Post by Lady Aislin Creed of Eohmark on Jun 6, 2008 13:12:08 GMT -6
The History of Medicine
Ancient Times
Many cultures in ancient times treated illnesses with magic and herbal remedies. People believed that the supernatural powers of a shaman (sha-man), also known as a medicine man or witch doctor, healed the sick. Ancient Egyptians thought that their gods healed them. They also treated illnesses with herbal medicines and performed surgeries with metal instruments. Historians believe that Egyptians learned how diseases affected the human body when they performed burial rituals. When people died, they prepared them for the afterlife in a process called mummification. Before the body was wrapped in cloths, they removed organs and placed them in clay jars for preservation.
The ancient Greeks pursued medicine as a science. Hippocrates, the most famous physician of the time (c. 400 B.C.), believed that diseases had natural causes, not supernatural ones. He wrote that a proper diet and exercise affected the human body. Today, doctors still follow his advice to observe patients and use the facts to treat them.
The Romans adopted many Greek philosophies but made their own advancements in public health. They developed sewers to remove human waste from the cities and towns and built systems to provide clean water not only to drink, but for public baths. The baths provided a place to wash, exercise and socialize. Sophisticated hospitals were also built in ancient Rome. They were developed to take care of sick and injured soldiers, which was important to the Roman Empire because it relied on it’s army to conquer new territory.
Dark & Middle Ages
As the Roman Empire ended, Europe fell into the Dark Ages. Superstition crept back into beliefs about medicine, and people were taught that diseases were punishment from God. Much of what was learned from the Greeks and Romans was transferred to the new Islamic regions of Northern Africa, the Middle East and Spain. Medical schools and hospitals were built to support the work of Arabic doctors like Rhazes (900 A.D.) who further explored medicine as a science. He was the first doctor to identify the difference between the measles and small pox.
By the Middle Ages, Europe was hit with a terrible epidemic that killed millions of people called the plague, or Black Death. Doctors didn’t know how to treat the plague that came in two deadly forms. The pneumonic plague was spread in the air from person to person and the bubonic plague was caused by bites from infected fleas. The fleas bit rats and then bit humans causing the disease to spread quickly in dirty cities. There were very few medical advances made during this period in history.
The Renaissance
The Renaissance marked a new period of interest in art and science throughout Europe. People were curious about how the human body worked so they dissected dead bodies. This new study of the human anatomy contradicted earlier theories and brought about a more scientific approach to medicine. For hundreds of years, people thought that the heart made blood from food and drink, and the body absorbed it. An English doctor named William Harvey showed that the heart recycles blood and acts as a pump to circulate it throughout the body.
Despite new medical discoveries, many doctors still practiced old ways. Most sick people could not afford to see a trained physician. Instead, they consulted midwives who assisted with childbirths and made herbal remedies to treat illnesses. Minor surgeries were not done in the hospital but at the local barbershop. Barber-surgeons used the same sharp instruments to cut hair as they did to lance boils, remove warts, extract teeth, and blood-let. Blood-letting is the ancient practice of draining blood out of a person to rid the body of poisons.
