L2 FWHM: History And Philosophy

Question 1

Name three influences on Western Herbal Medicine

Answer 1

• Ancient world - Greece, Rome, Arab traditions, Celtic traditions
• Pre-existing indigenous practice
• The New World - the Americas
• Naturopathic traditions
• Modern developments (20th and 21st centuries)

Question 2

Why is Hippocrates important?

Answer 2

Father of medicine
First to come up with a coherent system of medicine based on observation and measurement

Question 3

Why was the decline of the Roman Empire important in the development of medicine?

Answer 3

Galenic medicine was at its height
Repositories of Galenic medicine all over the empire
These then developed in their own right

Question 4

What was important about the Italian city of Salerno

Answer 4

Bridgehead of Arab culture in Europe
Site of famous medical school
School of famous physicians like Avicenna

Question 5

What is meant by “the Quack’s Charter”

Answer 5

• Enacted by Henry VIII
• Medical Act 1548
• Legislation that made it possible for those with knowledge and experience to practice healing with herbs.
• Never been rescinded

Question 6

What is the “Doctrine of Signatures”?

Answer 6

How the look of the plant suggests what part of the body it’s useful for: a leaf that looks like a lung, walnut brain, red berry blood

Question 7

Who was Samuel Thomson and what did he contribute to Western Herbal Medicine?

Answer 7

Samuel Thomson (1769–1843)
* Pig farmer and self-taught herbalist
* Studied Hippocrates
* Three basic disease states: hot, cold, alternating hot and cold (wind).
* Advocated the use of Cayenne and Lobelia (hot and cold) as a dynamic herbal polarity

Question 8

Why was Albert Isaac Coffin important to UK herbal medicine?

Answer 8

Arrived in 1839 and taught the physiomedicalists system which became the official system in Britain

Founded the National Association of Medical Herbalists which is now known as the National Institute of Medical herbalists

Question 9

How best is the origin of Western Herbal Medicine described

Answer 9

• Ancient roots in Greece and Rome
• Local indigenous practice (folk-medicine)
• North American tradition

Question 10

Name the origins and date of the first documented Material Medica

Answer 10

From the Ayurvedic traditions 200BC

Question 11

What are the origins of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) ?

Answer 11

• An aggregate of systems from Confucianism (550BC) and Taoism (400BC)
• First records appear in 4thC BC from Huangdi Neijing (The Yellow Emperor’s classic)

Question 12

Who was Asclepius?

Answer 12

• Ancient Greek physician
• 1250BC
• Credited with “miraculous healings”
• “Cult of Asclepius” (magic/superstition)

Question 13

Which ancient Greco-Roman philosophers (not physicians) are credited with laying the foundation of (rational) medicine by explaining how the world works?

Answer 13

Empedocles
Aristotle

Question 14

What are the four elements of the Greek system of medicine and name the founder.

Answer 14

Air, fire, water, earth
Empedocles

Empedocles

Question 15

What are the four primary qualities and by whom were they assigned?

Answer 15

Hot, cold, dry, moist
Aristotle

Question 16

Which pioneers/schools of medicine were influenced by Hippocrates ?

Answer 16

• The Salerno School (Italy)
• The Myddfai physicians (Wales)
• Samuel Thomson (North America)
• The Physiomedicalists (North
  America)
• Nicholas Culpepper (England)

Question 17

Who created the first definite Western Materia Medica; when did he live and describe the contents of his work.

Answer 17

Pedanius Dioscorides
* 1st century CE
* Greek-born Roman army physician
* Described 600 herbs in detail
* Prototype model of herbal pharmacopoeia

Question 18

This person was born in Pergamon (Syria) in 130CE, further developed Hippocratic medicine and was an early pioneer of surgery (on animals).

Answer 18

Claudius Galenus (Galen)

Question 19

This Arab physician of 869CE emphasized the importance of diet and hygiene over drugs and introduced mercury for skin complaints.

Answer 19

Rhazez

Question 20

This Arab physician advocated clean air, moderate diet, balance in work and rest, emotional positivity and the “evacuation of superfluities”

Answer 20

Ibn Butlan
1068CE

Question 21

What part of Europe did the Arab physicians settle in the 1st century.

Answer 21

Salerno, Italy

Question 22

The Arab physician who was a physician in Baghdad at age 17 and wrote a definitive medical text known as “Canon of Medicine”. He also recognized the influence of astrology on patient and plant.

Answer 22

Avicenna
(Ibn Sina)
(980-1037 AD)

Question 23

This Arab’s physician academic approach was forerunner of the modern university-trained physician.

Answer 23

Avicenna

Question 24

Where did the Myddfai school of medicine reside and during what century.

Answer 24

Wales, 6thC AD

Question 25

Which two schools are regarded as the centres of excellence in Mediaeval Europe.

Answer 25

Salerno Myddfai

Question 26

Who guarded medical knowledge during The Dark Ages in England?

Answer 26

The monasteries, the monks were the keepers of medical information

Question 27

These two 10th Century books formed the compendia of Anglo-Saxon remedies and charms in the Dark Ages.

Answer 27

* Bald’s Leechbook * The Lacnunga

Question 28

Why were practitioners of folk-medicine persecuted almost out of existence during feudal times?

Answer 28

Associated with witchcraft in the 15thC

Question 29

What is the meaning of ‘Lacnunga’

Answer 29

An old English word meaning *remedies*

Question 30

Which work contains the poem, “Nine Herbs Charm” of Odin? Name four of the nine herbs therein.

Answer 30

**The Lacnunga** 1. Mugwort 1. Betony 1. Lamb’s cress 1. Plantain 1. Chamomile 1. Nettle 1. Crabapple 1. Thyme 1. Fennel

Question 31

List four occurrences that shaped the transition of medicine from the Middle Ages to the Modern World.

Answer 31

* The Black Death & Syphilis * European trade with India & China (Marco Polo c1300) * Christopher Columbus 1492 * The Herbalist Charter, Henry VIII 1548 * 16thC Paracelsus & ‘Doctrine of Signatures’ * 17thC Nicholas Culpeper, the People’s Herbalist

Question 32

What disease from the year 1348 killed 1/3 of European population?

Answer 32

The Black Death

Question 33

How was Syphilis reportedly spread and what two natural substances were used for treatment?

Answer 33

* By **French soldiers** in 1496 after the siege of Naples * **Gum Guaiacum** (a tree resin) * **Sarsaparilla** (a plant native to West Indies)

Question 34

This King of England was very interested in herbs and instated the “Quacks Charter”?

Answer 34

King Henry VIII (1491- 1547)

Question 35

What invention resulted in the production of many herbal texts of the Renaissance era? Name one such text and it’s author.

Answer 35

**The printing press** *The Herball* or *General Historie of Plantes* John Gerard 1545

Question 36

Name four authors that any serious student of Herbal Medicine should be familiar with

Answer 36

* John Gerard * John Parkinson * William Turner * Nicholas Culpepper

Question 37

This doctor studied at Cambridge and is known as the ‘**People’s Herbalist**’. Explain why he became known by this title.

Answer 37

**Nicholas Culpeper 1616-1654** * Was passionately concerned for the poor * Emphasised local garden herbs for all instead of expensive imported remedies * Translated medical texts from Latin to English

Question 38

Nicholas Culpeper authored this book that has never been out of print to this day.

Answer 38

The Compleat Herbal

Question 39

This physician developed the Doctrine of Signatures

Answer 39

**Paracelsus** (1493-1541) “nature marks each growth...according to its curative benefit”

Question 40

Describe four contributions from North America that affected Western Herbal Medicine in Britain

Answer 40

* Mayflower 1620, first immigrants from Europe learned from **native Americans** * **Samuel Thomson** (1769-1843) * **Physiomedicalists** and **Eclectics** born out of Thomson’s school but represented separate American traditions * **Albert Coffin** arrived from American in Britain in 1839 bringing physiomedicalists system with him

Question 41

This self-taught herbalist was a pig farmer in America and advocated the use of Cayenne and Lobelia to address his theory of the three basic disease states: hot, cold, alternating hot/cold.

Answer 41

Samuel Thomson (1769- 1843)

Question 42

Developed a system of health care licensing which for $20 allowed people to get lifelong health care.

Answer 42

Samuel Thomson (1769- 1843)

Question 43

What two branches were born out of and thus differentiated from Thomsonian herbalism? Which one had the greatest influence on herbalism in the British Isles and Ireland up to the present day?

Answer 43

* The Eclectics & The Physiomedicalists * The Physiomedicalists

Question 44

Name the founder and basic theory behind The Physiomedicalists

Answer 44

**Alva Curtis** * *Vis Medicatrix Naturae* * Remove blockages of life force * Stimulated by scientific discoveries of the day (eg discoveries about circulatory and nervous systems)

Question 45

Name the physiomedicalist author and the work that describes the extremes of pathological affects on human tissue (such as hot and cold)? How did he classify herbal actions?

Answer 45

**JM Thurston** * *The Six Tissue States (1900)* * **Organ Specific**: hepatic, nervine * **Tissue Specific** (general): astringent, stimulant

Question 46

Name the founder and basic theory of The Eclectics

Answer 46

**Wooster Beach 1794-1868** * Blend of scientific and traditional knowledge * Aimed at a comprehensive inventory of pathologies matched to specific remedies

Question 47

What is “simpling” and from which school of herbal medicine did it arise?

Answer 47

* Choosing a **single herb** to treat a complex range of symptoms in a person. * The Eclectics | A little like a homeopathic constitutional remedy

Question 48

John Uri Lloyd and Harvey Wickes Felter were the author of this Classic herbal work of the Eclectics.

Answer 48

The Professor King’s Dispensatory of 1898

Question 49

The person and report that led to the demise of Naturopathic medicine and the development of the pharmaceutical industry.

Answer 49

* John Rockefeller, Sr. (1839-1937) * The Flexnor Report, 1910

Question 50

This association was established to standardise medicine and led to the closing of most independent naturopathic and herbal schools

Answer 50

The American Medical Association (AMA)

Question 51

Author of quote “Allopathic medicine triumphs, exclusively white and male”

Answer 51

Griggs, 1997

Question 52

Introduced the Eclectic tradition to the UK in 1981

Answer 52

Dr. John Christopher

Question 53

Name key developments in the establishment of “scientific” medicine

Answer 53

* Fomalisation of **Medical school training** ( 18th/19thC) * *Germ Theory*: Pasteur and Koch set the stage for **antibiotics** * **Vaccination** * Many skeptics against natural medicine