History of Biology and Medicine

B.C.

~10000    The dog domesticated in Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Canaan (Israel).
~8000      Potatoes and pumpkins domesticated.
~6000      Yeast used by Sumerians and Babylonians to make beer.
~5000      The horse domesticated in Ukraine.
~4000      Egyptians discovered how to bake leavened bread using yeast.
~3000      Tooth filling performed in Sumer.
~2700      Silkworm cultivation started in China.
~2500      Egyptian carvings depicted surgery.
~2000      Egyptians introduced a form of contraceptive.
~1100      First zoo founded in China, the Park of Intelligence.
~800       Medical training in India uses anatomical models.
~535       Human cadaver dissected for scientific study by Greek physician Alcmaeon.
~500       First known cataract operation performed by Susrata in India.
~400       Hippocrates founds profession of medicine.
                Hippocrates determined that the male contribution to a child's heredity is carried in the semen.
~350       Aristotle groups 500 known species of animals into eight classes.
~330       Theophrastus of Eresus described more than 550 plants.
~320       Aristotle states that male provides form and the female the raw material for offspring.
~300       First anatomy book written by Greek physician Diocles.
~190       Galen extracts plant juices for medicinal purposes.
~180       Galen accumulates all known medical knowledge of time in a treatise.
   100       Romans speculated that mares can be fertilized by the wind.

A.D.

  ~40        Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides describes medical properties of 600 plants.
  ~50        Pliny the Elder describes all known about zoology at the time.
  541         Bubonic plague strikes Europe and continues until 544.
  977         First known hospital founded in Baghdad.
1000         Hindus observed that certain diseases may "run in the family."
1266         Roger Bacon proclaims importance of experimentation in science.
1275         William of Saliceto - "Chirurgia" earliest record of human dissection.
1300         Urine examination used for medical diagnosis.
1303         Bernard of Gordon - first medical reference to spectacles.
1333         Botanical garden founded in Venice, Italy.
1403         Compilation of Chinese encyclopedia in 22,937 volumes.
1440         Nicholas of Cusa grinds spectacle lenses for both nearsighted and farsighted.
1444         Cosimo de’Medici founds medical library in Florence.
1480         Leonardo da Vinci uses dissection to study human muscles, bones and heart.
1509         First attempts to restrict medical practice to licensed doctors.
1517         Naturalist Pierre Belon notes similarities between bones of fish and mammals.
1520         Smallpox decimates the Aztec people.
1543         Andreas Vesalius writes first printed book on anatomy.
1544         Luca Hgini publishes the first herbarium.
1559         Realdo Colombo describes circulation of blood through lungs.
1560         Gabriel Fallopius discovers Fallopian tubes.
1580         Prospero Alpini detects plant sexuality (male and female).
1590         Z. and H. Janssen produce first compound microscope.
1596         Li Shi-Chen describes 8000 medicinal uses of 1000 plants and 1000 animals.
1609         Galileo Galilei builds a microscope.
1620         Francis Bacon details importance of scientific method.
1624         Jan Baptista van Helmont does quantitative study of growth of willow tree.
1628         William Harvey traces circulation of blood throughout body.
1647         First records of yellow fever in the Americas.
1651         William Harvey suggest all living things originate from eggs.
1660         Marcello Malpighi discovers capillaries with microscope.
1663         Francesco Redi introduces concept of experimental control.
1665         Robert Hooke describes cell structure of cork in Micrographia.
1668         Francesco Redi disproves spontaneous generation of maggots.
1677         Anton van Leeuwenhoek discovers mammalian sperm; he thinks they are human larvae.
1683         Anton van Leeuwenhoek observes bacteria; significance not understood for 175 years.
1691         John Ray maintains fossils are remains of extinct creatures.
1701         Pylarini intentionally gives children mild smallpox to prevent a serious case later in life.
1705         Stephen Hales measures blood pressure in humans and sap pressure in plants.
1714         Dominique Anel invents fine-pointed syringe for surgical purposes.
1724         Cross-fertilization in corn was discovered.
1735         Carolus Linnaeus introduces a classification system for organisms.
1740         Charles Bonnet recognizes that aphids reproduce parthenogenetically.
1748         John Needham seems to prove spontaneous generation of microorganisms.
1761         First veterinary school founded in Lyons France.
1768         Lazzaro Sapllanzani disproves spontaneous generation of microorganisms.
1771         Joseph Priestly shows life-supporting ability of plants.
1779         Jan Ingenhousz discovers plants absorb oxygen at night and C0₂ during day.
1780         Luigi Galvani finds muscular action is related to electrical phenomena.
1789         Antoine Jussieu publishes modern classification of plants.
1793         Christian Konrad Sprengel explains plant fertilization in detail.
1794         Elisa Mangus Fries writes one of the first standard works on fungi.
1798         T. R. Malthus publishes An Essay on the Principle of Population.
                 Edward Jenner gives first account of vaccination to prevent smallpox.
1803         John Otto conducts first wild bird banding studies.
1804         Nicholas de Saussure shows plants require nitrogen from the soil.
                 A. D. Thaer introduces rotation of crops.
1808         John Dalton develops atomic theory - all matter composed of invisible atoms.
1809         J. B. de Monet Lamarck suggests acquired characteristics transmitted to offspring.
1810         Francois Appert develops techniques for canning food.
1817         Chlorophyll isolated by Pierre Pelletier and Joseph Bienaime Caventou.
1820         C. F. Nasse describes the sex-linked mode of inheritance of hemophilia in humans.
1822         Jean Lamarck distinguishes between invertebrates and vertebrates.
1825         F. V. Raspail uses iodine to identify starch.
1827         William Prout divides foodstuffs into carbohydrates, fat, and protein.
                 K. E. von Baer gives first accurate description of the human egg.
1828         Friedrich Wholer synthesizes organic substance (urea) from inorganic compounds.
1831         Robert Brown discovers the nucleus in the cell.
                 Charles Darwin sails on H.M.S. Beagle.
1832         Thomas Hodgkin describes Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymph nodes.
                 Marshall Hall studies reflex arc in nerve cells.
1833         First isolation of an enzyme by Anselme Payen.
1834         First mercury dental filling used.
1838         Matthias Jakob Schleiden & Theodor Schwann establish cell theory.
1840         Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle suggests disease caused by microorganisms.
1842         First use of ether in surgery by Crawford W. Long.
1845         J. Dzierzon reports drones hatch from unfertilized bee eggs.
                 Robert Remak identifies three embryonic germ layers, ecto-, meso- and endoderm
1850         Ignaz Semmelweis suggests doctors should wash hands in between patients - he is fired.
1852         Hermann von Helmholtz measures speed of nerve impulse.
1855         Pasteur develops a vaccine against rabies.
1856         Edmund Wilson notes X and Y chromosomes in mammals.
1857         Gregor Mendel begins experiments with peas in his garden.
                 Louis Pasteur proves fermentation caused by living organisms.
1858         Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace publish papers on theory of evolution.
1859         Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species.
1860         T. A. E. Klebs introduces paraffin embedding.
1861         Louis Pasteur disproves theory of spontaneous generation of microorganisms.
1860         Rudolph Virchow maintains that all cells arise from other living cells.
1865         Chloroplasts found in plants by Julius von Sachs.
1866         Gregor Mendel publishes Experiments on Plant Hybridization.
                 Louis Pasteur advances theory that germs are cause of disease.
                  Langdon Down discovers trisomy 21.
1869         Johann Friedrich Miescher discovers nucleic acid.
                 Francis Galton publishes treatise on eugenics.
1870         Karl Gegenbaur compares embryos of different organisms.
                 W. Flemming discovered mitosis.
1871         Ernst Hoppe-Seyler discovered invertase, an enzyme that cuts sucrose into glucose and fructose.
1872         Ferdinand Cohn publishes volumes on bacteria.
1873         Camillo Golgi introduces staining techniques for cell structure.
1875         Hertwig shows nucleus required for cell division.
1876         Sydney Ringer develops a solution to maintain healthy tissues in vitro.
1877         Robert Koch develops bacterial staining for identification of anthrax and other bacteria.
1878         Emerson suggested weeds were plants "whose virtues have not yet been discovered."
1880         Pasteur shows that weakened strains of fowl cholera can protect from disease.
1881         Robert Koch grows bacteria on potato slices, on gelatin medium, and on agar medium.
1882         Walther Flemming studies details of cell division and role of chromosomes.
                 Robert Koch, became the first to uncover the cause of a human microbial disease, tuberculosis
                 Ilya Metchnikoff observed phagocytes surrounding microorganisms in starfish larvae. .
1884         Hans Christian Gram finds stains for grain-positive and gram-negative bacteria.
                 Pasteur developed a rabies vaccine.
1885         Sigmund Freud begins to develop psychoanalysis.
1886         Hugo Marie De Vries recognizes importance of mutations in evolution.
                 Hermann Hellriegel observes leguminous plants can utilize atmospheric nitrogen.
1887         First type of contact lens developed.
                 E. van Beneden discovers each species has fixed number of chromosomes.
                 R.J. Petri described glass plates with overlapping lids for growing microbes on agar.
1888         Eduard Strasburger shows sex cells have half normal number of chromosomes.
1889         Theodor Boveri shows genetic material located in cell nucleus.
1891         Heinrich von Waldeyer-Hartz identifies synapses between neurons.
1892         Dmitri Ivanovsky isolates virus; believes it is a bacterium.
                 First arthropod disease carrier (tick) identified by Theobald Smith.
1893         First open heart surgery performed by Daniel Williams.
1895         Winogradski demonstrated nitrogen fixation in the absence of oxygen by Clostridia bacteria.
1896         Michael Pupin develops diagnostic X-ray.
                 Wilhelm Kolle, a German bacteriologist, developed cholera and typhoid vaccines.
1897         English physician Ronald Ross shows mosquitoes transmit malaria.
                 Eduard Buchner demonstrated that fermentation can occur with an extract of yeast cells.
1898         First known virus (TMV) discovered by Martinus Willem Beijerinck.
1900         Walter Reed shows mosquitoes spread yellow fever.
                 Gregor Mendel's work on heredity of plants rediscovered by 3 German scientists.
                 K. Pearson develops the chi-square test.
                 K Landsteiner discovers the blood-agglutination phenomenon in humans.
                 Paul Ehrlich proposes antigens and antibodies are complementary.
1901         T. H. Montgomery identifies pairing of paternal and maternal chromosomes in meiosis.
                 K. Landsteiner identifies three blood groups in humans.
1902         Ivan Petrovcich Pavlov formulates theory of learning by conditioning.
                 Walter Sutton determines that chromosomes may carry inherited characteristics.
                 T. Boveri shows that chromosomes carry different hereditary information.
                 C. E. McClung shows that sex is determined at time of fertilization.
                 Sir William Bayliss locates first hormone, secretin in lining of intestine.
                 A. E. Garrod identifies first inherited human disease.
1903         Sutton & Boveri propose that eggs & sperm cell contain only one of each chromosome pair.
1905         Edmund Wilson and Nellie Stevens note relationship of X and Y chromosomes to gender.
1906         William Bateson and R. C. Punnett report genetic linkage in sweet peas.
1907         R. G. Harrison develops tissue culture of nerve fibers.
                 E. F. Smith shows A. tumefaciens causes crown gall disease.
                 Thomas Morgan begins using fruit flies for chromosome studies.
1908         G. H. Hardy and W. Weinberg formulate Hardy-Weinberg law.
                 Calmette and Guerin developed a vaccine against TB; it was not used until 1921.
1909         Phoebus Levene shows ribose is the sugar in RNA.
                 H. Nilsson Ehle describes quantitative inheritance in wheat seed color
                 C. Correns and E. Bauer identify non-Mendelian inheritance in chloroplasts.
                 W. Johannsen clarifies difference between phenotype and genotype.
                 F. A. Janssens suggests nonsister chromatid exchange causes chiasmata.
                 A. E. Garrod publishes Inborn Errors of Metabolism.
1910         Thomas Hunt Morgan demonstrates sex linkage in Drosophila.
                 Paul Ehrlich uses first chemotherapy (to cure syphilis).
1911         Francis Rous isolates first tumor virus.
                 Thomas Hunt Morgan locates genes on a chromosome.
1912         A. Wegener proposes the continental drift concept.
1913         W. H. Bragg and W. I. Bragg show atomic structure by X-ray diffraction.
                 A. H. Sturtevant produces first genetic map.
1914         C. B. Bridges discovers meiotic nondisjunction in Drosophila.
1917         Plough demonstrated the rearrangement of chromosomes known as 'crossing over'.
1918         H. Spemann and H. Mangold demonstrate embryonic induction.
                 Herbert M. Evans found (incorrectly) that human cells contain 48 chromosomes.
                 The German army used acetone produced by plants to make bombs.
1919         C. B. bridges discovers chromosomal duplications in Drosophila.
                 Otto Meyerhof begins work on metabolic path of anaerobic glycolysis.
1921         F. G. Banting and C. H. Best isolate insulin.
                 Chromosome theory of heredity postulated by Thomas Hunt Morgan.
1922         Elmer McCollum discovers vitamin D.
1923         Theodor Svedberg develops ultracentrifuge.
                 C. B. Bridges discovers chromosomal translocations in Drosophila.
                 R. Feulgen and H. Rossenbeck describe DNA staining technique.
                 Gyorgy Hevesy uses isotopic tracers to study lead absorption in plants.
1924         U.S. Immigration Act limits immigration on the grounds of suspected genetic inferiority.
1925         John Scopes tried for teaching the theory of evolution.
1926         X-rays found to induce genetic mutations by Hermann J. Muller.
                 J. B. Sumner isolates first enzyme in crystalline form (urease).
                 A. H. Sturtevant finds first inversion in Drosophila.
1927         K. M. Bauer reports skin grafts between twins not rejected.
                 J. Belling introduces acetocarmine technique for chromosome squashes.
1928         Frederick Griffith demonstrates transformation of non-encapsulated bacteria.
                 Sir Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
                 Albert Szent-Gyorgyi isolates vitamin C.
                 Lewis Stadler showed that ultraviolet radiation can also cause mutations.
1929          R. C. Tryon demonstrates selection for rate of maze leaming in the rat.
                 Hans Berger develops electroencephalography.
                 Manfred Sakel first uses electroshock to treat schizophrenia
1930         Ronald Fisher publishes The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection.
1931         C. Stem, H. B. Creighton and Barbara McClintock - cytological proof of crossing over.
                 Thirty states in the U.S. had adopted compulsory sterilization laws.
1932         M. Knoll and E. Ruska invent prototype of modern electron microscope.
                 Germany established eugenics laws, sterilizing 56,244 individuals as "hereditary defectives."
1934         Desmond Bernal showed that proteins can be studied using X-ray crystallography.
                 Martin Schlesinger purified bacteriophage and found about equal amounts of protein and DNA.
1935         Alexis Carrel develops artificial heart.
1936         Andrei Nikolaevitch Belozersky isolates DNA in pure state.
1937         Albert Blakeslee discovers colchicine, first known chemical mutagen.
                 William Rose identifies essential amino acids needed in human diet for proteins.
                 Arne Tselius separates proteins using electrophoresis.
                 Sir Frederick Bawden detects presence of RNA in tobacco mosaic virus.
                 Insulin used to control diabetes.
1940         Sir Hans Krebs describes Krebs cycle.
                 Rh factor discovered by Karl Landsteiner and Alexander Wiener.
                 Howard Florey develops penicillin as a practical antibiotic.
                 First electron microscope demonstrated by RCA.
1941         Fritz Lipmann recognizes high energy phosphate bonds.
                 George Beadle and E. Tatum show one gene controls one enzyme.
1942         Salvador Luria obtains first electron micrograph of a virus.
1943         First dialysis machine developed by Wilhelm Kolff.
                 Luria and Delbruck performed the first quantitative study of mutation in bacteria.
1944         Daniele Bovet uses antihistamines for allergy control.
                 Avery, MacLeod & McCarty show DNA as transforming principle.
                 Sanger determines the amino acid sequence of the insulin molecule.
1945         First fluoridation of water supplies to prevent dental decay.
                 Melvin Calvin uses carbon-14 isotope to study photosynthesis.
1946         Max Delbruck and Alfred Hershey combine genes of viruses to form new virus.
                 Joshua Lederberg and Edward Tatum show bacteria undergo conjugation.
1947         Fritz Lipmann isolates coenzyme A.
                 Barbara McClintock discovers transposable elements "jumping genes".
1948         Alfred Kinsey publishes Sexual Behavior in the Human Male.
1949         John Enders grows poliomyelitis virus on tissue
1950         Chargaff establishes that A=T and G=C in DNA
                 Artificial insemination of livestock using frozen semen, was successfully accomplished.
1951         Linus Pauling works out helical structure of protein molecules.
                 J. Andre-Thomas devises heart-lung machine for heart operations.
1952         Martha Chase and Alfred Hershey show nucleic acid in virus controls inheritance.
                 Contraceptive pill of phosphorated hesperidin produced.
1953         Max Perutz works out structure of hemoglobin by X-ray diffraction.
                 Alfred Kinsey publishes Sexual Behavior in the Human Female Francis.
                 Crick and James Watson work out double-helical structure of DNA.
                 Lung cancer reported attributable to cigarette smoking.
                 Hayes discovered plasmids can transfer genetic information from one bacterium to another.
                 Gey developed the HeLa human cell line from Henrietta Lacks' cervical tumor.
1954         First synthesis of a hormone (oxytocin) by Vincent Du Vigneaud.
                 J. H. Thio and Albert Levan show humans have 46 chromosomes.
1955         Salk vaccine for polio becomes widely used.
                 Dorothy Hodgkin plots structure of vitamin B-12 using computer.
                 Frederick Sanger determines structure of insulin.
1956         Earl Sutherland, Jr. isolates cyclic AMP.
                 George Palade recognizes ribosome as site of protein synthesis.
                 Oral polio vaccine developed by Albert Sabin.
                 Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat took apart and reassembled the tobacco mosaic virus.
1957         Melvin Calvin works out metabolic pathway of photosynthesis.
                 Giberellin, growth producing hormone isolated.
                 Taylor, Woods and Hughes demonstrate semi-conservative DNA replication in plants.
                 Francis Crick and George Gamov worked out the "central dogma": DNA->RNA->Protein
1958         First all female vertebrate species discovered: parthenogenetically reproducing lizards.
                 Arthur Kornberg isolates DNA 1 polymerase from E. coli.
                 Meselson and Stahl demonstrate semi-conservative replication of DNA in bacteria.
1959         Severo Ochoa isolates RNA polymerase.
                 Brener, Jacob and Meselson discover mRNA.
                 The steps in protein biosynthesis were delineated.
1960         Norris and Prescott discover echolocation in dolphins.
1961         Jacob and Monod propose operon model for gene regulation.
                 Nirenberg and Matthaei publish part of DNA code.
                 Mary Lyon and Liane Russell propose X inactivation in mammals.
1962         Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring.
1963         Dr. Michael De Bakey first uses an artificial heart.
1965         DNA discovered in chloroplasts by Hans Ris and Walter Plaut.
                 Vaccine for measles available.
                 First use of mammography to check for breast cancer.
                 First successful heart transplant by Christiaan Barnard.
                 Coronary bypass surgery developed by Rene Favaloro.
                 Synthetic version of DNA produced.
                 Robert Holley figures out first nucleotide sequence of a tRNA.
                 Harris and Watkins successfully fused mouse and human cells.
1966         Marshal Nirenberg and H. Gobind Khorana worked out complete genetic code.
                 Mary Weiss & Howard Green created somatic-cell hybridization with mouse & human cells.
1968         Werner Arber finds first bacterial endonuclease.
                 First single gene isolated by Jonathan Beckwith.
                 James Watson publishes The Double Helix.
1969         U. S. government takes steps to ban use of DDT.
1970         First complete synthesis of a gene.
                 Peter Duesberg and Peter Vogt, discovered the first oncogene in a virus.
                 Howard Temin and David Baltimore, first isolated "reverse transcriptase."
                 Caspersson & Zech published a method for staining bands in mammalian chromosomes.
1971         Choh Hao Li synthesizes human growth hormone.
1972         First CT scan introduced.
                 First MRI developed.
                 Paul Berg constructed first recombinant DNA molecule in vitro.
1973         First calf produced from a frozen embryo.
                 Herb Boyer, Annie Chang and Stanley Cohen use plasmid to clone DNA.
                 Bruce Ames, developed a test to identify chemicals that damage DNA.
                 The first human-gene mapping conference took place.
1975         Edward Southern develops method to transfer DNA from gel to filter.
                 King and Wilson show that DNA in chimps and humans differs by 1.6%.
                 Kohler and Milstein fused cells together to produce monoclonal antibodies.
1976         Herbert Boyer and Robert Swanson founded Genentech, Inc., a biotechnology company.
                 The NIH released the first guidelines for recombinant DNA experimentation.
1977         Smallpox becomes extinct except for a few research samples.
                 Frederick Sanger works out first nucleotide sequence of DNA for an organism, a virus.
                 Introns discovered in eukaryotes by Phillip Sharp.
                 Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger devise methods for sequencing DNA.
1978         First test tube baby produced.
                 Herbert Boyer inserted a synthetic version of the human insulin gene into Escheria coli.
1979         Wang and Rich discover Z-DNA.
                 John Baxte cloned the gene for human growth hormone.
1980         A gene was transferred from one mouse to another.
                 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in that genetically altered life forms can be patented.
                 Kary Mullis develops PCR.
1981         Chinese first to clone a fish successfully.
                 AIDS recognized for the first time.
1982         First foreign DNA injected in a mouse.
                 First commercial product of genetic engineering released – insulin.
                 First artificial heart transplant by William deVries.
1983         First artificial chromosome created by Andrew Murray & Jack Szostak.
                 Luc Montagnier isolates HIV.
1984         First genes cloned from an extinct species by Allen Wilson & Russell Higuchi.
                 DNA fingerprinting developed by Alec Jefferys.
                 Human baby receives baboon heart transplant.
                 First gene to inhibit growth discovered.
1987         A field trial is conducted of a recombinant organism, a frost inhibitor, on a strawberry patch.
                 Maynard Olson invented "yeast artificial chromosomes," or YACs.
1988         First patent issued for a vertebrate, a mouse.
1989         Florida and Virginia allow DNA fingerprinting in court.
                 Identification and cloning of human gene for cystic fibrosis.
1990         Human Genome Project launched.
                 Michael Fromm, reported the stable transformation of corn using a high-speed gene gun.
                 The first transgenic dairy cow was used to produce human milk proteins for infant formula.
                 Publication of Michael Crichton's novel Jurassic Park.
1992         The U.S. Army begins collecting DNA samples from all new recruits.
1993         The FDA declares that genetically engineered foods do not require special regulation.
                 Researchers clone human embryos in a Petri dish for several days.
1994         The first genetically engineered food product, the Flavr Savr tomato, gained FDA approval.
                 The first breast cancer gene is discovered.
1995         The first full gene sequence is completed for the bacterium H. influenzae.
1996         The first complete genome of a complex organism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is sequenced.
                 A diagnostic biosensor test allows instantaneous detection of a toxic strain of E. coli.
                 Researchers in Scotland cloned a sheep--named Dolly--from the cell of an adult ewe.
1997         The complete genomes of E. coli, H.  pylori and Borrelia burgdorferi, are sequenced.
1998         The first complete animal genome, the C.elegans worm is sequenced.
                 Two research teams succeed in growing embryonic stem cells.
                 A rough draft of the human genome map is produced, showing more than 30,000 genes.

Last updated 31 October 2001   fast@sxu.edu

Saint Xavier University, Dale Fast, General Biology I