The Making of Modern MedicineEpisodes Episode guide
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Transplant
In 1967, Christiaan Barnard performed the first heart transplant operation.
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The Crippler
Andrew traces the impact of the great polio epidemics and the ethical dilemmas they posed.
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Free at the Point of Need
The National Health Service was set up in 1948 to provide free healthcare for everyone.
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It Looks Like a Miracle
The first antibiotic, penicillin, appeared to be a miracle medicine.
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You Are What You Eat
How medics discovered that the absence of a vitamin could be the cause of a disease.
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Near Pavilions
The influence of Florence Nightingale and the sanitarians.
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Flinging the Tropics Open to Civilisation
What role did European medicine play in spreading European culture across the Empire?
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The Ministry of Healing
Needing to consult laboratory workers was seen as a threat to physicians' authority.
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Transforming Plague
When bubonic plague broke out in Hong Kong in 1894, European rivalry continued.
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Culturing the Germ Theory
How a country doctor from Prussia traced the life cycle of an anthrax bacteria cell.
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Stopping the Rot
History series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine. 20: Stopping the Rot:.
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The Disease is its Own Preventative
The story of Louis Pasteur's development of the anti-rabies vaccine in 1885.
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A Yankee Dodge
Andrew looks back to the origins of pain relief and how chloroform.
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Dark Side of Obstetrics
Andrew discusses the work of Ignaz Semmelweis in Vienna.
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Science Has No Sex
A series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine, presented by Andrew Cunningham.
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Sisters of Charity
How the nursing profession was transformed thanks to an enterprising Florence Nightingale.
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Changing Disease Identity
A side effect of progress in medical thinking is that diseases had identities changed.
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A Long and Ghastly Kitchen
Napoleonic France witnessed Dr Magendie's experiments on live animals.
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Making Signs
Systematic post mortems revolutionised the study of disease.
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Little Reading, Much Seeing and Much Doing
The French Revolution ushered in new ambition and a new scientific clinical approach.
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Anatomy and the Invisible Hand
How did this period come to be known as 'the perfection of anatomy'?
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The Coming of the GP
The clash between old guard physicians and a new breed of general practitioners.
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Learning from the Illiterate
Smallpox was taking between 10-15 per cent of all lives in Europe.
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Fever
In the 17th Century, fevers were the main concern of physicians.
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The Early Transfusion Experiments
It wasn't until 1660 that anyone thought of putting blood back into patients.
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The Anatomical Renaissance
In the 16th century, surgery had been perfected to allow artificial noses, ears and lips.
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Paracelsus and the People's Medicine
The 16th century witnessed the birth of a new kind of natural philosophy and medicine.
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The First Sexual Epidemic
A mysterious new disease broke out among the French army in 1492.
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God's House, the Hospital
The hospital is one of the main innovations made in Christian Medieval times.
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Hot, Cold, Wet and Dry
Origins of religious and western-learned medicine can be traced to Hippocrates and Galen.

