Group Details For History of Medicine

So what will you let yourself in for if you do decide to join this group? The course will explore the early period of the development of medicine moving through from prehistoric times, to Egyptian, Greek, Indian, Chinese and then to medieval period. On this journey, we will encounter giants in medicine; Imhotep, Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna etc. Having laid the foundations we will then go on to talk about specific diseases of the period, how they developed, the social implications arising from them, and how some of them have been overcome. These include Malaria, Black Death, Leprosy, Smallpox etc. The history of the development of the microscope will fit in somewhere which will lead us on to talk about more familiar diseases that plagued the country in the late 19th early 20th century, cholera, TB, Anthrax, etc. The course will also cover the more important pioneers of medicine that drove it forward i.e., William Harvey, Joseph Lister, Edward Jenner, Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, Robert Hooke, and many others. Other sections covered include the history of anatomy, the history of herbalism, the history of surgery and public health issues. The course will include great discoveries of the 20th century, antibiotics, Fleming and penicillin, Watson & Crick and the double helix, genetics, etc., leading on to the history of the development and treatment of some of the more well known conditions, diabetes, AIDS, cancer, etc. This should bring us up to date and include a brief look at the development of modern instruments in the fight against disease e g, fibre-optics, scanners, designer drugs etc. The main body of the course will be presented on PowerPoint.