Fathers of Medicine and Surgery'..CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

FATHERS OF SURGERY AND MEDICINE 4200 BC -- CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL


FATHER OF SURGERY -- ACHARYA SUSHRUTA


FATHER OF MEDICINE -- ACHARYA CHARAKA.



Wheeler Wilcox: “India – The land of Vedas, the remarkable works contain not only religious ideas for a perfect life, but also facts which science has proved true. Electricity, radium, electronics, airship, all were known to the seers who founded the Vedas.

Sir W. Hunter, British Surgeon: “The surgery of the ancient Indian physicians was bold and skilful. A special branch of surgery was dedicated to rhinoplasty or operations for improving deformed ears, noses and forming new ones, which European surgeons have now borrowed.”



Today the white man has printed all over the place that a Greeko Hippocratus is the father of Medicine and another Greeko Hirophilus is the father of surgery-- both operating in 400 BC.

Well no matter what Vatican tries or Max Mueller or Macaulay tries-- truth can never be buried. It is the Internet age now. The age of peer reviewed medical magazines is dead. There were never ever witch doctors or shamans in India like the rest of the planet.
(This is a debatable point as all systems of medicine and surgery  are costly in India and even now; ie 2011 ptients do go to witch doctors)  This is my opinion.

The reason why Emperor Vikramaditya ruled in great harmony from Jerusalem to Urals to Vietnam in 7000 BC , is because he GAVE Medicine and Surgery. Even those days people had the commonsense to know that without health you are nobody. And India had those medicines in unlimited quantity--sustained by soil and climate.

Only India had the thousands of amazing herbs, botanical plants and colloidal minerals , by which the science of medicine works. The whole world knows this. There were no such plants or minerals in Egypt or Greece or elsewhere.

Even today 6000 years later, the science of Ayurveda is the same, with hardly any revisions . All the west knows about Ayurveda is what a pseudo Indian Deepak Chopra tell them on TV in fancy English.(No comment as I have not seen this show).

As early as 3000 BC, the Egyptian Pharoahs send word to the Dhanwantari hospitals in Kerala, when he wanted some medicinal herb or a physician sent urgently. The Pharoah used his marathon carrier pigeons with stopovers at Socotra and Laccadives. Some of the herbs were transplanted from Kerala at Socotra, and they are still there.

Both Sushruta and Charaka wrote their medical treatises in 4200 BC on the banks of the river Saraswati. In 4100 BC warrior sage Parashurama came to Kerala and annointed 108 idols of Ayurveda god Dhanwantari on the way. The Dhanwantari temple near Guruvayur , where all Kerala Arurvedic college doctors go after receiving their degree is to worship this 6000 year old idol. Dhanwantari is an avatar of Vishnu and the father of Ayurveda.

Sushruta was the son of Maharshi Vishwamitra. He wrote the SUSHRUTA SAMAHITA , which is the world's first book on the practise of Shalya ( Surgery ) in Sanskrit.


The English translation itself runs into 1800 pages. The original Sanskrit text contains 184 chapters . It deals with every facet of surgery including from Caesarian surgery, amputations, brain surgery, cataract surgery, piles, hernia, fibroids --right up to plastic surgery. His books deals with first aid, anti-toxins and child care too.

The present world may find this difficult to believe, but his surgical instrument diagrams are available in these books.







Vedic Indians never felt the need to patent knowledge, like greedy Yank pretender Edison . Edison had more patents for the mangy phonograph than the total number of fixed or movable parts it contained, out of which 6 are for the wooden cabinet! How pathetic! Knowledge to ancient Indians was like a song, which did NOT have to be recorded and patented for financial gain. It was for the audience to enjoy.

The drugs used by Sushruta were both of plant and animal origin. Animal origin means vaccination which Edward Jenner re-invented later in 1800 AD--or 5800 years later.

For a microscope they used a water drop as a spherical lens – to project all bacteria inside using a coherent narrow light beam beam as a HUGE shadows show on a screen behind.

Genetic defects and aberrations DNA blueprint, and its quantum healing using carrier sound mantras were known .



Sushruta made it compulsory for his surgeons in his school to have licences. It was compulsory to experiment on real human cadavers. He allowed lower caste Hindus into his school ( unlike Charaka )-- so that the higher castes who were squeamish to handle dead bodies could be exempted. Suturing would be done with compatible animal organic threads, which did NOT require removal. . Even today , 6000 years later , the Ayurveda stalwarts in Kerala Dhanwantari colleges are NOT from Brahmins or higher castes. Sushruta used alcohol and opium for anesthesia.



Sustruta's surgery texts were known to the Arabs, who traded with Kerala . Arabs did not steal the work. It was given to them free. The Europeans ( Greeks and Italians )stole the knowledge from the Arabs,and patented it for themselves in Latin.




Charaka was the author of the Charaka Samhita, which contained 120 chapters in Sanskrit. It deals extensively with diagnosis, as any idiot could do a cure once diagnosed.



He dealt with almost all present day illnesses. He knew the anatomy of the human body from the expertise of Sustruta. Charaka did not deal with cadavers and animal based medicines. He was purely onto Plants and herbs--thousands of them . He had terrific quantum botanical medicines and broad and narrow spectrum antibiotics.

Charaka believed in prevention and gave great importance to diet, hydration of body with low surface tension water/ veg juices , yoga and sleep ..

Today, these two great Vedic Maharshis cum seers , are hardly known by the ordinary Indian. The White west are happy in their contention that in 400 BC, the Greeks discovered Medicine and Surgery.

Both Charaka and Sushruta derived from Vedic wisdom of the Vedas written in 5000 BC. It speaks about chakras . DNA is referred to a Tvatsa in the Rig Veda--the blue print of double helix coiled serpents ,which gives shape to all living creatures and that which cannot be destroyed. The Yin-Yang cycle model of the universe is referred to a Tamas/ Rajas/ Sattva or Shiva's trident ( creator/ preserver/ destroyer ). The wave-particle duality is mentioned in Vedanta. Atharva veda gives the code for photosynthesis and talks in great detail about the cells. It must be remembered that Vedas are just a written form . The knowledge existed in the form of Sanskrit verses, which was handed down verbally from 9000 BC to 5000 BC by sages with amazing memories, and 12 strand DNA.

The Maharshis ( or Rishi among Rishis ) had 13 strand DNA , with the extra spiritual gene conferred by star dust or cosmic rays, which alter DNA and consciousness.-- which gave them teleportaion powers via wormholes , telepathy powers ,transmutation powers, antigravity powers and long life.. On Dec 21st 2012, it is expected that such cosmic rays will again bathe planet earth , after a gap of 12000 years. It must be noted that Astrology has survived in India for 12000 years. My own marriage happened after my parents matched 78 horoscopes of prospective girls, for the perfect match ( this is usual in India ).



And within 60 years of Independence and graduation form a lowborn, useless, smelly, black skinned coolie--Indians have put their flag on the moon. And computer programming and brainy codes are like breathing for the Indians.

As per the Bible and Vatican the cosmos and world was created on 23rd Oct 4004, at exactly 9 AM-- then how can Rig Veda be written in 5000 BC--pray? prithee?

CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

HIPPOCRATES....Father of Medicine

HIPPOCRATES
Father of Medicine in the Western World. As we saw from the postings on Sushruta and Charakan,  medicne and surgery was quite highly advanced in India.
Born in 460 B.C. - Died in 377 B.C.

Hippocrates (hih POK ruh teez) lived 400 years before the birth of Christ. He is known as the father of medicine because many of the things he discovered are still practiced today.

During the time when Hippocrates lived, people were very superstitious. * They believed there were four fluids in the body which matched four elements; earth, air, fire and water. They would carry sick people to the temple because they thought the god of medicine, Aesculapius (es kyoo LAY pe us) could heal them. They would chant magic words over the patient to try and heal them.
This practise still continues in places where MEDICARE is not available.

Hippocrates had observed many patients and carefully recorded their symptoms and the way their illnesses developed. He would look at the color of the skin, and how the eyes looked. He would look for fevers and chills. He described many illnesses including pneumonia, * tetanus, * tuberculosis, * arthritis, * mumps, * and malaria * .
YOU WILL OBSERVE THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE TEACHINGS OF  HIPPOCRATE AND CHARAKA.

He told his students to carefully observe their patients and to learn from the things they had observed. He said the human body could heal itself and could return itself to good health. The patient was given something to relieve pain, but nothing else was done.

He told his patients they should eat a moderate amount of food; not too much and not too little. A moderate amount of exercise was recommended. Patients were encouraged to walk for exercise. (Life style changes, as we call it today).
Ancient Greek surgical instruments Doctors were told to make sure their hands were clean before they treated patients. He said the operating room should be well lighted and look cheerful.

The Hippocratic (hip uh CRAT ick) Oath was named for him. It included rules of conducts for doctors and even today doctors still honor a form of the oath.

 
Hippocrates was one of the earliest Psychologists.


Hippocritus and Democritus.


Hippocritus examining a boy.

Charaka and his compendium of diseases.Father of modern medicine.

Brief life history and work of Charaka, the father of modern medicine. 
Most of what is known about Indian medical science derives from this text and two others, the Susruta Samhita and the Ashtangahridaya Samhita.
Instead of appeasing deities and making sacrifices, practitioners were now looking at clinical problems and deciding how to treat them based on the specific disease. Perhaps most significant, they developed concepts of health and disease which they applied in practice.

The science of medicine became known as Ayurveda, or science of life. Just aswe now seek to explain a disease as a problem of nutrition or genetics, Ayurvedic physicians formed a medical theory that guided the way they evaluated patients and diseases.
Ayurveda proposed that human disorders arose from an imbalance of three vital substances, or humors, present in every living creature: wind, bile, and phlegm (that is, mucus). Ayurveda emphasized prevention through cleansing, exercise, diet, and good habits.

By the time Charaka was written, doctoring was recognized as a profession, and sons often followed in the footsteps of their fathers.
According to Charaka the medical profession was reserved for the highest castes (categories of a hereditary social order in South Asia). Because surgery was considered to be the work of low-caste persons such as barbers, thetext does not deal with surgery. Moreover, Indian physicians were not allowed to handle or to dissect corpses, which limited students' ways of learning about how the human body worked.
 It (Charaks Compendium of Diseases) is exhaustive work on therapeutic medicine, that is, the treatment of ailments curable by drugs and modification of diet and lifestyle. It also covers bodily structure and function, the cause, symptoms, and prognosis of disease, and the effect of disease on the body. Physicians were urged to examine patients carefully, and to tailor treatment not just to the disease but also to the person, climate, time of year, and environment. Thus, different people with identical symptoms might receive different treatments.

Charaks compendium...author lived about 500-600 yares after Sushrutha.

Sushruta was essentially a surgeon, but Charak, practsed medivine and
shoukd be considered 'The Father of Modern Medicine'.
Charaka with his students.

Sushruta ...Founder of Modern Surgery and Medicine

History of Medicine


The historic contribution of Sushruta,(600-500BC) circa the ancient

surgeon of India, is well recognised for his innovative

method of rhinoplasty,1 extracapsular lens extraction in

cataract,2 anal and dental surgeries.3, 4 However, little is

known regarding his vivid description of diabetes

(madhumeha),5 angina (hritshoola) and obesity (medoroga).6

Sushruta was the famous surgeon of Kashi,

Taught and practiced medicine around 600 BCat Kashi He was a disciple of

Correspondence and reprint requests: Dr Shridhar Dwivedi, Department of Medicine/Preventive Cardiology, University, College of Medical Sciences and GTB Hospital, Shahdara, Delhi-110 095, India; E-mail: shridhar.dwivedi@gmail.com.

He was a disciple of Dhanvantri, who is recognised as the God of Medicine in India.He described Diabetes characterised by passing large amounts of urine like urine. He goes on to say that diabetes primarily affects obese people who are sedentary and emphasised the role of physical activity in amelioration of diabetes.
His advice to resort to physical exercise to prevent diabetes holds true even today at a time when we are facing an epidemic of diabetes and coronary artery disease worldwide.DISCOVERY OF THE HEART AND CIRCULATION.


Though the discovery of circulation is attributed to William Harvey; it is interesting to note that Sushruta had the knowledge of a structure like heart and its role in circulation of “vital fluids” through the ‘channels’.
ANGINA PECTORIS AND HYPERTENSION
His vivid account of angina (“hritshoola “ meaning heart pain) is marvellous. According to him angina is chest pain which is precordial, temporary, exertional, emotional, burning like and relieved by rest.
Besides these, he has also described the symptoms of “vatarakta”, which are similar to that of hypertension.
It is remarkable that Sushruta described these conditions, some 150 years before Greek physician Hippocrates
 






























































 . He


came to such a near perfect conclusion without


resorting to any kind of biochemical or imaging


procedures which were obviously non-existent at that


point of time.


In this context, it would be worthwhile to explore the


utility of the various plant based formulations


advocated by Sushruta to tackle the problem of


diabetes, angina and atherosclerotic disorders.8


REFERENCES


1. Eisenberg I. A history of rhinoplasty. South Afr Med J 1982;


82: 286-92.


2. Kansupada KB, Sassani JW. Sushruta, the father of Indian


surgery and ophthalmology. Doc Ophthalmol 1997; 93: 159-67.


3. Despande PJ, Sharma KR, Singh LM. Ambulatory treatment


Dhanwantari, who is recognised as the Lord diety of


Ayurveda (science of life) the Indian system of medicine.


The main vehicle of the transmission of knowledge


during that period was by oral method. The language


used was Sanskrit — the vedic language of that period


(2000-500 BC). The most authentic compilation of his


teachings and work is presently available in a treatise


called “Sushruta Samhita”. This contains 184 chapters


and description of 1120 illnesses, 700 medicinal plants,


64 preparations from mineral sources and 57


preparations based on animal sources.7


Sushruta described diabetes (madhumeha) as a disease


characterised by passage of large amount of urine,


sweet in taste, hence the name “madhumeha” — honey


Sushruta–the ancient clinician and teacher par excellence-500 BC


[Indian J Chest Dis Allied Sci 2007; 49: 243-244]


244


of fistula-in-ano: results in 400 cases. Indian J Surg 1975; 37:


85-9.


4. Tewari M, Shukla HS. Sushruta: The father of Indian surgery.


Indian J Surg 2005; 67: 229-30.


5. Krall LP, Levine R, Barnett D. The history of diabetes. In:


Kahn CR, Weir GC, editors Joslin’s Diabetes Mellitus; 13th


edn. Philadelphia: Lea and Feibiger; 1994: pp 1-2.


6. Dwivedi S, Chaturvedi A. Cardiology in ancient India. J


Indian College Cardiol 2000; 1: 8-15.


7. Sharma PV, translator and editor Sushruta Samhita: With


English Translation of Text and Dalhana’s Commentary along


with Critical Notes 3 Vols. Varanasi: Visvabharati; 2001: 24,


1983.


8. Dwivedi S. Putative use of Indian cardiovascular friendly


plants in preventive cardiology. Ann Natl Acad Med Sci


(India) 1996; 32: 159-75.

Louis Pasteur...Founder of Pasteurisatio and Anti rabic vaccination

LOUIS PASTEUR
•Born: 27 December 1822


•Birthplace: Dole, Jura, France


•Died: 28 September 1895 (complications from a series of strokes)


•Best Known As: Renowned inventor of pasteurization, Anti Rabic Vaccine and Germ theory of diseases.
Louis Pasteur is the 19th-century biologist and chemist whose work with germs and micro-organisms opened up new fields of scientific inquiry, aided industries (ranging from wine to silk), and made him one of the world's most celebrated scientists. Pasteur became a professor of chemistry at the University of Lille in 1854, and soon began studying fermentation in wine and beer. He became convinced "the germs of microscopic organisms abound in the surface of all objects, in the air and in water." He determined that such micro-organisms could be killed by heating liquid to 55 degrees Celsius (about 130 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher for short periods of time. This simple process became known as pasteurization, a process used today in milk and many other beverages. Pasteur then turned his attention to other aspects of microorganisms. He virtually created the science of immunology, showing that certain diseases (like rabies) could be prevented by vaccination (his term), that is, injecting animals with weakened forms of the disease. So great were Pasteur's successes that an international fund was raised to create the Louis Pasteur Institute in 1888. Pasteur worked with the institute until his death, and it continues today as a center of microbiology and immunology.





 

Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole..Founders of Modern Nursing

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE













Florence Nightingale, the daughter of the wealthy landowner, William Nightingale of Embly Park, Hampshire, was born in Florence, Italy, on 12th May, 1820. Her father taught her Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, history, philosophy and mathematics.

Florence refused to marry several suitors, and at the age of twenty-five told her parents she wanted to become a nurse. Her parents were totally opposed to the idea as nursing was associated with working class women.

Florence's desire to have a career in medicine was reinforced when she met Elizabeth Blackwell at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London. Blackwell was the first woman to qualify as a doctor in the United States. Blackwell, who had to overcome considerable prejudice to achieve her ambition, encouraged her to keep trying and in 1851 Florence's father gave her permission to train as a nurse.

Florence, now thirty-one, went to Kaiserwerth, Germany where she studied to become a nurse at the Institute of Protestant Deaconesses. Two years later she was appointed resident lady superintendent of a hospital for invalid women in Harley Street, London.






In March, 1853, Russia invaded Turkey. Britain and France, concerned about the growing power of Russia, went to Turkey's aid. This conflict became known as the Crimean War. Soon after British soldiers arrived in Turkey, they began going down with cholera and malaria. Within a few weeks an estimated 8,000 men were suffering from these two diseases.

Nightingale volunteered her services and was eventually given permission to take a group of thirty-eight nurses to Turkey.

Nightingale found the conditions in the army hospital in Scutari appalling. The men were kept in rooms without blankets or decent food. Unwashed, they were still wearing their army uniforms that were "stiff with dirt and gore".

Military officers and doctors objected to Nightingale's views on reforming military hospitals. , Nightingale was given the task of organizing the barracks hospital after the battle of Inkerman and by improving the quality of the sanitation she was able to dramatically reduce the death-rate of her patients.

Unwilling to accept defeat, Mary Seacole started up a business called the British Hotel, a few miles from the battlefront. Here she sold food and drink to the British soldiers. With the money she earned from her business Mary was able to finance the medical treatment she gave to the soldiers.
Illustrated London News (24th February, 1855)




Whereas Florence Nightingale and her nurses were based in a hospital several miles from the front, Mary Seacole treated her patients on the battlefield. On several occasions she was found treating wounded soldiers from both sides while the battle was still going on.

In 1856 Florence Nightingale returned to England as a national heroine. In October, 1856, she had a long interview with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and the following year gave evidence to the 1857 Sanitary Commission. This eventually resulted in the formation of the Army Medical College.

Women such as Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Sophia Jex-Blake were disappointed by Nightingale's lack of support for women's doctors. Nightingale had doubts at first about the wisdom of this campaign and argued that it was more important to have better trained nurses than women doctors.

In later life Florence Nightingale suffered from poor health and in 1895 went blind. Soon afterwards, the loss of other faculties meant she had to receive full-time nursing. Although a complete invalid she lived another fifteen years before her death in London on 13th August, 1910.

Louis Psteur...Discovred innoculatio against Rabies and Diptheri

If one were to choose among the greatest benefactors of humanity, Louis Pasteur would certainly rank at the top. He solved the mysteries of rabies, anthrax, chicken cholera, and silkworm diseases, and contributed to the development of the first vaccines.
  He is revered for possessing the most important qualities of a scientist: the ability to survey all the known data and link the data for all possible hypotheses, the patience and drive to conduct experiments under strictly controlled conditions, and the brilliance to uncover the road to the solution from the results.

The pattern of logic in Pasteur's scientific career and the brilliance of his experimental method are well documented. . He  hypothesized that this molecular asymmetry is one of the mechanisms of life. In other words, living organisms only produce molecules that are of one specific orientation, and these molecules are always optically active.

. Later in his career, he was approached with a contamination problem in alcoholic fermentation, which was thought to be an entirely chemical process at the time. After careful examination, he found that the fermenting solution contained optically active compounds and concluded that fermentation was a biological process carried out by microorganisms. This hypothesis, called the germ theory, was followed by many elegant experiments that showed unequivocally the existence of microorganisms and their effect on fermentation.

The germ theory was the foundation of numerous applications, such as the large scale brewing of beer, wine-making, pasteurization, and antiseptic operations. Another significant discovery facilitated by the germ theory was the nature of contagious diseases. Pasteur's intuited that if germs were the cause of fermentation, they could just as well be the cause of contagious diseases. This proved to be true for many diseases such as potato blight, silkworm diseases, and anthrax. After studying the characteristics of germs and viruses that caused diseases, he and others found that laboratory manipulations of the infectious agents can be used to immunize people and animals. The discovery that the rabies virus had a lag-time before inducing disease prompted the studies of post-infection treatment with weakened viruses. This treatment proved to work and has saved countless lives.

Today we use genetically produced antirabic serum.Vaccinations and Innoculatons have become a routine after birt, Children are vaccinated aginst diptheria, chicken pox and tetsnus. They are also immunised against measles, typhoid,tuberculosis and a host of other diseases.


.

EDWARD JENNER...Father of vaccinations and innoculations

EDWARD JENNER (1749-1823)


Showing Jenner transferring pus from the hands of someone infected with cowpox into scratches in the skin of a young boy.
SO, WHO WAS EDWARD JENNER?
Edward Jenner was an English country doctor who pioneered vaccination. Jenner's discovery in 1796 that inoculation with cowpox gave immunity to smallpox, was an immense medical breakthrough and has saved countless lives.


Edward Jenner was born on May 17 1749 in the small village of Berkeley in Gloucestershire.After completing his studies, he returned to Berkeley to set up a medical practice where he stayed until his death in 1823.
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HOW DID EDWARD JENNER DISCOVER VACCINATION?
1)Jenner worked in a rural community and most of his patients were farmers or worked on farms with cattle. In the 18th century smallpox was a very common disease and was a major cause of death.

In 1788 an epidemic of smallpox hit Gloucestershire and during this outbreak Jenner observed that those of his patients who worked with cattle and had come in contact with the much milder disease called cowpox never came down with smallpox. Jenner needed a way of showing that his theory actually worked.

Jenner was given the opportunity on the 14 May 1796, when a young milkmaid called Sarah Nelmes came to see him with sores on her hands like blisters. Jenner identified that she had caught cowpox from the cows she handled each day.
Jenner now had the opportunity to obtain the material try out his theories. He carefully extracted some liquid from her sores and then took some liquid from the sores of a patient with mild smallpox.
Jenner believed that if he could inject someone with cowpox, the germs from the cowpox would make the body able to defend itself against the dangerous smallpox germs which he would inject later.
Jenner approached a local farmer called Phipps and asked him if he could inoculate his son James against smallpox. He explained to the farmer that if his theory was correct, James would never contract smallpox. Surprisingly, the farmer agreed.
Jenner made two small cuts on James's left arm. He then poured the liquid from Sarah's cowpox sores into the open wounds which he bandaged.

James went down with cowpox but was not very ill. Six weeks later when James had recovered, Jenner vaccinated him again, this time with the smallpox virus.



To Jenner's relief James did not catch smallpox. His experiment had worked.
In 1798 after carrying out further successful tests, he published his findings: An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, a Disease Known by the Name of Cow Pox. Jenner called his idea " vaccination" from the word vaccinia which is latin for cowpox. Jenner also introduced the term virus.




































' The Cow Pock or the wonderful effect of the new inoculation '. From an etching by James Gillray (1757-1815), illustrating some of the ridiculous ideas being circulated by opponents of Jenner's work.






Photo, Wellcome Historical Museum.










However, Jenner persevered and eventually, doctors found that vaccination did work and by 1800 most were using it. Jenner was awarded £30 000 by Parliament to enable him to continue carrying out his tests. Deaths from smallpox plummeted and vaccination spread through Europe and North America.






Jenner died in Berkeley on January 26, 1823 aged 74.

Copernicu..Father of Astrnomy.

Nicolas Copernicus



(1473-1543)

Copernicus is said to be the founder of modern astronomy. He was born in Poland,1 and eventually was sent off to Cracow University, there to study mathematics and optics; at Bologna, canon law. Returning from his studies in Italy, Copernicus, was appointed as a canon in the cathedral of Frauenburg where he spent a sheltered and academic life for the rest of his days. Because of his clerical position, Copernicus moved in the highest circles of power; but a student he remained. His interest in astronomy gradually grew to be one in which he had a primary interest. His investigations were carried on quietly and alone,"bare eyeball," so to speak, as a hundred more years were to pass before the invention of the telescope. In 1530, Copernicus completed and gave to the world his great work De Revolutionibus, which asserted that the earth rotated on its axis once daily and traveled around the sun once yearly: a fantastic concept for the times. Up to the time of Copernicus the thinkers of the western world believed in the Ptolemiac theory that the universe was a closed space bounded by a spherical envelope beyond which there was nothing.
 Copernicus' work might not have ever reached the printing press if it had not been for a young man who sought out the master in 1539. George Rheticus was a 25 year old German mathematics professor who was attracted to the 66 year old cleric, having read one of his papers. Intending to spend a few weeks with Copernicus, Rheticus ended up staying as a house guest for two years, so fascinated was he with Copernicus and his theories. Now, up to this time, Copernicus was reluctant to publish, -- not so much that he was concerned with what the church might say about his novel theory (De Revolutionibus was placed on the Index in 1616 and only removed in 1835), but rather because he was a perfectionist and he never thought, even after working on it for thirty years, that his complete work was ready, -- there were, as far as Copernicus was concerned, observations to be checked and rechecked.
Copernicus died in 1543 and was never to know what a stir his work had caused. It went against the philosophical and religious beliefs that had been held during the medieval times. Man, it was believed (and still believed by some) was made by God in His image, man was the next thing to God, and, as such, superior, especially in his best part, his soul, to all creatures, indeed this part was not even part of the natural world (a philosophy which has proved disastrous to the earth's environment as any casual observer of the 20th century might confirm by simply looking about). Copernicus' theories might well lead men to think that they are simply part of nature and not superior to it and that ran counter to the theories of the politically powerful churchmen of the time.

"Of all discoveries and opinions, none may have exerted a greater effect on the human spirit than the doctrine of Copernicus. The world had scarcely become known as round and complete in itself when it was asked to waive the tremendous privilege of being the center of the universe. Never, perhaps, was a greater demand made on mankind - for by this admission so many things vanished in mist and smoke! What became of our Eden, our world of innocence, piety and poetry; the testimony of the senses; the conviction of a poetic - religious faith? No wonder his contemporaries did not wish to let all this go and offered every possible resistance to a doctrine which in its converts authorized and demanded a freedom of view and greatness of thought so far unknown, indeed not even dreamed of." [Goethe.]

Nicholas Coperniicus.

__________________________

Gregor Mendel..a homge to a genius: Father of Genetics

WHO WAS GREGOR MENDEL?

Gregor Johann MENDEL was an Austrian monk and biologist whose work on heredity became the basis of the modern theory of genetics.
Mendel was born on July 22, 1822 in Heizendorf, Austria, (now known as Hyncice in Czechoslovakia). He was born Johann Mendel into a poor farming family. At that time it was difficult for poor families to obtain a good education and the young Mendel saw the only way to escape a life of poverty was to enter the monastery at Brunn in Moravis, (now Brno in Czechoslovakia). Here he was given the name Gregor. This monastery was the Augustinian Order of St Thomas, a teaching order with a reputation as a centre of learning and scientific enquiry.
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MENDEL THE FAILURE
To enable him to further his education, the abbot arranged for Mendel to attend the University of Vienna to get a teaching diploma. However, Mendel did not perform well. He was nervous and the University did not consider him a clever student. Mendel's examiner failed him with the comments, " he lacks insight and the requisite clarity of knowledge". This must have been devastating to the young Mendel. who in 1853 had to return to the monastery as a failure. As this was a teaching order, Mendel had to decide whether to stay on at the monastery as a failed teacher - or return to what?
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WHAT TO DO NEXT?
While studying in Vienna, Mendel had been impressed by the work of a biologist called Frank Unger whose practical view of inheritance, free from spiritual influences, seemed to reflect his own farming background. This gave Mendel the idea to stay on at the monastery and use his time to carry out practical experiments in biology. He must have had to approach the abbot very carefully to ask to be allowed to do this, as the bishop refused to allow the monks to even teach biology.

After about two years Mendel began his investigation into variation, heredity and evolution in plants. He chose to study in detail the common garden pea, Pisum, which he grew in the monastery garden.
Between 1856 and 1863 Mendel patiently cultivated and tested at least 28 000 pea plants, carefully analysing seven pairs of seeds for comparison, such as shape of seed, colour of seed, tall stemmed and short stemmed and tall plants and short plants. Mendel worked on this for several years, carefully self-pollinating and wrapping each individual plant to prevent accidental pollination by insects. He collected the seeds produced by the plants and studied the offspring of these seeds observing that some plants bred true and others not. Mendel discovered that by crossing tall and short parent plants he got hybrid offspring that resembled the tall parent rather than being a medium height blend. He explained this conceived the concept of heredity units, now called genes. These often expressed dominant or recessive characteristics. He then worked out the pattern of inheritance of various traits and produced two generalisations that became known as the laws of heredity. Mendel's observations led him to coin two terms which are still used in present-day genetics:
* dominance for a trait that shows up in an offspring.
* recessiveness for a trait masked by a dominant gene.
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WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
In 1866 Mendel published his work on heredity in the Journal of the Brno Natural History Society. It had absolutely no impact. The complex and detailed work he had produced was not understood even by influential people in his field such as Karl Nageli. If Mendel had been a professional scientist he might have been able to project his work more extensively and perhaps publish his work abroad. He did make some attempt to contact scientists abroad by sending them reprints of his work but this was a uphill struggle for an unknown author writing in an unknown journal.

1868 two years after Mendel had produced his paper he was elected abbot of the monastery and his work lay unrecognised for about 34 years.

For much of the remainder of his life, Mendel devoted himself to the duties of the monastery. He did continue with some breeding experiments, this time with bees. A natural progression, as he had always wanted to transfer his experiments from plants to animals. Mendel successfully produced a hybrid strain of bees which produced excellent honey, however, they were so vicious they stung everybody around for miles and had to be destroyed. Some of Mendel's later experiments with the hawkweed Hieracium were inconclusive and the pressures of running the monastery took over so he ended his experiments by the 1870's.

During his time as abbot Mendel seems to have been more concerned with the financial running of the monastery rather than the religious side. It is suggested Mendel was seen as unreliable by the Emperor's Secret Police. It is likely the bishop and many in the monastery did not like what Mendel was doing, particularly his interest and enthusiasm for the work of such contemporaries as Charles Darwin.

When Mendel died in 1884 aged 62, the Czech composer Leos Janacek played the organ at his funeral.

The new abbot of the monastery burned all Mendel's papers.
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MENDEL RE-DISCOVERED
In 1900 Mendel's work was at last recognised by three independent investigators. One of these being the Dutch botanist, Hugo De Vries. But it was still not until the early 1920s and early 1930s that the full significance of his work was recognised particularly in relation to evolutionary theory. As a result of years of research in population genetics, investigators were able to demonstrate that the Darwinian theory of evolution could be described in terms of the change in gene frequency of Mendelian pairs of characteristics in a population over successive generations.






  
Gregor Mendel