Brainscape Medicine PreHistory, Ancient and Islamic Empire

Question 1

These people treated illness in Prehistoric times.

Answer 1

Medicine Man

Question 2

What did prehistoric people believe caused disease?

Answer 2

Bad Sprits

Question 3

What was trephining (aka trepanning)?

Answer 3

Prehistoric surgery - a hole chipped into the skull to release bad spirits

Question 4

Prehistoric people were nomadic. What does that mean?

Answer 4

Nomads do not settle in one place, but follow their food (e.g. herds of animals)

Question 5

Prehistoric people did not keep written records, so how do we know about them?

Answer 5

Archaeological evidence and Aborigines in Australia and Native Americans lived this way until Europeans ‘discovered’ them in the 15th century+

Question 6

Why did Egyptians settle on the Nile around 3400 BC?

Answer 6

There was lots of fertile soil and food was plentiful.

Question 7

How did the Nile help the development of medicine and knowledge of the anatomy?

Answer 7

1. trade of herbal remedies 2. communication of new ideas 3. the flooding of the Nile gave Egyptians an idea of how blood flow in the body worked.

Question 8

The Egyptian government was a hierarchy (pyramid structure). Who was the leader?

Answer 8

Pharaoh

Question 9

The Egyptians had an organised society. How did this help medical treatment?

Answer 9

Priests and doctors emerged. (even specialist doctors like the Pharaoh’s ‘Guardian of the Anus’)

Question 10

What did the Egyptians believe caused disease?

Answer 10

The gods, evil spirits and poor hygiene

Question 11

Who was Imhotep?

Answer 11

The Egyptian god of healing.

Question 12

Egyptians had hieroglyphics (written language). How did this help develop medicine?

Answer 12

The Book of Thoth and the Papyrus Ebers contained spells, potions and instructions for medical procedures.

Question 13

There is evidence that the Egyptians used diagnosis to treat patients. What is this?

Answer 13

Diagnosis is looking at a patient, observing their symptoms and using prior knowledge to decide on their illness.

Question 14

How did mummification help develop knowledge of the anatomy?

Answer 14

Egyptians removed the organs and put them in jars. The body was embalmed and organs preserved for the afterlife. Egyptians knew what the body looked like inside.

Question 15

Mummification did not help understanding of physiology. Why?

Answer 15

Physiology is how the organs work. The organs were being preserved, therefore were not dissected (cut up).

Question 16

What types of herbal treatments did the Egyptians use?

Answer 16

Honey and willow as antiseptics (clean/heal wounds)

Question 17

Give me an example of Egyptian surgery.

Answer 17

Setting an broken nose, removing warts.

Question 18

Give an example of how the Egyptians tried to prevent illness.

Answer 18

Mosquito nets at night (would stop malaria), kohl eyeliner (stopped flies, mild antiseptic), bathed, shaved heads

Question 19

The Ancient Greeks came after the Egyptians, c. 700-300 BC. Who was Asclepios?

Answer 19

The Greek god of healing. Many temples were built in his honour. It was believed that he visited patients in their sleep and cured them with his serpent.

Question 20

Even if you weren’t religious, you may have been healed at an Asclepion. How?

Answer 20

Well fed, rested, washed, visited gymnasium etc.

Question 21

Where did Alexander the Great create a centre of medical knowledge?

Answer 21

Alexandria (named after himself) in Egypt. There were libraries and doctors were able to dissect bodies to look at the anatomy. Many doctors trained here.

Question 22

The Greeks used surgery as a last resort. What types of tools did they develop?

Answer 22

Scalpels, forceps, shears, probes and hooks from steel, iron and brass.

Question 23

The Greeks were famous for philosophers, who was Hippocrates?

Answer 23

The ‘father of modern medicine’. C460-377 BC. Wrote the Hippocratic Oath (a promise doctors still take, to do the best by their patient), wrote the Hippocratic Corpus (books about bringing the body into balance that encouraged diagnosis, observation and treatment).

Question 24

How did the Greeks try to prevent disease?

Answer 24

Recommended a healthy lifestyle (cleanliness, good food, sleep, exercise, cleaning teeth!) Athens even had clean water brought in through clay pipes.

Question 25

Aristotle linked Hippocrates ideas of balance in the body to the four humours. What are these?

Answer 25

The body is made of four liquids; blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. These are linked to the seasons. If you’re ill, one humour is out of balance. Treatments aim to bring back balance in the humours.

Question 26

How did the Greeks influence the Romans (c. 300BC to c500 AD)?

Answer 26

Most early Roman doctors were Greek slaves. They copied the idea of the Asclepion during a plague.

Question 27

How did the famous Roman army encourage the development of surgery and public health?

Answer 27

Romans needed a healthy army, well fed, clean water, hospitals. Doctors had ranks in the army, removed arrows, did surgery (even removing cataracts), amputations

Question 28

What is cauterisation?

Answer 28

Using a red hot iron or boiling oil to seal a wound or amputation. Stopped the bleeding.

Question 29

Rome developed into a big city, how did the organised Roman government encourage public health? (4)

Answer 29

public baths, public toilets, aqueducts, sewers etc.

Question 30

Who was Galen?

Answer 30

A Greek doctor living in the Roman Empire, treated Gladiators and later became physician to the Emperor

Question 31

What were Galen’s ideas about disease?

Answer 31

Galen supported Hippocrates on observation and ethical treatment. He also believed in the four humours and the treatment by opposites.

Question 32

How did Galen contribute to knowledge of the anatomy?

Answer 32

Dissection was illegal in the Roman Empire (except Alexandria) so he studied skeletons in tombs or animals. Some of his ideas were correct (e.g. brain controls the body was proven with his pig experiment) some were incorrect (e.g. that the blood was consumed by the body instead of circulated).

Question 33

Why was Galen followed until the 17th Century? (1500 years?)

Answer 33

Galen wrote lots of books. Many of these survived in the Arabic world after the fall of the Roman empire and were brought back to Europe during the Crusades (12th century). His ideas were copied many times. He did not write about many gods, as most Romans did, so Christians and Muslims supported his ideas.

Question 34

What caused the ‘Dark Ages’ (c410 to c900) in Europe?

Answer 34

Collapse of the Roman Empire

Question 35

How did the Dark Ages affect the development of Medicine and Health in Europe?

Answer 35

Roman ideas were lost, libraries and books burned, public health facilities fell into ruin (e.g. aqueducts), war (e.g. England was invaded by Angles, Saxons, Vikings etc.), less education etc.

Question 36

Why did the Islamic Empires of the Arab world continue to develop during the Dark Ages?

Answer 36

Never controlled by the Romans, therefore not directly affected by collapse. Traded with Roman Empire, so ideas remained when Rome fell.

Question 37

What was an Arabist?

Answer 37

Someone who followed the Arabic schools of medicine. Arabic is a language in the Middle East.

Question 38

What was the capital of the Islamic Empire in the 9th Century?

Answer 38

Baghdad (the capital of Iraq today)

Question 39

Which Arabist wrote detailed accounts about smallpox and measles?

Answer 39

al-Razi or Rhazes

Question 40

Why was Avicenna an important Arabist?

Answer 40

He wrote the ‘Canon of Medicine’ which brought together the ideas of Hippocrates, Aristotle and Galen. It was this book that the Crusaders brought back to Europe in the 12th Century.

Question 41

How did Ibn al-Nafis challenge Galen in the 13th century?

Answer 41

He challenged Galen’s description of how the heart works. Ibn al-Nafis was right and Galen wrong, however his ideas did not make it to Europe until the 20th century.

Question 42

Islam prohibited dissection, however one surgeon wrote a book describing amputations, removal of bladders stones and dental surgery. Who was it?

Answer 42

Albucasis 10th Century

Question 43

The government of the Islamic Empire had developed Public Health by the year 1000. Give 4 examples.

Answer 43

Medical schools, exams for doctors, piped water, public baths, hospitals

Question 44

What is alchemy (used in the Islamic Empire) and how did it help fight disease?

Answer 44

Alchemy was the attempt to turn metal into gold and find the elixir of eternal life. Alchemists invented useful techniques such as distillation and drugs such as laudanum (from the poppy, for pain relief)

Question 45

Who sold the new drugs and elixirs developed in the Islamic Empire?

Answer 45

An Apothecary sold a range of potions, drugs and herbal medicines as well as spells.