Prominent scientists

HIPPOCRATES — " THE FATHER OF MEDICINE"

Hippocrates was born in 460 В. С. on the island of Cos. He was the son of a doctor. Hippocrates studied medicine and then he went from town to town where he practiced the art of medicine. It is known that he drove out (вигнав) the plague [pleig] from Athens by lighting fires in the streets of the city.

Hippocrates was known as an excellent doctor and a teacher of medicine. He established medical schools in Athens and in other towns. He wrote several books and many case histories. Hippocrates taught his pupils to examine the patient attentively and to give him quick help. He created medicine on the basis of experience. He taught that every disease was a natural process and it had natural causes. Hippocrates treated diseases by exercise, massage, salt water baths, diet and suitable medicine. He observed diseases such a pneumonia, tuberculosis and malaria and added to the medical language such words as chronic, crisis, relapse and convalescence.

Hippocrates is the most famous of all the Greek doctors. He is often called " the father of Medicine" and some of his ideas are still important.

Doctors in many countries take the Hippocratic Oath. It is a collection of promises, written by Hippocrates, which forms the basis of the medical code of honour.

Answer the questions:

1. When was Hippocrates born? 2. How did he practice the art of medicine? 3. How did Hippocrates drive out the plague from Ath­ens? 4. How did Hippocrates teach his pupils to examine the patient? 5. How did Hippocrates treat diseases? 6. What words are added to the medical language by Hippocrates? 7. How is a collection of promises, written by Hippo­crates, called?

FREDERICK BANTING

Frederick Banting (1891-1941) a Canadian scientist was educated at the University of Toronto. He was the first to isolate the hormone called insulin, and succeeded in preparing it as a specific medicament for the treatment of diabetes. In 1923 he received the Nobel Prize.

During the World War II he was very active in the fight against Nazi Germany. He worked at designing a flying suit that would prevent “blackout” among pilots during their fights at great heights because of the low air pressure.

He wanted to help suffering humanity in every way he could – and he did so to the very tragic end of his life. On his way to England he was killed in an airplane crash in Newfoundland

ALEXANDER FLEMING

Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) came from a Scottish family of farmers. He was born in August 1881, at Lochfield, the youngest of eight children.

He did research work at St. Mary’s Hospital under Sir Almroth Wright, a pioneer of vaccine therapy, and became interested in bacterial action and antibacterial drugs. After military service, during which he vas able to make further studies of the problems of infection and use of antiseptics, Fleming returned to laboratory work.

He was interested in antibacterial substances which would be non-toxic to animal tissues. The first fruit of his search was the discovery of lysozyme. His epochal discovery in 1928, of the antibacterial powers of the mould from which penicillin was derived became a great triumph. He found that a liquid mould culture, which he named penicillin, prevented growth of staphylococci.

He died on the 11^th of March 1955 in London, and was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral. He is known as the “father of antibiotics”. The two letters “A.F.” on a flagstone show where he lies.

EDWARD JENNER

In 1796, an English doctor Edward Jenner made an important discovery. He found a way to fight a disease called smallpox. Smallpox was a dangerous disease that killed many people.

During the 1700's, many people worked with farm animals. Dr. Jen­ner realized that these people did not become sick with smallpox. He found that these people did become sick with another disease called cowpox. Cowpox is very much like smallpox except most people do not die from it.

Dr. Jenner thought that people who had cowpox were protected from smallpox. To prove his theory, he took cowpox germs from the blood of a woman who had this disease. He injected the germs into a healthy boy. The boy became sick with cowpox but soon recovered. Then Dr. Jenner injected smallpox germs into the boy's arm. The boy did not become sick with smallpox. The antibodies from the cowpox protected the boy from smallpox.

Dr. Jenner discovered a vaccine for smallpox. Because of the vac­cine, people do not become sick with smallpox any more.

PROMINENT SCIENTISTS AND PHYSICIANS OF UKRAINE

A well-known Ukrainian scientist О. М. Shumlyansky was the prominent anatomist-microscopist of the 18th century. He was the first who discribed the kidney texture.

О. М. Shumlyansky was born in 1748 in the village Yakivtsi of Poltava region. He graduated from the medical school in Petersburg and worked as a surgeon. Then he went abroad where he improved his education in the field of obstetrics and received his doctor's degree.

After his returning to Russia О. М. Shumlyansky became a profes­sor of the medical surgical school in Moscow. He was the author of many research works in the fields of surgery and obstetrics.

The prominent surgeon and scientist M. V. Skliphosovsky (1836-1904) was born in Moldova and was brought up in a charity-school in Odesa. After successful graduating from the University he wrote his thesis and became a professor of the Medical Academy in Petersburg. He was one of the organizers of the surgical school in Russia. M. V. Skliphosovsky liked Ukraine and often visited Odesa and other Ukrainian towns. In 1871 he bought an estate in the outskirt of Poltava and rested there in summer. Then he removed to Poltava and worked as a physician at the regional hospitalA new school was built for poor children on his initiative and his daughter was a teacher there.

The outstanding clinicist and scientist of Ukraine M. D. Strazhesko (1876-1952) was an initiator in establishing Kyiv Institute of Clinical Medicine and worked there as the academician during a long period. Under the supervision of his teacher prof. V. P. Obraztsov he was the first to differentiate and describe the clinical picture of myocardial infarction.

M. D. Strazhesko was the author of many classical works describ­ing the heart and abdominal diseases. In his research work he used the scientific data from biochemistry, microbiology, physiology and other sciences. In common with his teacher V. P. Obraztsov they worked out a new method of sliding palpation of abdominal cavity organs that won the world recognition.

A SCIENTIST OF GENIUS

Mykola Pirogov was called a scientist of genius even in his life­time. At 18, he graduated from Moscow University; at 22, he became a Doctor of Science; at 26, he was a Professor at Derpt (now Tartu) University, one of the largest in Europe, and at 30, he headed Russia's first field surgery clinic. During his first 30 or so years in surgery, he started a new trend in the study of human anatomy and physiology, based on fundamentally novel methods. His major research works in this field contributed enormously to world science. To this day, Pirogov's methods are among the basic methods in the study and teaching anatomy.

He was a field surgeon during four wars (in the Caucasus in 1847, in the Crimea in 1854, in the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, and in the Russian-Turkish war in 1877), selflessly saving the lives of the wounded in the most diffi­cult of conditions.

He in fact created a new medical science, field surgery, and sug­gested new, rational principles for the grouping, distribution and evacuation of the wounded. His work, " Fundamentals of Field Sur­gery" (1864), had soon become a reference book for field surgeons in all countries.

He formulated some of the most important principles of treating gunshot wounds, fractures, shock, and wound infections, and developed the most ingenious methods of performing operations.

He was also the first to apply, on a large scale, plaster of Paris bandages in field conditions (in Sevastopol, during the Crimean war), which was a revolution in field surgery. Almost 90 years later, during the Great Patriotic War, the Pirogov’s plaster of Paris was still widely used during the heroic defense of Sevastopol, and on all other fronts, helping save the lives of many thousands of soldiers.

He also developed clas­sical, world-acknowledged methods of operations and treatment in ophthalmology, urology, and other fields. Many of those methods are applied even now, and one of them, the so-called Pirogov amputation (a conservative-restorative operation on the extremities), marked the beginning of osteoplasty, giving a powerful impetus to the development of reconstructive surgery.

He was among the first to realize the importance of general anesthesia and to apply narcosis, doing all he could towards its introduction into sur­gery.