history of medicine Flashcards
who were the first forms of healers?
shaman from indigenous communities
what was the first form of medicine based on?
power of folk healer, sorcerer, seer, teacher and priest and claimed spiritual power
what were diseases attributed to?
- loss of soul
- dinive punishment
- possession
- parasitic/external bodies
- evil eye
NOT physiological factors
where did the first physician appear?
mesopotamia / egypt
- imhotep (famous healer, chief minister to pharaoh)
- 1st forms of empirical treatments
what was the greek physician figure?
asklepios: - god of healing ‘tribal wound healer, son of Apollo’
- portrayed with staff and snake -> origin of caduceus sign
when did non-religious medicine arise?
5th BC, birth of Hippocrates
what did the non-religious idea of medicine mean?
- idea of a disease caused naturally not because of superstition and gods
- developed elitist ideal of professional identity -> promoted natural theories of health and sickness
what was the ethical approach of greek physicians?
DO NOT HARM ‘primum non nocere’
- physicians devotion to his art rather than fame and fortune
- creates a proximal relationship with a patient
- consoled anxious patients
what were the 4 vital fluids?
- illness was caused when one fluid exceeded or diminished -> solved through regimen, blood letting, changing diet
- blood= vitality >body hot and wet
- yellow bile= digestion (gastric juice) > hot and dry
- black bile=melancholy, darkening other fluids > cold and dry
- phlegm = lubricant and coolant (mucus, sweat, tears, in excess cold and fever) > cold and wet
medical paternalism vs patient’s autonomy
medical paternalism: attitude and practices in which a physician decides what the patients should do to improve their health
patient’s autonomy: right of patient to make their decision about medical care without their physician trying to influence their decision
medical methodology steps
- diagnosis: identifying a disease from its signs and symptoms
- prognostic: prospect of recovery as anticipated from usual course of disease or peculiarities of the case
- observation
- treatment
how did galen contribute to medical advancement?
162, Rome
anatomist work-> explained body from his dissection data
- created first explanation of blood system and circulation
western world origin of hospitals
greece-> asclepeia, health complex
rome-> valetudinaria, hospital for particular categories of people, dedicated to agriculutal workers who got sick, slaves, soldiers (those thought needed by the empire)
eastern world origin of hospitals
after fall of rome, islamic world becomes centre of medical knowledge
- byzantine hospital & arab-islamic bimaristan (320-1100 AD)
describe the role of nestorians
armenians in alexandria (converted to christianity, 132BC), established 2 schools:
- medical school of Nisibis - Edessa (346, mesopotamia)
- school of Jundi-Shapur - school of medicine is born as well as hospitalisation
how were bimaristan organised?
- transportable bimaristan -> meat hygiene in market
- permanent bimaristan -> madrassah library and bimaristan hospital have to be present for the wellbeing assurance (training students on text and lab - practice + theory)
- hierarchies of doctors
- proto-peer reviews for publications
- libraries
- places for other cults
what caused the focus to shift back to western worlds for medical developments?
crusades->1095-1291
- created a system of medical training
- bediside clinical instructions
- specialised personnel made of doctors and surgeons
- resident and external doctors
- systematic hospital guard shifts
- large number of patients arranged in wards per disease
what was the problem that slowed down development of medical care in the western world?
clash between science and religion
ancient ‘physician’ refused the surgical aspect:
- lithotomy (removing bladder stone) were performed by specialised lithotomists
according to what was medical care given in the middle ages?
- ocial status of patient:
- slaves treatments were quick and obligatory
- free but poor people: emetics, purges and bloodletting
- wealthy: more attention
what was the medical college?
italian invention (venice college, 1316)
- created new approach for the birth of 4th medical discipline
- bologna (1088) created hierarchy of practitioners -> formalises structure connoted by the position of excellence of the internist doctor
when was a permit first required to practice medicine?
1217, Paris
concept of caritas -> caring for the sick, more welcomed in hospices for the first time
describe the work of william harvey
1578-1657 discovered circulatory system through use of animals and vessels : heart acts as a muscular pump that pushes blood through body in continuous cycle creation of scientific proof: - logical deduction - empirical proof - experimental proofs - plausibility through analigy - faculty of prediction demolished idea of humours
what idea did the plague introduce to medical science?
idea of contagious spreading
- deterioration of air (malaria)
- miamsa -> putrified and contagious air which caused infections (miasmatic approach)
- miasma -> spread of poison and corruption
describe the refutation of miasmatic approach by girolamo fracastoro
- middle 16th century -> very small, unseeable particles cause disease are alive (seminaria)
- macro theory of disease
- spread by air, multiply by themselves, destroyable by fire
- 1543-> De contagione et contagiosis morbis -> promote personal and environmental hygiene to prevent disease
