---
id:"kb-2026-00482"
title:"History of Medicine"
schema_type:"TechArticle"
category:"science"
language:"en"
confidence:"high"
last_verified:"2026-05-22"
generation_method:"ai_assisted"
ai_models:["claude-opus"]
derived_from_human_seed:true
primary_sources:
  - title:"The Emperor of All Maladies (Siddhartha Mukherjee)"
    type:"book"
    year:2010
    url:"https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Emperor-of-All-Maladies/Siddhartha-Mukherjee/9781439170915"
    institution:"Scribner"
secondary_sources:
  - title: "MDN Web Docs — HTTP"
    type: "documentation"
    year: 2026
    url: "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP"
    institution: "Mozilla"
completeness: 0.88
ai_citations:
  last_citation_check:"2026-05-22"
---

## TL;DR

Medicine's evolution: ancient (Hippocrates: disease natural not supernatural, ~400 BCE) → Galen (anatomy via animals, errors persisted 1500 years) → Vesalius (human dissection, 1543) → germ theory (Pasteur, Koch, 1860s-80s) → anesthesia (1846, Morton) → antiseptics (Lister, 1867) → antibiotics (Fleming: penicillin, 1928) → modern medicine.

## Core Explanation

Germ theory (Pasteur 1861): microorganisms cause disease — single most important medical breakthrough. Before: miasma theory (bad air). Handwashing (Semmelweis, 1847): reduced maternal mortality from 18% to 2% — doctors rejected him, he died in asylum. Smallpox eradication (1980): only human disease eradicated — vaccination (Jenner, 1796). CRISPR gene editing (2012): possible cures for genetic diseases.

## Further Reading

- [The Emperor of All Maladies (Siddhartha Mukherjee)](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Emperor-of-All-Maladies/Siddhartha-Mukherjee/9781439170915)