Chance Discoveries and Accidental Breakthroughs in Medicine Flashcards

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What is a 'chance discovery' in the history of medicine?

It is a medical finding made by luck, often while someone was looking for something else.

He ran out of boiling oil, so he used a gentle ointment instead and saw that the soldiers healed better.

It reduced pain and infection, so surgeons slowly stopped using boiling oil on wounds.

While testing rays in a dark lab, he saw a screen glowing and realised a new ray could pass through flesh.

They could see broken bones and objects inside the body without cutting it open.

He found mould on a dirty petri dish and noticed it killed the bacteria growing around it.

He could not make enough pure penicillin, and other scientists did not realise how useful it was.

They purified penicillin, tested it on mice and people, and worked with drug companies to mass-produce it.

Ehrlich’s team tested many compounds; number 606 was first ignored, then rechecked and found to cure syphilis.

He and friends tested gases at home; chloroform unexpectedly knocked them out without killing them, so he used it in surgery.

Possible answers include Paré’s gunshot wound ointment, Röntgen’s X-rays, Fleming’s penicillin, and Salvarsan 606.

It needs science to explain it, money and technology to develop it, and communication to spread it.