History Quiz: Disease and Medicine

The pandemic severely affected both the early Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire. The Plague of Justinian and the fifteen to eighteen major waves of plague that followed it constitute the First Plague Pandemic, which killed an estimated 15 to 100 million people between 541 and 750/767 (the Plague of Justinian occurred between 541 and 549). The Black Death is undoubtedly the most infamous pandemic of plague, yet it occurred much later. It is not known which diseases caused the Antonine Plague and the Plague of Cyprian; however, it is believed that either smallpox or measles was the cause of the former, while smallpox, influenza or hemorrhagic fever have been suggested for the latter.

Despite the fact that hand washing greatly reduced mortality at the hospital's First Obstetrical Clinic, where Semmelweis worked, his ideas conflicted with the established scientific and medical opinions of the time and as such were rejected by the medical community. Semmelweis continued to promote his ideas, but was later committed to an asylum by his colleagues, where he was beaten by the guards. He died in the asylum from a gangrenous wound, possibly caused by the beating. Leopold Oser was the first doctor to use a soft tube instead of a rigid tube for gastroscopy. Samuel Siegfried Karl von Basch invented the blood pressure meter, and Ernő Jendrassik carried out research on reflexes.

It was found on the mummified body of an Egyptian noblewoman.

He traced the source of the outbreak, which occurred in Soho, London, to a water pump by talking to local residents (this was before the germ theory of disease had been developed, so Snow previously did not understand how the disease was transmitted). His studies of the pattern of the disease convinced the local council to disable the water pump, which helped bring an end to the outbreak. Snow later used a dot map to show the cluster of cholera cases around the pump, and used statistics to show the connection between the quality of the water source and cholera cases. Snow's research of the outbreak is regarded as the founding event of the science of epidemiology.

The Mongol force, sent by the Golden Horde and mainly consisting of Tatar troops, had been suffering from plague. As the soldiers died, their bodies were flung over the walls of Kaffa. However, it is more likely that the epidemic was spread to the inhabitants via infected rats crossing the siege lines.

Evidence of the practice has been found on the skulls of Neolithic humans.

The disease killed around 5,000 people or more, out of a population of 50,000. The doctors at the time did not know that it was transmitted by mosquitoes.

He believed that diseases were caused naturally, specifically that they were the product of environmental factors, diet and living habits.

The first outbreaks of Ebola occurred in 1976, between June and November in Nzara, Sudan (now in South Sudan) and in August in Yambuku, Zaire (now known as the DRC).

It is a work on science and philosophy, and it is meant to "heal" ignorance of the soul. It was written by Avicenna, who also wrote the Canon of Medicine, which is actually about medicine. The Ishinpō is the oldest surviving Japanese medical text, while the Huangdi Neijing is the most important text in Chinese medicine. The Atharvaveda, one of the Vedas, provides knowledge that is helpful for everyday life, which includes medical advice.

The electronic pacemaker was invented by Dr Mark Cowley Lidwill, with support from physicist Edgar H. Booth, in Sydney. The portable defibrillator was invented by Northern Irish physician Frank Pantridge, while the first MRI scanner was created by British scientist Raymond Andrew. The first x-rays were taken by Wilhelm Röntgen, and American professor Henry Louis Smith created an x-ray machine in 1896. A fully functioning x-ray machine was created by Clarence Dally in 1904.

While the Roman physician Galen accurately described the human spine based on dissections of animals, Leonardo da Vinci was the first to create an accurate diagram of the human spine. Andreas Vesalius created De humani corporis fabrica, a set of books on human anatomy that was a major advance in the history of anatomy. Franz Joseph Gall studied the human brain and Mondino de Luzzi wrote the first modern anatomical text.

Klimt died after suffering a stroke and pneumonia caused by the disease. John Francis Dodge, co-founder of Dodge, died after contracting influenza and pneumonia. Max Weber, a German historian, sociologist, jurist and political economist, also died of pneumonia brought on by the disease.

Historical texts describe him using a general anaesthetic, created by combining wine with a herbal concoction called mafeisan, the composition of which is unknown. The first Chinese emperor to be poisoned by an elixir of immortality was reportedly Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a unified China. He was said to have ingested mercury pills, after being told by alchemists that the pills would make him immortal.

Specifically, they cut holes in skulls (trepanation) to alleviate fluid buildup and inflammation caused by head wounds. Examinations of Inca skulls suggest that the survival rates were 80-90%.