Medicine in the Early 20th Century– The Pharmaceutical Industry –Yuchen

Medicine in the Early 20th Century Part 2

                                              —- The Pharmaceutical Industry

During spring break, I had the opportunity to visit a pharmaceutical company in Xi’an that produces anesthetics as their main product. During my visit at the factory, the manager showed me the many precautions taken by the company to minimize the possibility of contamination and ensure the safety of their products. In addition, the company has dedicated a significant amount of resources and space in keeping samples of every batch of past products and monitoring their status. My experience there elicited my curiosity about the pharmaceutical industry. In this blog post, I will look at the history of the pharmaceutical industry with a specific focus on its development in the 20th century.

Medicine in the Early 20th Century Part 1–Yuchen

Medicine in the Early 20th Century Part 1

During the last decade of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the world witnessed many advances in the medical field, especially the integration of modern technology into diagnosis and treatment. Classical patient history taking and physical examination were met with new technologies to diagnose various medical conditions.

Traditions, Adaptations & Challenges– TCM Today

Over spring break, I had the opportunity to visit a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) clinic in Xi’an opened by a friend of my parents. After my research and blog post on medicine in China in the Late Modern Era, I wanted to see how TCM has adapted to the modern world in which Western Medicine is dominating, pushing TCM aside as “Alternative Medicine.”

Medicine in 19th Century Europe– Yuchen

~ 19th Century Europe ~

In the 19th century, western medicine experienced major changes and advancements because of the industrialization and urbanization that created both ideal condition for various diseases to break out as well as the opportunity for the discovery of new medical knowledge and development of new treatment methods.

Medicine in China during the Late Modern Era — Yuchen

In the last blog post, I looked at medicine in Europe during the Late Modern Era. It was a time period marked by numerous advances in medical biology, microanatomy, histology and other important subdivisions of medicine that represent the emergence of modern medicine. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, China was forced out of its isolated state. The absolute authority of traditional Chinese medicine was also challenged by the intruding western medical tradition.

Medicine in the Late Modern Era in Europe — Yuchen

My research on the history of medicine from the last semester ended on the Renaissance Era and the Early Modern Age. In this new semester, I want to continue to study the advances in medicine along the timeline.

There is one change in format for my future blog posts: instead of covering Asia, the Middle East, and Europe all at once, each blog post will focus on medicine of one region in a certain time period. This new format provides me with more space to conduct in-depth research on medical advancements, important figures, and influence of other academic fields on medicine. In addition to studying history, I also want to reveal the interconnected nature of various disciplines.

Medicine in the Renaissance Era– Yuchen

Medicine in the Renaissance Era
Yuchen Cao

My initial plan for the first semester was to finish studying the timeline of medical history– from the simple but ingenious tools used by the Neanderthals to the highly advanced diagnostic and treatment technologies used in modern-day hospitals. However,    as I moved along the timeline, I found that there are many aspects intertwined with the progress of medicine: religion, culture, politics and many more. It is such a rich field of study that I am only able to reach the Renaissance period by the end of the semester. In this blog post, I will be looking at medicine during the Renaissance era in Europe, the Middle East and China, and touch upon medicine during the Early Modern Age. Next semester, I will pick up from here and move forward. 

Medicine in the Late Middle Ages– Yuchen

Continuing from my last blog post on medicine during the High Middle Ages, this blog post still follows the similar format, covering medicine during the Late Middle Ages in Europe, the Middle East and China. While doing my research, I was surprised by the extent of which Islamic Medicine influenced Western medicine. Therefore, a significant portion of this blog post is about medicine in the Middle East.

Medicine in the High Middle Ages– Yuchen

In this blog post, I would explore medicine during the High Middle Ages by using a similar format as that of my previous blog post, which focused on three general regions–Europe, the Middle East and China.

Medicine during the High Middle Ages

Europe–

The expansion and consolidation of power of the kings of France, Spain and England gradually stabilized Europe, restoring vitality to medicine and other fields of study.  

Medicine in the Early Middle Ages– Yuchen

Medicine during the Middle Ages

Similar to the cycles in an economy, the development of modern western medicine has never been a straight line. Influenced by cultural beliefs, political climate and the general global dynamics, medicine since the demise of the Western Roman Empire to the Renaissance period went through abrupt halts and astonishing accelerations.