Dates in Medicine

This is a one-of-a-kind record of the milestones of medical progress from 4000 BC to the present. A new concept unlike anything published before, this unique volume lists in chronological order many of the key dates in the development of medicine over the last six millennia. Starting with the ancient Egyptians and Chinese and ending with the new malaria vaccine just developed in 1999, this book provides a hitherto unavailable record and reference for everyone in medicine and an exceptional perspective over 6000 years of medical progress.

Examples:

c 4000 BC: Sumerian records report euphoric effect of the poppy plant. c 2820: BC Shen Nung born. A Chinese emperor, physician and reformer who experimented with plants and discovered their medicinal values. He originated acupuncture and wrote the great herbal Pen Tsoa, which describes over 365 medicinal plants.

c 2650 BC: Imhotep born. An Egyptian physician, architect and astrologer during the third dynasty, who designed the first pyramid at Saqqara and was deified as the god of healing.

1852: Synthesis of salicylic acid was reported by H. Gerland. This was one of several important publications on previously isolated active medicinals. 1852: The maximum velocity of nerve conduction in experimental animals was found to be 30 meters per second by Hermann von Helmholtz of the University of Bonn, Germany.

1852: William Stewart Halstead born. An American surgeon who performed the first successful ligation of the subclavian artery in America, pioneered circular sutures for intestines (1887), introduced cocaine for local anesthesia (1885), and introduced rubber gloves into surgery (1894).

1996: Triple therapy drug treatment for AIDS patients was introduced.
1998: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to American scientists, Robert F. Furchgott of New York, Louis J. Ignarro and Ferid Murad of Los Angeles for their discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.