Great Leaps in Medical Practice Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In 1952, Jonas Salk first tested his vaccine for infantile paralysis, at that time a condition which affected tens of thousands every year. What was infantile paralysis also known as?

Answer: Polio

Prior to Salk's vaccine, poliomyelitis resulted in thousands of infant deaths every year, and permanently crippled tens of thousands more. Salk refused to patent his discovery, saying "Would you patent sunlight? Would you patent air?" Salk continued virology research throughout his life, working on the cure for AIDS upon his death in 1995.
As a side note, how many people today do you think would patent sunlight, if they could get away with it?

2. What was the chief medical contribution of Ignaz Semmelweis to the practice of medicine?

Answer: Hand washing

Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865) made big waves in the medical community back in the 19th century when he suggested that doctors might actually be GIVING patients infections with their dirty hands. There was a large portion of the medical profession which were insulted by the theory, and accused Semmelweis of slander and mental illness.

His theory would go on to save untold millions of lives, but Semmelweis himself would die in an asylum, of an infection which was improperly treated.

3. Lasting from 1918 through 1920, an outbreak of which Spanish-associated disease killed somewhere between 50 and 100 million people?

Answer: Flu

The "Spanish Influenza" outbreak of 1918 was a massive pandemic, spread in part because the USA and many European governments banned news broadcasts which might hurt national morale. The rationalization for this media control was largely because the nations were all still reeling from World War One. Ironically, the flu would kill more people in three years than the world war did in the same span of time.

4. Before vaccines were developed, what more primitive method of the same practice (introducing weakened strains of disease to healthy patients) was used?

Answer: Inoculation

In the early 1700s, the practice of deliberately adding pus from a particular disease with the intent of immunizing the patient became widely known. Vaccination improved on the process by reducing the amount of still active viral tissue before introducing it to the patient.

Some of the earliest vaccinations were against the deadly disease smallpox, often by giving a patient pus from someone who had just overcome cow pox.

5. Which 18th century surgeon was the inspiration for both the story of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well as Doctor Doolittle, and also a pioneer in mapping human biology?

Answer: John Hunter

John Hunter, in his quest to better understand human anatomy, took to stealing cadavers in order to cut them apart and study their insides. Hunter's home was divided into two levels, the upper one which was a normal house, and the basement, which had secret passages for the transport of dead bodies and tables for dissection.

The dual nature of the house inspired Robert Louis Stevenson for his Jekyll and Hyde characters. Hunter was also a collector of animals and oddities, inspiring the character of Doctor Doolittle. Hunter's contributions to the world of surgery were innumerable, and he helped elevate the status of surgical professionals (at the time considered inferior to true doctors).

6. Apart from the process of pasteurization, which prevents milk and wine from carrying harmful bacteria, what was Louis Pasteur's greatest influence on modern medicine?

Answer: Germ theory of disease

Pasteur was the first man to identify germs as the root cause of disease, finally proving the theories of Ignaz Semmelweis years earlier, and revolutionizing the medical field forever.

7. Doctor Gregory House, television's fictional master of diagnostics, was based on the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Which doctor was Arthur Conan Doyle's inspiration for Sherlock Holmes?

Answer: Joseph Bell

Arthur Conan Doyle, prior to becoming an author, studied as a physician under Doctor Joseph Bell. Bell was reputedly able to deduce secrets of his patients' lives by simple observation, Holmes-style. Bell supposedly also had unconventional teaching methods, and was caustically funny... like a certain Dr. House.

8. As recently as the 1800s, prevailing medical theory was based on the Greek methods set forth by Hippocrates. These theories held that the body was composed of a balance of four elements called what?

Answer: Humours

Hippocrates' humours were blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. If the ratio of a patient's humours came out of balance, sickness resulted. Medical science was surprisingly reluctant to let go of this theory, which persisted for thousands of years.

9. In 1945, Doctor Walter Freeman experimented on using what implement for a type of surgery, since discredited?

Answer: An icepick

Freeman is associated with the infamous "icepick lobotomy" procedure. When Freeman operated on living patients, he used a icepick-like tool called an orbitoclast. This delicate operation took around 10 minutes to perform.

10. Luigi Galvani conducted a series of experiments, Frankenstein-like, for reanimating dead tissue. What medical reading today bears his name?

Answer: Galvanic Skin Response

It is a change in the skin's ability to conduct electricity. Galvani's name is also the root for galvanization and the galvanic cell. Luigi Galvani is most known today for his work on experimenting with the human nervous system.

Source: Author drowsteel

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor gtho4 before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

We all love to have our diseases cured and wounds healed... but how did doctors learn to do all that stuff?

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