Ancient Greece Flashcards

Question

When did the Greeks used surgery as a treatment?

Answer 1

-As a last resort - most treatments were performed outside the body.

Answer 2

-Good techniques for setting broken bones and in extreme cases, would amputate. A range of surgical equipment was developed, made from iron, steel and brass.

Answer 3

-Iron, Steel and Brass.

Answer 4

-Attitudes - Enquiring - Greek doctors encourages especially by Hippocrates to investigate for themselves in order to develop their understanding. Led to enquiry + debate between doctors. Would carefully record symptoms that their patients had + the treatments that were used to overcome them - enabled refinements to be made to treatments for younger doctors to learn from the more experienced ones. -Attitudes - Religion - helped to improve public health through the building of Asclepia. By 200 BC Asclepia built in every Greek town + led to people visiting them for respite and to be treated. Equipped with temples where people would pray, but also doctors there would offer herbal remedies and undertake simple surgery. Religion was helpful in this way as it provided the means by which people could improve their health through better diet exercise as well as a chance to rest. Government - invest in knowledge + education, especially in the example of Alexandria - founded by Alexander the Great following his conquest of Egypt. Allowed doctors to receive knowledge and hence improve their understanding of illness by reading the works of others. + Dissection was permitted here - led to great advances in anatomical knowledge. Knowledge that was later built on by individuals such as William Harvey was first discovered by Greek doctor Erasistratus + the notion that the brain controlled the body which Galen later demonstrated in his pig experiment. This was all made possible as a result of government investment in centres of learning from which knowledge could be transmitted across the Greek empire. Individual Genius - Hippocrates - created a coherent theory which explained many of the illnesses and their treatments. Hippocrates created a culture of collaboration and enquiry amongst Greek doctors as well as making it a profession through his Oath. Gave doctors a higher status + led to better pay - doctors could afford to spend more time on developing their theories by observing patients and invest in specialised equipment with which to treat them.

Answer 5

- Attitudes - religion - Religious beliefs = strong amongst Greeks, people continued to see the Gods as deciding their fate. Prevented them from friending scientific cures for illnesses, instead prayed to the Gods as a treatment. Represented by strong religious imagery placed across the Asclepia and elaborate stories on the work of his daughters Panacea and Hygiea. + use of votive stones was widespread, indicating the Greeks continued to turn to Greek Gods for treatments, instead of trained doctors. Items that were purchased as offerings to gods meant money was invested in these offerings which could have instead been used to improve research into medical cures by paying doctors. - Individual Genius - Hippocrates - his theory (of the four humours) was the basis of medical understanding for centuries. Once the Christian Church accepted his theory in upcoming centuries, Hippocrates' beliefs became the unshakeable basis for medical theories and the position of the church meant to question Hippocrates' work, meant to question the church, and in turn, God. Therefore, Hippocrates' ideas were largely unchallenged for centuries until the discovery of errors in his work, such as the lack of holes in the septum of the heart and the discovery of germs in the 19th Century. Hippocrates was also unable to remove the link between health and the gods. So overall, Hippocrates as an individual genius actually hindered medical knowledge improvement in a way as it left no room to question him and improve their knowledge further or to correct his work.