WEEK 2 (Medicine in Mesopotamia) Flashcards
What happened in Mesopotamia?
- Agriculture improved the people’s lifestyles
- New health problems
- Malnutrition
- Vitamin deficiency
What were the diseases that thrived in Mesopotamia?
- Smallpox
- Tuberculosis
- Influenzas
- Rhinoviruses & the Common cold
- Measles
- Polio
- Cholera
- Typhoid
- Shistomiasis (parasitic worms)
What did irrigation and farming result in?
An increase in parasites and parasite-carrying disease
Who was Gula?
Also known as NINKARRAK and NINISINNA was a goddess presiding over health and healing (named “great physician of the black-headed ones”)
Who was Pabilsag?
Gula’s spouse who was also a divine judge
Who were Gula’s sons and daughter?
Sons - DAMU and NINAZU
Daughter - GUNURRA
What were doctors seen as in Mesopotamia?
Agents of deities
Which symbol for Medicine originated in Mesopotamia and what did it represent?
Rod intertwined with serpents
Ninazu and his serpents represented health and healing (the continuation of mortal life) and death and dying. The serpent represented REGENERATION and TRANSFORMATION.
What did the people of Mesopotamia believe was the cause of illness?
The sin the patient had committed
What did the people of Mesopotamia believe was the cure for illness?
Some form of confession of the sin
What was believed to be the diagnosis for the illnesses?
The will of the gods and their intervention in human affairs
Medical books from which library disproved the theory that there were no doctors at all in Mesopotamia?
Ashurbanipal
What was “Asu”?
A medical doctor who treated illness or injury empirically
What was “Asipu”?
A healer who relied upon magic
What medical professionals did Mesopotamia have?
- Asu
- Asipu
- Surgeons
- Veterinarians
- Dentists (performed by both kinds of doctors)
- Midwives
What were the different roles in childbirth?
- ASIPU = prayers to the gods or chants to ward off demons
- The demon LAMASHTU = killing or carrying off infants
- ASU = easing labor pains with herbs
What were the similarities and differences between Asu and Asipu?
DIFFERENCES
- Asipu = A witch doctor
- Asu = A medical practitioner
- Asipu relied more on the supernatural whereas Asu dealed directly with the physical symptoms the patient presented with
SIMILARITIES
- Equally respected
- Both types of healers
- Both believed the supernatural source for illness
What was the Work life of doctors?
- Both types of physicians healed at temple and house calls
- THE CITY OF ISIN - training centre for physicians
- No evidence of private practice
- Kings and the more affluent had their own physicians
Were women allowed to be doctors?
YES
[there were more female physicians in SUMER]
How did prescriptions work?
Prescriptions were ground by the doctor in the presence of the patient
What were antiseptics made from?
Alcohol, honey and myrrh
What were the treatments in Mesopotamia?
- Surgery was more advanced than in other regions of the time
- Wounds - washing, applying a plaster and binding the wound
- Hand and wounds were cleaned with BEER and HOT WATER
What did the standards therapeutic texts include and not include?
INCLUDED:
- complaints
- a list of ingredients & instructions for their preparations
- instructions for administering the medication
NOT INCLUDED:
- Amount of substances
(assumed that doctors should already know from their training)
What did Asipu focus on as a sex therapist?
Sexual potency in males and arousal in females
What was the surgeon’s knife (naglabu) depicted as in pictures?
A barber with a razor
Scissors and knives were sharpened using what?
Grindstone
Which surgeries were in Mesopotamia?
- Chest and abdominal surgery
- Superficial lesions and snakebites
- Castration
- Plastic operations by barbers to remove slaves’ branding marks
- Abscess drainage and scraping infected skull bone
What were the progresses in Medicine?
- Took the pulse to determine one’s state of health
- Recognised the importance of antiseptics and cleanliness
What still remained the same in Mesopotamia?
- Never equated the pulse with a circulatory system
- Never recognised uncleanliness as encouraging germs or infection
- Still magical explanations for diseases
Describe how doctors made their Prognosis
Doctors made their prognosis based on superstitions. Success of treatment was based upon what sights the doctor sees while on route to the patient’s home & dreams and visions of the patient are taken into account.
What was Pharmacy like?
- 250 plants, 120 minerals & 200 other substances
- Narcotics present
- Opium poppies present in Sumerian by 3000 BC
On what were prescription texts presented on?
Clay tablets
What was the Law of Hammurabi?
A code of laws that dictated proper governance and laws for the citizens as well as rules for practicing medicine written on a large block of polished diorite
Doctor’s were punished based on the patient’s _________
Status
If a physician makes a large incision in the slave of a freed man and kills him, he shall ______________
replace the slave with another slave
