History of Medicine

General review of the history of medicinesurviving Greek and Roman texts, preserved in
Herbalismmonasteries and elsewhere.
Search Engine Marketing SpecialistIslamic Medicine
Since 1995 SEO/SEM tools, training, andThe Islamic World rose to primacy in medical
professional "full service" Search Engine Marketingscience with such thinkers as Ibn Sina (Avicenna),
help at very affordable rates.Ibn Nafis and Rhazes. The first generation of
There is no actual record of when the use ofPersian superb physicians were trained at the
plants for medicinal purposes first started,Academy of Gundishapur, where the teaching
although the first generally accepted use of plantshospital was the first invented. The
as healing agents were depicted in the caveComprehensive Book of Medicine (Large
paintings discovered in the Lascaux caves inComprehensive, Hawi or "al-Hawi" or "The
France, which have been Radiocarbon dated toContinence") was written by the Iranian chemist
between 13,000 - 25,000 B.CE. Over time andRhazes (known also as Razi), the "Large
with trial and error, a small base of knowledgeComprehensive" was the most sought after of all
was acquired within early tribal communities. Ashis compositions. The "Kitab fi al-jadari
this knowledge base expanded over thewa-al-hasbah" by Rhazes, with its introduction on
generations, tribal culture developed intomeasles and smallpox was also very influential in
specialized areas. These 'specialized jobs' becameEurope.
what are now known as healers or Shaman.The Mutazilite philosopher and doctor Ibn Sina was
Egyptian Medicineanother influential figure. His The Canon of
Medical information contained in the Edwin SmithMedicine, sometimes considered the most famous
Papyrus date as early as 3,000 B.C. The earliestbook in the history of medicine, remained a
surgery was performed in Egypt around 2,750standard text in Europe up until its Age of
B.C. Imhotep in the 3rd dynasty is credited as theEnlightenment and the renewal of the Islamic
founder of ancient Egyptian medicine and as thetradition of scientific medicine. Ibn Nafis described
original author of the Edwin Smith Papyrus,human blood circulation. This discovery would be
detailing cures, ailment and anatomicalrediscovered or perhaps merely demonstrated,
observations. The Edwin Smith Papyrus isby William Harvey in 1628, who generally receives
regarded as a copy of several earlier works andthe credit in Western history.
was written circa 1,600 B.C as an ancientModern Medicine
textbook on surgery and describes in exquisiteMedicine was revolutionized in the 18th century
detail in the examination, diagnosis, treatment andand beyond by advances in chemistry and
prognosis of numerous ailment.laboratory techniques and equipment, old ideas of
Medical institutions are known to have establishedinfectious disease epidemiology were replaced with
in ancient Egypt since as early as the 1st Dynasty.bacteriology. Ignaz Semmelweis in 1847
By the time of the 19th Dynasty their employeesdramatically reduced the death rate of new
enjoyed such benefits as medical insurance,mothers from childbed fever by the simple
pensions, sick leave and worked eight hours perexperiment of requiring physicians to wash their
day. The earliest known physician is also creditedhands before attending to women in childbirth. His
to ancient Egypt: Hesrye, ìChief of Dentistsdiscovery predated the germ theory of disease.
and Physicianì for King Djoser in the 27thHowever, his discoveries were not appreciated by
century B.C. Also the earliest women physician,his contemporaries and came into use only with
Peseshet, practiced in Ancient Egypt at the timediscoveries of British surgeon Joseph Lister, who
of the 4th dynasty. Her title was ìLadyin 1865 proved the principles of antiseptic.
Overseer of the Lady Physicians.His work is based on the very important
Chinese Medicinediscoveries made by French biologist Louis Pasteur
Chinese also developed a large body of traditionalwho was able to link some microorganisms with
medicine. Much of the philosophy of traditionaldisease. This brought a revolution in medicine. He
Chinese medicine derived from empiricalalso devised one of the most important methods
observations of disease and illness by Taoistin preventive medicine, when in 1880 he produced
physicians and reflects the classical Chinese beliefthe vaccine against rabies. Pasteur also invented
that individual human experiences expressthe process of pasteurization to help prevent the
causative principles effective in the environmentspread of disease through milk and other foods,
at all scales. During the golden age of his reignwhom it's named after. Also Pasteur was an
from 2,696 to 2,598 B.C, as a result of a dialogueindividual worker, an unlike his contemporary
with his minister, Ch'I Pai, the Yellow Emperor isRobert Koch, regardless, Pasteur was a man who
supposed by Chinese tradition to have composedthought laterally and his vaccination for Rabies,
his Neijing Suwen or Basic Questions of Internalwas indeed a milestone, but no one still
Medicine.understood in the 1880s the mechanisms for such
During the Han dynasty, Chang Chung-Ching, whoimmunity.
was mayor of Chang-sha near the end of theThe role of womankind was increasingly founded
second century A.D, wrote a Treatise on Typhoidby the likes of Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth
Fever, which contains the earliest knownGarret, Florence Nightingale, etc. They showed a
reference to Neijing Suwen. The Chin dynastypreviously a male dominated profession, the
practitioner and advocate of acupuncture andelemental role of nursing in lessening the
moxibustion, Huang-fu Mi (215-282 A.D), alsoaggravation of patient mortality, resulting from
quotes the Yellow Emperor in his Chia I Ching, 265lack of hygiene and nutrition. Nightingale, set up
A.D. During the Tang dynasty, Wang Ping claimedthe St Thomas hospital, post-Crimea, in 1852.
to have located a copy of the originals of theRobert Koch is considered one of the founders of
Neijing Suwen, which he expanded and editedbacteriology. He is famous for the discovery of
substancially.the tubercle bacillus (1883) and for his
Early European Medicinedevelopment of Koch's postulates. It was not until
Astrology played a very important part in earlythe 20th century that there was a true
Western medicine; most university-educatedbreakthrough in medicine, with great advances in
physicians were trained in at least the basics ofpharmacology and surgery. For the great war
astrology to use in their practice. As societiesspurred the usage of Rontgen's X-ray and the
developed in Europe and Asia, belief systemselectrocardiograph, for the monitoring of internal
were replaced with a different natural system.bodily problems.
The Greeks, from Hyppocrates, developed aHowever, this was overshadowed by the
humoral medicine system where treatment wasremarkable mass production of penicillium
to restore the balance of humours within theantibiotic, which was a result of government and
body. Ancient Medicine is a treatise on medicine,public pressure. The antibiotic prevented the
written roughly 400 B.C by Hyppocrates.deaths of thousands during the conquest of Vichy
Medieval medicine was an evolving mixture of theFrance in 1944. The 20th century witnessed a
scientific and the spiritual. In the early middle ages,shift from a master-apprentice paradigm of
following the fall off the Roman Empire, standardteaching of clinical medicine to a more
medical knowledge was based chiefly upon"democratic" system of medical schools.