Part 1: Primitive Medicine:
Egypt, Mesopotamia, Hebrew medicine, Persia, India, and China.
EGYPTIAN MEDICINE (3500 B.C.):
• Sources: Papyri in hieroglyphics
• Connection between medicine, religion, and magic
• Knowledge of “pathology, surgery, and pharmacology”
• Prohibition of research in the human body
• Mummification: immortality of the soul - reincarnation.
Diseases: consumption of contaminated food and water, eye diseases, hardening
of the arteries, infectious diseases, gonorrhea, pneumonias, appendicitis….
Diagnosis: information from the patient, palpation of the wound, examination
of urine, feces, and saliva.
• Treatment: invocations, enchantments, talismans(charms).
Intervention for treatment only when there are chances of healing.
Medicaments: Make you throw up. Plants and minerals in various forms:
• Pills, drops, repositories, gargles, fumigations, baths.
• Mainly use of vomitives and evacuants. Get the devil out.
Three categories of healers:
• Doctors: pathology, administration of medicaments for internal and external
use
• Surgeons: healing wounds, fractures, and other injuries
• Exorcists: medicine with enchantments, invocations, and magic acts.
Source of information:
-Medical papyrus
-Mummy of priest Amen (1000 B.C.).
MESOPOTAMIAN MEDICINE (2300 B.C.):
Sources:
• Clay tablets
Characterization: magic-religious medicine. Liver divination.
Illness: god-sent punishment. Spirits are responsible for each disease.
Medicaments:
,• Herbs+Animals: used mainly for nauseating the evil spirit and abandon
the patient- make them throw up.
Therapeutic means:
• Blowing medicaments in the nose, ear, intestine through a pipe
• Smoke inhalation
Three types of healers:
• Augurs: Interpret omens. Examine animal organs(liver).
• Magicians: Evict evil spirits with enchantments
• Doctors: Surgery and administration of medicaments
Hammurabi Code- The earliest known medical written work (1700 B.C.), the
Collection of empiric rules.
-Eye for an eye policy. If the doctor made a mistake and the patient lost a limb,
the doctor was punished by losing a limb.
Babylonian model of lamp liver, where each part of the model corresponds to
a body part. Used for training of apprentices in medicine.
Trephination is the surgical procedure in which a hole is created in the skull by
the removal of a circular piece of bone, while trepanation is the opening
created by this procedure. Thought to be a treatment for various ailments, such
as head injuries, and was a practice that was used to pull evil spirits from the
body in rituals.
Part 2: Primitive Medicine: Medicine in Homeric poems, Medicine in
mythology, Asclepius:
Hebrew Medicine:
• Religion: Supernatural or divine agency in human affairs.
• Magic is left behind. Prohibition of magic.
• Causes of disease: demons, God’s rage.
• Therapeutic means: prayers, sacrifices, medicaments similar to Egyptian.
Common practices: Venesection, C-section, trepanation, circumcision.
Venesection: Releasing blood by making a puncture in a vein.
, Hebrew Cabala is used for healing purposes.
PERSIAN MEDICINE:
• Code with educational obligations, tuition fees, penalties for malpractice.
INDIAN MEDICINE:
• Sources: Sacred Indian books (Vedas) in Sanskritic (1500-800B.C.).
Description of how to perform sacrifices and magic acts. Vedas had medical
content.
• Magic-religious medicine. Causes of diseases: demonic effects.
• After 800 B.C. medicine becomes more “scientific”.
CHINESE MEDICINE
• The world is made from Yin and Yang. The emphasis on disease prevention.
HOMERIC MEDICINE: Medicine in the times of Homer.
Theocratic:
- rage of gods- provocation of illnesses
-gods also heal- rituals for their propitiation.
Was homer a doctor? There are injuries and medicine techniques mentioned in
Homeric poems. No proof, we don’t know.
Medicaments = plants and baths, Prevention with diet /exercise/baths.
Greek Mythology Gods and Heroes with medical knowledge:
• Asclepius was the God of medicine. The children of Asclepius- “fine
healers”.
• Achilles: pupil of Centaur Cheiron( Cheiron used therapeutic plants).
Gods-healers
-Paeion: doctor of the gods.
-Artemis: Cured blindness, protected pregnant women and infants.
Asklepius:
-Son of Apollo. Father of Machaon and Podaleirius. Student of Centaur
Cheiron.
-Cured with medicaments / surgery / incantations.
-Practice of medicine always with a fee
-Always keeps rod with a snake coiling up.
Rod = supports and allows wandering doctors to rest
Snake = symbol of rejuvenation and rebirth(maybe after a healing)
Worshiped in the Asklepieia.
Egypt, Mesopotamia, Hebrew medicine, Persia, India, and China.
EGYPTIAN MEDICINE (3500 B.C.):
• Sources: Papyri in hieroglyphics
• Connection between medicine, religion, and magic
• Knowledge of “pathology, surgery, and pharmacology”
• Prohibition of research in the human body
• Mummification: immortality of the soul - reincarnation.
Diseases: consumption of contaminated food and water, eye diseases, hardening
of the arteries, infectious diseases, gonorrhea, pneumonias, appendicitis….
Diagnosis: information from the patient, palpation of the wound, examination
of urine, feces, and saliva.
• Treatment: invocations, enchantments, talismans(charms).
Intervention for treatment only when there are chances of healing.
Medicaments: Make you throw up. Plants and minerals in various forms:
• Pills, drops, repositories, gargles, fumigations, baths.
• Mainly use of vomitives and evacuants. Get the devil out.
Three categories of healers:
• Doctors: pathology, administration of medicaments for internal and external
use
• Surgeons: healing wounds, fractures, and other injuries
• Exorcists: medicine with enchantments, invocations, and magic acts.
Source of information:
-Medical papyrus
-Mummy of priest Amen (1000 B.C.).
MESOPOTAMIAN MEDICINE (2300 B.C.):
Sources:
• Clay tablets
Characterization: magic-religious medicine. Liver divination.
Illness: god-sent punishment. Spirits are responsible for each disease.
Medicaments:
,• Herbs+Animals: used mainly for nauseating the evil spirit and abandon
the patient- make them throw up.
Therapeutic means:
• Blowing medicaments in the nose, ear, intestine through a pipe
• Smoke inhalation
Three types of healers:
• Augurs: Interpret omens. Examine animal organs(liver).
• Magicians: Evict evil spirits with enchantments
• Doctors: Surgery and administration of medicaments
Hammurabi Code- The earliest known medical written work (1700 B.C.), the
Collection of empiric rules.
-Eye for an eye policy. If the doctor made a mistake and the patient lost a limb,
the doctor was punished by losing a limb.
Babylonian model of lamp liver, where each part of the model corresponds to
a body part. Used for training of apprentices in medicine.
Trephination is the surgical procedure in which a hole is created in the skull by
the removal of a circular piece of bone, while trepanation is the opening
created by this procedure. Thought to be a treatment for various ailments, such
as head injuries, and was a practice that was used to pull evil spirits from the
body in rituals.
Part 2: Primitive Medicine: Medicine in Homeric poems, Medicine in
mythology, Asclepius:
Hebrew Medicine:
• Religion: Supernatural or divine agency in human affairs.
• Magic is left behind. Prohibition of magic.
• Causes of disease: demons, God’s rage.
• Therapeutic means: prayers, sacrifices, medicaments similar to Egyptian.
Common practices: Venesection, C-section, trepanation, circumcision.
Venesection: Releasing blood by making a puncture in a vein.
, Hebrew Cabala is used for healing purposes.
PERSIAN MEDICINE:
• Code with educational obligations, tuition fees, penalties for malpractice.
INDIAN MEDICINE:
• Sources: Sacred Indian books (Vedas) in Sanskritic (1500-800B.C.).
Description of how to perform sacrifices and magic acts. Vedas had medical
content.
• Magic-religious medicine. Causes of diseases: demonic effects.
• After 800 B.C. medicine becomes more “scientific”.
CHINESE MEDICINE
• The world is made from Yin and Yang. The emphasis on disease prevention.
HOMERIC MEDICINE: Medicine in the times of Homer.
Theocratic:
- rage of gods- provocation of illnesses
-gods also heal- rituals for their propitiation.
Was homer a doctor? There are injuries and medicine techniques mentioned in
Homeric poems. No proof, we don’t know.
Medicaments = plants and baths, Prevention with diet /exercise/baths.
Greek Mythology Gods and Heroes with medical knowledge:
• Asclepius was the God of medicine. The children of Asclepius- “fine
healers”.
• Achilles: pupil of Centaur Cheiron( Cheiron used therapeutic plants).
Gods-healers
-Paeion: doctor of the gods.
-Artemis: Cured blindness, protected pregnant women and infants.
Asklepius:
-Son of Apollo. Father of Machaon and Podaleirius. Student of Centaur
Cheiron.
-Cured with medicaments / surgery / incantations.
-Practice of medicine always with a fee
-Always keeps rod with a snake coiling up.
Rod = supports and allows wandering doctors to rest
Snake = symbol of rejuvenation and rebirth(maybe after a healing)
Worshiped in the Asklepieia.
