Continuing with the Great Inventors and Discoveries of Our History, I thought it appropriate to transcribe an article in the Italian journal Medicine and Information, with the consensus of the Executive Producer of the journal Ms. Donatella Romani.
In this article that I have translated and curated we will see a complete overview of the evolution of medicine.
I’ve tried to make it readable and short, but it’s so much information that there are so many things we can’t omit. Maybe it’s an article that will have to be published in two parts.
FIRST PART
It ran in the year 400 BC when Hippocrates tried to establish the etiology of diseases with the “Theory of Moods” which indicated in the imbalance between yellow humor, black humor, red humor or blood and phlegm the cause of the most common pathologies of men, an interpretation that also led to the classification of the character of people considered melancholy if black bile predominated, angry if yellow bile was in greater numbers, bloody and passionate when blood dominated and phlegmatic when respiratory fluid (phlegm) was the main feature.
Centuries later, doctors and scientists are now engaged in the Sequence of the Human Genome with the aim of developing a Gene Therapy capable of repairing DNA abnormalities … An unimaginable abyss between the suggestive theories of Hippocrates and technology avant-garde that allows us to analyze every genetic mutation and every polymorphism of our genetic CODE, an abyss that is dotted with sparks of intuition and dedication that have illuminated the path of doctors and researchers over the centuries, creating a deep bond and vital among great physicians of the past like Hippocrates or Galen for the great scientists of today.
Anatomy lesson, Rembrandt
In our brief excursus on the extraordinary journey that Medicine has been over the centuries, we can only start from the Pathological Anatomy, the dissection of corpses that allowed the knowledge of the anatomy of the human body … to the entrance to the anatomical theater of the University of Padua 1 inscription says “Hic est locus ubi mors Gaudet succurrere vitae” (This is where death is happy to help life) and it is precisely in this way that physicians of the past learned the first information about physiology and pathology. , On anatomical structures, on the most common pathologies, on the functioning of organs and on the possibility of intervening to repair the damage caused by diseases. Rembrandt’s “line of anatomy” that he sees here represents all the surprise of doctors who observe the exposure of muscles, nerves and organs for the first time and the awareness of being part of history.
first microscope
Thinking of a medicine without a microscope will be impossible today, because from the simplest analyzes to genomic sequencing everything goes through increasingly sophisticated optics, but it was in the 17th century that Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek and Robert Hooke created the first microscope. although Galileo already spoke in his writings of a “spectacle to see the minimum things.” The first microscopes allow 10 magnifications, then we move on to 30 magnifications but it is with the arrival of the electron microscope in 1931 that the study of what microscopic has changed the face of research, further perfecting the possibility of studying blood, viruses, bacteria, cells and any other microorganism with a detail that allows previously unimaginable diagnoses. How the development of Cure for some lymphomas based on the result of sequential analysis of the gene profile.
The first X-ray of Röntgen
And always in the field of the study of the human body, a fundamental step was the accidental and brilliant discovery of X-rays by the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Rntgen, who amazed the world with the X-ray image of his wife’s hand with the wedding ring on her finger. Since then, radiology has changed profoundly with CT, PET, Interventional Radiology and Magnetic Resonance Imaging also used for cancer prevention, not to mention the evolution of the latest generation of Oncological Radiotherapy, but it all started with intuition. of Rntgen that has changed the diagnoses and today also interventionist forever, allowing to obtain information of organs that otherwise cannot be investigated and to treat them in some cases without having to resort to surgery.
And what about the invention of the sphygmomanometer, a simple bracelet that allows you to measure blood pressure? It was developed in the late 19th century by Samuel Siegfried Karl Ritter von Basch and perfected by the Italian physicist Scipione Riva Rocci in 1896 and today allows the diagnosis of a disease as widespread and dangerous as hypertension before it causes even serious cardiovascular complications. The most modern models are electronic and also allow the elderly to self-measure their blood pressure, a daily gesture both today and futuristic just over one hundred and thirty years ago.
And two researches that are now considered basic and carried out daily by millions of people, namely the electrocardiogram and the electroencephalogram, were invented only in the early twentieth century, respectively, by Willem Einthoven and Hans Berger. , allowing the study of two organs as important as the heart and brain. the prevention and follow-up over time – in the case of the electrocardiogram – of pathologies that, if neglected, can lead to important pathologies such as myocardial infarction, cardiac arrhythmias and defects of the cardiac valves.
First studies on circulation
Equally fundamental to the development of modern medicine was the advent of anesthesia in surgical practice with the first use of nitrous oxide and after the ter proposed by William Morton, who in 1842 allowed Crawford Long to perform the first surgery with a sedated patient. And since then, Pain Therapy has entered medical and ethical practice as a priority tool for treating and caring for patients by alleviating suffering.
And how not to talk about blood transfusions that can save lives with a simple gesture? However, the road to a successful transfusion was not easy and they began in the distant 1600s when William Harvey discovered blood circulation and understood the potential benefits of a transfusion. But it was necessary to wait for the discovery of blood groups by Karl Landsteiner in the early twentieth century to be able to transfuse patients with blood compatible with his group or with blood of “universal donor” of group 0 Negative.