Medical discoveries

Topics represented

Medicine (270) · Nobel laureates (233) · People (233) · Physiology or Medicine (116) · Nobel Prizes (116) · Science (43) · Epidemics & public health (7) · Personas científicas (6) · Roman Empire (3) · Vacunación (3) · VIH/sida (3) · Antirretrovirales (2)

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

1. c. 460 BCE–c. 375 BCE

   Hippocrates

   A Greek physician associated with the Hippocratic tradition. Attribution of individual texts in the Hippocratic Corpus varies, so this entry represents the person and medical tradition rather than a sole author of every treatise.

2. c. 400 BCE–c. 300 BCE

   Hippocratic Corpus

   The collection brings together Greek medical treatises by different authors and from different dates. Its clinical-observation accounts do not justify attributing every text to Hippocrates.

3. c. 165–c. 180

   Antonine plague

   A widespread epidemic affected the empire from 165/166 until at least 180; Galen witnessed part of it. Its cause and exact demographic impact are debated, so no mortality totals are assigned here.

4. c. 249–c. 270

   Epidemic associated with Cyprian

   Later sources and Christian testimony describe an epidemic around the time of Cyprian of Carthage. Its disease identity and scale remain uncertain; it is recorded as health and social context, not a confirmed diagnosis.

5. c. 541–c. 544

   First documented Justinianic plague outbreak

   Late Antique sources record a plague outbreak between 541 and 544 in territories of the eastern empire. Biomolecular evidence supports identification with Yersinia pestis, but its mortality, reach, and historical weight remain debated.

6. 980–1037

   Avicenna (Ibn Sina)

   A Persian physician and philosopher whose works circulated widely in Arabic and Latin. This entry focuses on his intellectual and medical career, not a retrospective assessment of all premodern medicine.

7. c. 1025

   Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine

   Avicenna compiles the Canon of Medicine, a medical synthesis influential in the Islamic world and, through Latin translations, in medieval Europe. Its composition date is approximate.

8. 1543

   Modern human anatomy

   Andreas Vesalius publishes De humani corporis fabrica, a landmark for anatomy grounded in direct observation.

9. 1628

   Blood circulation

   William Harvey describes systemic blood circulation and the heart’s role as a pump.

10. 1676

    Microorganisms observed

    Antonie van Leeuwenhoek reports microscopic observations of tiny organisms, opening a new biological world.

11. 1796

    Smallpox vaccination

    Edward Jenner demonstrates protection through cowpox inoculation, a foundation of modern vaccination.

12. c. 1816

    Laennec’s stethoscope

    René Laennec devises the stethoscope and develops mediate auscultation; he published his treatise on the method in 1819. The innovation changes physical examination without replacing its other clinical methods on its own.

13. 1841–1917

    Theodor Kocher

    Theodor Kocher (1841–1917) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1909). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

14. 1843–1910

    Robert Koch

    Robert Koch (1843–1910) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1905). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

15. 1843–1926

    Camillo Golgi

    Camillo Golgi (1843–1926) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1906). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

16. 1845–1922

    Alphonse Laveran

    Alphonse Laveran (1845–1922) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1907). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

17. 1845–1916

    Ilya Mechnikov

    Ilya Mechnikov (1845–1916) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1908). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

18. 1846

    Surgical anesthesia

    The public ether-anesthesia demonstration transforms surgery by enabling operations without conscious pain.

19. 1847

    Clinical hand hygiene

    Ignaz Semmelweis shows that hand disinfection sharply reduces puerperal fever.

20. 1849–1936

    Ivan Pavlov

    Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1904). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

21. 1850–1935

    Charles Richet

    Charles Richet (1850–1935) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1913). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

22. 1852–1934

    Santiago Ramón y Cajal

    Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852–1934) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1906). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

23. 1853–1927

    Albrecht Kossel

    Albrecht Kossel (1853–1927) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1910). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

24. 1854–1917

    Emil von Behring

    Emil von Behring (1854–1917) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1901). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

25. 1854–1915

    Paul Ehrlich

    Paul Ehrlich (1854–1915) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1908). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

26. 1854

    Cholera epidemiology

    John Snow links London cholera cases to a contaminated water pump, a landmark in modern epidemiology.

27. 1857–1932

    Ronald Ross

    Ronald Ross (1857–1932) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1902). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

28. 1857–1940

    Julius Wagner-Jauregg

    Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1857–1940) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1927). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

29. 1857–1952

    Sir Charles Sherrington

    Sir Charles Sherrington (1857–1952) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1932). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

30. 1858–1930

    Christiaan Eijkman

    Christiaan Eijkman (1858–1930) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1929). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.