Student Selected Component: History of Medicine

Report Titles 2016-2017

“ Never have people in the West lived so long, or been so healthy, and never have medical achievements been so great. Yet, paradoxically, rarely has medicine drawn such intense doubts and disapproval as today. No-one could deny that the medical breakthroughs of the past 50 years … have saved more lives than those of any era since the dawn of medicine. So blasé have we become about medical progress, that it is worth taking stock of just some of the tremendous innovations taken for granted today yet unavailable a century or two ago.”

Roy Porter (2004). Introduction. The Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521002524 Page 6.

There are 270 possible essay titles, some of which will be easier to answer than others. Choose your preferred report title from the list below. Your report should focus on the history of Medicine, rather than Nursing or subjects allied to Medicine. You should choose only ONE title. To help you make your selection the essay titles have been grouped by subject as follows:

 Anatomy  Neurology  Ancient medicine  Nutrition  Alternative medicine  Obstetrics and gynaecology  The Dark Ages  Oncology  Doctors causing harm  Pathology  Endocrinology  Pharmacology  General Practice  Psychiatry and mental health  Haematology  Radiology  Iconic figures in medicine  Surgery  Infectious diseases  The Nineteenth century  Medical education  The Twentieth century  Medical organisations  Miscellaneous  Medicine and society  Warfare  Molecular medicine

Anatomy

1. A history of human vivisection from ancient times to modern 2. A history of human dissection: 3000BC – 1200AD 3. Anatomy of the condemned, the destitute, and the resurrected 4. De Humani Corporis Fabrica 5. Form follows function in the skeleton: From Galileo, Wolff and Roux to the present day

Ancient medicine

6. Anatomy and the ancients: from Hippocrates to Galen 7. Ancient anatomy 8. Bad medicine – from Hippocrates to the present 9. Doctors and Deities: Imhotep and Aesculapius 10. Hippocratic medicine: the need for a sense of humours 11. How the development of agriculture fostered disease in ancient man 12. Magic, myth and mummification: the medicine of ancient Egypt. 13. Was Hippocrates real, or was he a mythical figure? 14. The Code of Hammurabi - a message for medicine today? 15. The differences between Galenic and Hippocratic medicine 16. The ‘dogmatists’, ‘methodists’ and ‘empirics’ in ancient medicine 17. The impact of Platonic thought on medicine 18. The “Law of Hippocrates” 19. The role of the Hippocratic Oath in ancient and modern medicine 20. Was Hippocrates a good doctor?

Alternative medicine

21. 5000 years of Ayurvedic medicine 22. Acupuncture: from ancient Chinese medicine to modern day general practice 23. A history of herbal medicine: from witches to pharmacologists 24. Feeling the bumps: a history of phrenology 25. Homeopathy and medicine from 1800 to the present day 26. Quacks 27. Smells and disease: from miasmas to aromatherapy 28. The life and work of Paracelcus (1493 – 1541) 29. The role of astrology in medicine

The Dark Ages

30. Medicine and faith: the impact of Islam on medicine in the Dark Ages

Doctors causing harm

31. A history of iatrogenesis 32. A history of medical murderers: from Sweeney Todd to Harold Shipman 33. Iatrogenesis is a relatively old concept; late effects of cancer treatment are relatively new phenomena. Discuss. 34. Medicine has a history of delay, not progress 35. Should we be able to use results from trials performed by NAZI doctors?

Endocrinology

36. Addison, JFK and adrenals 37. Derbyshire neck and its eradication 38. Giants in History 39. Hormones 40. Starling and a 100 years of hormones 41. The Nobel Prize awarded to Banting and Macleod for discovering insulin

General Practice

42. How has general practice changed since the start of the NHS? 43. The pony and trap doctor – a history of early general practice

Haematology

44. Blood groups and Landsteiner 45. Breathing a vein: the history of blood letting. 46. Describe the findings that lead to understanding that haemophilia A and von Willebrand disease are distinct clinical entities due to defects in different genes 47. The discovery of the cause of pernicious anaemia 48. The genetic legacies of Queen Victoria 49. The history of blood transfusion 50. The introduction of plasma-derived clotting factor concentrates as treatment for haemophilia: life saviour or a death sentence? 51. Why bloodletting remained a mainstay of medical treatment between 1500-1850 despite advances in the understanding of anatomy and physiology

Iconic figures in medicine

52. The life and work of Alexander Yersin 53. Ambroise Paré – a “resolute and merciless” surgeon. 54. Dr John Snow and the Broad Street Pump Handle 55. Franz Anton Mesmer (1734 – 1815) 56. John Tyndall and spontaneous generation 57. Joseph Merrick: The ‘Elephant Man’ 58. Justus von Leibig (1843 – 1873) and the introduction of biochemistry into medicine 59. Louis Pasteur’s (1822 – 1895) contributions to public health 60. Marcello Malpighi (1628 – 1694) 61. Medicine without patients – the practice of Johannes Storch (b. 1681) 62. Oliver Wendell Holmes – bringing light into darkness 63. René Théophile Hyacinthe Laënnec (1781 – 1826) 64. Sir James Young Simpson (1811 – 1870) 65. The life and work of Dr John Haygarth (1740 – 1827) 66. The life and work of Sir James Paget (1814 – 1889). 67. The pathological anatomy of Francois Joseph Victor Broussais 68. Thomas Sydenham (1624 – 1689) – the English Hippocrates 69. Willem Einthoven and the electrocardiograph 70. William Harvey and vivisection

Infectious Diseases

71. A history of anthrax 72. A history of human parasitic diseases 73. A history of influenza from Hippocrates to Hong Kong 74. A history of leprosy 75. Alexander Fleming does not deserve the credit for discovering penicillin. Discuss. 76. Armies invade countries - pathogens destroy armies 77. Disease and the building of the Panama canal 78. From Leeuwenhoek’s infusoria to modern microbiology 79. From madness to brain disease: the case of general paresis of the insane 80. From miracle to microbe: debunking the ‘spontaneous generation of life’ 81. Germ cell theory – the foundation of modern medicine? 82. Germ warfare – antisepsis versus asepsis 83. Hospital Infections: History and the Future 84. Malaria in the UK 85. Medicine takes control: the eradication of small pox 86. MRSA: The emergence of the Super bug! 87. Panspermism 88. Similarities and differences in the work of Ignatz Semmelweis and Joseph Lister 89. Rats and fleas spread disease: a history of the Black Death in Western Europe. 90. Robert Koch and the cholera pandemics 91. Ronald Ross (1857 – 1932) and malaria 92. Smallpox and syphilis: the unexpected trade items of Columbus and the conquistadores. 93. The 1918 influenza pandemic; a warning from history 94. The diagnosis and treatment of syphilis in the first half of the twentieth century 95. The discovery of the role of bacteria in the development of peptic ulcers 96. The history of HIV 97. The importance of water prior to the emergence of the germ theory 98. The medical history of the plague 99. The modern importance of the work of Ignatz Semmelweis 100. The Pasteur Institute 101. The rise and fall of poliomyelitis 102. The treatment of peptic ulcers and the effect of scientific discovery 103. The White Death: 2000 years of Tuberculosis. 104. Typhus 105. Why did Lenin (1870-1924) die? 106. Why was there a 30-year delay between the germ theory of putrefaction and the development of antisepsis?

Medical Education

107. A history of preservation techniques used in medical museums: Seventeenth century – present 108. A history of Sheffield Medical School 109. Early medical education: 1200-1500 110. Medical education in the Eighteenth century 111. The decline of the pathology museum 112. The Hunterian museum and collection (London). 113. The impact of Tomorrow’s Doctors and the Dearing report on modern medical education

Medical Organisations

114. How and why did hospitals develop? 115. How and why were the Royal Colleges formed 116. The British Medical Association 117. The development of university medicine 118. The General Medical Council 119. The history of the NHS 120. The rise and role of the medical laboratory 121. The Sydenham Society 122. Why do physicians wear white coats and surgeons wear masks?" 123. Why physicians are ‘Dr’ and surgeons are ‘Mr’. 124. The birth of the teaching hospital and therapeutic nihalism

Medicine and Society

125. Cultural influences on the definition of disease 126. Discovering that smoking causes lung cancer 127. Doctors and smoking. From the time of Sir Walter Raleigh to the present. 128. Lessons from the Framingham Heart Study 129. Mad as a hatter: the impact of the industrial revolution on the health of the nation 130. Medicine – a ‘mythical technology’. Why was the effectiveness of medicine not tested until the 19th Century? 131. Obsolete beliefs about disease causation 132. ‘Phossy Jaw’ and the consequences of the early industrial uses of phosphorus 133. Socio-economics determines who dies first 134. The causes of cigarette smoking 135. The sick role 136. Who really did the first randomised control trial?

Molecular Medicine

137. Ethical problems with genetic screening 138. Monoclonal antibodies: from research tools to blockbuster drugs 139. Outline the events which led to the acceptance of DNA as genetic material. 140. The development of the viral theory of cancer. 141. The historical use of phage medicine (bacteriophages) to treat bacterial infections as undertaken in the former Eastern Bloc and its recent rediscovery in the West. 142. The history of the human genome project 143. The impact of the discovery of DNA on medical practice

Neurology 144. A history of pain 145. Huntington's disease: From George Huntington to huntingtin 146. The “Spirits” of Descartes and the “Chemicals” of Dale - how nerves transmit

Nutrition 147. Digestives, cornflakes, and other food-based remedies 148. Limeys, the British Navy, and the discovery of vitamin C 149. Obesity in children 150. The discovery of the cause of rickets 151. Vitamins and the discovery of deficiency diseases

Obstetrics and Gynaecology

152. A history of the Caesarean section 153. A slaughter of innocents? The early history of obstetrics 154. Contraception from the pharaohs to modern days 155. Death on the doctor’s hands: the history of puerperal fever 156. From wet-nurse to breast milk bank 157. Infertility: an ancient problem 158. IVF from Louise Brown to the cloning age

Oncology

159. Cancer: a disease of modern times? 160. The development of the multi-disciplinary team 161. The history of beliefs as to what causes cancers 162. Utilising radioactivity in cancer care

Pathology

163. A history of the modern autopsy (1700 - Present Day). 164. How the invention of the microscope revolutionised medicine 165. Inflammation: from Celsus to Cell Biology. 166. Rudolf Virchow (1821 - 1902) and the rise of the cell 167. Outline the events and practices that precipitated the crisis at Alder Hey. Discuss the impact of the Alder Hey Report on the NHS 168. The autopsy of John F Kennedy. One bullet or two? 169. The development of microscopy 170. The rise of immunohistochemistry in pathology 171. The Royal College of Pathologists 172. Why did it take 150 years from its invention for the microscope to become utilized in medical research?

Pharmacology

173. A history of the development of oral contraceptives 174. A history of the use of nitroglycerine and other explosives in medicine. 175. Awakenings! The story of L-dopa 176. Cure-all or killer? Antimony in nineteenth century medicine 177. Death comes on swift wings: Mercury in medicine 178. From warfare to the cure of cancer - the 20th century development of cytotoxic chemotherapy 179. Early anaesthesia (1795 – 1846) – the “Yankee Dodge” 180. Interferon treatment in cancer - science and egos, success and failure 181. Kill or cure? Therapeutics in the Enlightenment (1700 - 1800) 182. Penicillin - its discovery and first use 183. Penicillin: the start of a golden age 184. The discovery of the placebo effect 185. The drug with no side effects does nothing 186. The history of the discovery of penicillin 187. The rise and role of opiates in medicine 188. The rise, fall, and resurrection of Thalidomide 189. The rise of evidence-based medicine 190. Twentieth century uses of opiates

Psychiatry and Mental Health 191. A cold plunge: the history of hydrotherapy 192. A history of the use of coercion and restraint in the treatment of mental illness 193. A history of melancholia 194. Alcoholism 195. Anorexia Nervosa 196. ‘Better than well’ – the Prozac revolution 197. From maleficium to sickness: the medicalization of madness in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 198. Hospital care of the mentally ill in Sheffield from 1800. 199. Hypochondria 200. Madness: mental illness or myth 201. Nebuchadnezzar and madness: Gods and Demons 202. René Descartes’ (1594 – 1650) impact on the understanding of mental illness 203. Schizophrenia - from devilry to disease 204. Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939): The conquistador of the unconscious 205. The history of hysteria from 1700 206. The Hospital of Bethlem 207. The insanity of genius 208. The life of Kim Peek – the real Rain Man 209. The madhouses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 210. The madness of King George III 211. The pathologization, treatment and subsequent demedicalization of homosexuality 212. The rise of psychiatry 213. The rise and fall of the asylum 214. The sacred disease. A history of the causes of and cures for epilepsy

Radiology

215. The development of computerised tomography and magnetic resonance imaging 216. The development and rise of ultrasonography 217. The impact of X-rays on Medicine.

Surgery

218. 2500 years of cautery 219. 12,000 years of trepanation 220. A history of the treatment of fractures. 221. A treatment worse than the disease? Surgery in the age before anaesthetics. 222. Cautery from Hippocrates to the Renaissance 223. Changing concepts in trauma resuscitation: "limited resuscitation” 224. Couching the lens: a history of cataract surgery 225. Endoscopy and laparoscopic surgery 226. From lobotomy and leucotomy to stereotactic surgery: the development of neurosurgery in the twentieth century 227. Less is more: the decline of mutilating cancer surgery. 228. Implant surgery from 1959 – Present 229. Improving on nature: the rise of cosmetic surgery 230. The barber-surgeon 231. Tonsillectomy - how an unnecessary operation harmed many 232. Sir John Charnley and the development of joint arthroplasty 233. Successes and failures in organ transplantation 234. Survival after heart transplants 1964-2003 235. The evolution of vagal denervation as a treatment of acid peptic disease 236. The fate of the foreskin 237. The history of ancient Indian surgery 238. The history of the Royal College of Surgeons: 1540 – Present. 239. The life and work of William Hunter (1718 – 1783). 240. The life and work of John Hunter (1728 – 1793): An iconic surgeon. 241. The Nineteenth century: an age of heroic surgery. 242. The origins of laparoscopic surgery 243. The rise and fall of the radical mastectomy 244. Transplantation surgery from 1860 – Present

The Nineteenth Century

245. Fever! The role of the thermometer in medicine 246. Germany’s role in the advancement of medical science in the nineteenth century 247. How did the Cruelty to Animals Act (1876) affect the development of medical science in the UK? 248. Illness in the 19th Century - a patient's perspective 249. Was vivisection prior to 1865 of value in medicine?

The Twentieth Century

250. Great medical advances of the 20th Century 251. How war revolutionised the practice of medicine, surgery and anaesthetics in the 20th century

Miscellaneous

252. A comparison of the health of military recruits to UK armed forces over the past 200 years 253. A historical review of the evidence for using a stethoscope to diagnose lung diseases 254. A history of health care provision in Sheffield 255. Child abuse: from Isaac to Victoria Climbie 256. Ending the male monopoly: women in medicine 1849 – Present Day 257. From microbes to molecules: the search for the causes of human disease. 258. Medicine and music 259. Medicine and the Renaissance. 260. Medicine in art 261. The development of the teaching hospital and of pharmacology were not the foundations of modern medicine. Discuss. 262. The globalization of Western Medicine 263. The role of the British Royal Family in promoting surgery, medicine and anaesthetics 264. The transformation of medicine from an art into a science 265. The urine bottle as a symbol of medicine 266. Seeking an understanding of physiology: vivisection in the Seventeenth Century

Warfare

267. Discuss the impact of sanitation on the outcome of wars 268. Discuss the development of the evacuation and the stabilisation of the wounded soldier from the battlefield in warfare. 269. During the Great War civilian society was confronted with the realities of the severely wounded soldier for the first time. Discuss the developments of aftercare to reintegrate the injured soldier back into society. 270. Discuss the impact of the Great War on the acceptance of women in medicine.