Significant Advances in Medicine in the Last 500 Years

Significant Advances in Medicine in the Last 500 Years
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation
Significant Advances in Medicine in the Last 500 Years
Medicine in treating human diseases has undergone numerous transformations dating back to prehistoric and ancient times. Originally, humans were hunters and gatherers and depended on the trial-and-error method to differentiate edible plants from poisonous ones to feed themselves (Iversen, 2016). Hence, even when concocting medicine to cure various ailments, they relied on domestic medicine or folk medicine. It is a type of treatment that pegs on the usage of herbs and vegetable products. However, there was little progress in treating diseases during this period because humans were superstitious and considered supernatural forces the causative element of severe infections and illnesses. Consequently, there were no significant advances in medicine until the beginning of the Renaissance era (Iversen, 2016).
During the Renaissance period, scientific medicine advanced significantly, yielding numerous Research and Development laboratories for studying medicine in various schools across Europe. The new experimental approach in understanding the human anatomy to treat diseases borrowed from the ancient Greek and Rome's medical knowledge. A significant step in modern human anatomy happened in the 16th century, with the publication of anatomical treatise in 1543 by Andreas Vesalius as the founding figure. Vesalius` illustrations paved the way for a contemporary standard in studying human anatomy.
Pegging on Vesalius` human anatomy discovery, advancement in human physiology significantly occurred in the 17th century. One of the physiological discoveries that perhaps set the stage for other scientists to build upon was William Harvey's blood circulation discovery in the human body, as captured in his 1628 De Motu Cordis book (Harvey, 1928). Harvey's discovery was vital to the progress in clinical medicine since scientists now understood that the heart was responsible for pumping blood around the body, and the lungs purified it. The discovery dispelled the earlier beliefs that the body consumed blood immediately after its production. Moreover, it demystified the notion that blood flowed in the body through two different channels, the veins and the arteries. According to prehistoric belief, the veins distributed nutritive blood from the liver to other body parts.
In contrast, the arteries distributed blood that contained the element of life (oxygenated blood) in human beings from the lungs. With Harvey's discovery, scientists comprehended that blood transported essential elements to every bo...