Rome Flashcards
Mithradates IV, King of Pontius
- royal student of empiricism
- developed concept of inducing tolerance of poisons by gradual administration of increasing dosages
Asclepiades of Bithynea
- established Greek medicine in Rome
- opposed humoral theory; said body was composed of disconnected particles separated by pores
- prescribed regimen of occupational therapy
The three roman Encyclopedists
1) Marcus Terentius Varro
2) Aulus Cornelius Celsus
3) Pliny the Elder
Marcus Terentius Varro
aware of the existence of microorganisms
Aulus Cornelius Celsus
- 8 extant books called De Re Medicina
- diseases like chancre, vitiligo, and papules were accredited to him
- described heart diseases, insanity, inflammation, meningitis and appendicitis
What is the De Re Medicina (by Celsus) about?
- 6/8 books: therapies using diet, drugs, and manipulation
- 2/8 books: operations for goiter, hernia, bladder stones, tonsillectomy, removal of eye cataracts
- “treat fractures with splints and bandages stiffened with starch!!!”
Pliny the Elder
preserved many contemporaneous superstitions, medical practices, remedies, and names of physicians
Galen of Pergamum
- imperial physician but was responsible for stunted development of medicine
- his medical approach was based on Aristotelian philosophy
- Church, Arabs and Jewish physicians loved him (bc he was monotheistic ! )
- founder of experimental physiology
- dissected pigs and apes
Contributions of Galen of Pergamum to medicine
- anatomy of the human brain -> 7 pairs of cranial nerves
- myogenic (muscle-produced) theory of the heartbeat
- sympathetic nervous system
- principle of interdependence between function of the organ and its lesions
- motion of the blood (saw it as ebb and flow; not circulation)
What is contraria contraries?
- therapy used by Galen
- heat was applied to diseases produced by cold and vice versa
Other Greek physicians
1) Aretaeus, the Cappadocian
2) Rufus of Ephesus
3) Soranus of Ephesus
Founder of obstetrics and gynecology
Soranus of Ephesus
Proof that Roman medicine emphasized public health, sanitation, sewage disposal and water system
- they had physicians for the poor, armed forces and hospitals
- had gymnasiums, public baths and domestic sanitation
- had numerous hospitals built
Sanatoria
- attributed to the Greeks
- a hospital for the treatment of chronic diseases, as tuberculosis or various nervous or mental disorders (dictionary.com)
