While the use of antibiotics did not begin in the 20th century, early folk medicine included the use of mouldy foods or soil for infections. In ancient Egypt, for example, infections were treated with mouldy bread. [ Ancient Egypt | Medicine ]
Hippocrates did not introduce the Hippocratic Oath; it was created after his death. However, because of Hippocrates' legendary status, the oath was attributed to him to lend more weight to it. (source)
Seven of the twelve major nerves in the head—the cranial nerves—were discovered by the Greek physician Galen in the second century A.D. However, because of Galen's talent in medicine, for 1,400 years after his death, physiological research and neurological knowledge remained fairly static.
In one of the first law codes in history, handed down by Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.), King of Babylonia, the penalty for medical malpractice was to cut off the doctor's hands. Hammurabi's code of laws is one of the greatest ancient codes. The diorite column on which the laws were carved is now in Paris. [ Ancient Civilisations | Medicine | Laws ] (source)
According to Herodotus, the Babylonians had few doctors because they left illness to the wisdom of the public. A sick individual was placed in the city square, where passersby who had suffered from the same ailment, or had seen it treated, gave him advice on how to be cured. Pedestrians were forbidden to pass such an individual without inquiring about the complaint and "prescribing" for it if they could.
The Chinese physician Hua T'o, born sometime between 140 and 150 A.D., was the first doctor known to perform surgery under general anaesthetic. The potion used to render his patients unconscious was a mixture of hemp and strong wine called ma fei san. Prior to the communist revolution, a national holiday commemorated his birth. [ China | Medicine ]
The plague that swept through most of the civilized world in 542-3 A.D. was reported by Procopius (who, admittedly, wasn't always a reliable witness) to have killed up to 10,000 people a day in Constantinople alone at the height of its virulence. Emperor Justinian caught the disease, but recovered. [ Byzantine Empire | Medicine ] (source)
Some of the medical knowledge of the Maya is superior to the cures of "conventional western" medicine. For example, the Mayan herb used to treat athlete's foot is able to kill the bacteria completely, whereas the modern medicine only reduces the discomfort and reduces the bacteria count. [ Incas, Aztecs, and Maya | Medicine ]
The first successful corneal transplant was performed as early as 1835 by a British army surgeon in India whose pet antelope, who had only one eye, had a badly scarred cornea. He removed a cornea from a recently killed antelope and transplanted it into his pet's eye. The operation was a success, and the pet was able to see. [ Animals | Medicine | India ] (source)
Marie Curie, codiscoverer of radium, was the first person known to have died of radiation poisoning. Until Curie's death it was not known that radiation was dangerous. [ Firsts | Medicine ]
King George V of England died on January 26, 1936, at 11:55 P.M. It was revealed in 1986 that the King's doctor, Lord Dawson, had given him a lethal injection of cocaine and morphine. Dawson wanted the King to die before midnight so that his death could be announced in the morning Times instead of in a less prestigious afternoon paper. [ Royalty | Medicine ]
In 1743, Dr. John Cohausen, in his book Hermippus Redivivus, "proved" that one could live to the age of 115 by inhaling the breath of young girls. He gave the following prescription: Take one pound of gum olibani, two ounces of styrae, myrrh, and several other herbs, mix, burn and inhale while at the same time imbibing the exhalations of the nearest little girl. (source)
A wheezing man covered in smelly brown dust came to the emergency room of Tuscaloosa Hospital in Alabama in 1975. He mentioned to physicians that he worked at the manufacturing plant for Ulcer RX, an ulcer medicine, in nearby Browns. The plant turned out to be an unventilated concreted blockhouse where he worked filling phials with powdered manure from large sacks. The Alabama attorney general ordered the operation shut down. (source)
In the mid-1960s, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed digital image processing to allow computer enhancement of Moon pictures. Similar technology is now used by doctors and hospitals on images of organs in the human body. [ Technology and Inventions | Medicine and Health ] (source)
The last person to contract smallpox through natural transmission was Ali Maow Maalin, a hospital cook in Somalia who contracted it tending an infected child. Maalin survived. In 1978, Janet Parker, an English medical photographer, was exposed to smallpox through a laboratory accident, and subsequently died. The laboratory's virologist felt so guilty that he later committed suicide. On May 8th, 1980, the World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated, although some samples remain in laboratories in Atlanta and Moscow. [ Medicine and Health | Lasts ] (source)
For every 100,000 girls, 223 will become doctors and 17,475 will become nurses. [ Medicine and Health | Statistics ]
Heart attacks generally do not kill people. It is the complications from heart attacks, such as scarring of the heart tissues, that kill people. [ Medicine and Health | Misconceptions ] (source)
One's lifetime risk of dying due to living with a smoker is 1 in 4,200. Getting struck by lightning over the course of a lifetime is more likely, with odds of 1 in 3,000. [ Medicine and Health | Statistics ] (source)
In the human body, blood that is travelling through veins back to the heart and lungs is coloured blue, not red. However, blood always appears red when the skin is cut because, upon contact with the oxygen-rich atmosphere, it turns red. (source)
A Canadian neurologist ran an electroencephalogram (EEG) test on lime Jell-O in 1976 and found the dessert to have brain waves, which are often accepted as an indicator of life. He ran the experiment in the intensive care unit of McMaster University Hospital, in Hamilton, Ontario, and explained the EEG reading as being caused by stray electrical impulses from nearby surgical equipment, paging systems, and the like. (source)
Patients of a doctor in Stromness in the Orkney Islands with high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels are surprised when the prescription they receive is for tubs of herring, which the doctor keeps in his fridge in his surgery. He dispenses these as an alternative to drugs such as beta blockers and cholesterol reducing tablets. The Orkney Health Board backs the oily fish prescription.