FAMOUS PHYSICIANS AND THEIR INFLUENCE IN MODERN MEDICINE
FOUR FAMOUS PHYSICIANS IN HISTORY AND EXPLAIN THEIR INLUENCE IN MODERN MEDICINE
EDWARD JENNER
Edward Anthony Jenner was born on 17th may 1749 in Berkley, Gloucestershire, England. He is also known as the father of immunology because he discovered the small pox vaccine. Edward was the son of Reverend Stephen Jenner who was a priest of Berkeley. Rev Stephen Jenner died when Edward was 5 years old leaving him to be an orphan. Edward went to live with his brother. At 13 years, he was trained by a country surgeon known as Daniel Ludlow for seven years. During his training, he heard a milkmaid say, ‘’ I shall never have smallpox for I have had cowpox. I shall never have an ugly pockmarked face.’’
In 1764, Jenner began his training with GEORGE Harwicke and acquired knowledge in medical and surgical practice. He completed his training at 21years, went to London and became a student of John Hunter who was a surgeon and staff of St. Georges Hospital in London.
Jenner studied geology and carried out experiments on human blood. Jenner made great progress in clinical surgery while studying with john hunter in London. While Jenner interest in the protective effects of cowpox began during his training with George Harwicke, it was in 1796 he made the first step in the long process whereby smallpox, the scourge of mankind would be totally eradicated.
Jenner worked in a rural society where most of his patients were farmers or worked on farms with cattle. In the 18th century smallpox was considered to be the deadliest and persistent human pathogenic disease. Prevention of getting smallpox, through inoculation was the main ‘treatment’ by a method which had brought success to a Dutch physiologist, Jan Ingenhaus and was brought to England by lady Mary Wortly Montague, the wife of the British ambassador of turkey. This method involved scratching the vein of a healthy person and pressing a small amount of matter, taken from a smallpox pustule of a person with a mild attack, into the wound. The risk of the treatment was that the patient often contracted the full disease, with fatal results.
In1788, a wave of smallpox swept through Gloucestershire and during this outbreak Jenner observed that those of his patients who worked with cattle and had come in contact with the much milder disease, cowpox, never came down with smallpox.
In 1796 Jenner conducted an experiment on one of his young patients, James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy. After making two cuts in James’ arm, Jenner worked into them a small amount of cowpox puss. Although the boy had the normal reaction, of a slight fever, after several days, he soon was in good health. A few weeks later Jenner repeated the vaccination using small pox matter, the boy remained healthy. This is how Jenner’s vaccination treatment was born, name after the medical name for cowpox, vaccinia. In 1798 after carrying out more successful tests, he published the findings.
In January 1823, Jenner was found with his right side paralyzed. He never fully recovered and died due to stroke on 26th January 1823 aged 73 in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England.
INFLUENCE TO MODERN MEDICINE
In 1840, British government banned variolation, the use of smallpox, and provided vaccination using cowpox free of charge.
In 1976, global eradication programme of small pox was initiated by world health organization(WHO). After 10 years the disease was wiped out.in October 1979 whole world was certified “smallpox free area.”
HIPPOCRATES
Hippocrates was born in 460 B.C in Kos, Ancient Greece and died in 370 B.C in Lorissa, Ancient Greece. He was a Greek physician. Hippocrates father was Heradides, a physician and his mother was Praxitela, daughter of Tizane. Hippocrates sons were Thessalus and Draco. During his time most people associated sickness to superstition and the wrath of gods. Hippocrates changed the belief and taught that all forms of illness had a cause. He set up the first school for teaching medicine practice thus he is known as the “father of medicine.” His two sons and his son-in-law, Polybus, were his students. Polybus was Hippocrates true successor while Thessalus and Draco each had a son named Hippocrates 3 and Hippocrates 4 respectively. Soranus of Ephesus, a Greek physician, was Hippocrates first biographer and he is the source of most personal information about him.
Almost 60 medical documents are connected with his name including the Hippocratic oath. The documents were put together to form the Hippocratic corpus. Hippocrates did not write all the documents by himself, but the papers are a reflection of his philosophies. Through Hippocrates medical practice has moved into a more rational and scientific view of medicine. Some of the documents include theory of the four humors or fluids, the Hippocratic corpus which includes the Hippocratic oath which is an ancient code of ethics for doctors and other health professionals.
INFLUENCE OF HIPPOCRATES TO MODERN MEDICINE.
He described clubbing of fingers as a assign of chronic lung disease, lung cancer and cyanotic heart disease. Clubbed fingers are also known as “Hippocratic fingers.”
Hippocrates began to categorize illnesses as acute, chronic, endemic and epidemic and used terms as “exacerbation, relapse, resolution, crisis, paroxysm, peak and convalescence.”
He described the symptoms, physical findings, surgical treatment and prognosis of thoracic empyema. He was the first documented chest surgeon. His findings and techniques such as the use of lead pipes to drain chest wall abscess are still valid.
The Hippocratic school of medicine described well the ailments of the human rectum and their treatments.
The Hippocratic oath is taken by doctors and other health professions when they qualify. They swear to practice medicine ethically and honestly.
The Hippocratic face. This is a face not long before death. If an individual had the following signs and they were not making any improvements, the doctor might suspect impending death. A sharp nose, sunken eyes, cold ears and drawn in with distorted lobes, hard stretched and dry facial skin and pale dusky face.
RENE LAENNEC
Rene Laennec, French physician, was born on 17th February 1781 in Quimper, France. His father was known as Theophille Marie Laennec while his mother was called Michelle Felicite Guesdon Laennec. He had one brother known as Michaud Laennec. Since his father was a lawyer, he was discouraged from practicing medicine as a young man. His mother died while he was 6 years of age leaving him and his brother under the care of their father. In 1793, during the French revolution, the boys went to live with their uncle who was the dean of medicine at the university of Nantes. Under the guidance of his uncle, Rene developed an interest in medicine and began his medical studies in Paris’ finest hospital, the Charite, and studied under physicians such as dupuytren and jean Nicolas cirvisart-desmarets.he later became a member of the societe d’instruction medicale.
In 1802, Rene Laennec started publishing scientific topics. One of his major topics was on peritonitis. He started falling sick and had shortness of breath. In 1804, he was elected to the societe de I’ecole de medicine, formerly known as the royal society of medicine. In 1812 to 1813, during the Napoleonic wars, he was in charge of the wards in the Salpetriere hospital in Paris, which was reserved for wounded soldiers. In1816, he was appointed a physician at Necker hospital, Paris. During that period, doctors used to place their ear on the chest of the patient to listen to chest sounds. He found this method embarrassing while treating women especially overweight ones.
When a young overweight woman came to him complaining of chest problems, he found the traditional method of listening to heart beat to be ineffective. So he rolled some paper into a cylinder and placed one side on the woman’s chest and the other to his ear. He could now hear the sounds more clearly. He improvised on the new device, he had designed and called it a stethoscope from stethos which means a chest and skopos which means examination. He published de I’auscltation mediate’ (on mediate auscultation) in 1819. It was the first discourse on a variety of lung and heart sounds heard through the stethoscope. He was appointed chair and professor of medicine at the college of France in 1822. In 1823 he became a full member of the academia of medicine. He died on 13th august 1826 at the age of 45 in Ploare, France.
INFLUNCE TO MODERN MEDICINE
He invented the stethoscope which is used for auscultation up to date.
He developed the understanding of peritonitis and cirrhosis. Laennec gave cirrhosis its name using a greek word (kirrhos, tawny) that referred to the tawny, yellow nodules characteristic of the disease.
He coined the term melanoma and described metastases of melanoma to the lungs.
He also studied tuberculosis. Coincidentally, Laennec was diagnosed with tuberculosis using Laennec stethoscope. His mother also died of the same.
He classified pulmonary conditions such as pneumonia, bronchiectasis, pleurisy, emphysema, pneumothorax, phthisis and other lung diseases from the sounds he hard with his invention.
Heart sound. Laennec distinguished two heart sounds, the ventricular systole being the first heart sound while the atrial systole being the second heart sound.
WILLIAM OSLER
William Osler was born on 12thJuly 1849, Bond Head, Canada west, Canada. He was a Canadian physician and professor of medicine who practiced and taught in Canada, united states and Great Britain. He was created a baronet in 1911. William was the last born in a family of nine siblings. Reverend Featherstone Osler was his father while Ellen was his mother. Both were Anglican missionaries in Canada. William began to study at trinity college, Toronto but later entered Toronto medical school in 1868. He later transferred to McGill university in Montreal to pursue his medical degree in 1872.
Osler returned to Canada and began general practice in Dundas but was appointed lecturer in the institute of medicine at McGill university. In 1875 he became a professor there. In 1876 he became a pathologist to the Montreal general hospital and in 1878 he became a physician in that hospital. he taught physiology, pathology and medicine at McGill university. His research was largely conducted in the post mortem room. In 1884 he occupied the chair of clinical medicine at the university of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He became a founding member of the association of American physicians while in Philadelphia.
In 1888, Osler became the first professor of medicine in johns Hopkins university medical school, Baltimore. Students studied their patients in the wards and presented the results to the “chief.” They were also encouraged to take their problems to their laboratory. The experts pooled their knowledge for the benefit of the patient and the student I public teaching sessions. Thus the pattern of clinical teaching spread throughout the united states.
In 1892 he married Grace Gross, widow of a surgical colleague at Philadelphia. They had one son, revere, named after his great -great grandfather, Paul Revere. William died on 29th December 1919 aged 70 due to pneumonia.
INFLUENCE TO MODERN MEDICINE
He was one of the four professors whose names are associated with the founding of the john Hopkins. The other three were Halsted of radical mastectomy fame, Kelly of Kelly’s forceps and the pathologist welch.
Osler wrote the first significant and scientific textbook of medicine. The principles and practices of medicine which was published in 1892.
Several signs were named after him. They include Osler’s signs which is an artificially high blood pressure reading due to atherosclerotic arteries, Osler’s nodes which are painful bumps in infectious endocarditis and Osler vaquez disease which is now known as polycythemia rubra vera.
He almost single handedly taken the teaching of medicine out of the classroom to the bedside.
Confirmed the work of Lavaran by demonstrating the presence of malarial parasites in blood and early studies of the use of antipyretics.
Contributed to the literature on pneumonia, especially of pneumococcal pneumonia associated with alcoholism.
Demonstration of the association of peritonitis with perforation of the appendix prior to the definitive elucidation of acute appendicitis.
Extensive contributions to the literature on tuberculosis including the anatomical tubercle, tuberculosis peritonitis, tuberculosis pleurisy, tuberculosis pericarditis and the role of sanitariums.
References
Famous scientists. Edward Jenner (2020). Retrieved from www.famousscientists.org
George Pickering. (2020). William Osler. retrieved from www.britannica.com
Gopisankar M.G. (2008.) Edward Jenner. Retrieved from www.slideshare.net
Stanford medicine 25. Retrieved from med.stanford.edu
Stefan Rledel. (Feb 2005). Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination. Retrieved from www.researchgate.net
Traci Pederson.(2018) Who was Hippocrates?. Retrieved from www.livescience.com
Yvette brazier. (Nov 9 2018). Medical news today. Retrieved from www.medicalnewstoday.com