HIST 249 Chapter reading: The Rise of Laboratory Medicine
30 Oct 2018
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The first labs were constructed to carry out research. Labs were set up by pharmaceutical companies to find new drugs to produce vaccines and anti-toxins used to treat diseases and for quality control, to test the potency of products. They were also set up to provide diagnostic testing. The most important developments in medical knowledge came from revelations concerning the function of the living body. Researchers discovered the brain function is localized by experiments where the brain surface was stimulated. Laboratory workers explored how food was broken down and how waste products were secreted and the body maintained steady rates. It also provided a new understanding of the causation of certain diseases through the study of bacteriology. In the early 19th century symptoms were described in qualitative terms, like feverish and had a raised pulse (all detected by a sense of touch or a sense of sight)
