United States, Europe and Medical History

     I was reading Bailey & Love’s Short Practice of Surgery. I find it an extremely useful book for a beginner in surgery. It starts every topic with a definition, which can be quoted in any exam, since this book is considered to be a standard textbook in surgery. Rather than that, one thing I love about this book is the additional historical aspects and comments given in small boxes, about the surgeons and surgeries described in this book. Once I completed reading this book, I felt like I have done a small picnic through the history of surgery. I would like to share some thoughts here.

        

       I consider golden period of surgeons, the time between 1850 and 1925. Why, because that was the time the surgeon could name anything. Who ever dared to do something new, had that procedure called by his name. Lot of new instruments were designed and named during this time. May be one specific reason is invent of anesthesia for the surgical procedures, which made things palatable for the patient.

      

    The same period was also the birth time of all major medical industries; drug companies, healthcare products, medical machineries etc. Most of the industrial giants in the medical and surgical field were started during this time. Not only companies, most of the famous clinics and medical institutes in United States and United Kingdom were also started during this period.

     Another interesting thing I found is that, if I chart the countries on a map according to the contribution they made to the modern medicine, (my reference is Bailey only.) there will be only few countries in this medical atlas; US, European nations, especially UK, France, Germany and Japan. Needless to mention, Japanese are always portrayed as people with extreme standards that Western people find difficult to accept (explained as over enthusiastic). There are occasional mentions about some Asian and Middle East countries. Africa, Saudi Arabia and India are always the contributors of clinical images of bizarre tropical illness. I don’t know whether there are any special reasons, but China and Russia are totally out of scene. Australia also does not seem to have contributed much. When it comes to names, United States and UK needs a special mention. I cannot count how many classifications, categories and charts are named after various places in US and UK.

        This explains why Modern medicine is aptly called ‘English Medicine’ in my place.