The Ancient Period Flashcards
What were the two approaches to medicine in the Ancient period?
Natural (Asclepius) and Supernatural (Hippocrates and Galen)
In the Ancient Period, what was disease believed to be caused by?
- Natural - an imbalance of the four humours
- Supernatural - the gods (Ancient Greece), God (Ancient Rome)
- Miasma (in Ancient Rome)
How did beliefs about what disease was caused by change from Ancient Greece into Ancient Rome?
- Supernatural - The Ancient Greek gods into the Christian God
- Natural - Theory of Opposites added
- Idea of miasma (bad air causing disease)
What are the four humours?
- Blood
- Phlegm
- Black bile
- Yellow bile
What were the home remedies available in the Ancient period?
- herbal remedies - many effective, e.g honey
- medical books (if wealthy), owned by father
What were the supernatural treatments available in the Ancient period?
- wear a charm
- pray to household gods (Greece), or the Christian God (Rome)
- visit the Asclepian temple (Greece), or priests (Rome)
Describe a visit to the Asclepian temple
- exercise
- bathe
- sleep with red cloth over face in abaton (Asclepius’s snake meant to cure)
Where the natural treatments available in the Roman period?
- rest
- change in diet
- regular exercise
- bleed or purge to remove excess humours
- opposites to humours, based on symptoms (Rome)
What were the four main things Hippocrates did?
- Developed the theory of the Four Humours
- Developed clinical observation
- Created the ‘Hippocratic Corpus’
- Created the ‘Hippocratic Oath’
What are the four steps to clinical observation?
- Observe
- Record
- Diagnose
- Treat
What was the Hippocratic Corpus?
- the first detailed list of symptoms and cures
- used by doctors for many centuries
What is the Hippocratic Oath?
- an oath taken by doctors
- gave confidence in doctors
- made clear doctors aren’t magicians
- said they had to keep high standards of treatment and behaviour and had to work for the benefit of patients
- still used today
How did Hippocratic doctors mainly train?
As apprentices to experienced doctors, but it wasn’t necessary
What were the three main things Galen did?
- Wrote over 350 books which combined Greek ideas with his own work
- Developed Theory of Opposites to balance humours (hot, wet, dry, cold)
- Worked on anatomy and dissection - demonstrated nervous system and brain controls body with famous dissection of a pig
Why were there problems with Galen’s anatomical discoveries?
He only ever dissected animals because the Church did not him allow to dissect humans, as it would prevent their passing into the afterlife