It is known that our ancestors already in ancient times had the skills to cure many diseases, or rather, made attempts to seek methods of their elimination. The first stage in the development of medicine is called empirical (or experimental). Research proves that about 200,000 years ago, when humans were able to walk upright, they gradually learned how to help each other when they were injured or broken. The level of help, however, was very high, considering the ancient times.
Of course, the skills of the primitive healers should be treated critically, but with the advent of writing, a special list of Hamurappi rules also arose, which regulated the rules of Babylonian doctors’ work. Since people did not yet distinguish between medicine and religion at that time, the first doctors can be considered temple priests.
Ancient Greece was also famous for its attempts to study the human body. Hippocrates, whose name is known practically to everyone, made a valuable contribution to medicine at that time by describing for the first time the various fluids present in the human body and trying to establish their nature. It is no coincidence that ancient Greek scientists founded the first educational institutions where people could receive a medical education (not bad for that time).
Ancient Greece
The second historical period of medical development is the Middle Ages. Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Razes, and Francis Bacon, who refuted the ancient theories of these scientists, should be noted as founders of serious science. It is thanks to this decisive confrontation that the Middle Ages were the cradle of the birth of anatomy and physiology, without the knowledge of which the medical profession is now unthinkable.
During the Middle Ages, in spite of periodic clerical opposition, physicians began to examine the human body by dissecting corpses. This allowed them to discover the causes of many ailments and challenged popular superstitions.
Beginning with the Renaissance (16th century) and up to the 18th century, people began to actively exchange scientific information, joining together in various medical communities. After the invention of the first printing press by Johannes Gutenberg, publications in the field of medicine began to appear regularly, which determined the development of sanitary affairs and the increase in the level of education of doctors.
In this connection it is impossible not to remember the outstanding physicians of that time, whose names are known to us since our school years:
Andreas Vesalius, one of the founders of anatomy, who corrected over two hundred errors in the anatomical atlases of antiquity;
William Garvey, who studied the mechanisms of blood movement through animal vessels. Harvey first formulated the theory of circulation, and its basic principles are used by physiologists to this day.
The third, decisive stage in the development of medicine is the XIX-XX centuries, the era of rapid development of the industrial sphere and scientific thinking. The second half of XIX century marks the final transition of medicine into the sphere of natural sciences. The development of microscopy allowed the detailed study of viruses and microbes, and a little later, in the XX century, the first antibacterial preparations were invented. Thanks to antibiotics, doctors were able to successfully treat diseases that had previously been considered incurable or fatal. At the same time, in the 20th century, a physician from Austria, Karl Landsteiner, discovered different human blood groups, and thanks to genetics, medicine got a huge boost for its further development.