Anatomy of the Human Heart May 2014 | Page 11

, in 1833 the Medical Sciences establishment (establecimiento de Ciencias Médicas) was founded in México by Valentín Gómez Farías and the “Junta de instrucción pública”. This is the place where modern medicine began to be taught and later on in 1842 became the “Escuela de Medicina”.

In 1852 during the Industrial Revolution a smart person called Hermann Friedrich Stannius, was curious about the heart and opened a frog. He found that the frog’s heart had ties ligature between the sinus venosus, called the pacemaker, and he demonstrated that the pacemaker of the heart is the sinus, but the ventricles and the auricles can have independent, involuntary contractions. In 1855 a brilliant person named Rudolph Albert von Kolicker published his work on the "action currents" of the heart, he demonstrated that an electric current was being made every beat of a frog's heart. In 1872 a mysterious man called Duchenne de Boulogne brought back to life a drowned child by linking 1 electrode to the leg while tapping the precordium with rhythm using another electrode. In 1882 a very important opportunity for scientific tests took place. A 46 year old unskilled woman laborer named Catharina Serafin, had a chest tumor that put her heart in danger, which it could be seen through the skin's thin layer. Von Ziemssen played with her heart applying electric current to manipulate her heart beat. They discovered that with the application of electrical pulses to the cardiac surface, ventricular activity was produced. This led to very fatal investigations. In late 1800s around 1889 they reached a conclusion that by applying electricity in the chest it can exit the rhythmic contraction and stimulate the hearts. This is a very important date for medicine, for it developed the first integrated theory of cardiac pacing.

In 1893 the first successful heart surgery took place, it was performed by DR. Daniel Hale Williams. It happened when the doctor opened a man’s chest to repair a tear in the heart lining saving him from a knife wound in the heart.

Concluding, back in time during the 1600 and from now on the heart has been seen as an organ, with no feelings seen as scientific way as possible. Also people didn’t know anything about the circulation in the body because they didn’t have the correct ideas or precise information about how our body works. As a matter of fact, it was impossible to know the exact function of each organ, but thanks to some smart people that started to think such as what Andreas Vesalius did about dissecting dead human bodies. Followed by William Harvey, he stated that the blood was pumped by the heart, so his theory was right. With these series of theories about the blood and how did the circulation occurred, people was able to understand much better about the human anatomy (especially about the heart). Later on, other doctors started to conduct other experiments about the heart’s function in relation with the lungs, arteries, veins, and other important organs. Without this discoveries it cannot be known what it is known nowadays about the heart. By being curious a change can be made.

Something that can be clearly appreciated, is that war stops progress, in the medicine, it is indeed stopped, but it's necessary, because of the injuries, but progress is not something seen in this period. No important changes during Mexico's Independence War were done, why? Clearly because it's a war. The people were hiding or fighting, what can be expected for progress? In this case, medicine was not progressing, but the things discovered were being tested and used. The real changes came after war ceased, what can be concluded about this? Something really important in history. Even if it's necessary, war is not helpful for the progress of mankind so war MUST be avoided, if progress is wanted, as a specie. That's why humans, as a specie, didn't progress in medicine at that time.