How was medical science able to make the extraordinary journey to where it is today? What major discoveries made it possible? Who were the fascinating individuals responsible for those discoveries, and what qualities prepared each of them for their unique roles in medical history? In these 12 lectures, you'll examine the lives of 12 of medicine's greatest contributors to uncover the human story behind the development of Western scientific medicine. Focusing not on science but on medical history, you'll examine stories about strivings, disappointments, triumphs of human genius, and sometimes, greed. Dr. Nuland introduces introduce you to medicine's trailblazers, including Hippocrates, seen as the "father" of Western medicine; Andreas Vesalius, who established the world's first truly accurate description of human anatomy; Joseph Lister, who discovered the cause of post-operative infection; and Helen Taussig, who launched the advent of pediatric cardiac surgery. Woven into these biographies are topics such as the rise of universities and how they influenced medical education; the appearance of scientific method; the influence of individual personality on achievement along with the accompanying influence of national character and culture; the role of the church; and the part played by each discoverer's psychological makeup.
Doctors: The History of Scientific Medicine Revealed through Biography
01: Hippocrates and the Origins of Western Medicine
Hippocrates's name is given to a new form of healing, setting aside superstition and religion in favor of keen observation, medical ethics, recording, and teaching.
02: The Paradox of Galen
Galen based his career on the idea that understanding disease required understanding the body. His influence was so overwhelming it took 1,400 years before his errors in that understanding began to surface.
03: Vesalius and the Renaissance of Medicine
An extraordinary volume by a Flemish medical student clarifies the understanding of anatomy of function in ways never imagined before.
04: Harvey, Discoverer of the Circulation
Harvey's 1628 description of the heart's function and the continuous circulation of the body's blood supply is generally considered the greatest contribution ever made to the art of healing.
05: Morgagni and the Anatomy of Disease
The Hippocratic thesis that illness originates in an entire person inhibits research, until the work of one man shows that virtually every symptom arises from a specific pathology in a particular structure.
06: Hunter, the Surgeon as Scientist
At a time when surgeons merely amputated, lanced, and bled at the behest of physicians, John Hunter introduces the notion that they can also be researchers, and brings science into surgery.
07: Laennec and the Invention of the Stethoscope
Driven by his own embarrassment with the necessities of diagnostic procedure, an intensely shy doctor makes a dramatic advance.
08: Morton and the Origins of Anesthesia
In the 1840s, nitrous oxide, ether, and chloroform are discovered to have anesthetic properties. The great surge in the possibilities for treatment is accompanied by acrimonious debate among those claiming the credit.
09: Virchow and the Cellular Origins of Disease
Following the discovery of cells, a German pathologist introduces the concept that disease is caused by pathological change in a previously normal cell. His 1858 book becomes the bible of the new medicine.
10: Lister and the Germ Theory
An indomitable Quaker physician persists over two decades in his efforts to convince physicians of the causes of postsurgical mortal infection and how to prevent it, revolutionizing medical thinking.
11: Halsted and American Medical Education
A brilliant young surgeon develops a new paradigm of operating room procedure, transforming surgery and contributing to a new medical school's ascendancy as the model on which all others in the United States would be based.
12: Taussig and the Development of Cardiac Surgery
The Johns Hopkins Medical School is founded on the principle that women must be admitted on the same basis as men. One of its greatest female graduates helps establish the new field of pediatric cardiology.
About
Dr. Sherwin B. Nuland (1930-2014) was Clinical Professor of Surgery at the Yale School of Medicine and Fellow of the university's Institution for Social and Policy Studies. He served on the executive committees of Yale's Whitney Humanities Center and its Interdisciplinary Bioethics Project. Professor Nuland was a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, New York University, and the Yale School of Medicine, from which he earned his M.D. After training in surgery at the Yale-New Haven Hospital, he practiced and taught there for three decades. He considered the bedside and operative care of over 10,000 patients to be the most rewarding work of his career. He taught bioethics and medical history to undergraduates and medical students. Dr. Nuland is the author of eight books, including Doctors: The Biography of Medicine and The Wisdom of the Body. He is also the author of How We Die, a reflection on the modern way of death, which was on the New York Times best-seller list for 34 weeks. This book won the National Book Award and was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize and the Book Critics Circle Award. Dr. Nuland has written dozens of articles for magazines and periodicals, including The New Yorker, Time, Life, National Geographic, Discover, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times.
