Mavericks, Miracles & Medicine

Medical breakthroughs occur so frequently in our time that it is easy to forget how profound their impact can be. Indeed, the greatest advances in medical science have changed not merely how we diagnose and treat illness but also how we understand ourselves as humans. Mavericks, Miracles, & Medicine is a four-part series exploring some of the greatest advances in medicine. Through individual installments on the brain, the heart, transplants, and infectious disease, this series celebrates the original and iconoclastic thinkers whose revolutionary ideas challenged received wisdom and brought new ways of thinking about health, medicine, and human physiology.

CURRICULUM LINKS
Mavericks, Miracles & Medicine can be used in history and science classes.

NOTE TO EDUCATORS
This program is appropriate for high school students and more advanced middle school students.

OBJECTIVES
After viewing this program, students should be able to identify major conceptual breakthroughs in approaches to human physiology, including the debunking of the Galenic approach to human anatomy, the “germ theory” of medicine, and the ways medical science resolved entrenched conflicts with religious conceptions of the human body. Students should also gain an understanding of the culture of medical experimentation and the obstacles doctors have faced in promoting innovative theories and techniques.

STANDARDS
Mavericks, Miracles & Medicine fulfills the following National Standards for History for grades 5-12: chronological thinking, historical comprehension, historical analysis and interpretations.

PRE-VIEWING ACTIVITIES Read through the critical viewing questions for the episode you are about to watch. Be prepared to identify the individuals listed under the Names heading (below) and describe their achievements. Preview the Vocabulary terms for the episode (below); prepare to define each term when the program is over.

Students should be familiar with the following names:
Heart Episode: Galen, Andreas Vesalius, Werner Forssmann, Ignatz Semmelweis, William Morton, John Gibbon
Brain Episode: Thomas Willis, Wilhelm Roentgen, Franz-Joseph Gall, David Ferrier, Ake Senning and Rune Elmvuist
Infectious Disease Episode: Robert Koch, Anton Von Leuwenhoek, Edward Jenner, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Selman Waksman, Albert Shatz, and Elizabeth Bugie
Transplant Episode: Galen, William Harvey, Jean-Baptiste Denis, Paul Ehrlich, Joseph Murray, Ian Wilmut

• Anatomy
• Anesthetize
• Antibiotic
• Brain
• Cardiologist
• Catheter
• Cerebral localization
• Clone
• Cortex
• Dogma
• Empirical
• Epilepsy
• Ether
• Germ Theory
• Healthy carriers
• Heart
• Heretic
• Infectious Disease
• Malady
• Pacemaker
• Pathology
• Phrenology
• Physiology
• Scourge
• Small pox
• Sterilization
• Syphilis
• Transplants
• Tuberculosis
• Typhoid fever
• Variolation
• Vitalism
• Vivisection

Discussion Questions

1. Who were the major innovators described in this program?

2. What did they accomplish and what impact did their innovations have?

3. How has medical science changed because of these advancements?

4. What is the heart’s function in the human body?

5. How did Andreas Vesalius challenge the 1400-year orthodoxy of Greek physician Galen? Why was this significant? If Galen’s ideas about the human body were flawed, why did they last so long?

6. How would you describe the images in Vesalius’s atlas of human anatomy? If he was interested in depicting the inner workings of human anatomy, why do you think he posed the figures in the manner he did? Why did this book have such a great impact?

7. Why is it important to sterilize medical instruments? Why did it take so long for the Hungarian doctor Ignatz Semmelweis to undertand the high rate of death among women giving birth at his Vienna hospital? Why do you think no one before him understood what was happening?

8. What would you do if you made an important scientific discovery and no one believed you? How would you convince people?

9. The story of the use of ether to anesthetize patients is marked by a conflict over who deserves the credit. In what ways does this question matter, and in what ways is it unimportant?

10. How has medical science clashed with religion over the years? Give some examples. How have scientists and doctors responded to these challenges?

11. In identifying epilepsy as a brain function disorder, how did Thomas Willis reconcile his religious beliefs with his empirical analysis?

12. What was the relationship between Franz-Joseph Gall’s theory of localized brain function and the pseudo-science of phrenology? Why is it called a pseudo-science? What was the problem with Gall’s methodology?

13. Tuberculosis, or TB, was one of the most dreaded diseases until the late 19th century. What were some of the ways people believed it was communicated?

14. What was the “germ theory” and why was it so important?

15. How did Anton Von Leuwenhoek’s experiments with microscopes change medical science?

16. Why have established scientists and doctors staunchly resisted innovations devised by people like Leuwenhoek?

17. What are “healthy carriers” and why are they so dangerous?

18. The world is a healthier place for the drug Streptomycin, developed by Selman Waksman, Albert Shatz, and Elizabeth Bugie, but their story ended in deep conflict and enmity. What does it tell us about the business and culture of medical research? How might this system be improved?

19. Like the work Andreas Vesalius (see above), Englishman William Harvey’s research directly clashed with the ideas of the Greek doctor Galen. How does Harvey’s story resemble Vesalius’s, and how does it differ?

20. How did the politics of the court of Louis XIV affect Jean-Baptiste Denis’s work?

21. Why has cloning gotten so much attention in the media? Why has it been so controversial? Do you think Dr. Wilmut is being naïve in denying this controversy?

Extended Activities

1. Debate: David Ferrier deliberately damaged parts of the brains of animals to test what functions were affected. Ultimately he made great advances in mapping brain functions, but many people were critical of his techniques. Other doctors in this series also relied on animals for their research. Divide the class in two and debate the ethics of medical research on animals.

2. Discussion: One of the biggest problems medical researchers have confronted over the years is where and how to acquire bodies on which to conduct their research. At different times they have resorted to digging up and stealing bodies from graveyards and using bodies of executed criminals and those of people too poor to pay for proper interment. Some people feel that this kind of behavior is unethical and that only those people who voluntarily give themselves to science should be have their bodies used for scientific research. Is it wrong for doctors and students to use for research bodies of people who have not given their consent? Or is this behavior justified by the importance of medical research and the potential benefit to the living? What options do researchers have for acquiring bodies? How can doctors and researchers resolve these issues?

3. Essay: The story of Typhoid Mary raises difficult questions about the clash that can occur between public health and civil liberties. Can you think of any examples of such clashes in our own era? How do you feel about such conflicts? How would you have dealt with Typhoid Mary? Write an essay on this topic.

Primary Sources

• VISIT: http://wwwihm.nlm.nih.gov/ “Images from the History of Medicine” Part of the website of the National Library of Medicine, this site offers a fully searchable database of historical images. A superb resource for both research and discussion.
• VISIT: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/dreamanatomy/ Excellent website accompanying an exhibition at the National Library of Medicine called “Dream Anatomy,” about the history of anatomical representation and the fascinating, often fantastical, ways the interior of the body has been translated visually.
• VISIT: http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow.html An extensive website on the life and career of John Snow, one of the pioneering figures in public health, epidemiology, and anesthesiology.
• VISIT: http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ A collection of profiles, with primary documents, of major twentieth-century innovators in biomedical research and public health.