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
Which emperor hired Galen?
Emperor Marcus Aurelius
Who were the four main healers in the Ancient period?
- Fathers (family remedies passed down)
- Asclepius/priests - supernatural
- Army surgeon - treatments for battle wounds
- Trained doctors (Hippocratic) - expensive so weren’t commonly used
Describe the training of doctors in the Ancient period (5)
- Training was not compulsory - anyone could be a doctor
- Trained by acting as apprentices to experienced doctors
- Read the books of Hippocrates and Galen
- Had to take the Hippocratic Oath
- Very rare in Britain, but some doctors might have trained in Alexandria in Egypt
Aside from public health, how else did the Romans try to keep the poor healthy?
By employing trained doctors to treat the poor
Describe hospitals in the Roman period
- Army hospitals in forts:
- Four beds in each ward
- Kitchen, baths and dispensary for making remedies
- Surgeon and assistants
- But no hospitals in towns, people preferred to be treated at home
Describe where the water flowed in the Roman public health system
- Fresh water from springs was taken via aqueduct for many miles to towns, where it was held in reservoirs which distributed it to the piping system
- Fresh water was distributed from the reservoirs to public fountains, bath-houses, forts, private homes of the rich and the public latrines
- Used water was carried away from sewers and emptied into rivers
Why did the Romans have such a strong public health system for both the rich and the poor?
- It kept the Empire and their army strong and healthy
- They had the wealth and prosperity to afford it
- Believed in miasma, so wanted things to not smell
What were the six main problems with the Roman public health system?
- Piping made of lead - some people developed lead poisoning
- Water in bath-houses only changed once a week
- Sewers depended on enough water in system to flush out. If there wasn’t enough rain, waste built up in sewers and spread disease instead of stopping it
- Sewers emptied into rivers, which were also used to wash clothes and for washing and drinking water in smaller settlements downstream
- Public health system only good for big cities
- Didn’t lead to progress - no legacy
Roman public health: describe public fountains
- provided water for drinking and washing
- most people got their water from fountains, street pumps and rain barrels because weren’t rich enough to have water piped to their house
Roman public health: describe bath-houses
- places for washing, exercise, talk and business
- even small towns had a bath-house
- only charged quadrans, the smallest denomination of Roman money
- in a large town such as Lincoln, 5000 people used the baths every week
Roman public health: describe forts
- had their own bath-house, water supply and latrines
- many also had hospitals for soldiers
Roman public health: describe the water supply to private home of the rich
- supplied with water, but still had to be carried upstairs in buckets by slaves
- if there was a drought, the supply to houses was cut off to save water
Roman public health: describe public latrines
- often flushed by water from public baths and drained into sewers
- often seated 20 people in one room
- 144 in Rome
