Origins of Biomedical Science

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering key terms and figures from the origins of biomedical science as described in the lecture notes.

Hippocrates

Ancient Greek physician regarded as the father of medicine; promoted natural causes for disease and authored the Hippocratic Oath.

Hippocratic oath

Ethical pledge guiding medical practice, historically attributed to Hippocrates and still recited in modern medical schools.

Theologi and physici

Aristotle’s distinction between supernatural (theologia) and natural (physici/physiology) causes of disease.

Aristotle

Ancient Greek philosopher who wrote about anatomy and physiology and proposed that complex structures arise from simpler components.

Metrodora

Early female physician in ancient Greece; author of the Gynecological Treatise, possibly the first woman to publish a medical textbook.

Galen

Influential ancient physician whose works shaped medicine for centuries; dissection of humans was banned, often learning from animals, and his authority was challenged later.

Cadaver dissection ban

Prohibition on human cadaver dissection in many periods, hindering accurate human anatomy learning.

Avicenna (Ibn Sina)

Islamic physician whose Canon of Medicine synthesized earlier authorities and informed European medicine for centuries.

Canon of Medicine

Avicenna’s medical encyclopedia; a standard text in European medical education for about 500 years.

Maimonides

Moses ben Maimon; Jewish physician to Saladin; wrote influential medical treatises and scholarly works.

Vesalius

Pioneer of modern anatomy who challenged Galen, promoted direct dissection, and produced detailed anatomical illustrations.

De Humani Corpus Fabrica

Vesalius’s 1543 atlas of human anatomy, foundational for accurate anatomical teaching.

Harvey

English physician who demonstrated blood circulates continuously; founded experimental physiology.

De Motu Cordis

Harvey’s 1628 work On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, establishing blood circulation.

Marcello Malpighi

Founder of histology; first to observe tissues, blood cells, and capillaries with early microscopes.

Robert Hooke

Scientist who popularized microscopy; described cells in Micrographia and coined the term 'cell'.

Micrographia

Hooke’s 1665 book detailing microscopic observations and introducing the concept of cells.

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

Pioneering microscopist who built high-magnification single-lens microscopes; observed sperm, bacteria, and blood cells.

Cell

Basic unit of life; observed by Hooke in cork; central to the later cell theory.

Schleiden

Botanist who proposed that all plants are composed of cells and helped establish cell theory.

Schwann

Zoologist who proposed that all animals are composed of cells, completing the cell-theory framework.

Cell theory

Principle that all organisms are made of cells and that cellular activity underpins all biological functions.

Condenser (microscope optics)

Optical component added in the 19th century to improve illumination and image quality in microscopes.

Inductive method

Approach in which general conclusions are derived from specific observations.

Hypothetico-deductive method

Scientific method that tests hypotheses by deducing predictions and testing them experimentally.