Western Medicine Quiz

In 1953 Dr Watson, of England and Dr Crick of the USA, both at Cambridge University calculated the correct ‘double helix’ model of DNA in which is encoded all of the structural and functional features of all living things except for prions, RNA viruses, red blood cells and some bacteria.

Louis Pasteur is the founder of the “germ theory” of disease. Known as the father of microbiology he not only discovered the existence of germs in his laboratory, but managed to convince the world These were the bad guys. He gave his notebooks to his children and ordered them not to read them until after his death. When the notebooks were examined it was found that he had fabricated many of his results.  Too late, his germ theory was accepted and bacteria got a bad name until the discovery of probiotics.

Ignaz Semmelweis lived in Buda in the Kingdom of Hungary, where he lead an emergency obstetric clinic for homeless mothers his discovery on hand hygiene has been the most widely practiced medical discovery sEcon only to immunization. Sadly, he was committed to a mental asylum at 47 where he was beaten by his guards and died of his injuries.

Banting and Best not only discovered Insulin (named after the pancreatic ‘insula’ or islets of Langerhans, where it is produced) but managed to isolate it and inject it into a dying patient in Toronto 1922. This solved a 2500 year old medical problem – how to save a diabetic patient.