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History - Medicine through Time > Ancient Greek medicine > Flashcards

Ancient Greek medicine Flashcards

1
Q

Where did the Greeks live?

A

Around the Mediterranean

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2
Q

Where were the borders of Greece in those days?

A

Borders are a modern idea, the Ancient Greeks means people who were part of the culture, not necessarily living where modern Greece is.

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3
Q

What was the Ancient Greek approach to medicine?

A

They had a supernatural approach. Some medicine was based on the gods, some on logical philosophy

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4
Q

How was ancient Greece organised?

A

Independent city states around the shores of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

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5
Q

What does Medi-terra-nean actually mean?

A

Centre of the world - Terra being earth, Medi being centre (as in Median)

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6
Q

When was Greek culture flourishing?

A

700BC-300BC

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7
Q

What other civilisations influenced the Greek view of medicine?

A

Certainly Ancient Egypt

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8
Q

What was the Greek spiritual world like?

A

Many gods, who did the most awful things (like eat their own children).

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9
Q

What was central to the Greeks culture?

A

Debating.

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10
Q

Why was Socrates killed?

A

His enemies charged him with “corrupting the young”.

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11
Q

Who was Asclepius?

A

The Greek god of healing.

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12
Q

Who was the Greek god of healing?

A

Asclepius.

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13
Q

What were the temples of Asclepius called?

A

Asclepions

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14
Q

When did people go to Asclepions?

A

When they were ill

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15
Q

When was the cult of Asclepius at its peak?

A

5th and 4th centuries BC

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16
Q

What happened at the temple of Asclepius?

A

Ceremonial washing in the sea; making a sacrifice to the god; sleeping in the abaton

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17
Q

What was the abaton?

A

The building that visitors to the temple of Asclepius slept in.

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18
Q

What was an abaton like?

A

It had a roof, but no walls.

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19
Q

Why did the abaton not have walls?

A

This allowed the god to visit the visitors in their dream and cure them

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20
Q

What did the priests of Asclepius do?

A

They went round the visitors (an early ward round) administering ointments and performing rituals.

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21
Q

What animal was sacred to Asclepius?

A

The snake

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22
Q

What animal was involved in the rituals at an Asclepion?

A

The snake

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23
Q

What effect has the cult of Asclepius had on modern medical organisations?

A

The snake is still used as a symbol of the doctor.

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24
Q

How did the priests of Asclepius “advertise”?

A

Success stories were recorded on the walls of Asclepions.

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25
Q

Who were Asclepius’ daughters?

A

Hygeia and Panacea

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26
Q

Where does the word hygiene come from?

A

Asclepius’ daughter, Hygeia

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27
Q

Where does the word panacea come from?

A

Asclepius daughter, Panacea

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28
Q

What does the word panacea mean?

A

A cure for all ills.

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29
Q

What was the role of women in Ancient Greek medicine?

A

They were permitted to be doctors.

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30
Q

How did Greek philosophers attempt to explain the world?

A

They tried to be rational

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31
Q

How did the Greek philosophers attempt to affect human behaviour?

A

They devised logical codes of conduct.

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32
Q

How did people view philosophers?

A

They attracted bands of followers, eg the brotherhood of Pythagorus. These followers (devotees) would argue (debate) with other philosophers.

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33
Q

Who thought that water was the basis of life?

A

Thales of Miletus (c 580BC)

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34
Q

Who thought that all things were made of 4 element?

A

Anaximander (c 560BC)

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35
Q

What were the four elements?

A

Earth, Air, Water, Fire

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36
Q

What did Pythagorus believe about life?

A

Life is about the balance of opposites. (Think of Yin and Yang in modern Eastern medicine)

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37
Q

Who is the founding father of modern medicine?

A

Hippocrates

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38
Q

When was Hippocrates alive?

A

c460-c 377BC

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39
Q

Where was Hippocrates born?

A

Kos

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40
Q

Where did Hippocrates die?

A

Larissa

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41
Q

Where is Hippocrates known to have taught?

A

Kos

42
Q

What is known about Hippocrates, other than places of birth/death?

A

He travelled a bit, taught at Kos school of medicine otherwise very little is known

43
Q

Why is Hippocrates important?

A

The Hippocratic oath, and the Hippocratic corpus

44
Q

What is the Hippocratic oath?

A

A promise made by doctors to follow a certain set of rules of behaviour in their professional lives.

45
Q

What is still based on the Hippocratic oath?

A

Medical ethics

46
Q

What is the Hippocratic corpus?

A

A collection of medical books

47
Q

Who wrote the books in the Hippocratic corpus?

A

Hippocrates and/or his followers may have written some.

48
Q

What is the Hippocratic Corpus believed to be the remnant of?

A

The library of the Kos school of medicine.

49
Q

How did Hippocrates see the healthy body?

A

It was in balance.

50
Q

How did Hippocrates see illness?

A

It was an imbalance of the elements in the human body

51
Q

What is the significance of the book “Airs, Waters and Places” from the Hippocratic corpus?

A

It looked for environmental causes of disease, not gods or spirits

52
Q

What is the significance of the books “Prognostic”, “Coan Prognostic” and “Aphorisms”?

A

They improved on Egyptian ideas of diagnosis; suggested that a doctor could learn to predict the course of a disease by studying enough cases.

53
Q

What else did the books “Prognostic”, “Coan Prognostic” and “Aphorisms” encourage?

A

They encouraged the four step clinical method of observation - diagnosis, prognosis, observation, treatement

54
Q

What did the books “Prognostic”, “Coan Prognostic” and “Aphorisms” say about when to take action?

A

They suggested that no action should be taken before a reliable diagnosis was made. They also suggested leaving illnesses to run their course - minimum intervention.

55
Q

What did the Greeks feel was key to being healthy?

A

Healthy living.

56
Q

How do we know about Greek ideas on healthy living?

A

Two books from the Hippocratic Campus - “A regimen for health” and “Regimen in acute diseases”

57
Q

What were Greek ideas on healthy living?

A

Exercise; hygiene; diet ; sleep

58
Q

How did the Greeks exercise to keep healthy?

A

They spent a lot of time in the gymnasium, a public area part devoted to sport an physical training.

59
Q

What did the Greeks do for hygiene?

A

Washing - skin, hair, teeth had to be kept clean. Athens had clean water piped in, but most cities did not.

60
Q

What was the Greek healthy diet?

A

“A regimen for health” suggested eating as much a possible in winter while drinking little, while in the summer it was necessary to eat less and drink more.

61
Q

What were Greek ideas on sleep?

A

“A regimen for health” prescribes the amount of sleep and exercise required by people, depending on whether they have digestive problems.

62
Q

When was Aristotle around?

A

384-322BC

63
Q

How did Aristotle develop the ideas of Hippocrates?

A

He suggested that the body was made up of 4 humours (fluids)

64
Q

What were the 4 humours of Aristotle?

A

blood; phlegm (posh word for mucus); black bile; yellow bile

65
Q

What were the humours linked to?

A

The 4 elements, and the 4 seasons.

66
Q

How do you spell Hippocrates?

A

Think of the Hippo sitting in a Crate (S)

67
Q

What did the humours need to be for good health?

A

Balanced.

68
Q

Why did Aristotle link water, winter and phlegm?

A

We get more colds in winter, when it rains more, and he believed that the phlegm caused the illness, it was not realised that it was the result of the illness.

69
Q

How did Aristotle’s ideas affect treatments?

A

Treatment was about bringing the humours back into balance,

70
Q

Why did Aristotle’s ideas produce treatments such as blood letting or giving an emetic?

A

The emetic would rid the body of too much bile; blood letting let out excess blood. The humours were therefore brought back into balance.

71
Q

What other treatments were there to bring humours into balance?

A

Foods, drinks, herbs and spices had a humour. eg Someone with a cold would be given chicken, pepper or wine, all considered hot and dry, to correct the imbalance.

72
Q

How does the exam want you to see the history of medicine?

A

A slow development of ideas, people building on previous ideas and changing them.

73
Q

How long were Aristotle’s ideas influential?

A

Right up until the Middle Ages.

74
Q

What city became central to Greek medicine?

A

Alexandria

75
Q

Where was Alexandria?

A

Egypt - but the civilisation was Greek. (ish)

76
Q

Who founded Alexandria?

A

Alexander the Great

77
Q

Who was Alexander the Great’s tutor?

A

Aristotle

78
Q

When was Alexandria founded?

A

331BC

79
Q

What was the role of Alexandria?

A

It was Alexander the Great’s new capital city

80
Q

Why is Alexandria still famous?

A

It had one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world (the lighthouse, also called the pharos); it had the great library.

81
Q

What did the library at Alexandria attempt to do?

A

They plan was to amass all the knowledge of the world.

82
Q

What did the library at Alexandria do that helps us today?

A

They made copies of books and sent them to other libraries.

83
Q

Why were the copies of books made at Alexandria so important?

A

The library was burned.

84
Q

What was special in Alexandria that helped the study of anatomy?

A

Human dissection was allowed, the body was seen as having served its purpose once the soul had left it.

85
Q

What was the role of condemned criminals in the study of anatomy at Alexandria?

A

vivisection was allowed for a short period.

86
Q

What did Alexandria become from the medical point of view?

A

It was famous for the training of doctors and surgeons.

87
Q

What was the key ingredient of the medical advances made in Alexandria?

A

Accurate observation was seen as key.

88
Q

When was Herophilus around?

A

c335-280BC

89
Q

What did Herophilus do?

A

He compared human and animal anatomy and worked on the nervous system.

90
Q

What did Herophilus think the nervous system was?

A

He thought it carried pneuma, the life force.

91
Q

Who realised that nerves were not hollow?

A

Erasistratus (c250 BC)

92
Q

What was the significance of the discovery that nerves are not hollow?

A

Nerves could not be vessels for fluid, unlike arteries and veins.

93
Q

What happened that slowed the rate of medical progress at Alexandria?

A

The doctors divided into competing intellectual camps, and stopped considering the thoughts and ideas of other camps.

94
Q

What limited the advancement of surgery in Alexandria?

A

Lack of effective anaesthetics and antiseptics.

95
Q

What was the main risk of surgery in Alexandria?

A

Infection and shock.

96
Q

When was surgery used in Alexandria?

A

Only as a last resort.

97
Q

How were broken bones treated in Alexandria?

A

There were good techniques for setting them, and amputation was also possible.

98
Q

What surgical instruments were available in Alexandria?

A

Scalpels, forceps, shears, probes, hooks - all made out of metal

99
Q

Why do we believe that eye operations were carried out?

A

We have some texts.

100
Q

Why were eye operations carried out?

A

Not known, maybe to remove cataracts or foreign objects?

History - Medicine through Time (12 decks)

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