L2 FWHM: History And Philosophy Flashcards
Name three influences on Western Herbal Medicine
- 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)
Why is Hippocrates important?
Father of medicine
First to come up with a coherent system of medicine based on observation and measurement
Why was the decline of the Roman Empire important in the development of medicine?
Galenic medicine was at its height
Repositories of Galenic medicine all over the empire
These then developed in their own right
What was important about the Italian city of Salerno
Bridgehead of Arab culture in Europe
Site of famous medical school
School of famous physicians like Avicenna
What is meant by “the Quack’s Charter”
- 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- Never been rescinded
What is the “Doctrine of Signatures”?
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
Who was Samuel Thomson and what did he contribute to Western Herbal Medicine?
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
Why was Albert Isaac Coffin important to UK herbal medicine?
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
How best is the origin of Western Herbal Medicine described
- Ancient roots in Greece and Rome
- Local indigenous practice (folk-medicine)
- North American tradition
Name the origins and date of the first documented Material Medica
From the Ayurvedic traditions 200BC
What are the origins of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) ?
- An aggregate of systems from Confucianism (550BC) and Taoism (400BC)
- First records appear in 4thC BC from Huangdi Neijing (The Yellow Emperor’s classic)
Who was Asclepius?
- Ancient Greek physician
- 1250BC
- Credited with “miraculous healings”
- “Cult of Asclepius” (magic/superstition)
Which ancient Greco-Roman philosophers (not physicians) are credited with laying the foundation of (rational) medicine by explaining how the world works?
Empedocles
Aristotle
What are the four elements of the Greek system of medicine and name the founder.
Air, fire, water, earth
Empedocles
Empedocles
What are the four primary qualities and by whom were they assigned?
Hot, cold, dry, moist
Aristotle
Which pioneers/schools of medicine were influenced by Hippocrates ?
- The Salerno School (Italy)
- The Myddfai physicians (Wales)
- Samuel Thomson (North America)
- The Physiomedicalists (North
America) - Nicholas Culpepper (England)
Who created the first definite Western Materia Medica; when did he live and describe the contents of his work.
Pedanius Dioscorides
* 1st century CE
* Greek-born Roman army physician
* Described 600 herbs in detail
* Prototype model of herbal pharmacopoeia
This person was born in Pergamon (Syria) in 130CE, further developed Hippocratic medicine and was an early pioneer of surgery (on animals).
Claudius Galenus (Galen)
This Arab physician of 869CE emphasized the importance of diet and hygiene over drugs and introduced mercury for skin complaints.
Rhazez
This Arab physician advocated clean air, moderate diet, balance in work and rest, emotional positivity and the “evacuation of superfluities”
Ibn Butlan
1068CE
What part of Europe did the Arab physicians settle in the 1st century.
Salerno, Italy
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.
Avicenna
(Ibn Sina)
(980-1037 AD)
This Arab’s physician academic approach was forerunner of the modern university-trained physician.
Avicenna
Where did the Myddfai school of medicine reside and during what century.
Wales, 6thC AD
Which two schools are regarded as the centres of excellence in Mediaeval Europe.
Salerno
Myddfai
Who guarded medical knowledge during The Dark Ages in England?
The monasteries, the monks were the keepers of medical information
These two 10th Century books formed the compendia of Anglo-Saxon remedies and charms in the Dark Ages.
- Bald’s Leechbook
- The Lacnunga
Why were practitioners of folk-medicine persecuted almost out of existence during feudal times?
Associated with witchcraft in the 15thC
What is the meaning of ‘Lacnunga’
An old English word meaning remedies
Which work contains the poem, “Nine Herbs Charm” of Odin?
Name four of the nine herbs therein.
The Lacnunga
1. Mugwort
1. Betony
1. Lamb’s cress
1. Plantain
1. Chamomile
1. Nettle
1. Crabapple
1. Thyme
1. Fennel
List four occurrences that shaped the transition of medicine from the Middle Ages to the Modern World.
- 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
What disease from the year 1348 killed 1/3 of European population?
The Black Death
How was Syphilis reportedly spread and what two natural substances were used for treatment?
- By French soldiers in 1496 after the siege of Naples
- Gum Guaiacum (a tree resin)
- Sarsaparilla (a plant native to West Indies)
This King of England was very interested in herbs and instated the “Quacks Charter”?
King Henry VIII
(1491- 1547)
What invention resulted in the production of many herbal texts of the Renaissance era?
Name one such text and it’s author.
The printing press
The Herball or General Historie of Plantes
John Gerard 1545
Name four authors that any serious student of Herbal Medicine should be familiar with
- John Gerard
- John Parkinson
- William Turner
- Nicholas Culpepper
This doctor studied at Cambridge and is known as the ‘People’s Herbalist’. Explain why he became known by this title.
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
Nicholas Culpeper authored this book that has never been out of print to this day.
The Compleat Herbal
This physician developed the Doctrine of Signatures
Paracelsus (1493-1541)
“nature marks each growth…according to its curative benefit”
Describe four contributions from North America that affected Western Herbal Medicine in Britain
- 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
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.
Samuel Thomson
(1769- 1843)
Developed a system of health care licensing which for $20 allowed people to get lifelong health care.
Samuel Thomson
(1769- 1843)
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?
- The Eclectics & The Physiomedicalists
- The Physiomedicalists
Name the founder and basic theory behind The Physiomedicalists
Alva Curtis
* Vis Medicatrix Naturae
* Remove blockages of life force
* Stimulated by scientific discoveries of the day (eg discoveries about circulatory and nervous systems)
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?
JM Thurston
* The Six Tissue States (1900)
* Organ Specific: hepatic, nervine
* Tissue Specific (general): astringent, stimulant
Name the founder and basic theory of The Eclectics
Wooster Beach 1794-1868
* Blend of scientific and traditional knowledge
* Aimed at a comprehensive inventory of pathologies matched to specific remedies
What is “simpling” and from which school of herbal medicine did it arise?
- Choosing a single herb to treat a complex range of symptoms in a person.
- The Eclectics
A little like a homeopathic constitutional remedy
John Uri Lloyd and Harvey Wickes Felter were the author of this Classic herbal work of the Eclectics.
The Professor King’s Dispensatory of 1898
The person and report that led to the demise of Naturopathic medicine and the development of the pharmaceutical industry.
- John Rockefeller, Sr. (1839-1937)
- The Flexnor Report, 1910
This association was established to standardise medicine and led to the closing of most independent naturopathic and herbal schools
The American Medical Association (AMA)
Author of quote “Allopathic medicine triumphs, exclusively white and male”
Griggs, 1997
Introduced the Eclectic tradition to the UK in 1981
Dr. John Christopher
Name key developments in the establishment of “scientific” medicine
- Fomalisation of Medical school training ( 18th/19thC)
- Germ Theory: Pasteur and Koch set the stage for antibiotics
- Vaccination
- Many skeptics against natural medicine
