

A slew of discoveries, all using the microscope, revealed how germs were

mankind's scourge, causing everything from rabies to tuberculosis. Beginning

in the 1840s, Louis Pasteur in France and Koch in Germany explored how

germs unleashed disease in people, plants and animals. In Great Britain,

ph Lister discovered in 1869 the antiseptic qualities of carbolic acid,

reducing deaths from infection after surgery from 50 to 15 percent. The

triumvirate laid the foundations for the science of microbiology and ushered

in medical care as we know it.

6. Anesthesia. In 1846, an American dentist named Morton showed a

group of colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital that ether could be

used to relieve pain during surgery. His demonstration paved the way for the

anesthetics and revolutionary surgeries of today.

7. X-rays. With the German Wilhelm Röntgen's discovery of X-rays in 1895,

medicine took a quantum leap inward. " One mustn't forget that the discoveries

of the 20th century cannot have taken place without the development of the

kind of diagnostic tools that are now available, " Nuland says. " First X-rays,

now CAT scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound. Being able to

peer in and through the human body in a non-invasive manner has been an

enormous gain. "

8. Insulin. The discovery of insulin to control diabetes in the early 1920s

by Canadian researchers Best and Frederick Banting was the first of

the major 20th century drug therapies. One year diabetes was a death

sentence; the next, victims had hopes of living productive lives.

9. Antiobiotics. The Englishman Fleming's accidental look into a

petri dish in 1929 and subsequent discovery of penicillin may be medicine's

most exciting breakthrough, Porter contends. " It was the first breakthrough

which really gave us the ability to save lives on a huge scale. " Today,

antibiotics protect us from a menacing world of germs that in many cases

would otherwise prove fatal.

10. Genetics. Mid-20th century discoveries that combined chemistry and

biology have led to the " age of genetics and molecular biology, " says Porter.

He and Nuland point to 's and Francis Crick's discovery of the

structure of DNA as the breakthrough that created the scientific frontier for

the 21st century. By unraveling the building blocks of life, they created the

ability for medicine to cure or combat anything from cancer to multiple

sclerosis.

And why is it that western medicine has developed in such a unique way,

making it powerful and dominant around the world?

" The point about Indian or Chinese traditional medicine, to my way of

thinking, is that it is traditional, " Porter says. " Asian medicine is not

about making discoveries but is largely about upholding old truths. It is

western medicine that incorporates the idea of discovery, change, improvement

and innovation. "

What To Do

For more in-depth information on the history of medicine, check the BBC or

the WWW Virtual Library for the History of Science, Technology & Medicine.

SOURCES: Interviews with Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D., clinical professor of

surgery, Yale University, and author, How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final

Chapter; Roy Porter, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.S., medical historian, Wellcome

Institute for the History of Medicine, Oxford University, London, England,

and author of The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Mankind