Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Beginnings of Medicine
Physicians in Mesopotamia & Egypt 3000 years ago
used herbal drugs, salts & physical therapy
Greek physician Hippocrates established a code of
ethics & urged physicians to seek causes of disease
Aristotle called causes for disease physiologi & said
that complex structures are built from simpler parts
Galen, physician to the Roman gladiators, saw science
as a method of discovery
did animal dissections since use of cadavers banned
wrote book advising followers to trust their own observation
Living in a Revolution
Pioneers in establishing the scientific way of
thinking occurred in 19th & 20th centuries
germ theory of disease
mechanisms of heredity & structure of DNA
Scientific Method
Bacon (1561-1626) and Descartes (1596-1650)
were not scientists but did invent new habits of
scientific thought
scientific method as habits of disciplined creativity, careful
observations, logical thinking & analysis of observations
way of seeking trends & drawing generalizations
Inductive Method
First described by philosopher Francis Bacon
Making observations until capable of drawing
generalizations and making predictions
anatomy is a product of inductive method
Hypothetico-Deductive Method
Physiological knowledge gained by this method
Ask a question and formulate a hypothesis -- an
educated possible answer
Good hypothesis
consistent with what is already known
capable of being tested and falsified
Experimenter bias
prevented with double-blind study
Peer Review
Critical evaluation by other experts in the
field
Ensures honesty, objectivity & quality in
science
Human Evolution
Charles Darwin proposed the theory of natural
selection to explain how species originate and
change through time
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
(1859)
The Descent of Man (1871) discussed human evolution
& our relationships to other animals
Walking Upright
African forest became grassland 5 million years ago
Bipedalism (standing & walking on 2 legs) evolved
spot predators, carry food or infants
Primate Phylogeny
What is Life?
Properties that distinguish from nonliving things:
What is a Human?
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Vertebrata
Class Mammalia
Order Primates
Family Hominidae
Genus Homo
Species Homo sapiens
Postanal tail
GI tracts end before end of tail
tail in humans visible only in embryo
internal skeleton
jointed vertebral (spinal) column
well developed brain & sense organs
cranium to protect the brain
Homeostasis
Hippocrates noted that body normally returns to a
state of equilibrium by itself
needs to detect the change & oppose it
Human Thermoregulation
Fever
If temperature rises
above 108 degrees
metabolic rate
increases causing
body to produce
heat faster still
Temperature
increases & cycle
repeats again
Fatal at 113 degrees
Sonography
handheld device produces high-frequency ultrasound
waves and receives echoes back from internal organs
obstetrics uses to locate placenta, evaluate fetal age,
position and development
used medically in the 1950s but little value until
computers could develop differences in echoes