History of Medicine

The history of medicine is so long and varied, it could fill many pages over. But many trace its origins back to Hippocrates. He was a physician in ancient Greece and lived during the time of 460 BC through 380 BC. He is often referred to as the Father of Medicine. Many of his ideas, such as patient confidentiality, are still used in medical practices today. His writings brought medicine out of the primitive stage that put much emphasis on superstition and started the foundation that medicine was a scientific field. Today, most medical students must take the Hippocratic Oath, although the words have been reworded over the years due to changes in medicine such as women doctors and HMOs. He was also the first to suggest that doctors write down their findings so other doctors might benefit from them.

Although Hippocrates did much to bring medicine out of its primitive beginnings, the history of medicine was still a long struggle to understand why things happened. Doctors strived to learn what causes fevers, infections and diseases. During earlier centuries, people often turned to their religious faith to heal medical problems or herbal remedies that did not help the problem. Through research, doctors were able to find cures for things that had plagued people over the ages.

One especially important moment in the history of medicine was when Louis Pasteur proved that rather than disease causing germs, germs caused disease. He realized that germs could be killed with heat. He was also responsible for the development of several inoculations, including rabies, to prevent disease from occurring.

Oddly enough, it was a war that changed the history of medicine by forcing doctors to come up with a way to store blood. In 1901, doctors discovered there were different blood groups and blood transfusions could be made, but it wasn’t until World War I that doctors came up with the idea of separating plasma so the blood could be stored until needed.