Rome

Question 1

When was the Roman Empire?

Answer 1

300BC to 500AD

Question 2

What did Romans not really make contributions to?

Answer 2

The understanding and treatment of disease because they mostly stole their ideas from the Greeks

Question 3

What was the main advancements the Romans made?

Answer 3

Public health

Question 4

Who was the most important person in Roman Times?

Answer 4

Galen

Question 5

When was Galen born?

Answer 5

129AD

Question 6

What did Galen recommend?

Answer 6

That doctors should dissect human bodies whenever they could to find out about the bodies working and structure

Question 7

What idea did Galen take as his starting point and what did he develop?

Answer 7

Hippocrates’ theory of the four humours and clinical observation, and from it he developed his own theory of opposites

Question 8

What was Galen’s theory of opposites?

Answer 8

That an imbalance in the body could be treated by prescribing an opposite e.g. a cold food like cucumber was prescribed to treat a fever, hot foods to treat a cold

Question 9

What was Galen famous for?

Answer 9

His pig experiment dissection; he gave public dissections and showed how different nerves controlled pain, movement and vocal chords. He showed that the brain controlled the body not the heart

Question 10

What mistakes did Galen make by doing animal dissections?

Answer 10

He said that the human jawbone is made up of two parts like a monkey, he said the kidneys are arranged on top of one another like a dog, and he said the heart pumps like a machine and consumes blood as the fuel

Question 11

How many books did Galen write about medicine?

Answer 11

450: a complete encyclopaedia of knowledge that was not questioned for centuries

Question 12

What was so good about Galen’s work?

Answer 12

It fitted nicely with the ideas of the Christian Church which was very powerful. He believed that humans were special and created by a God, therefore to question Galen’s work was considered blasphemous

Question 13

What were the Romans the first people to do?

Answer 13

Plan and carry out a programme for public health that poor people could also use

Question 14

Where did Roman people build their settlements?

Answer 14

Close to rivers and away from mosquito infested swamps and marshes

Question 15

What were the six features of the Roman Public Health System?

Answer 15

Aqueducts to provide fresh water, baths for keeping clean, drinking fountains, water pipes to provide water, flushed toilets and sewage systems to take the dirty waste away

Question 16

Why was the health of the army so important to Romans?

Answer 16

Because they had a strong empire and therefore needed a strong army to defend it

Question 17

Why was the health of workers important?

Answer 17

Because they helped to maintain the strong empire

Question 18

What did the Roman government do that was good?

Answer 18

They saw public health as a priority so were strong enough to see their plans carried through

Question 19

Why did Roman’s want to build a public health system?

Answer 19

Pride in the city, to keep the government and army strong, to keep the people strong

Question 20

What was bad about some of the Roman public health facilities?

Answer 20

Sewers would often get blocked, bath water was only changed once a week, small villages didn’t have good public health, when the Roman empire collapsed everything was abandoned