Advances in medicine, far too many to mention…
It is probably not as widely appreciated as it should be the impact of modern medicine in our lives. Imagine, however, a life expectancy of twenty-five and infant mortality of fifty per cent.
The most significant advances in medicine were often the most simple, but most profound. Alexander Fleming, for example, observing the antibiotic qualities of mold, or Louis Pasteur determining the advantages of boiling milk. The simple idea that a minor and controlled infection of smallpox could act as a vaccine and, perhaps most importantly, that malaria was spread by the Anopheles mosquito and not by ‘mal aria’, and that quinine was an effective cure and vaccine.
It was the latter discovery, so long in coming, that made possible European expansion into the tropics, with all of the ramifications that has had for the course of human history. Moreover, it rendered life in the tropics more viable for the natives too, and hence now the tropics are the most populated quarters of the earth.
Just about every facet of human ingenuity has been employed in medical research and development. From the multiple developments of chemical drugs to laser surgery technology, optics, mechanics and computerization. If a zenith of human creativity was to be sought in the modern world, medicine does, or at least it ought to, answers to everything.
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“Benjamin Franklin and the Kite Experiment.” The Franklin Institute.
