Medicine - Romans Flashcards
Influences of public health
Got sewers as Romans realised they were essential
Fresh water through aqueducts
Baths to clean people
Flushing toilets
Knowledge of surgery and anatomy
Amputations - these happened whilst people still had some strength left
Causes and treatments of disease
Causes - some believed in gods, four humours in bodies becoming unbalanced
Treatments - herbs, simple operations, treatment by opposites, advice on exercise, public health schemes
Miasma theory - disease such as cholera, chlamydia or the Black Death were caused by a miasma (pollution) form of bad air
When were the Romans?
400BC - AD450
Galens work
Became a surgeon, put great emphasis on clinical observation, knew disease was an imbalance between four humours (blood, phlegm, yellow bile and blood bile), developed treatments, dissected pigs, apes and studied bone structure and muscles, didn’t dissect human bodies, concentrated on the movement of blood and the nervous system, experimented with spinal cords of pigs
