16th and 17th Centuries

Question 1

Why are surgeons called Mr and not Dr?

Answer 1

Because traditionally most surgeons were simple barbers rather than educated physicians

Question 2

How did Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) have a large impact on medical advances?

Answer 2

~ Participated in several autopsies (mainly on convicted criminals)
~ Created many detailed anatomical drawings, planning a major work of comparative human anatomy

Question 3

Who suggested that epidemic diseases may be caused by objects outside the body and proposed new treatment for syphilis?

Answer 3

Girolamo Fracastoro (1478-1553)

Question 4

Who wrote the first complete textbook on human anatomy?

Answer 4

Andreas Vesalius (1543)

Question 5

What did William Harvey (1628) do?

Answer 5

He explained the circulation of blood through the body in veins and arteries, when it was previously thought that blood was the product of food and was absorbed by muscle tissue

Question 6

Who discovered that illness was caused by agents outside the body (bacteria)?

Answer 6

Paracelsus (16th century)

Question 7

What is the order of the hierarchy that university-educated physicians and other practitioners are organised into?

Answer 7

~ University-educated physicians
~ Learned surgeons
~ Craft-trained surgeons
~ Barber surgeons (combine blood-letting with the removal of ‘superfluities’ from the skin and head)
~ Itinerant specialists (dentists and oculists)
~ Empirics (observers and experimenters)
~ Midwives
~ Clergy (dispense charitable advice and help)
~ Ordinary family and neighbours

Question 8

What is Ambroise Pare (1510) famous for?

Answer 8

~ Revived Ancient Greek method of tying off blood vessels by cauterising the open end of the amputated appendage to stop haemorrhaging by heating oil, water or metal and touching it to the wound to seal off the blood vessels
~ First to believe in dressing wounds with clean bandages and ointments
~ First to design artificial hands and limbs for amputation patients

Question 9

Who discovered that the blood was pumped around the body by the heart?

Answer 9

William Harvey (1578-1657)

Question 10

What did Richard Lower (1631-1691) and Robert Hooke (1635-1703) show, and how did Lavoisier expand on their discovery?

Answer 10

~ That the blood “picked up something” on its way through the lungs which turned it bright red in colour
~ Lavoisier realised it was oxygen that the blood was picking up in the 18th century

Question 11

Who discovered the first blood transfusion from human to human?

Answer 11

Richard Lower (1631-1691)

Question 12

What did Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) invent and discover?

Answer 12

~ Invented the microscope

~ Discovered red blood cells, bacteria and Protozoa

Question 13

What is Thomas Willis (1621-1675) famous for?

Answer 13

~ Discovering the presence of sugar in the urine of diabetics
~ Coined the term ‘neurology’ and documented the anatomy of the brain and nerves in minute detail
~ First to number the cranial nerves in the order in which they are now usually enumerated by anatomists