Surgery through the ages


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Many of the leading names in our chronicle are shown here at the times of which they were typical. This generally indicates how medical knowledge has developed and spread in the advanced countries that we know most about.

DATE WEST EAST
3000 BC









Imhotep


















2000 BC


(Minoans)





Hammurabi










Moses





Vedas
1000 BC










Nei Ching



Homer









Alkmaion

500 BC


Hippocrates

Susruta



Aristotle





Herophilos




Erasistratos






0


Celsus Dioscorides




Soranos



Galen Aretaios Hua To




Oribasius



Fabiola

500



Alexander




Aetius




Paul of Aegina




Hunayn




Rhazes
1000

Albucasis
Avicenna



Constantine








Avenzoar




[Averroes]



DATE WEST EAST
1200


Roger of Salerno



Lanfranc




Mondeville




Chauliac



John of Arderne



1400





(Aztecs)

Branca



Pfolspeundt


(Incas)

Leoniceno


Linacre
Benivieni

1500

Paracelsus




Gersdorff



Vicary Fernel Colombo


[Clowes] Paré Vesalius


Chamberlain
Tagliacozzi

1600

Hildanus Aquapendente


Harvey Scultetus



Willis
Severino


Wiseman




Lower
Lancisi

1700

Petit



Cheselden Heister



Monro Haller Morgagni


Pott Acrel Nannoni

Shippen Hunter Desault Scarpa

1800 Rush
Jenner
Larrey
Monteggia


McDowell Abernethy Laennec Rolando

Beaumont Bell Dupuytren


Physick Cooper Lagenbeck


Holmes Liston Rokitansky


1850 Warren Nightengale Virchow


Sims Syme Pasteur


Fitz Lister Billroth


Halsted Treves Mikulicz


Mayo Horsley Röntgen


1900 Cushing Carrel Kocher


DATE WEST EAST

() = people (no named individual)    [] = not named by author 

excerpted from The Illustrated History of Surgery by Knut Haeger