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Aulus Cornelius Celsus (BC 25-AD 50), an ancient Roman Latin writer and compiler of encyclopedias, has been known as the “Cicero of medicine”. Celsus spread a lot of Greek scientific knowledge in beautiful Latin, published a treatise on medicine in a popular and concise way. Celsus published a book called De Medicina, which opened the history of modern pathology. This book had strong practicability and made a clear distinction between food therapy, drug therapy and surgery, which had a systematic influence on the development of western medicine. Celsus put forword primary prevention and held the view of that diet was the definitive treatment. He also discussed the empiricism and rationalism of medicine, which focused on individualized treatment to achieve the best results.
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Hippocrates (460-370 BC) is a famous doctor in ancient Greece and the founder of Western medicine. He is a “landmark” in the long history of human medicine and is considered as the first epidemiologist in history. He created the “Four Body Fluids” theory of medicine, freeing human medicine from theology and entering the natural medical model; His hard work on Airs, Waters, and Places, laid the epidemiological ideological foundation for more than 2 000 years; He was praised for his noble medical ethics, and his “Hippocrates Oath” has been extolled to today; he and his disciples have integrated the masterpiece “Hippocrates Collection” and passed on a generation of doctors. Therefore, Hippocrates is now known as the western “father of medicine”.
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Philippe Pinel (1745-1826) was a well-known French doctor and an outstanding mental health leader. Inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment, he adopted “moral therapy” for the increasing mental patients in France. He took the lead in scientifically and effectively alleviating the current state of mental illness with the concept of humanitarian care, liberated mental patients, and opened the door for the mental health. Through field observation and meticulous statistical analysis, he classified mental illness into a more comprehensive scientific classification, guiding the direction for identifying, treating, and preventing mental illness, thus laying the theoretical and practical foundation. Many of his achievements about mental health have been used to this day, and he was known as the father of modern psychiatry.
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Edward Jarvis (1803-1884) was a famous clinician of Harvard Medical School, excellent social statistician and outstanding public health leader. He applied social statistics to improve the American census system, changed the status of mental illness in America, and pioneered family group psychotherapy. Jarvis attached great importance to disease prevention, advocated prevention and treatment of diseases from the perspective of disease prevention, strengthen health construction, and promoted the development of public health in America.
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Su Teh Lung(1906-1985), a famous public health scientist, medical educator and thinker, one of the founders of epidemiology in China. Through scientific experiments and field investigations, he first clarified the distribution law of Oncomelania hupensis comprehensively and proposed the method of eliminating Oncomelania hupensis, and his work has made outstanding contributions to the study of the causes and prevention of schistosomiasis in China. He advocated a comprehensive research of every link of epidemiological process with ecological research, attached importance to statistical methods and logical thinking, went deep into the field, combined with reality, and created theoretical system of epidemiology in China. He advocated truth, seek truth from facts, devoted all his life to the practice and research of epidemic prevention and control, which has a far-reaching impact on the development of preventive medicine in China and the world.
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The article is a brief biography of Prof. and Dr. Guangqing He (Dr. Eutrope A. Ho or Dr. Kuan-Ching Ho), in particular, focusing on his contributions to education and research in epidemiology and medicine after foundation of the People’s Republic of China. It also introduces the history of Peking Union Medical College and its influence on development of epidemiology and public health in China.
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Wu Lien Teh (1879-1960), a world-renowned health and epidemic prevention expert, was a pioneer in public health and medical education in China. With his scientific ideas and methods, he extinguished the plague epidemic in northeast China which shocked the world at the beginning of the 20th century. He proposed and enriched the theory of pneumonic plague, and his work marked a milestone in the world’s plague prevention and treatment. He established a scientific health and epidemic prevention system in China, promoted the reform of medical education, established modern medical institutes and hospitals, founded the Chinese Medical Association, helped reclaim the right of port quarantine, strengthened the anti-opium campaign, and promoted cultural exchanges between Chinese and western medicine. He was knowledgeable and far-sighted, and committed to the practice and research of infectious disease prevention and treatment, promoting the development of China’s public health, which has a far-reaching impact on China and the world.
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Siméon Denis Poisson (1781-1840) was a famous French mathematician, physicist and founder of statistical theory. He established the Poisson distribution model through the criminal trial cases and solved many random phenomena in natural science and social science. He also introduced birth statistics, Poisson's inference theory, Laplace's theorem and error theory, law of large numbers and judgment probability and other related theories. Poisson promoted the development of probability theory in the 19th century and opened up a new trend of physics from experimental research to theoretical research.