History of Medicine and Radiologic Technology

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the milestones of medical history from Ancient Egypt to the 20th century, specifically focusing on the discovery and properties of X-rays by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen.

Ancient Egyptians

Practiced medicine from 3000ish B.C. to 300 B.C., combining it with religious beliefs and using drugs like castor oil and opium.

Hippocrates

Greek physician known as the father of western medicine who taught disease prevention through diet and exercise and developed the Hippocratic Oath.

Romans

Civilization from 30ish B.C. to 640 A.D. that recognized the importance of proper sanitation for public health.

Middle Ages

The period from 500ish A.D. to 1500 A.D. where medicine was controlled by religious groups and public health neglect led to epidemics like Black Death.

William Harvey

English physician who laid the foundation of modern medicine by demonstrating the function of the heart and blood circulation.

Anton Van Leeuwenhoek

Dutch zoologist who developed the first microscope and demonstrated the existence of bacteria.

Edward Jenner

English physician who established the foundation of immunology by introducing a vaccine to prevent smallpox.

Louis Pasteur

French chemist who established the germ theory of disease and developed the process of pasteurization.

Robert Koch

German chemist who identified the bacterial causes for infections including anthrax, TB, and cholera.

Florence Nightingale

English nurse who developed the foundations of the nursing profession.

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen

German physicist who discovered x-rays on November 8, 1895, in Wurzburg, Germany, and received the first Nobel Prize in physics in 1901.

Sir Alexander Fleming

Scottish bacteriologist who discovered penicillin.

Jonas Salk

American medical researcher and virologist who developed a vaccine to prevent poliomyelitis.

Francis Crick and James Watson

Scientists who identified the molecular structure of DNA.

Crookes tube

A device used to generate cathode rays; Roentgen was using this when he discovered x-rays.

Barium platinocyanide

The material on the laboratory screen that fluoresced in Roentgen's lab, leading to the discovery of x-rays.

Bertha Roentgen

The wife of Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen; her hand was the subject of the first photograph created with x-rays on December 22, 1895.

A New Kind of Rays

The report submitted by Roentgen on December 28, 1895, identifying the properties of x-rays.

Polyenergetic and heterogenous

Properties of x-rays indicating they can be produced over a wide variety of energies and wavelengths.

Speed of X-rays

The speed at which x-rays travel in a vacuum, recorded as $3 \times 10^8 \text{m/s}$.

Ionization

The process by which x-rays produce chemical and biological changes in matter.

Fluorescence

The emission of light from certain crystals caused by exposure to x-rays.