Galileo and the Health Sciences

University medical textbook: Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine became a standard medical text in European universities. Ibn Sina, or “Avicenna” as he became known in Europe, flourished around 1000.

Medieval remedies and natural knowledge: An explosion of 16th-century herbals dramatically extended the “materia medica” tradition deriving from ancient writers, assimilating a vast increase in the number of known plants.

First book devoted to diseases of the eyes: In addition to professors in universities who published in Latin, health-care practitioners outside the universities, such as barber-surgeons and apothecaries, printed medical texts in the vernacular.

Eyewitness to Black Plague: In the opening section, the Florentine writer Boccaccio (1313-1375) recounted his observations of the plague. According to Boccaccio, most people died within about three days of the appearance of tumors.

An explosion of plant knowledge: Herbals provided much more than biology or natural history information; they offered guidance for health, nutrition and common remedies. Two of the most important early English herbals are John Gerard’s Herball, and this work by Gerard’s student, John Parkinson...

Family medical handbook: Works entitled “Aristotle’s Masterpiece” were family health guides, written in the vernacular, offering practical remedies and advice for life cycle care, sexual relations, prenatal care, birthing and midwifery, hygiene and health.

The quest to eliminate smallpox through vaccination: Jenner, a student of John Hunter, knowing that milkmaids who contracted cowpox became immune to smallpox, surmised that pus from cowpox blisters could be used to vaccinate anyone against smallpox.