Roman medicine Flashcards
What was Galens theory about pus?
Wounds were more likely to heal is pus (known as praiseworthy pus) developed. They believed pus Carrie away poisoned blood that caused infection
Doctors therefore covered wounds in ointments and bandages designed to make pus develop
Describe Galens personality
Was a showman; loved to put on public performances, dissecting animals and giving talks
Had a terrible temper
What did Galen believe was the cause of illnesses?
The inbalance of the 4 humours
What did Galen say about Observations and when did he apply this lost significantly?
Galen told doctors to observe and examine patients carefully, taking the pulse and detailed notes of symptoms like Hippocrates
In AD167 - made detailed notes on the plague sweeping across the empire, recording how his patients had fever, thirst diarrhoea, skin rash and spat blood
Notes were so thorough it was known as Galen plague
What was Galen most common treatment?
Bleeding patients to restore the balance of the humours. Used bleeding far more than Hippocrates, who had preferred to interfere with the body as little as possible
Describe Galens theory of the opposites? Give Examples in terms of if someone got a cold
Opposites to balance the humours
For example if a patients symptom was too much phlegm then the illnesses was caused by cold.
Galens traeatment was the opposite of cold- heat! He treated this patient by giving hot ingredients such as peppers in his cures
If a disease was caused by heat, What did Galen suggest as a treatment?
Patient would need a cooling cure perhaps treating this so cucumber in the medicine or diet
What did Galen say about Anatomy and Dissection?
Encouraged human dissection as much as possible
If not possible then ales because they were closet to humans
Describe Galens demonstration involving the pig.
Galen cut into the pigs neck, finding the nerves
He said he’ll cut this nerve but the pig will keep squealing, which it did
He cut again the pig kept squealing
Then said when I cut this nerve, the pig will stop squealing
He cut and the pig was silent
What discovery did Galen make about the Brain, arteries and veins?
Proved that the brain, not the heart, controlled speech
and that the arteries, and not just the veins carried blood around the body.
The heart had holes in the septum which could let blood pass from right to the left
Describe Galens books
Wrote over 350 books on Medicine
Included work of earlier doctors such as Hippocrates and his own work
Extremely detailed and well-organised
It seemed like he covered everything
Why did so many people Galen was always right?
His ideas fitted in with the ideas of the Christian a Church, which controlled education in Europe in the Middle Ages.
Believed that the body had been created by one God, who had made all the parts of the body fit together; matching the Christian belief
Why did the Romans want to protect the public health?
Roman rulers needed healthy soldiers to control the Empire
Healthy workers and merchants were needed to keep the Empire fed and prosperous
What did the Romans build to protect public health?
Built their towns, villas or army forts in healthy places, away from marshland and polluted water
Tried to keep army forts and cities clean and made sure people had fresh water
Built public baths, toilets and sewers to remove Waste
How were the Romans able to build up their public healthy system?
Used their great skills as builders and engineers
Engineers, often from the army kept everything running and dealt with repairs
