History of Medicine
Pre-History
Our understanding of prehistoric medical practice is from
the study of ancient pictographs that show medical procedures, as well as the
surgical tools uncovered from anthropological sites of ancient societies.
Serious diseases were of primary interest to early humans, although they were
not able to treat them effectively. Many diseases were attributed to the
influence of malevolent demons who were believed to project an alien spirit, a
stone, or a worm into the body of the unsuspecting patient. These diseases were
warded off by incantations, dancing, magic charms and talismans, and various
other measures. If the demon managed to enter the body of its victim, either in
the absence of such precautions or despite them, efforts were made to make the
body uninhabitable to the demon by beating, torturing, and starving the patient.
The alien spirit could also be expelled by potions that caused violent vomiting,
or could be driven out through a hole cut in the skull. This procedure, called
trepanning, was also a remedy for insanity, epilepsy, and headache. Surgical
procedures practiced in ancient societies included cleaning and treating wounds
by cautery (burning or searing tissue), poultices, and sutures, resetting
dislocations and fractures, and using splints to support or immobilize broken
bones. Additional therapy included laxatives and enemas to treat constipation
and other digestive ills. Perhaps the greatest success was achieved by the
discovery of the narcotic and stimulating properties of certain plant extracts.
So successful were these that many continue to be used today, including
digitalis, a heart stimulant extracted from foxglove. Several systems of
medicine, based primarily on magic, folk remedies, and elementary surgery,
existed in various diverse societies before the coming of the more advanced
Greek medicine about the 6th century B.C.
Egypt
Egyptian
medicine was marked by a mystical approach to healing, as well as a more
empirical or rational approach that was based on experience and observation.
Common diseases of the eyes and skin were usually treated rationally by the
physician because of their accessible location; internal disorders continued to
be treated by the spells and incantations of the priest-magician. The physician
emerged around 2600 B.C as an early form of scientist, a type distinct from the
sorcerer and priest. The earliest physician whose name has survived is Imhotep
(lived about 2600 B.C), renowned for his studies of pathology and physiology as
well as his expertise as a pyramid builder and an astrologer. The Egyptian
physician normally spent years of arduous training at temple schools in the arts
of interrogation, inspection, and palpation (examining the body by touch).
Prescriptions contained some drugs that have continued in use through the
centuries. Favourite laxatives were figs, dates, and castor oil. Tannic acid,
derived principally from the acacia nut, was valued in the treatment of burns.
Although Egyptians practiced embalming to preserve bodies after death, their
knowledge of anatomy was minimal. As a result, they attempted only minor
surgical procedures, with the exception of trepanning. According to reports of
the Greek historian Herodotus, the ancient Egyptians recognized dentistry as an
important surgical specialty.