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Herbal medicine is the earliest scientific tradition in medical practice, and it remains an important part of medicine to this day in a line descending directly from those distant beginnings. The early physicians stumbled upon herbal substances of real power, without understanding how it actually works.
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Surgical intervention in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull, exposing the dura mater to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases or release pressured blood buildup from an injury. It may also refer to any "burr" hole created through other body surfaces, including nail beds. It is often used to relieve pressure beneath a surface. A trephine is an instrument used for cutting out a round piece of skull bone.
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A witch doctor might consult the gods ,sometimes while in a trance, to discover which spirit or mortal was casting the spell. If the patient's soul were lost, it may have wandered to some remote spot or inhabited someone else. Various means of divination were used: casting of bones, observing the reactions of animals to poison, moving beads to the chanted names of likely suspects.
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Since illness among primitive peoples was caused by gods, spirits, and magic, the purpose of diagnosis was to determine the offense committed and the person or spirit administering the punishment.
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If a patient ground their teeth, the healer might suspect that the ghost of a deceased family member was trying to contact them as they slept. According to ancient necrotic texts, the doctor would recommend sleeping by a human skull for a week as a way of exorcising the spirit. To ensure this disturbing treatment worked, the tooth-grinder was also instructed to kiss and lick the skull seven times each night.
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The withdrawal of blood from a patient to cure or prevent illness and disease. Bloodletting was based on an ancient system of medicine in which blood and other bodily fluids were regarded as "humours" that had to remain in proper balance to maintain health.
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The treatments in these texts are often organized into groups. The Edwin Smith Papyrus opens with eight texts concerning head wounds, followed by nineteen treatments of wounds to the face (forehead, eyebrows, nose, cheeks, temples, mouth, chin), six descriptions of how to deal with injuries to throat and neck, five dealing with collar-bones and arms, and seven with chest complaints.
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Leprosy, caused by bacteria similar to the tubercle bacillus, is badly documented and was apparently relatively rare, possibly because of an immunity TB sufferers acquired. Some think that leprosy originated in Egypt and spread to the Levant and Europe along the migration and trade routes, others contend that there is no proof of its existence in ancient times.
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Herbs played a major part in Egyptian medicine. The plant medicines mentioned in the Ebers papyrus for instance include opium, cannabis, myrrh, frankincense, fennel, cassia, senna, thyme, henna, juniper, aloe, linseed and castor oil - though some of the translations are less than certain. Cloves of garlic have been found in Egyptian burial sites, including the tomb of Tutankhamen and in the sacred underground temple of the bulls at Saqqara.
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The Egyptian priest-physician had a number of important functions. First, to discover the nature of the particular entity possessing the person and then attack, drive it out, or otherwise destroy it. This was done by some powerful magic for which rituals, spells, incantations, talismans and amulets were used. Sekhmet priests seem also to have been involved in the prevention of plagues, inspection of sacrificial animals and even veterinary medicine.
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Acupuncture is a family of procedures involving the stimulation of specific points on the body using a variety of techniques. The acupuncture technique that has been most often studied scientifically involves penetrating the skin with thin, solid, metal needles that are manipulated by the hands or by electrical stimulation.
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The Yin and the Yang is the concept of putting your shady side and your sunny side together in one healthy circle of life. The ancient Chinese believed if one side or the other was off balance, you would get sick. Part of Taoist teaching is how to keep your yin and yang in balance for good health and happiness.
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In the larger cities, governments constructed sewage systems for better hygiene. Women were encouraged, and sometimes rewarded, for regular house cleaning. People were taught not to drink contaminated water, and whenever possible, to boil water before drinking or using to cook food. People were taught proper storage of food items to avoid contamination.
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Books on medicines and good health were written. They had developed strong medical ethics to discourage anyone from practicing medicine without proper knowledge. Most importantly, they began to share knowledge with each other. No longer was medicine a secret science in ancient China, passed on from father to son. Students could learn medical skills.
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Indian medicine penetrated into the Chinese world between the 4th and 8th centuries. Ayurveda greatly influenced traditional Chinese medicine during its formation. Acupuncture may have origin in ancient India. Indian medical knowledge of internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, ophthalmology, Otorhinolaryngology and dentistry was brought in China.
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As there were no professional qualifications for medical practitioners then anyone could set themselves up as a doctor and travel around looking for patients on whom to practise what was known as the tekhne of medicine (or art, albeit a mysterious one). The Spartans did, though, have specific personnel responsible for medical care in their professional army
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The distinction between the spiritual and physical worlds are often blurred in Greek medicine, for example, the god Asclepius was considered a dispenser of healing but also a highly skilled practical doctor. The god was called upon by patients at his various sanctuaries to give the patient advice through dreams which the site practitioners could then act upon.
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At that time, everybody thought that natural matter was made of four basic elements - earth, water, air and fire. It was not long that this theory gave them the idea that the human body consisted of the four humors, and that keeping those humors in balance was essential for good health. This theory survived for nearly 2,000 years. The four humors are: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile.
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This medical age was molded by the contributions of minds such as Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen, who rejected the ancient notion of divine intervention on physical health and instead looked to biology. Not only did contributions from these and other figures help forward medical treatment, but also the general understanding of the human body, allowing for more feasible healthcare as Greek history progressed.
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Alcmaeon of Croton is considered as one of the most eminent medical theorists and philosophers in ancient history. Some believe he was a student of Pythagoras. He wrote widely on medicine; however, some historians say he was probably a philosopher of science, and perhaps not a physician. As far as we know, he was the first person to wonder about the possible internal causes of illness. He put forward the idea that illness may be caused by environmental problems, nutrition and lifestyle.
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The Romans learned a great deal from the Ancient Greeks. They first came into contact with the Greeks. They used the ideas of the Greeks but they did not simply copy them. Greek ideas they found impractical they ignored and it seems that the Romans were more keen on things that would lead to the direct improvement of the quality of life of the people in their huge empire.
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Cures painful urination; expels menstrual flow; stops bowel discharge; brings out breast milk; breaks kidney and urinary stones
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Galen of Pergamon was a prominent Greek physician, whose theories dominated Western medical science for well over a millennium. By the age of 20, he had served for four years in the local temple as a therapeutes ("attendant" or "associate") of the god Asclepius. Although Galen studied the human body, dissection of human corpses was against Roman law, so instead he used pigs, apes, and other animals.
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Could be made of either steel or bronze. Ancient scalpels had almost the same form and function as those of today. The most usual type of scalpels were the longer, steel scalpels. These could be used to make a variety of incisions, but they seem to be particularly suited for deep or long cuts. Smaller, bronze scalpels, referred to as bellied scalpels, were also used frequently since the shape allowed delicate and precise cuts to be made.
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A physician's overall goal was to help those afflicted by disease or injury as best as they could; the physician's credibility rested on their successful cures. Of course they could not reliably cure ailments; sometimes the best they could hope for was that their treatments did not worsen their patients' problems. Many physicians were criticized by their peers for their inability to cure an apparently simple illness.
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Some of the most forward-thinking science in the Dark Ages was actually going on in monasteries, where monks trying to understand all of God's works, including the mysteries of the body, toiled with healing methods. Caring for the sick, regardless of the motivation, is an important measure of what's going on in a culture
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Kids also caught measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox. Most children recovered from these colds and illnesses on their own, especially if somebody took good care of them while they were sick. Smallpox killed more people. Europeans knew that people caught measles and smallpox and tuberculosis from other people, so they began to try to quarantine sick people .
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Most medicines were derived from plants. Herbalists would use different seeds, bulbs, fresh or dried leaves, and other plant parts to come up with concoctions meant to treat different ailments. In many cases, they would prescribe medicine based on the shape of the plant they were using; a heart-shaped leaf would be used to treat a suspected heart problem, for example.
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Blood letting was a popular treatment for many diseases. Many diseases were thought to be caused by an excess of blood in the body and blood letting was seen as the obvious cure. When a large quantity of blood was required, the appropriate vein was cut. If only a small amount was needed, a leech would be used.
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Treatment of the sick in the Dark Ages is poorly understood today, because none of it was governed by law or written down. Lepers, usually depicted in film as isolated and ostracized, were often given splendid burials, she noted. Elaborate burials for adults with Down Syndrome have also been found, indicating that they were taken care of past their life expectancy.
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An area of medical concern was how to treat wounds, ruptures and lesions, in which the surgeon specialized. One illustrated treatise demonstrates a procedure for a skull fracture, which is accompanied by a narrative of Christ's life. Although it is impossible to determine the success rate of such interventions, the survival of medieval skulls with bone that has knitted together after the treatment of an injury demonstrates that even traumatic head wounds were not always fatal.
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The sick might also have turned to the occult: the dividing line between magic and medicine is not always obvious in medieval sources, and many medical practitioners used occult knowledge to heal the sick either by natural means (using, for example, herbs to treat or prevent illness or ward off danger) or using demonic magic, which attempted to use diabolical forces to intervene with human affairs.
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In medieval Europe, medicine generally operated within the context of the Christian Church. Hospitals which cared for the elderly and the ill were often run by religious orders, which could maintain infirmaries for their own members and operate hospitals for others. Where professional medicine could not help, the faithful often turned to saints, and visited saints' shrines in the hope of miraculous cures.
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Dentatores were the dentists of the medieval era and were so expensive that usually only the very rich could afford their services. They removed decay, which was believed to be caused by worms, and filled teeth with ground bone. Gold was used for filling cavities by the fifteenth century. They repaired loose teeth with metal bindings and made dentures from ox and other animal bones.
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Practitioners of popular healing varied widely from place to place within Europe. In some areas the healers were mostly women; in other they were predominantly men. In some places the secrets of healing were passed only from woman to woman or from men to men, but in other regions the gender alternated with each transmission. In some places healers were thought to possess inherited skills.
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Lithotomists toured the country removing bladder stones through incisions in the perineum without any form of anesthesia (pictured). Lithotomists of this era included Thomas Hollier who, in 1662, operated on the diarist Samuel Pepys to remove his stone. Pepys was one of the lucky ones - few patients survived this procedure and those that did often suffered from incontinence due to sphincter damage and/or a urinary fistula.
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The rise of atomism was of utmost importance to the development of science, and consequently of medicine. The concept had its origins in antiquity and was first fully developed by Democritus of Abdera and Leucippus of Miletus. The differences in physical objects were due to the shape, arrangement, and motion of atoms, which were infinite in number and dispersed throughout an infinite void.
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The explanation in medicine of phenomena as objects in motion resembling machines was iatromechanics, or iatrophysics. Giovanni Alfonso Borelli was the leading iatromechanist of the seventeenth century. Influenced by Galileo, he sought to apply his mechanical principles to medicine. Starting with a simple unit, the muscle, and then expanding his investigation to more complex systems in the body, he finally studied the whole organism.
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In 1592 Galileo constructed a thermometer (probably the first), but it gave only gross indications of temperature changes, had no scale of measurement, and was influenced by atmospheric pressure. Neither he nor his contemporaries appeared to see any medical application for the device. Santorio, however, showed a great interest in measuring body heat and devised ingenious but cumbersome thermometric instruments.
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Surgery in the 17th century was still fairly crude. Barber-surgeons treated wounds and performed amputations without anesthetic, using instruments which had not been washed since they had last been used - washing iron instruments, of course, encouraged them to rust. Bleeding was stopped by cauterization with a hot iron. Skull trephining (drilling a hole through the bone) was still performed to improve the "blood-brain balance".
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William Harvey was an English medical doctor-physicist, known for his contributions in heart and blood movement. William Harvey fully believed all medical knowledge should be universal, and he made this his works goal. Accomplished historians credit him for his boldness in his experimental work and his everlasting eagerness to implement modern practice. He is credited as the first person in the Western world to give quantitative arguments for the circulation of blood around the body.
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The main change in Renaissance medicine was largely due to the increase in anatomical knowledge, aided by an easing of the legal and cultural restrictions on dissecting cadavers. This allowed doctors to gain a much better understanding of the human body and get rid of techniques that harmed rather than cured, such as blood letting, the process of draining blood from a vein to ‘rebalance’ the humors.
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Alongside this improved understanding of how the body worked, physicians developed better cures, built upon observation rather than archaic theory. Adding to the herbs and cures often used by the Islamic physicians, explores to the New World and Asia brought back other cures, such as Quinine, from the bark of the Quina tree, a preparation still used in the treatment of malaria and its symptoms. Laudanum, based on opium, started to flood into Europe, as a painkiller.
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The other main change in European healthcare was the establishment of hospitals, although these were often the preserve of the wealthy. Surgical procedures improved and survival from even simple procedures increased. By the fifteenth century, Florence had 35 hospitals, a pattern followed elsewhere in Europe, where donations from the public and private donations helped in the establishment of many other hospitals.
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Paracelsus was one of the prime movers in the shift away from superstition and dogma in medicine, causing Renaissance physicians to rethink how they approached illness. Born in 1493, in Einsiedeln, Switzerland, he initially enrolled at the University of Basel at the age of 16, to study medicine. He soon became disillusioned with the established practices and traveled across Europe, studying and working, eventually becoming an army surgeon in Italy.
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In the nineteenth century many substances were used as medicines, some of which are now known to be harmful over the long term, such as mercury and lead. "Patent medicines", like these Cocaine Toothache Drops, were very popular and required no prescription; they were indeed "For sale by all druggists."
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In the 20th century, ongoing research concentrated on the nature of infectious diseases and their means of transmission. Increasing numbers of pathogenic organisms were discovered and classified. Some, which cause diseases like typhus, are smaller than bacteria; some are larger, such as the protozoans that engender malaria and other tropical diseases. The smallest to be identified were the viruses, producers of many diseases, among them mumps, measles, German measles, and polio.
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By the beginning of the 19th century, the structure of the human body was almost fully known, due to new methods of microscopy and of injections. Even the body’s microscopic structure was understood. But as important as anatomical knowledge was an understanding of physiological processes, which were rapidly being elucidated, especially in Germany. There, physiology became established as a distinct science.
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In France the most brilliant physiologist of the time was Claude Bernard, whose many important discoveries were the outcome of carefully planned experiments. His researches clarified the role of the pancreas in digestion, revealed the presence of glycogen in the liver, and explained how the contraction and expansion of the blood vessels are controlled by vasomotor nerves.
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A dramatic episode in medical history occurred in 1928, when Alexander Fleming noticed the inhibitory action of a stray mold on a plate culture of staphylococcus bacteria in his laboratory at St. Mary’s Hospital, London. Many other bacteriologists must have made the observation, but none had realized the possible implications. The mold was a strain of Penicillium, which gave its name to the now-famous drug penicillin.
