Tag: history of medicine

Ancient traditional Chinese medicine


Assorted  plant and animal parts used in traditional Chinese medicines: dried Lingzhi, ginseng, Luo Han Guo, turtle shell underbelly, and dried curled snakes.

China also developed a large body of traditional medicine. Much of the philosophy of  traditional Chinese medicine derived from empirical observations of disease and illness.  and reflects the classical Chinese belief that individual human experiences express causative principles effective in the environment at all scales. These causative principles, whether material, essential, or mystical, correlate as the expression of the natural order of the universe.

The foundational text of Chinese medicine is the Huangdi neijing , written 5th century to 3rd century BCE.  Near the end of the 2nd century AD, during the Han dynasty, Zhang Zhongjing, wrote a  Treatise on cold damage, which contains the earliest known reference to the Neijing Suwen. The Jin Dynasty practitioner and advocate of acupuncture and moxibustion, Huangfu Mi (215-282), also quotes the Yellow Emperor in his Jiayi jing, c. 265. During the Tang dynasty, the Suwen was expanded and revised, and is now the best extant representation of the foundational roots of traditional Chinese medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine that is based on the use of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage and other forms of therapy has been practiced in China for thousands of years.

In the 18th century, during the Qing dynasty, there was a proliferation of popular books on traditional medicine. Jesuit missionaries introduced Western science and medicine to the royal court, the Chinese physicians ignored them.

Finally in the 19th century, Western medicine was introduced at the local level by Christian medical missionaries from the London Missionary Society (Britain), the Methodist Church (Britain)

Because of the social custom that men and women should not be near to one another, the women of China were reluctant to be treated by male doctors. The missionaries sent women doctors such as Dr.  Mary Hannah Fulton (1854–1927). Supported by the Foreign Missions Board of the Presbyterian Church (USA) she in 1902 founded the first medical college for women in China, the Hackett Medical College for Women, in Guangzhou.

 

Link    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_medicine

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Ancient Indian medicine


Ancient Indian medicine

The Atharvaveda, a sacred text of Hinduism  dating from the Early Iron age, is one of the first Indian text dealing with medicine. The Atharvaveda also contain prescriptions of herbs for various ailments. The knowledge to use of herbs to treat ailments later formed bases for the large part of Ayurveda.

Ayurveda, means  the complete knowledge for long life is another medical system of India. Its two most famous texts belong to the schools of Charaka and Sushruta. The earliest foundations of Ayurveda were built on a synthesis of traditional herbal practices and  theoretical conceptualizations.  There after new  therapies dating from about 600 BCE onwards, and coming out of the communities of thinkers who included the Buddha and others.

According to the compendium of Charaka and  the Charakasamhita , health and disease are not predetermined and life may be prolonged by human effort. The compendium of Susruta, the Susrutasamhita, defines the purpose of medicine to cure the diseases of the sick, protect the healthy, and to prolong life. Both these ancient compendia include details of the examination, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of numerous ailments. The Susrutasamhita is notable for describing procedures on various forms of  surgery, including  rhinoplasty, the repair of torn ear lobes, perineal lithotomy, cataract surgery, and several other excisions and other surgical procedures. Most remarkable is Sushruta’s penchant for scientific classification: His medical treatise consists of 184 chapters, 1,120 conditions are listed, including injuries and illnesses relating to aging and mental illness. The Sushruta Samhita describe 125 surgical instrument, 300 surgical procedures and classifies human surgery in 8 categories.

The Ayurvedic classics mention eight branches of medicine: kayacikitsa (Internal medicine), salyacikitsa  (surgery including anatomy), salakyacikitsa  (eye, ear, nose, and throat diseases), kaumarabhrtya  (pediatrics), bhutavidya  (spirit medicine), and agada tantra (toxicology), rasayana (science of rejuvenation), and vajikarana (Aphrodisiac). Apart from learning these, the student of Āyurveda was expected to know ten arts that were indispensable in the preparation and application of his medicines: distillation, operative skills, cooking, horticulture, metallurgy, sugar manufacture, pharmacy, analysis and separation of minerals, compounding of metals, and preparation of alkalies. The teaching of various subjects was done during the instruction of relevant clinical subjects. The normal length of the student’s training appears to have been seven years. But the physician was to continue to learn.

As an alternative form of medicine in India, Unani medicine got deep roots and royal patronage during medieval times. It progressed during Indian sultanate and Mughal periods. Unani medicine is  similar to  Ayurveda. Both are based on theory of the presence of the elements (in Unani, they are considered to be fire, water, earth and air) in the human body. According to followers of Unani medicine, these elements are present in different fluids and their balance leads to health and their imbalance leads to illness.

By the 18th century A.D., Sanskrit medical wisdom still dominated. Muslim rulers built large hospitals in 1595 in Hyderabad, and in Delhi in 1719.

 

Link    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_medicine

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Early civilizations Egypt: ancient Egyptian medicine


One of  the large, earliest and meaningful medical traditions were developed in Ancient Egypt.  Herodotus described the Egyptians as one of healthiest people because of possessing the notable public health system.  He found the practice of medicine very specialized. Although Egyptian medicine, to a considerable extent, dealt with the supernatural, it eventually developed into more practical use in the various  fields  of medicine.

Medical information in the Edwin Smith Papyrus may date to a time as early as 3000 BC. Imhotep  in the 3rd dynasty may be founder of ancient Egyptian medicine and with being the original author of the Edwin Smith Papyrus, detailing cures, ailments and anatomical observations. The Edwin Smith Papyrus is regarded as a copy of several earlier works and was written in 1600 BC, contains earliest recorded reference to brain. It is an ancient textbook on surgery almost completely devoid of magical thinking and describes in exquisite detail the examination, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of numerous ailments.

The Kahun Gynecological Papyrus treats women’s complaints, including problems with conception. Dating to 1800 BCE, it is the oldest surviving medical text of any kind.

Medical institutions, referred to as Houses of Life are known to have been established in ancient Egypt as early as 2200 BC.

Ancient Egypt also had one earliest known physician Hesy- Ra . He was Chief of Dentists and Physicians for King Djoser in the 27th century BCE. Also, the earliest known woman physician,  Peseshet, practiced in Ancient Egypt  at the time of the 4th dynasty . Her title was Lady Overseer of the Lady Physicians. In addition to her supervisory role, Peseshet trained midwives at an ancient Egyptian medical school in Sais.

 

 

Link    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_medicine

 

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Evolution of medical science


 

The   practice of medicine  by trained professionals has been ever evolving  in its approach to   illness and disease, from ancient times to the present.

Early medical traditions evolved in  Babylon, China, Egypt, and India. The Greeks  pioneered the art of   medical diagnosis, prognosis, and advanced medical ethics. The Hippocratic Oath, still taken  by doctors up to today, was written in Greece in the 5th century BCE. In the medieval age, advances in  surgical practices were made and  systematized in Rogerius’s,  The Practice of Surgery. Systematic training of physicians was  started in universities around the years 1220 in Italy.  During the Renaissance,  significant advances were made with invention of microscope and  better understanding of anatomy.   The germ theory of disease in the 19th century led to cures for many infectious diseases. Military doctors advanced the methods of trauma treatment and surgery. Systematic sanitary measures and public health measures  made significant improvement . Advanced research centers opened in the early 20th century, often connected with major hospitals.  Discovery of antibiotics  was major invention in the mid-20th century.. These advancements, along with developments in chemistry, genetics, and lab technology such as the X-ray, was recognized as   modern medicine. Medicine was heavily professionalized in the 20th century, and new careers opened to women as nurses from the 1870s.

 

Link    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_medicine

 

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Evolution of medical science:


 

The   practice of medicine  by trained professionals has been ever evolving  in its approach to illness and disease, from ancient times to the present.

Early medical traditions evolved in  Babylon, China, Egypt, and India. The Greeks  pioneered the art of   medical diagnosis, prognosis, and advanced medical ethics. The Hippocratic Oath, still taken  by doctors up to today, was written in Greece in the 5th century BCE. In the medieval age, advances in  surgical practices were made and  systematized in Rogerius’s,  The Practice of Surgery. Systematic training of physicians was  started in universities around the years 1220 in Italy.  During the Renaissance,  significant advances were made with invention of microscope and  better understanding of anatomy.   The germ theory of disease in the 19th century led to cures for many infectious diseases. Military doctors advanced the methods of trauma treatment and surgery. Systematic sanitary measures and public health measures  made significant improvement . Advanced research centers opened in the early 20th century, often connected with major hospitals.  Discovery of antibiotics  was major invention in the mid-20th century.. These advancements, along with developments in chemistry, genetics, and lab technology such as the X-ray, was recognized as   modern medicine. Medicine was heavily professionalized in the 20th century, and new careers opened to women as nurses (from the 1870s).

 

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