Who do you think made the most significant discovery in medicine?

Answer 1

Penicillin by Fleming..

Answer 2

More significant than any of the specific discoveries cited above is the decision made in the West to OPEN bodies up to investigate disease. Brilliant societies like the Chinese and the ancient Jews did not do this. Thus China never moved beyond accupuncture.

Thus, the reluctance to touch and open dead humans retarded knowledge in advanced societies, until the Europeans came along, they had no complex traditions, and said "lets take a peek"


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Answer 3

There were many great discoveries in medicine.

I would read the Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine.

Many discoveries cannot be accredited to a single person (like clario accredited penicillin to fleming) but rather to a group of people.

I think antibiotics and safety/cleanliness procedures were important because they made surgery safer, and they prevented countless deaths by simple infection. They made in less likely to get diseases. Also the world became a better place when smokestacks in London, dirty streets with standing water, human feces, and dead animals in the midwest in the early 1900's were gotten rid of.

Answer 4

Hippocrates believed that disease had a physical, rational explanation that could be discovered and treated/cured, rather than the belief that disease was caused by demons or other superstitions. While it's not just one discovery, this belief is the foundation to all other experiments in medicine.

Answer 5

Edward Jenner...innoculated an eight year old boy with cowpox to immunize him against smallpox. Although others may have done innoculations previously, Jenner was given credit for the idea.
Irregardless, I nominate Jenner because of the countless lives saved by vaccination.

Answer 6

The discovery of glyconutrients.

Answer 7

Jenner, vaccine.

I thought Jenner noticed that milk maids didn't get small pox and figured out that its because they were exposed to cow pox and were thus immune. The 8 year old boy story had to do with rabies.

Answer 8

The native americans, who were the first to use it. What about the person who discovered antibiotics, or medicine, or etc? If there is no starting point, there is no beginning.

Answer 9

SIr Flemming for making penicillan and Louise Pastor inventing Carbonic aid and pastorizing things. Carbonic prooved in a clean environment you can have germs and Carbonic acid bacically killed 99.9%. Penicillan because it helped saved millions of people that thought would die.

Answer 10

VonLewenhook and his microscope. Can you think of any branch of modern medicine being successful without a microscopic explanation ?