WEEK 2 (Medicine in Mesopotamia)

Question 1

What happened in Mesopotamia?

Answer 1

• Agriculture improved the people’s lifestyles
• New health problems
• Malnutrition
• Vitamin deficiency

Question 2

What were the diseases that thrived in Mesopotamia?

Answer 2

• Smallpox
• Tuberculosis
• Influenzas
• Rhinoviruses & the Common cold
• Measles
• Polio
• Cholera
• Typhoid
• Shistomiasis (parasitic worms)

Question 3

What did irrigation and farming result in?

Answer 3

An increase in parasites and parasite-carrying disease

Question 4

Who was Gula?

Answer 4

Also known as NINKARRAK and NINISINNA was a goddess presiding over health and healing (named “great physician of the black-headed ones”)

Question 5

Who was Pabilsag?

Answer 5

Gula’s spouse who was also a divine judge

Question 6

Who were Gula’s sons and daughter?

Answer 6

Sons - DAMU and NINAZU
Daughter - GUNURRA

Question 7

What were doctors seen as in Mesopotamia?

Answer 7

Agents of deities

Question 8

Which symbol for Medicine originated in Mesopotamia and what did it represent?

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

What did the people of Mesopotamia believe was the cause of illness?

Answer 9

The sin the patient had committed

Question 10

What did the people of Mesopotamia believe was the cure for illness?

Answer 10

Some form of confession of the sin

Question 11

What was believed to be the diagnosis for the illnesses?

Answer 11

The will of the gods and their intervention in human affairs

Question 12

Medical books from which library disproved the theory that there were no doctors at all in Mesopotamia?

Answer 12

Ashurbanipal

Question 13

What was “Asu”?

Answer 13

A medical doctor who treated illness or injury empirically

Question 14

What was “Asipu”?

Answer 14

A healer who relied upon magic

Question 15

What medical professionals did Mesopotamia have?

Answer 15

• Asu
• Asipu
• Surgeons
• Veterinarians
• Dentists (performed by both kinds of doctors)
• Midwives

Question 16

What were the different roles in childbirth?

Answer 16

• 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

Question 17

What were the similarities and differences between Asu and Asipu?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

What was the Work life of doctors?

Answer 18

• 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

Question 19

Were women allowed to be doctors?

Answer 19

YES

[there were more female physicians in SUMER]

Question 20

How did prescriptions work?

Answer 20

Prescriptions were ground by the doctor in the presence of the patient

Question 21

What were antiseptics made from?

Answer 21

Alcohol, honey and myrrh

Question 22

What were the treatments in Mesopotamia?

Answer 22

• 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

Question 23

What did the standards therapeutic texts include and not include?

Answer 23

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)

Question 24

What did Asipu focus on as a sex therapist?

Answer 24

Sexual potency in males and arousal in females

Question 25

What was the surgeon’s knife (naglabu) depicted as in pictures?

Answer 25

A barber with a razor

Question 26

Scissors and knives were sharpened using what?

Answer 26

Grindstone

Question 27

Which surgeries were in Mesopotamia?

Answer 27

• 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

Question 28

What were the progresses in Medicine?

Answer 28

• Took the pulse to determine one’s state of health
• Recognised the importance of antiseptics and cleanliness

Question 29

What still remained the same in Mesopotamia?

Answer 29

• Never equated the pulse with a circulatory system
• Never recognised uncleanliness as encouraging germs or infection
• Still magical explanations for diseases

Question 30

Describe how doctors made their Prognosis

Answer 30

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.

Question 31

What was Pharmacy like?

Answer 31

• 250 plants, 120 minerals & 200 other substances
• Narcotics present
• Opium poppies present in Sumerian by 3000 BC

Question 32

On what were prescription texts presented on?

Answer 32

Clay tablets

Question 33

What was the Law of Hammurabi?

Answer 33

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

Question 34

Doctor’s were punished based on the patient’s _________

Answer 34

Status

Question 35

If a physician makes a large incision in the slave of a freed man and kills him, he shall ______________

Answer 35

replace the slave with another slave