| Invention |
Who invented it? |
When was it invented? |
| Adhesive plaster-covered bandages |
Paul Beiersdorf |
1882 |
| Anaesthetic |
William Morton |
1846 |
| Anthrax (vaccine) |
Louis Pasteur |
1881 |
| Antiseptic |
Joseph Lister |
1865 |
| Artificial heart (implant, human) |
Denton Cooley |
1969 |
| Artificial limbs |
Ambrose Pare |
1575 (book: Works) |
| Artificial skin |
Dr John F. Burke & Ioannis V. Yanna |
1979 |
| Aspirin |
Felix Hoffman & Heinrich Dreser |
1899 |
| Bacteria |
Anton van Leeuwenhoek |
1673 |
| Bifocal lenses |
Benjamin Franklin |
1784 |
| Birth control pill |
Gregory Pincus, John Rock, Min- Chueh Chang |
1960 (approved by U.S. Federal Drug Agency) |
| Blood circulation |
William Harvey |
1610 |
| Blood transfusion |
Dr Thomas Blundell |
1818 |
| Chemotherapy |
Paul Ehrlich |
1911 |
| Cholera (vaccine) |
Louis Pasteur |
1880 |
| Contact lens (glass) |
Adolf Fick |
1887 |
| Corneal transplants |
Eduard Zirm |
1906 |
| Cough drops |
James Smith & Sons |
1847 |
| Dental drill |
George Fellows Harrington |
1864 |
| Disposable syringe |
Colin Murdoch (NZ) |
1956 (patent) |
| DNA (structure) |
Francis Crick, James Watson, Rosalind Franklin |
1953 |
| Electrocardiograph |
Willem Einthoven |
1902 |
| Genetics |
Johann Gregor Mendel |
1866 |
| Heart transplants |
Christiaan Barnard |
1967 |
| Hypodermic syringe |
Charles Gabriel Pravaz Alexander Wood (simultaneously) |
1853 |
| Insulin |
Frederick Banting & Charles Best |
1921 |
| Iron lung |
Philip Drinker |
1929 |
| Morphine |
Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Serturner |
1805 |
| Ophthalmoscope |
Hermann Ludwig von Helmholtz |
1851 |
| Oral contraceptive pill |
Gregory Pincus, John Rock, Min- Chueh Chang |
1960 (approved by U.S. Federal Drug Agency) |
| Pacemaker (artificial, implantable) |
Wilson Greatbatch |
1960 (first implant) |
| Pasteurisation |
Louis Pasteur |
1864 |
| Pathology |
Giovanni Battista Morgagni |
1761 |
| Penicillin |
Alexander Fleming |
1928 |
| Plastic surgery |
Archibald Hector McIndoe |
1940s |
| Polio (vaccine) |
Jonas Salk |
1955 (field trial results announced) |
| Quinine |
Pierre Joseph Pelletier & Joseph Bienaime Caventou |
1820 |
| Rabies (vaccine) |
Louis Pasteur |
1885 |
| Rubella (vaccine) |
Paul D Parkman & Harry M Meyer Jr |
1966 |
| Scurvy |
James Lind |
1753 |
| Smallpox (vaccine) |
Edward Jenner |
1796 (first experiments) |
| Stethoscope |
Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec |
1816 |
| Thermometer (medical) |
Thomas Allbutt |
1867 |
| Tranquiliser dart gun |
Colin Murdoch (NZ) |
1950s |
| Tourniquet |
Etienne J. Morel |
1674 |
| X-rays |
Wilhelm Roentgen |
1895 |
