This is a timeline of the history of medicine and medical technology.
Antiquity c. 12000 BC – The earliest known example of dental caries manipulation is found in a Paleolithic man in Northern Italy. 7300 - 6200 BC – First evidence of trepanation, with signs of healing suggesting survival, identified in a skull in Ukraine. 3350 - 3105 BC - Ötzi dies with a parasitic whipworm infection while carrying Piptoporus betulinus, a type of birch fungus that contains toxic resins against whipworm and induces diarrhea. It has been likely used an anthelmintic medication. 3000 BC – The origins of Ayurveda traced back to around 3,000 BCE. c. 2600 BC – Imhotep the priest-physician to be later deified as the Egyptian god of medicine. 2500 BC – Egyptian inscription speaks of Iry as eye-doctor of the palace, palace physician of the belly, guardian of the royal bowels, and he who prepares the important medicine (name cannot be translated) and knows the inner juices of the body. 1900–1600 BC Akkadian clay tablets on medicine survive primarily as copies from Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh. 1800 BC – Code of Hammurabi sets out fees for surgeons and punishments for malpractice 1800 BC – Kahun Gynecological Papyrus 1600 BC – Hearst papyrus, coprotherapy and magic 1551 BC – Ebers Papyrus, coprotherapy and magic 1500 BC – Saffron used as a medicine on the Aegean island of Thera in ancient Greece 1500 BC – Edwin Smith Papyrus, an Egyptian medical text and the oldest known surgical treatise (no true surgery) no magic 1300 BC – Brugsch Papyrus and London Medical Papyrus 1250 BC – Asklepios 9th century – Hesiod reports an ontological conception of disease via the Pandora myth. Disease has a "life" of its own but is of divine origin. 8th century – Homer tells that Polydamna supplied the Greek forces besieging Troy with healing drugs. Homer also tells about battlefield surgery Idomeneus tells Nestor after Machaon has fallen: A surgeon who can cut out an arrow and heal the wound with his ointments is worth a regiment. 700 BC – Cnidos medical school; also one at Cos 500 BC – Darius I orders the restoration of the House of Life (First record of a (much older) medical school) 500 BC – Bian Que becomes the earliest physician known to use acupuncture and pulse diagnosis 500 BC – The Sushruta Samhita is published, laying the framework for Ayurvedic medicine, giving many surgical procedures for first time such as lithotomy, forehead flap rhinoplasty, otoplasty and many more. – – Empedocles four elements 500 BC – Pills are used. They have been presumably invented so that measured amounts of a medicinal substance could be delivered to a patient. 510–430 BC – Alcmaeon of Croton scientific anatomic dissections. He studies the optic nerves and the brain, arguing that the brain was the seat of the senses and intelligence. He distinguishes veins from the arteries and has at least vague understanding of the circulation of the blood. Variously described by modern scholars as Father of Anatomy; Father of Physiology; Father of Embryology; Father of Psychology; Creator of Psychiatry; Founder of Gynecology; and as the Father of Medicine itself. There is little evidence to support the claims but he is, nonetheless, important. fl. 425 BC – Diogenes of Apollonia – 425 BC – Herodotus tells us Egyptian doctors were specialists: Medicine is practiced among them on a plan of separation; each physician treats a single disorder, and no more. Thus the country swarms with medical practitioners, some undertaking to cure diseases of the eye, others of the head, others again of the teeth, others of the intestines, and some those which are not local. 496 – 405 BC – Sophocles "It is not a learned physician who sings incantations over pains which should be cured by cutting." 420 BC – Hippocrates of Cos maintains that diseases have natural causes and puts forth the Hippocratic Oath. Origin of rational medicine.
Medicine after Hippocrates c. 400 BC – 1 BC – The Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine) is published, laying the framework for traditional Chinese medicine 4th century BC – Philistion of Locri Praxagoras distinguishes veins and arteries and determines only arteries pulse 375–295 BC – Diocles of Carystus 354 BC – Critobulus of Cos extracts an arrow from the eye of Phillip II, treating the loss of the eyeball without causing facial disfigurement.Philip II of Macedonia: Greater Than Alexander by Richard A. Gabriel, 2010, pg. 10 3rd century BC – Philinus of Cos founder of the Empiricist school. Herophilos and Erasistratus practice androtomy. (Dissecting live and dead human beings) 280 BC – Herophilus Dissection studies the nervous system and distinguishes between sensory nerves and motor nerves and the brain. also the anatomy of the eye and medical terminology such as (in Latin translation "net like" becomes retiform/retina. 270 – Huangfu Mi writes the Zhēnjiǔ jiǎyǐ jīng (The ABC Compendium of Acupuncture), the first textbook focusing solely on acupuncture 250 BC – Erasistratus studies the brain and distinguishes between the cerebrum and cerebellum physiology of the brain, heart and eyes, and in the vascular, nervous, respiratory and reproductive systems 219 – Zhang Zhongjing publishes Shang Han Lun (On Cold Disease Damage) 200 BC – the Charaka Samhita uses a rational approach to the causes and cure of disease and uses objective methods of clinical examination 124 – 44 BC – Asclepiades of Bithynia 116 – 27 BC – Marcus Terentius Varro Prototypal germ theory of disease. 1st century AD – Rufus of Ephesus; Marcellinus a physician of the first century AD; Numisianus 23 – 79 AD – Pliny the Elder writes Natural History – – Aulus Cornelius Celsus Medical encyclopedia 50 – 70 AD – Pedanius Dioscorides writes De Materia Medica – a precursor of modern pharmacopoeias that was in use for almost 1600 years 2nd century AD Aretaeus of Cappadocia 98 – 138 AD – Soranus of Ephesus 129 – 216 AD – Galen – Clinical medicine based on observation and experience. The resulting tightly integrated and comprehensive system, offering a complete medical philosophy dominated medicine throughout the Middle Ages and until the beginning of the modern era.
After Galen 200 AD
– Fabulla or Fabylla, medical writerFlemming 2007, p. 265. d. 260 – Gargilius Martialis, short Latin handbook on Medicines from Vegetables and Fruits 4th century Magnus of Nisibis, Alexandrian doctor and professor book on urine 325 – 400 – Oribasius 70 volume encyclopedia 362 – Julian orders xenones built, imitating Christian charity (proto hospitals) 369 – Basil of Caesarea founded at Caesarea in Cappadocia an institution (hospital) called Basileias, with several buildings for patients, nurses, physicians, workshops, and schools 375 – Ephrem the Syrian open a hospital at Edessa They spread out and specialized nosocomia for the sick, brephotrophia for foundlings, orphanotrophia for orphans, ptochia for the poor, xenodochia for poor or infirm pilgrims, and gerontochia for the old. 400 – The first hospital in Latin Christendom is founded by Fabiola at Rome 420 – Caelius Aurelianus a doctor from Sicca Veneria (El-Kef, Tunisia) handbook On Acute and Chronic Diseases in Latin. 447 – Cassius Felix of Cirta (Constantine, Ksantina, Algeria), medical handbook drew on Greek sources, Methodist and Galenist in Latin 480 – 547 Benedict of Nursia founder of "monastic medicine" 484 – 590 – Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus fl. 511 – 534 – Anthimus Greek: Ἄνθιμος 536 – Sergius of Reshaina (died 536) – A Christian theologian-physician who translated thirty-two of Galen's works into Syriac and wrote medical treatises of his own 525 – 605 – Alexander of Tralles Alexander Trallianus 500 – 550 – Aetius of Amida Encyclopedia 4 books each divided into 4 sections second half of 6th century building of xenodocheions/bimārestāns by the Nestorians under the Sasanians, would evolve into the complex secular "Islamic hospital", which combined lay practice and Galenic teaching 550 – 630 Stephanus of Athens 560 – 636 – Isidore of Seville c. 620 Aaron of Alexandria Syriac writes 30 books on medicine, the "Pandects". He is the first author in antiquity who mentions the diseases of smallpox and measles translated by Māsarjawaih a Syrian Jew and Physician, into Arabic about A. D. 683 c. 630 – Paul of Aegina Encyclopedia in 7 books very detailed surgery used by Albucasis 790 – 869 – Leo Itrosophist also Mathematician or Philosopher wrote "Epitome of Medicine" c. 800 – 873 – Al-Kindi (Alkindus) De Gradibus 820 – Benedictine hospital founded, School of Salerno would grow around it d. 857 – Mesue the elder (Yūḥannā ibn Māsawayh) Syriac Christian c. 830 – 870 – Hunayn ibn Ishaq (Johannitius) Syriac-speaking Christian also knows Greek and Arabic. Translator and author of several medical tracts. c. 838 – 870 – Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari, writes an encyclopedia of medicine in Arabic. c. 910d – Ishaq ibn Hunayn 9th century – Yahya ibn Sarafyun a Syriac physician Johannes Serapion, Serapion the Elder c. 865 – 925 – Rhazes pediatrics,David W. Tschanz, PhD (2003), "Arab Roots of European Medicine", Heart Views 4 (2). and makes the first clear distinction between smallpox and measles in his al-Hawi. d. 955 – Isaac Judaeus Isḥāq ibn Sulaymān al-Isrāʾīlī Egyptian born Jewish physician 913 – 982 – Shabbethai Donnolo alleged founding father of School of Salerno writes in Hebrew d. 982 – 994 – 'Ali ibn al-'Abbas al-Majusi Haly Abbas 1000 – Albucasis (936–1018) surgery Kitab al-Tasrif, surgical instruments. d. 1075 – Ibn Butlan Christian physician of Baghdad Tacuinum sanitatis the Arabic original and most of the Latin copies, are in tabular format 1018 – 1087 – Michael Psellos or Psellus a Byzantine monk, writer, philosopher, politician and historian. several books on medicine c. 1030 – Avicenna The Canon of Medicine The Canon remains a standard textbook in Muslim and European universities until the 18th century. c. 1071 – 1078 – Simeon Seth or Symeon Seth an 11th-century Jewish Byzantine translates Arabic works into Greek 1084 – First documented hospital in England Canterbury d. 1087 – Constantine the African 1083 – 1153 – Anna Komnene, Latinized as Comnena 1095 – Congregation of the Antonines, is founded to treat victims of "St. Anthony's fire" a skin disease. Late 11th or early 12th century – Trotula 1123 – St Bartholomew's Hospital founded by the court jester Rahere Augustine nuns originally cared for the patients. Mental patients were accepted along with others 1127 – Stephen of Antioch translates the work of Haly Abbas 1100 – 1161 – Avenzoar Teacher of Averroes 1170 – Rogerius Salernitanus composes his Chirurgia also known as The Surgery of Roger 1126 – 1198 – Averroes d. c. 1161 – Matthaeus Platearius
1200–1499 1203 – Innocent III organizes the hospital of Santo Spirito at Rome inspiring others all over Europe c. 1210 – 1277 – William of Saliceto, also known as Guilielmus de Saliceto 1210 – 1295 – Taddeo Alderotti – Scholastic medicine 1240 Bartholomeus Anglicus 1242 – Ibn al-Nafis suggests that the right and left ventricles of the heart are separate and discovers the pulmonary circulation and coronary circulation c. 1248 – Ibn al-Baytar writes on botany and pharmacy, studied animal anatomy and medicine veterinary medicine. 1249 – Roger Bacon writes about convex lens spectacles for treating long-sightedness 1257 – 1316 Pietro d'Abano also known as Petrus De Apono or Aponensis 1260 – Louis IX establishes Les Quinze-vingt; originally a retreat for the blind, it became a hospital for eye diseases, and is now one of the most important medical centers in Paris c. 1260 – 1320 Henri de Mondeville 1284 – Mansur hospital of Cairo – Joannes Zacharias Actuarius a Byzantine physician writes the last great compendium of Byzantine medicine