Midterm 1 Flashcards
prehistoric
a time before written histories
What evidence is most convincing for ‘systematic approaches to illness, based on bodies of knowledge, occur?
Surgery and other forms of physical procedures
Then medicinal plants and animals
Then shamanism and magico-medicine
When was trephination first found in the fossil record?
7000 BCE
Most easy evidence to spot of all. Process of making a hole in a human skull. We know the procedure happened during lifetime because there is evidence of healing over the man-made hole.
- also how we know that the procedure was not fatal
There is more evidence for trephination relative to the other physical procedure evidence.
What percentage of trephinated skulls were found and where?
10% of skulls found from the time were trephinated. Found across Europe, Africa, South America
About the time when humans were beginning to live in settlements - easier to find collections of evidence when this is the case.
rondelles
the circular pieces of the bone that had been removed from a trephination procedure.
they had been found with holes in them, suggesting that they might have been worn - perhaps a fashion/ritual symbol.
Evidence for prehistoric physical procedures
Trephination
setting of fractures
dental work
male circumcision (found on young men)
amputation
acupuncture
Otzi
Speculative evidence for prehistoric acupuncture
Mummified
Tattoos -61- many around the joints . Tattoos formed by rubbing charcoal in wound
Because joints tend to suffer from arthritis - it has been speculated that these might have been acupuncture spots
Found with a fungus that grows on birch trees - the birch has medicinal properties (microbial) and pergorative properties.
had infestations in his gut
Fred the Turin mummy
Found in Egypt
First evidence of artificial mummification 3500 BCE.
4-5 materials: plant/sesame oil, blossom root extract (bull wishes), sticky gum from acacia plant, resin from conifer tree. Interesting because pine tree resin has antimicrobial properties that wouldve delayed the decay process.
DOnt know if the people doing the mummifying understood the properties of the items that they were using.
votive objects
Things offered in response to a vow, like a contract with a god, specialist, or a power, etc
Things you can deposit in thankfulness for being healed .
“If you can heal me, I will recognize it”
3000 BCE onwards - these have been found
Shaminism
Something we see in many cultures
A shaman is a member of the community who has special properties - is able to make a link between our world and another world.
one of the major roles of the shaman is often related to medicine (health, luminality of life/death)
When do we first see physical evidence for shaminism?
2000 BCE - figures that appear to be human/animal hybrids drumming
stele
upright column made of stone/wood that is often inscribed or has pictures on it
Most convincing evidence of shamanism and magic medicine?
1500 BCE
Little helpers or dolls buried with the body
Hesy Ra
One of the first Egyption Practitioners that was named. c. 2650 BCE
Edwin Smith Papyrus
Egyption - 9 Scrolls explaining medical stuff and magic stuff
The Edwin Smith Papyrus is primarily surgical - bone setting, head surgery
Also states when to do nothing -appears to be a more rational approach to medicine
What ‘age’ did written medical texts start appearing that help us piece together some evidence?
Bronze age
What are the earliest literate Bronze Age Civilizations?
Mesopotamia
Egypt
Greece (Minoan Crete Mycenean mainland)
Evidence of disease and early medicine in Early Greece?
Close to zero written evidence for medicine in this early greece bronze age civilization.
‘So we have to rely on later literature (esp Homer) to try to reconstruct what medicine in Bronze Age Early Greece may have been like
Homer
Author in the Greek world
First author in Western literature
He has writing in the 8th century but telling stories from the Bronze age… not sure how accurate this is but it is all that we have
Apollo
Considered THE god of disease and healing (prophecy, archery, music)
He who shoots from afar - Can strike down anyone at will (way for people to rationalize the nature of who gets ill)
Brother of Artemis
Uranus and Gaia
God of the Heavens and Goddess of the Earth
Children are the Titans
Who are the parents of Zeus?
Cronos and Rhea
Zeus is an Olympian God
Who were the parents of Artemis and Apollo?
Leto and Zeus (Leto was not Zeus’s wife)
Who were the parents of Asclepius?
Apollo and Coronis/Arsinoe (mortal)
So ASCLEIPIUS was not fully divine initially
Coronis dies soon after birthing Asclepius - various stories of how this happened.
WHO were Chiron’s parents?
Cronos and Philyra
But Philyra was not the wife of Cronos…
Chiron was taught medicine by APOLLO AND ARTEMIS
Chiron teaches Asclepius medicine because Chiron is raising Asclepius
Asclepius becomes divine?
At some point around the end of the Bronze Age ~1000 BCE
He begins to be worshipped (instead of Apollo) as the God of Healing and Medicine.
He usually has a robe over one should and a stick with ONE snake wrapped around it
Asclepius’ stick
A stick wrapped with one snake
We don’t know for sure what the snake represents but snakes have been associated with some methods of healing however (special powers)
But also snakes shed their skin so maybe it is a symbol of regeneration and/or rebirth.
Venom - sometimes has a medical use
Stick- associated with travel maybe
also treatment of Guinea Worm
Who were the parents of the 5 daughters associated with health and healing.
Asclepius and Epione
Hygieia, Panacea, Iaso, Aceso, Aegle
Hygieia
Associated with good health in the ancient world
Asclepius and Epione = parents
divine
Panacea
All heal
something that cures/heals everything
Asclepius and Epione = parents
divine
Who are the son’s of Asclepius?
Podalirios, Machaon
They are either mortal or semi-divine
Caduceus of Hermes
Hermes’ stick
Has 2 snakes on it. Hermes is the messenger God
Not related to medicine…
What were temples dedicated to Asclepius called?
Ascleipia (plural)
Ascleipion (singular)
They flourished all over the ancient Mediterranean, well into the christian era
(began 6-7th century BCE
incubation
Occurred in the Ascleipion (centre of healing)
Patients underwent this process that involved ritual purification and then sleeping overnight in the innermost part of the temple - THE ABATON
Abaton
the innermost part of the Asclieipion
Sacred part where patients would sleep over night
Supposedly where Asclepieus lived - his presence anyways
edokei
a word meaning an acceptance that perhaps you accept the things happening to you as being true (ie. healed by gods) but if you really think about, you know that that is not actually what happened.
Which was the first civilization to remove the religious or magical aspect from medicine and go on to a rational approach?
The Greeks
At about what time did debates begin to occur about how our world came to be (with no recourse to gods/magic) in the Greek world?
6th century BCE
Inquiry into Nature debate
What do we call the early debaters involved in the Inquiry into Nature in the Greek world?
Presocratic philosophers
Medicine was only a small part of the debate intitially
Who was the first of the Presocratic Philosophers whose inquiry centered primarily on medicine?
Alcmaeon of Croton (fl. 480 BCE)
he made connections between senses and the brain ACCORDING TO THEOPHRASTUS
Alcmaeon
Probably a student of Pythagoras
First of the Presocratic Philosophers whose inquiry was primarily medicine
We do not have the writings of Alcmaeon - only what others say he said
According to Aetius and Aristotle, almaeon observed that most things in the body come in opposing qualities that needed to be kept in balance .
Equality of the Powers (all of the opposites) is what maintains health –
USES POLITICAL IMAGERY - we think the rise of the political debate came around the same time as the inquiry into nature – political debate encouraged philosophical debate
isonomia
equality of the powers
what Alcmaeon said maintains health
FOUNDATION OF A VERY INFLUENTIAL THEORY
monarchia
Power of one of the two opposing powers is what causes illness according to Alcmaeon
eye dissection?
There is debate as to whether Alcmaeon actually dissected a human eye or not.
- taboo for human dissection to occur at this time
- maybe it was an animal eye that he dissected?
Democedes of Croton
contemporary with Almaeon, also interested in medicine.
Started out in Croton – gets captured by the persions. Works for Darius (Persion King) – Democedes was able to heal the sprained ankle of Darius while the local physicians were not able to - also treated lump in wife’s breast
- then Darius freed Democedes to go back to Greece
- we don’t have any theories from Democedes but he was an active and renounced physician.
Asclepiad
A descendent of Asclepius
Hippocrates is labeled as an Asclepiad
Hippocrates of Cos
460 - 280 BCE
According to Celsus, it was Hippocrates who truly separated the branches of medicine and philosophy. Made it a discipline of its own
Plato mentions that he is from Cos, that he charged a fee for his teachings, and that he belonged to the line of Asclepius
We have no real evidence linking Hippocrates’ family to Apollo, Artemis, or Asclepius but people like to make connections like this to lend Authority to certain figures.
Hippocratic Question
Which of the Hippocratic Texts did Hippocrates actually write, if any?
First, do no harm
This is a line people often think is from the Hippocratic Oath but it is not actually
Line that is close-ish
“As to diseases, make a habit of two things - to help, or at least to do no harm.”
flux
a noxious substance or fluid that often comes from undigested food
ie if digestion is not going well, noxious substance is produced from the undigested items in the body
yellow bile
Hot and dry
Summer
black bile
dry and cold
Autumn
phlegm
white
cold and wet
winter
blood
red
wet and hot
spring
nosology
the classification of diseases
capite ad calcem
from head to heel
vis medicatrix
the healing power of nature
allopathy
treatment by opposites -most western medicine follows this route
homopathy
treatment of like with likes
It has come to mean ‘natural healing’ but we missuse the word today
ie.can be drastic
Finding a treatment that causes the same symptoms you are trying to treat
antiquity
the ancient past, before medeivil times.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 2547
c. 275 CE ~10cm long 3rd century CE
Can tell it is part of the Hippocratic Oath
Jewish Oath
Oath of Maimonides (RaMBam)
Monotheisic, non-Christian
Declaration of Geneva
Physician’s Pledge
Can see influences of the Hippocratic Oath here.
Subtle changes like brothers and sisters
Has had multiple amendments thoughout the years
Declaration of Helsinki
1947
A set of ethical principles regarding medical research involving human subjects.
Kahun Papyrus
c. 1850 BCE
9-11 papyrai found - 6 with relevant info about women
Kahun Gynaecological papyrus has the most information
things going on with the womb and treatment of the womb mentioned
fertility and pregnancy tests, tests for checking sex of the child
Ability to conceive test
Putting garlic or onion in vag overnight - seeing if the smell was present in the mouth
- indicates that no blockages were present
If barley germinates
boy
If ema(wheat) germinates
girl
what are the most defining features of the critical/acute phase of the wandering womb?
pnix (suffocation) - occasionally referred to later as the hyserike pnix (suffocation of/by the womb)
aphonia (loss of voice)
Universal: tightening compressions and loss of the voice (constrictions)
What are symptoms of the protracted phase of the wandering womb, or continuous retention of the menses?
loss of appetite, swelling of the abdomen, bad sleep, thick urine
inevitable death sometime after the 6th month of menses retention
Aretaeus
said the womb is like an animal within an animal (weird because during his time, the anatomists already demonstrated that the uterus could not wonder)
Aretaeus links the wondering womb to a behaviour/psychological cause
- older women - more reliable and steady - womb stays put
- younger women - all over the place and giddy
Hippocratic texts says that typically the older women are those who experience the wandering womb.
Asu
Mesopatemia doctor/physician
Swnu
Egypt physician
