Medicine Through Time Key Terms Flashcards
Aborigines
Native people of Australia who are hunter-gatherers.
Prehistoric
Before writing began. In Britain, this means before the Romans arrived in AD 43.
Physician
Another name for a doctor.
Dissection
The careful cutting and analysis of dead bodies.
Embalming
Preserving the body for burial.
Purging
Vomiting or emptying the bowels.
Hygiene
Keeping clean. From the Greek name for Asclepios’ daughter, Hygeia.
Theory of the four humours
Doctors from the time of the Ancient Greeks until the Renaissance believed the four humours - blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile - needed to be balanced to ensure good health.
Clinical observation
Observing symptoms at a patient’s bedside.
Hippocratic Oath
The oath taken by doctors in which they promise to do their patients no harm and keep the conversation between patient and doctor confidential.
Public health
Governments providing schemes to make their citizens healthier.
Theory of opposites
Galen’s theory that you should treat a condition with its opposite.
The Arab world
Countries in the Middle East and in North Africa.
Galenic medicine
Everything that Galen wrote about medicine.
Barber surgeon
A barber who also provided medical help including small operations such as bleeding or extracting teeth.
