historydoses

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On November 20, 1986, the World Health Organization (WHO), announced the first global initiative to eliminate AIDS. In the decades following this announcement there have been significant strides made to reduce the burden of this disease all over the world.

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On this day in 1722 Austrian physician Leopold Auenbrugger was born. He is credited as inventing the use of percussion (tapping on bodily surfaces) as a diagnostic approach. It is said that he realized if he put his ear to the patient and tapped light on their chest he could evaluate the nature of the underlying tissue. To this day percussion is an essential part of a doctor's approach to clinical diagnosis during physical examination.

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Today we remember Theodor Billroth, the father of modern abdominal surgery

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On this day in 1874, August Krogh was born. The Danish physiologist and Nobel laureate is most renowned for discovering the mechanism of regulation of capillaries (very small blood vessel) in skeletal muscle.

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On this day in 1891 Frederick Banting was born. The Canadian physician and Nobel Laureate was one of the co-discoverers of insulin and its effect as treatment for Diabetes Mellitus.

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On this day in 1715 Dorothea Erxleben was born. She was Germany's first female medical doctor.

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November 11 - on this day in 1907 Joseph Gilbert Hamilton was born. The american physician was a professor of experimental medicine and director of the Crocker Laboratory (a part of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He was a first leading researcher of using radioactive isotopes in disease treatment.

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November 10th - On this day in 1801 physician Samuel Gridley Howe was born. He was the first director of the Perkins Institution, the oldest school for the blind in the United States of America.

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Karl Landsteiner (14 June 1868 – 26 June 1943) was an Austrian physician who distinguished the main blood groups in 1900. His work contributed to improvements in safety for blood transfusion. He won the Nobel prize in Medicine and physiology in 1930.

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November 8th - On this day in 1895 German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen detects electromagnetic radiation in a specific wavelength, effectively discovering X-rays

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Alexander Fleming(6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955), whose work in his laboratory led to the discovery of the antibiotic properties of penicillin, effectively starting a new era in the treatment of infectious disease.

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On this day in 1837 Jean-Louis-Marc Alibert died. The french dermatologist was a pioneer in his homeland and was the first person to describe the condition known as Psioriatic Arthritis

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On this day in 1854, Jokichi Takamine was born. He was a biochemist most well known for isolating adrenaline, a hormone critical in the "fight or flight" response often seen in emergency situations.

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On this day in 1857 Joseph Babinski was born. He was a famed polish-french neurologist who was the first to describe the "babinkski reflex" which is a reflex normal in infants but when seen in adults indicates diseases of the spinal cord and Brain.

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On this day in 1848, the first female medical school in the US was open:the "New England Female Medical College."

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On this day in 1892, physician and writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle publishes, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." His series of detective stories go on to become some of the most famous works of literature in the western world spawning multiple movies, animated series and video-games.

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“Medicine in Ancient Egypt”

“An Egyptian physician of the Eighteenth Century (1500-1400 B.C.), clothed in clean white linen and a wig, as became the dignity of his status, is confronted with a patient having symptoms of lockjaw (described in an ancient scroll now known as the Edwin Smith papyrus). With sure, sympathetic hands, the physician treats the patient, who is supported by a "brick chair." Directions for treatment appear on the scroll held by his assistant. Specially trained priests observe prescribed magico-religious rites. Egyptian medicine occupied a dominant position in the world of the ancients for 2500 years.”

Illustration by Robert Thom