Greek Medicine

Question 1

What is the four humours?

Answer 1

• Based on the theory that natural matter comprised of four basic elements, the Greek philosophers came up with the idea that the human body consisted of the four humours, which had to be kept in balance.
• This theory survived until after AD 1700.
• The Greek philosopher Pythagoras came up with the idea of the balance of opposites. This gave Greek doctors their idea of the underlying cause of disease.
• We can read about this in the 70 books ascribed to the Greek doctor Hippocrates, who thought that disease occurred when the humours of the body fell out of balance.
• Greek doctors made careful studies of the different kinds of illness - in particular they noted the natural history of the illness.

Question 2

Describe Greek surgery.

Answer 2

• They were frequently at war, and Greek doctors became experts at practical first aid.
• They also learned about setting broken and dislocated bones (they could cure a slipped disc by standing on the patient’s back).
• We have no evidence, however, that Greek surgeons successfully operated inside the body.
• Greek doctors did not have anaesthetics, and only had herbal antiseptics - so successful surgical operations would have been extremely difficult for them to perform.

Question 3

Who is Hippocrates and what did he do?

Answer 3

• Hippocrates is often called the ‘Father of Modern Medicine.’ He made several key contributions to the development of medicine.
• The Hippocratic Oath - Doctors would swear to treat patients and keep their records and symptoms in confidence.
• Recording of symptoms - Hippocrates encouraged doctors to question patients, finding out detailed information about symptoms and to record them accurately. This would then lead to better treatments.
• The Hippocratic Corpus - A collection of over 60 books written by Hippocrates and other Greek doctors, noting symptoms, treatments and their effectiveness.
• Promoted the four humours - Hippocrates encouraged doctors to look for natural causes and cures of diseases, encouraging them to move away from supernatural beliefs.

Question 4

Give a summary of the end of Greek Medicine.

Answer 4

• The Greek doctors made their medical diagnosis based on examination of their patient from head to foot - this is called clinical observation. They did this while referring to Hippocratic textbooks, which told them how to do the examination and what the disease might be.
• The ancient Greeks came to understand that illness had natural causes, and could not be cured by appealing to their gods. They therefore looked for natural cures, using natural substances such as garlic, vinegar and honey. Greek doctors said that nature is the best healer.
• Since Greek doctors believed that most illness was caused by an imbalance of the four humours, many of their cures tried to rebalance the humours. In their search for a cure they also often tried to balance the natural heat of the patient:
  
  • They would cure a cold by keeping the patient warm.
  • they would treat a fever (hot and wet) by keeping the patient cool and dry.
• They used bleeding and purging - not, as the Egyptians did, to unblock a channel, but in order to rebalance two of the humours - the blood and the black bile.

Question 5

Who was Galen?

Answer 5

• Gale was a doctor that worked in ancient Rome.
• He wrote many books and his ideas were the basis of medical training in the middle ages.
• He developed Hippocrates ideas and mainly used bloodletting or purging to prevent and treat illnesses.
• He had his own theory of opposites.
• He also drew detailed anatomies of bodies using his knowledge he gained from operating n wounded gladiators and animal bodies.