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Otzi lived c. 3300 BCE and his body was found in the Alps in the 20th century with signs of injuries indicative of murder. He was carrying dried mushrooms that potentially had therapeutic use and had tattoos that might have represented an early form of acupuncture. One hypothesis is that he was an early shaman. -
Siddha medicine had mostly legendary origins, with most solid evidence of beginnings in the 16th century. Siddhars believed that a healthy body was necessary to have a healthy soul and practiced meditation, fasting, and controlled breathing.
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The Edwin Smith papyrus was written c. 1550 BCE, but may have been a copy of an earlier Egyptian text. It was the earliest known treatise on surgical trauma, detailing the practice of military surgery. -
The Ebers papyrus was a general medical document composed of a collection of Egyptian medical texts and was one of the earliest known medical works, dated to c. 1500 BCE.
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The Atharvaveda was a Hindu text containing 114 hymns related to the treatment of disease, written in the 1st millennium BCE. It informed the medical practice of Ayurveda and contained charms and incantations to ward off diseases.
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Opium was introduced to the rest of Asia from the Middle East in the 8th century BCE. It was made from the juice of opium poppy and was used medically to treat tension and pain.
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Sushruta was an influential Indian physician living from c. 800-700 BCE. He wrote the Sushruta Samhita, a foundational text of Ayurveda, which is most known for its chapters on surgery.
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The Greek temple to Asclepius at Epidaurus was constructed c. 6th century BCE. Asclepius was the son of Apollo and the god of medicine. Followers would sleep in his healing temples to "incubate" and healing miracles were said to occur.
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Hippocrates was an ancient Greek physician living from c. 460-370 BCE and is widely considered the father of Western medicine. He attacked the idea of sacred disease and considered illness to be rooted in nature. Hippocrates was a proponent of humoral theory and influenced the Rationalist school of thought.
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Herophilus of Chalcedon studied in the intellectual hub of Alexandria during the 3rd century BCE. He contributed greatly to the subject of human anatomy but engaged in taboo practices like human dissection and vivisection. He valued discovery through observation and his pupil founded the Empiricist school of thought.
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The earliest versions of the Compendium of Caraka were written in the 3rd to 2nd centuries BCE. These were a foundational text in Ayurveda and introduced the tri-dosa theory. The Compendium classified diseases and medicines and included an oath about the appropriate behavior of a doctor.
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The Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts were one of the earliest Chinese medical texts, written during the Han dynasty. It contains the biography of the physician Chunyu Yi and examples of diagnosis based on palpation. The word "qi" (vital energy) is also mentioned in reference to medical practice, which is central to Taoist beliefs. -
The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor was written c. 1st century BCE, most likely after the Mawangdui Manuscripts. They incorporated yin-yang philosophy, the elements, and ideas of politics/order into its medical philosophy.
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Galen (129-216 CE) was a philosopher-physician from the Second Sophistic of Rome. He challenged medical rivals in grand public displays of knowledge that were recorded in text. Galen believed that medicine was of intellectual importance to educated people and built greatly upon Greek predecessors like Hippocrates.
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The first bimaristans were set up by Rufaidah al-Asalmia in the 6th century CE as tents associated with the military. Later on, more sophisticated buildings would be constructed for the sick, poor and injured, acting as early hospitals.
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Rhazes (865-923 CE) was an Islamic physician and scholar who directed hospitals in Rayy and Baghdad. He wrote the 10-part Kitāb al-Mansuri, a classical text on Islamic medicine, and the Kitāb al-Hāwī, a case book on pathology and therapy. Rhazes was a follower of Galen and Hippocrates but also challenged some beliefs of Galenism in Kitab al-Shukuk ala Jalinus.
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The Canon of Medicine was completed by the influential Islamic physician Avicenna in 1025. The massive collection of five books reconciles the differences between Aristotelian and Galenic beliefs, distinguishes medical theory from practice, and describes anatomy and physiology.
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The Chinese imperial pharmacy service was established in 1076 under the reformist Song dynasty, which produced an official guide for pharmacology. It correlated medicine and philosophy regarding yin-yang and the five phases.
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In European cities during the 11th and 12th centuries CE, guilds and universities began to form. This split the medical profession into barber-surgeons, apothecaries, and university-educated physicians.
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The Black Death first appeared in the summer of 1348 following a decade of disasters in Italy, quickly devastating the continent of Europe. Measures like quarantine were developed to combat it, and modern understanding suggests that the plague took on bubonic and pneumonic forms. Smaller regional outbreaks continued in later years as well.
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Paracelsus (1493-1541 CE) was a Swiss-German physician who sought to understand medicine in terms of chemistry during the Renaissance. He placed emphasis on treatment of sick people rather than dietetics and applied alchemy to develop new drugs.
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Sugar was originally used by apothecaries to conceal the bitter taste of medicine, but eventually saw broader use and greater demand. The surgeon Gonzalo de Vellosa first cultivated sugar in the Canary Islands in 1515 CE, marking the beginning of centuries of plantation farming and racialized slavery to support this cash crop. -
The first smallpox outbreak broke out in Mexico in 1520 CE following introduction to the native people from the Spanish Narvaez expedition. It caused death tolls much greater than Europe, estimated to be less than one-half but still extremely substantial.
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Andreas Vesalius (1514-64 CE) was a medical humanist that published the revolutionary work, De fabrica humani corporis, in 1543. This anatomical text explicitly criticized the traditional canon of medicine, challenging fundamental ideas of how the body works. -
In the 16th century CE, the Anglican church and other religious institutions in Europe began to provide formal licenses to midwives proving that they were of "good character" because of the fear of witchcraft. This time period also coincided with apprenticeship for becoming a midwife and the establishment of guilds.
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William Harvey (1578-1657 CE) published the controversial work De motu cordis et sanguinis in 1628, which justified circulation of the blood. This fundamentally challenged Galenism as a physiological system and the therapeutic role of dietetics, since digestion was no longer dominant in physiology. -
Cinchona bark was imported to European people from Peru starting from 1650 CE and taken as an infusion to treat intermittent fevers. The bark became widely popular among the wealthy and was acknowledged as a "specific" therapy, healing fevers for almost any person. -
Frederick Ruysch (1638-1732 CE) was the chief instructor to Amsterdam midwives in 1668. He collected specimens from dead fetuses and preserved them in turpentine with great skill, showcasing anatomy and the "wonder of nature".
