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Leeuwenhoek wrote to the Royal Society reporting his discovery of microscopic tadpole-like creatures in a sample of seminal fluid that he collected from his wife after making love to her.
Leeuwenhoek subsequently found sperm in many other animals and determined that they were made by the testes. 1677-11-01T00:00:00+0000| 1 Nov 1677 | | First time living sperm observedLeeuwenhoek | | Reproduction |
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch microbiologist, discovered a microscopic parasite called Giardia lamblia, when examining his own stools during times of diarrohea. The parasite can cause an infection in the small intestine.1681-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1681 | | Discovery of microbes in stoolsVan Leeuwenhoek | | FMT, Microscopy |
A van Leeuwenhoek, ‘An abstract of a Letter from Antonie van Leeuwenhoek’ Sep. 12, 1683; ‘About Animals in the scrurf of the Teeth’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 14 (1684), 568–74.1683-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1683 - 1684 | | Antonie van Leewenhoek, a Dutch merchant, observed striking differences between microbes in oral and fecal samples taken from himself and collected from sick and healthy individuals van Leeuwenhoek | | Microbiome |
In 1863 Siegemund was appointed City Midwife of Lignitz and later became the Court Midwife in Berlin. Siegemund was the first person in Germany to write a book on obstetrics from a woman's perspective. Prior Siegemund's book, most obstetrical texts were written by men. During this period, few women had access to formal education. Containing descriptions of obstetric techniques as well as testimonials from her former patients, Siegemund's book helped improve maternal and infant health in Germany. She herself had decided to become a midwife and strive to improve obstetrical education after she was misdiagnosed by ill-informed midwives as being pregnant when she had a prolapsed uterus.1690-03-28T00:00:00+0000| 28 Mar 1690 | | University Viadrina Frankfurt certified an obstetric text book written by Justine Siegemund, the first such book written from a woman's perspective | | |
Hooke was an English natural philosopher. In 1665 he coined the word 'cell' to describe a basic unit of life in his book, Microphia, describing his observations with microscopes and telescopes and biological experiments. This emerged out of his studies of a thin cutting of cork which he noted to have empty spaces contained by walls, and plants in which he said the cells resembled that of a honeycomb. He calculated that the number of cells in a cubic inch was 1,259,712,000. While Hooke did not grasp the full meaning of his discovery, his work laid the foundation for the cell theory.1703-03-03T00:00:00+0000| 3 Mar 1703 | | Robert Hooke diedHooke | | Cell |
Known as the father of modern physiology, von Haller was a physician who discovered the autonomous nature of the heart and the mechanism of respiration. He also discovered that bile helps digest fats and made many contributions to understanding the distinction between nerve impulses and muscle contractions. During his time he put forward different theories about the nature of embryological development, one of which proposed that the new individual exists within the maternal egg prior to conception. He also put forward an accurate model of fetal growth during gestation, showing that the growth was faster at the beginning than later on. 1708-10-16T00:00:00+0000| 16 Oct 1708 | | Albrecht von Haller was born in Bern, Switzerlandvon Haller | University of Gottingen | Anatomy, Embryology, Reproduction, Physiology |
Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch businessman and scientist who is best known for his pioneering work in microscopy. Using microscopes he crafted himself he made the first observations of microorganisms, which he originally called animalcules based on the Latin word 'animalculum' which means tiny animal. He was the first to describe muscle fibres, bacteria, spermatozoa and blood flow in capillaries.1723-08-26T00:00:00+0000| 26 Aug 1723 | | Antonie van Leeuwenhoek diedLeeuwenhoek | | Microscopy |
Fuller was an English physician who practised in Sevenoaks, Kent. Long before the discovery of microbes, Fuller recognised that diseases like measles and smallpox were caused by the 'venom' of a particular organism. He was also one of the first to recognise the specificness of an infection and immunity. Fuller collected and published the best medicines in his Pharmacopoiea, which appeared in at least 12 editions. He was also an early advocate of smallpox inoculation.
1734-09-17T00:00:00+0000| 17 Sep 1734 | | Thomas Fuller diedFuller | | Immunology, Vaccine |
Withering was a physician who made the first systematic investigations of digitalis. He is said to have started studying it after noticing that a person with dropsy (swelling from congestive heart failure) improved after taking a traditional herbal remedy that included an ingredient from the foxglove plant. Following this he made careful assessments of extracts from foxglove leaves to establish what dose was safe to administer to patients. He published his findings in 1785. This paved the pay to use of digitalis as a treatment for steadying and strengthening heart action. 1741-03-17T00:00:00+0000| 17 Mar 1741 | | William Withering born in Wellington, Shropshire, United KingdomWithering | | Cardiovascular |
Lamarck was a French biologist who proposed that physical traits were inherited through generations by two forces. The first force was alchemical and the second was environmental. He first outlined his theory of evolution in a lecture in 1802. While discredited for many years, Lamark's theory that organisms can acquire physical traits from their environment and pass these on to their offspring has resurfaced with the rise of epigenetics, a science that seeks to understand how chemical modifications to genes and proteins made in one generation are passed on to the next one.1744-10-01T00:00:00+0000| 1 Oct 1744 | | Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was born in Bazentin, Picardy, FranceLamarck | French Academy of Sciences | Genetics |
Jenner was an English physician who helped pioneer the smallpox vaccine based on his hypothesis that the pus in blisters milkmaids received from cowpox protected them from smallpox. To test out his theory in 1796 he inoculated the 8 year old son of his gardener with pus taken from the cowpox blisters of a local milkmaid. While the boy suffered a fever he showed no sign of infection with smallpox. Jenner then injected the child with smallpox material, a common method of immunisation at the time, known as variolation. Again he showed no sign of infection. Following this, Jenner tested the same technique in 23 further people. Based on his success, in 1840 the British government outlawed variolation and provided Jenner's method for free to prevent smallpox. Jenner's work laid the foundation for immunisation as a method for preventing disease and for contemporary discoveries in immunology. 1749-05-17T00:00:00+0000| 17 May 1749 | | Edward Jenner was born in Berkeley, UKJenner | | Immunology, Vaccines, Infectious diseases |
Capsar's parents were Richard Wistar and Sarah Wyatt. He was the grandson of Caspar Wistar, a German immigrant, Quaker and glassmaker.1761-09-13T00:00:00+0000| 13 Sep 1761 | | Caspar Wistar was born in Philadelphia | Wistar Institute | |
Lazzaro Spallanzani challenged the theory by demonstrating that micro-organisms did not appear in meat broth sealed inside tightly closed jars that had been boiled for half an hour.1768-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1768 | | Theory of spontaneous generation shown to be incorrectSpallanzani | University of Padua | Reproduction |
The Scottish surgeon and scientist John Hunter advised a cloth merchant with severe hypospadias to collect semen that escaped during coitus in a warmed syringe and the to inject that sample into the vagina. Hunter wrote up the case in 1790.1770-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1770 | | First report of artificial insemination in a humanHunter | St George's Hospital | Reproduction, IVF |
Lazarro Spallanzi found that it was possible to prevent fertilisation of frogs' eggs during the frog mating season by covering the hindquarters of male frogs with watertight waxed taffeta breeches. Following this he demonstrated that it was possible to transform virgin eggs removed from the bellies of female frogs into tadpoles by exposing them to sperm collected from the male sperm when they
pseudo-coupled with the females. 1770-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1770 | | Fertilising function of sperm revealedSpallanzani | University of Padua | Reproduction |
Known as the father of modern physiology, von Haller was a Swiss physician who discovered the autonomous nature of the heart and the mechanism of respiration. He also discovered that bile helps digest fats and made many contributions to understanding the distinction between nerve impulses and muscle contractions. During his time he put forward different theories about the nature of embryological development, one of which proposed that the new individual exists within the maternal egg prior to conception. He also put forward an accurate model of fetal growth during gestation, showing that the growth was faster at the beginning than later on. 1777-12-12T00:00:00+0000| 12 Dec 1777 | | Albrecht von Haller diedvon Haller | University of Gottingen | Anatomy, Embryology, Reproduction, Physiology |
Lazzaro Spallanzini found that it was possible to remove the fertilising capacity of semen by passing seminal liquid from male frogs through a filter paper and that the material that remained on the filter paper could cause fertilisation. 1779-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1779 | | Filtering process found to remove the fertility of frog spermSpallanzani | University of Padua | Reproduction |
Caspar had developed an interest in medicine after attending to the wounded in the aftermath of the battle of Germantown. 1783-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1783 | | Caspar Wistar received his Batchelor of Medicine from the University of Pennsylvania | Wistar Institute | |
Brodie was a physiologist and surgeon who made his name investigating the beginnings of disease in different tissues that form a joint. His work paved the way to more conservative treatments in diseases of the joints, which helped to reduce the number of amputations and saved many limbs and lives. He was the first surgeon to become the president of the British General Medical council and to be elected president to the Royal Society.1783-06-09T00:00:00+0000| 9 Jun 1783 | | Benjamin Collins Brodie born in Winterslow, Wiltshire, UKBrodie | St George's Hospital | Surgery |
Serturner was the first person to isolate an active ingredient associated with a medicinal plant or herb. In 1804 he isolated the portion of opium that causes sleep while working as a pharmacy apprentice. He called the compound 'morphium' after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. While it took time for the medicinal properties of morphine to be recognised it is now one of the most important natural compounds for the treating pain and is also used for its calming effects. The discovery of morphine established alkaloid chemistry as a branch of science.1783-06-19T00:00:00+0000| 19 Jun 1783 | | Friedrich Serturner was born in Neuhaus, GermanySerturner | | Chemistry |
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