Professor Mary Fissell discusses the history of medicine on the HistoryExtra podcast. Listen at
historyextra.com/podcast
Q: What would you say are the three biggest turning points in the history of medicine?
A: Every historian will have different thoughts on this, but I would say inoculation for smallpox, which made its way to Europe and the US in the 18th century. The West was pretty late to the party, though, as inoculation had already been taking place in Asia and Africa for a long time. Smallpox ravaged through populations, so the idea that human intervention could actually change lives was a really important milestone.