Growth of Laboratory Medicine Flashcards
What was the state of experimentation in C17th-18th?
Existed privately, but was not a profession - practitioners had other jobs
When was ‘scientist’ coined and why?
1833, as analogy to an artist
What did Hippocrates emphasise?
Rationality and experience - early scientific orientation
From early-modern period, ‘experience’ became orientated with ‘experiments’, especially those in labs
Santorio Santorio (1561-1636)
Weighed input/outputs of body - nutrition study, quantitative research emphasis
Where were the first scientists employed?
C19th German universities - due to culture of research-based teaching, and that students were free to move between universities freely
Institute of Chemistry
1824 in Geissen by Von Liebeg
What did von Liebeg do?
Black box experiments of animal metabolism
Reductionist approach - reduced living phenomena to observable scientific laws
Founded Institute of Chemistry in Geissen, 1824
What did Wohler do?
Urea synthesis 1828
Illustrated that there were no boundaries between chemistry and nature - validating the reductionist approach
When was the Institute of Physiology founded
1865, Leipzig by Carl Ludwig
Major research centre
Invented kymograph to record physiological data on revolving drum - huge influence on later research
What did Johannes Muller do?
mid-1800s neurophysiological research - reflexes
Produced handbook of physiology - in vernacular
Schwann and Schleiden
1830s: Proposed that animals and plants (respectively) were only made of cells - reducing life to a physical process
Claude Bernard
Argued that laboratory, and not hospital, is the true centre of medical science - ability to control variables
Hypothetico-deductive method proposed
Suggests observation is the scientist’s only authority - not reliance on past work
What did Virchow do
1858 ‘cellula e cellula’ - conceptualised all diseases in cellular terms, making microscopy central to medicine
What did Robert Koch do?
1880s identification of the TB and cholera bactillus
Established Centre for Infectious Diseases in 1891 Berlin
Developed Four Postulates to identify causative agent of disease
Improved microscopy by adding camera - allowing peer reviewing thus higher objectivity
How did Robert Koch improve microscopy?
Added camera - peer reviewing, thus higher objectivity
Who developed the Four Postulates and when?
Robert Koch - 1890s
Identified causative agent of disease
What did Louis Pasteur do?
Physics and chemistry graduate - NOT physician
Established microbiological study of everyday phenomena (commercial basis, e.g. yeast)
Identified nature of infection and immunity - rabies vaccine 1885
Pasteur Institute founded 1888 by public subscription (though he sensationalised rabies)
What was interesting about Koch and Pasteur?
Did not work together/get on - due to poor Franco-Prussian war relations?
Why was bacteriology useful for public medicine?
Could understand sources and patterns of epidemics
What does McKeown argue?
That mortality reduction was caused by better nutrition and living standards, not healthcare
Who wrote the first microscopy book?
Robert Hooke, 1665 - coined term ‘cell’
Why did microscopy advance from the 1820s onwards?
Better understanding of light refraction
What did Joseph Lister do in the 1930s?
Combined multiple lenses in microscopes to reduce blurring
What was invented in 1871?
Microscope allowing 3 people to see the same image - more objective
(Robert Koch added camera in 1880s)
When were chloroform and ether discovered?
In labs, used from 1840s
When was the first public demonstration of surgery under ether?
1846
When was the ultracentrifuge invented and what impacyt did it have?
1920s allowing large scale analysis of samples
When was insulin synthesised
1920s
Who discovered pencillin and when?
Alexander Fleming 1928
When was the portable pH meter invented?
1935 - made pH testing rapid and cheap
