Medicine Through Time TIMELINE !
Time Period
Prehistoric
Dates
Anything before
3000BC
Key Events/Terms/Evidence
There is no written evidence but we have
pictures and skeletons which gives us clues.
Trepanning.
Ancient Egypt
3000BC-500BC
We have some written evidence and more
paintings and artifacts as evidence.
Natural Theory.
Mummification.
Ancient Greece
1000BC-250BC
By this time we have a wider range of evidence
including pictures, temple remains and written
books.
Hippocrates and Aristotle
Asclepions
Ancient Rome
300BC-500AD
A vast range of evidence such as medical books,
pictures and buildings such as sewers and
aqueducts.
Galen
Brilliant Public Health
Dark Ages
500AD-1000AD
The collapse of the Roman Empire led to war
and lots of evidence was lost.
Islamic Empire
500AD-1000AD
The collapse of the Roman Empire had no
impact on this civilisation. There is plenty of
evidence from medical texts, wall paintings and
images.
Rhazes, Avicennia, Ibn Sina
Middle Ages
1000AD-1500AD There is evidence from medical manuscripts
and buildings such as hospitals.
1348 – Black Death
1445 – First Printed book
Crusades
Renaissance
1500-1750AD
Printed texts became widely available so there
is a huge amount of evidence.
1452 – Da Vinci is born
1538 – Vesalius prints ‘The Fabric of the
Human Body’
1510 – Pare born
1527 - Paracelsus burns Galen’s books
1628 - Harvey publishes his book on the
circulation of blood
1665 – Plague
The Industrial
Revolution
1750-1800AD
Industrialisation caused many people to move
to towns. Evidence such as public records
becomes available.
1776 – Steam engine invented
1796 – Jenner’s smallpox experiment
1800s
1800-1899AD
1831 – Cholera reaches England
1842 – Chadwick writes his report on poverty
1846 – Robert Liston uses ether to amputate a
leg
1847 – Simpson uses Chloroform for the first
time
1848 – First Public Health Act
1854 – Snow proves Cholera travels in water
1859 – Florence Nightingales publishes
guidance on Nursing techniques
1865 – Pasteur discovers Germ Theory
1878 – Second Public Health Act
1900s
1900-1999AD
1901 – Discovery of blood groups
1905 – Magic Bullet
1905 – Liberal Social Health Reforms begin
1914 – WW1
1928 – Fleming discovers Penicillin
1939 – WW2
1942 – Beveridge report
1946 – Bevan introduces the NHS
1953 – DNA identified
1967 – First heart transplant
Today
2000AD – NOW!
Alternative therapies
Superbugs
Strain on the NHS
New epidemics – AIDs, bird flu