Hippocrates of Kos
460 BC-370 BC
(Nationality: Greek)
Hippocrates is known as the “Father of Medicine”. He was founder of the Hippocratic School of Medicine during the Golden Age of Greece. He promoted medicine as a distinct discipline from other fields and established medical practice as a profession. He is credited with being the first person to believe that diseases were caused naturally and not because of superstition and gods. However, at the time of Hippocrates, very little was known about human anatomy or physiology because of the Greek taboo forbidding the dissection of humans. Therefore, treatment involved a passive approach (rest, cleanliness, proper food) with a focus on rebalancing the four humours (blood, yellow bile, black bile, phlegm) so that the body could heal itself. Hippocrates is perhaps best known for the “Hippocratic Oath” which in modified form is used in graduation ceremonies at many United States medical schools. “First do no harm” is perhaps the most important part of the oath.
Avicenna
980 – June 1037
Nationality: Persian
Avicenna was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden age. His book the Canon of Medicine became a standard medical text it many medieval universities and remained in use as late as 1650. The Canon was completed in 1025 and presented an overview of the contemporary medical knowledge of the Islamic world which had been influenced by earlier traditions from Greco-Roman medicine, Persian medicine, Chinese medicine and Indian medicine. William Osler, one of the founders of John’s Hopkins School of Medicine, felt that it was one of the most influential medical texts ever written. The Avicenna Prize established in 2003 is awarded every two years by UNESCO to individuals and groups for their achievements in the field of ethics in science.
Edward Jenner
May 17, 1749 – January 26, 1823
Nationality: British
Edward Jenner was an English physician who pioneered the concept of vaccines. Several investigators had successfully tested cowpox vaccination to provide immunity against smallpox. However it was Jenner who postulated that it was the pus in the blisters of cowpox that protected milk maids from smallpox. Subsequently he inoculated 17 individuals, including eight-year-old James Phipps, the son of his gardener, and later showed the inoculated individuals were unaffected when exposed to smallpox. In Jenner’s time, smallpox was the cause of death of approximately 10% of the population, and it is felt that his discoveries have saved more lives than the work of any other human.
Louis Pasteur
December 27, 1822 – September 28, 1895.
Nationality: French
A renowned microbiologist and chemist who is known for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization. He disproved the doctrine of spontaneous generation and is regarded as one of the fathers of the germ theory of disease. He invented the technique of treating milk and wine with heat to stop bacterial contamination (pasteurization). He also developed the first vaccines for Anthrax and Rabies. The UNESCO/Institute Pasteur medal is given every two years “in recognition of outstanding research contributing to a beneficial impact on human health”.
Joseph Lister
April 5, 1827 – February 10, 1912
Nationality: British
Listers research into bacteriology and infection in wounds revolutionized surgery throughout the world. Applying Louis Pasteur’s advances in microbiology, Lister promoted the use of carbolic acid as an antiseptic prior to surgery. Carbolic acid (now known as phenol) was used to sterilize surgical instruments as well as the area to be operated upon. Lister noticed a marked decrease in the incidence of gangrene after surgery when carbolic acid was used preoperatively. Ultimately it was determined that the best approach was to prevent the entry of bacteria into the wound in the first place which led to aseptic surgery. Because of his work, Lister is known as the Father of Modern Surgery.
William Osler
July 12, 1849 – December 29, 1919
Nationality: Canadian
William Osler was a Canadian physician who has been described as the Father of Modern Medicine. He trained under Rudolph Virchow in Germany, taught at McGill University Faculty of Medicine, became chairman of clinical medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1884, and in 1889 he was appointed physician in chief of the new Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1893 he was one of the four founding professors of Johns Hopkins school of Medicine. His greatest influence on medicine was the establishment of the medical residency where students learned by seeing and talking to patients rather than primarily listening to didactic lectures. He pioneered the practice of bedside teaching while making rounds with a handful of students. In 1905, he was appointed to the Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford which he held until his death. While there he founded the History of Medicine Society of the Royal Society of Medicine in London. His establishment of the residency program as the training method for physicians continues throughout the world to this day.
Alexander Fleming
August 6, 1881 – March 11, 1955
Nationality: Scottish
Sir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish physician and microbiologist. He is best known for discovering and naming the world’s first broadly effective antibiotic, penicillin. For this he shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1945 with Howard Flory and Ernst Boris Chain, the latter two individuals having done further research on penicillin. In 1927, Fleming had noticed that growth of the bacteria Staphylococcus was inhibited around fungal colonies that had contaminated a culture plate. Fleming identified the mold as being from the genus Penicillium, and later termed the antibacterial substance produced by the fungus penicillin. He presented his discovery in 1929 but it was not until Flory and Chain began further study at Oxford that the true potential of penicillin was widely recognized. The discovery of penicillin and its subsequent development marked the start of modern antibiotic therapy.
Marie Sklodowska Curie
November 7, 1867 – July 4, 1934
Nationality: Polish
Marie Sklowdowska was born in Poland and subsequently moved to Paris to continue her education and scientific studies. In 1895 Wilhelm Roentgen discovered the existence of x-rays and in 1896 Henri Becquerel discovered that uranium salt emitted rays that resembled x-rays. Mme. Curie began to study uranium rays and hypothesized that the radiation must come from the atom itself. This was an important step in disproving the assumption that atoms were indivisible. Her husband Pierre, also a scientist, became intrigued with her work and he began to assist in her studies. Ultimately they discovered other radioactive substances (polonium, named for her native Poland) and radium. They coined the term radioactivity to describe the rays emitted by these substances and established the “Curie” as the unit of radioactivity. Pierre was killed in 1906 in a road accident when he was struck by a horse-drawn vehicle. Marie went on to establish the Curie Institute at the University of Paris and the Warsaw Radium Institute in Poland. She is the only woman to have received two Nobel prizes, the first in physics for her studies in radioactivity and the second in chemistry for her discoveries of radium and polonium. She is a medical hero because her work led to the use of radiation for imaging and treatment of medical disorders such as cancer. She died from aplastic anemia caused by exposure to radiation. Her scientific papers from the 1890s are too radioactive to be handled and her cookbooks are also highly radioactive.
Jonas Salk
October 28, 1914 – June 23, 1995
Nationality: American
Jonas Salk was an American virologist and medical researcher who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines. He received his medical training at New York University school of medicine and shows a career in medical research. In 1947, where he now was a professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, he began a project to determine the number of different types of poliovirus. From that beginning came the development of a vaccine against polio. This required seven years to accomplish (compare that to the recent rapid development of a vaccine against COVID-19). After a clinical trial which involved over 1.8 million schoolchildren, the vaccine’s success and safety was announced on April 12, 1955. By 1959, the Salk vaccine had reached approximately 90 countries. By 1980, domestic transmission of polio had been completely eliminated in the United States.
