Medical firsts : from Hippocrates to the human genome / Robert E. Adler.

Hoboken : John Wiley & Sons, [2004], ©2004.

vii, 232 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 25 cm

Hippocrates: a principle and a method -- Herophilus and Erasistratus: the light that failed -- Marcus Varro: the germ of an idea -- Dioscorides: the herb man of Anazarbus -- Soranus: the birthing doctor -- Galen of Pergamon: combative genius -- The enlightened mind of Abu Bakr al-Razi -- Ibn al-Nafis, Glen's nemesis -- Fracastoro: the poet of pestilence -- Paracelsus, renaissance rebel -- Andreas Vesalius, driven to dissection -- Johann Weyer--a voice of sanity in an insane world -- William Harvey and the movements of the heart -- Edward Jenner, a friend of humanity -- Such stuff as dreams are made on: the discovery of anesthesia -- Antisepsis: awakening from a nightmare -- The quiet Dr. Snow -- Pasteur and the germ theory of disease -- Out of the corner of his eye: Roentgen discovers x-rays -- Sigmund Freud's dynamic unconscious -- Beyond bacteria: Ivanovsky's discovery of viruses -- The prepared mind of Alexander Fleming -- Margaret Sanger and the pill -- Organ transplantation, a legacy of life -- A baby's cry: the birth of in vitro fertilization -- Humanity eradicates a disease--smallpox--for the first time -- Cannibals, kuru and mad cows: a new kind of plague -- Self, non-self and danger: deciphering the immune system -- Discovery can't wait--cracking the human genome -- Into the future.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 216-225) and index.