Group #6 | 2LIT2

September 8, 2016

1. 1800s Medical Specialization (England)

The development of specialists in the medical profession was slow and was initially tainted by
association with quacks such as bonesetters and cataract extractors. For this reason it was despised
by the grand physicians and experienced as threatening by the burgeoning general practitioners.
Originally, the early medical specialties such as urology, ophthalmology and obstetrics were not
part of medicine at all, but were the province of lay practitioners and itinerant quacks. The General
Practitioner states that whoever was practicing specialties was narrow-minded, judgement biased
and unbalanced by disproportionate knowledge of one subject. Nevertheless, a specialism
developed inevitably as medical knowledge and medical science advanced beyond the scope of
any individual. The first specialties were ophthalmology and gynecology. Between 1800 and 1890,
88 specialist hospitals were founded in London, 22 of them in the 1860s.
Jose Rizal studied ophthalmology because he wanted to treat his mothers eyes. He took his
specialization in Spain, Paris and Germany.
2. 1824 Amputation (London)
In 1824, Sir Astley Cooper, an English surgeon, carried out the first successful amputation at
the hip joint at Guys Hospital in London. The patient was a veteran from the Battle of Waterloo.
His leg had been amputated at the thigh amidst the battlefield since then the stump of bone
remained chronically infected with osteomyelitis, which is an inflammation of the bone, and the
patients condition had steadily deteriorated. Cooper first tied the main artery at the groin and
removed the limb in 20 minutes. It took him 15 more minutes to secure the blood vessels and the
dressings. Apart from the inevitable infection of the wound, the patient was able to recover in a
span of eight months.

3. 1846 Ether Anesthesia (Massachusetts, U.S.A.)

Before 1846, anesthesia was not yet invented. The surgery that time was barbaric. Patients
often dies because of shock and infection. Medicine was difficult before 19th century. The relief of
pain has a long history. Back in the ancient times, people used anodyne such as the Greek soporific
sponge. This was soaked in a dissolved solution of opium, mandrake, and other substances. The
sponge was then dried and stored. Before surgery, it would be moistened and held up to the
patient's nose and it would render the patient unconscious. In the nineteenth century, there was a
growing familiarity with the effects of opium and of the liberal and abuse of alcohol. William
Thomas Green Morton, a dentist of Massachusetts General Hospital, decided to investigate ether.
In October 1846 he extracted a tooth from a local Boston merchant who was under the anesthesia.
The success of this operation led others to start experimenting with ether, and its use spread rapidly
across the world. This allowed Dr. John Collins Warren, a fellow doctor of his at the same hospital,
to perform a successful surgical procedure in removing a tumor with the use of the same anesthesia.
Dr. Morton had proven that ether is a gas that provided safe and effective anesthesia when inhaled
in the proper dose. Following the same year, British surgeon named Robert Litson performed an
amputation on a leg of a patient under ether in London in the month of December.
4. 1865 Listers Antisepsis Method (Glasgow, UK)

Antisepsis is the practice of applying anti-microbial substances to living tissue or skin to

reduce or even eliminate the microorganisms that may heighten the possibility of infection,
sepsis, or putrefaction. Joseph Lister was convinced for the need of cleanliness. He made an
important contribution to the management of wounds, not just of those trauma, but also wounds
made by the surgeon during an operative procedure. He was appointed Professor of Surgery in a
city in Scotland called Glasgow in 1860. On August 12, 1865, Lister performed an operation on
a boy named James Greenless in Glasgow Royal Infirmary who was run over by a wheel of an
empty cart which had caused a compound fracture on his left leg. He applied carbolic acid to all
parts of the wound, dressed it with lint soaked in the same fluid then the leg was carefully
splinted. Underneath the dressing, blood and fluid, the wound was able to heal soundly. In six
weeks, this treatment was repeated; afterwards the boy was able to walk out of the hospital and
into surgical history. Joseph Lister was also credited with the invention of Listerine antiseptic
mouthwash.
5. 1868 Thermometry (Germany)
There had been many technical difficulties in developing a thermometer. Many had attempted
to construct one and one such had been invented by Galileo late in the sixteenth century yet he had
not applied it to disease. In 1868, the German physician named Carl Wunderlich published On the
Temperature in Disease and thereby brought thermometry into prominence in medical diagnosis.
He was then the founder of modern clinical thermometry. He showed that the temperature of a
healthy human being was constant apart from small diurnal swings, having tested 25,000 patients
and he concluded that 37 C was the average temperature, and certain variations were characteristic
of certain diseases. Later in 1866, Sir Clifford Allbutt, an English physician, worked on reducing
the size since they were originally 30 centimeters, nearly a foot long, and took up half an hour to
register. He was then the inventor of the clinical thermometer.
6. 1885 Pasteurs Vaccine (France)
Louis Pasteur is a Frenchman chemist who have made contributions to stereochemistry and
isomerism, which relates to the atomic structure of chemical molecules in three-dimensional
space. His work on fermentation showed the function of small living organisms, the yeasts, in
that process. He was also able to recognize the infectious nature of the epidemic and how it
might be prevented. He had already worked on anthrax, as well as other animal infections, before
he produced the anti-rabies vaccine as he called it after Jenners discovery of the protection
against smallpox given by vaccination using cowpox for which he is best remembered. The
first successful treatment was performed in 1885 on a boy named Joseph Meister that was
exposed to the Rabies infection. The treatment consisted of 13 injections within the span of 13
days.

7. 1886 Psychoanalysis (Paris)

Sigmund Freud was a neurological consultant at a childrens hospital in Vienna, Austria when
he realized something about the childrens symptoms and then theorized that the memories made
in someones past/childhood are affecting that persons unconscious mind: the dreams. He then

wrote a monograph about this subject. In 1885, he received the grant to go to Paris and study with
the famous neurologist, Jean-Martin Charcot who specialized in hypnosis. Under Charcot, they
performed private practices on neurotic people with the use of hypnosis. After a while, Freud
started to adopt the approach of his mentor, Josef Breuer, in the use of hypnosis which was
different from the French methods he learned during his studies. With this approach, the patient
had more freedom to talk and express themselves, revealing some possible causes coming from
their dreams and memories in the past in the process. Compared to the pure hypnosis method in
which the patient has to parrot what the neurologist orders them to say. And with this new approach
he found, he observed a significant improvement on the patients symptom relief. He called this
approach the Free Association. In 1886, Freud abandoned the term hypnosis and started calling his
clinical treatment and theories on which it was based on as Psychoanalysis. From then on, his
Psychoanalysis was passed onto other psychologists and psychiatrists, which became a big
contribution to the field of Psychotherapy. This method is very famous and still being practiced
today.

8. 1891 Animal Gland Solution (England)

It was not easy for organized science, especially chemistry, to take hold in the pharmaceutical
realm. Breakthroughs in organic synthesis and analysis had to be matched with developments in
biochemistry, enzymology, and general biology. Some critical breakthroughs in metabolic
medicine had been made in the 1890s, but they were exceptions rather than regular occurrences.
In 1891, myedema was treated with sheep thyroid injections. The process of the treatment starts
with the extraction of glands from the said animal. Then it is transferred to the broken glands on
the human body. This type of treatment was a huge advancement in the medical field. It was also
the biggest breakout in the research and development of human metabolism.
9. 1895 X-Rays (Germany)
Wilhelm Konrad Rntgen announced his discovery of X-rays in 1895 at a meeting in
Wrzburg, where he was the chairman of physics. Its use has now advanced from the simple
diagnosis of bone fractures and the location of foreign bodies to the examination of internal organs.
Walter Cannon, a professor of physics at Harvard, used a drinkable solution of radio-opaque
bismuth as a diagnostic meal to outline the stomach. Rntgen rays, using radio-opaque substances,
have since become an essential agent for the examination of cardiovascular and central nervous
systems and the urgent track. These technique have made separate specialties within that of general
radiology. Wilhelm first used the new X-ray on his wifes left hand.
10. 1899 Aspirin
The drug Aspirin is one of the most commonly known and used drug in the world. Aspirin is
the generic name for the chemical compound Acetly salicylic acid which belong to the group of
chemicals called Salicylates. Salicylates are naturally found at barks of Willow trees. Since ancient
times medical folklore acknowledge that willow barks help reduce fever and swelling of wounds.
However not until 19th century was first these chemicals artificially manufactured. In the early
19th century a number of chemist are working to isolate the chemical compound in willow barks.
Until 1988, Felix Hoffman a German chemist, modified the structure of the compound. He did his

study at the pharmaceutical division of the German Company Bayer. The medication often use to
treat pain, fever and inflammation.

References:
Connelly, D., (2014). A history of asprin. Retrieved August 19, 2016 from www.pharmaceuticaljournal.com/news-and-analysis/features/a-history-of-aspirin/20066661.article
Porter, R. (Ed.). (1997). Medicine: a history of healing ancient traditions to modern practices.
USA: Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Patents & Potions. (n.d.) The crowning of chemistry. Retrieved August 18, 2016 from
http://www3.uah.es/farmamol/The%20Pharmaceutical%20Century/Ch1.html