Medicine, Physick, and Surgery
In the
Late Middle Ages,
and Renaissance
- Introduction
- Background
- Ancient
- Babylonian
/ Egyptian / Assyrian, etc
- Strong
grounding in physical treatment
- BUT, magical / non-rational vs disease
- Classical
Greek
- Beginnings
of rational thought / logical reasoning – Not just about medicine
- Hippocrates --
“I’ve got a start, you carry on” gets corrupted into dogma
- Dioscorides
– actually practiced in Rome
– Materia Medica
- Roman
- Galen
(actually Greek living in Rome)
– beginnings of anatomical study
- Again,
knew perfectly well that his animals weren’t exactly the same as humans.
However, his caveats and qualifications get corrupted into MORE dogma.
- Arabs
- Preservation
of Greco-Roman knowledge through the Dark Ages
- Beginnings
of some research and discoveries as well.
- Situation
- Three
Branches of Health Care
- Physician
- Surgeon
- Apothecary
- Return
/ Resurrection of Ancient Knowledge
- Beginnings
of Empirical study
- Physician
- University-trained,
upper-crust if not upper-class
- Learned
in Wisdom of the Ancients
- Astrology,
herbs, Hippocrates, Galen, et al.
- Examines,
diagnoses, and prescribes
- Generally
DOESN’T get hands dirty
- Apothecary
- Tradesman
(or woman) who’s undergone an apprenticeship
- Field
of knowledge is herbs and remedies, and the compounding of medicines
- In
addition to herbal medicine, there is some chemical (or alchemical)
material being used.
- Dabbled
somewhat in midwifery and surgery. Also dispensed medical advice, and
patent medicines.
- Surgeon
- Again,
a tradesman – apprenticed anywhere from 7 to 14 years
- In
places like England
and France, certified
by sitting for a board of the College
of Surgeons
- Widely
variable in skill, training, and social class
- Mountebanks
and itinerant tooth-pullers
- Barber-Surgeons
- Military
and Court Surgeons
- Area
of expertise is physical problems, and the repair thereof.
- Small-town
barber-surgeon – major business is going to be haircuts and shaves, with
the occasional bleeding, purging, or tooth-drawing
- (Surgeon, cont’d)
-
- Military
surgeon – equivalent to a modern trauma surgeon. Has to deal with
everything from bullets to bill-hooks.
- Ship’s
surgeon – will be packing some physick in the chest, since nearest
physician or apothecary’s possibly on the other side of the ocean
- Medical theory of the times
- Transition,
ca 500-300 BCE, from superstition to rational thought / logical analysis
- Four
Bodily Humours
- Blood:
Hot and Moist
- Phlegm:
Cold and Moist
- Melancholy
aka Black Bile: Cold and Dry
- Choler
aka Yellow Bile: Hot and Dry
- Imbalance
in Humours can cause illness; treatment involves re-balancing.
- Treatment
with herbs or chemicals – treat by sympathy, using medicines that push the condition to its
conclusion; or treat by antipathy, using medicines to fight the condition
- Excess
of phlegm, for example, might be treated by hot, dry herbs.
- Physical
treatment – bleeding for fevers, blistering for phlegm, etcetera
- Medicines – some worked, some didn’t
- Yarrow
– Comfrey – Willow Bark – St
John’s Wort – Clove Oil – Quinine / Chinchona –
compounds like Laudanum
- Items
with strong physiological effects, but hazardous – Wormwood – Belladonna
– Tobacco
- Items
of dubious effect – lettuce juice (wild yes, domestic no) – plantain
–oddball items like pigeon poop or deer’s antler
- Experimentation, vs “Wisdom”
- Administration
- With
no IVs or hypodermics, what does one do?
- 4
ways – Inhaled / Sniffed; Swallowed; Skin Absorption; Per Rectum
- Example
of Tobacco: Inhaled to purge Phlegm; Swallowed as a Vomit; Poultice for
stings and “green wounds”; Injected as a Parasiticide
- Surgery
- Anesthesia
/ Pain Control
- Laudanum
- Bite
Sticks and Restraints
- Cleanliness
/ Infection
- Microscopes
1699, Germ Theory of Disease, mid 19th C
- Empirical
evidence: Clean = good
- Styptics,
Astringents, & Antiseptics
- Practical
issues
- Speed
- Controlling
bleeding
- Drains
and Infection
- Finer
points
- Gory
stuff
- Trephination
- Amputation
- Dentistry
- Bleedings
SOURCES
(Much more useful than this small class
outline)
Quick References: Wikipedia, with
doses of Salt as Appropriate
Culpeper, Nicholas, Culpeper's Complete Herbal and English Physician originally 1640s (Paperback - Mar 1987)
Galen, 131-201CE, On the Natural
Faculties. Translated
by A. J. Brock. University of Adelaide,
at http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/g/galen/g15nf/
Galen, while more of a theorist than Hippocrates, does display analytical
thinking about medicine, rather than the magical thinking of pre-rational
medicine.
Hippocrates, 460-377BCE, Works. Translated by Francis
Adams. Available at the University
of Adelaide, http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/h/hippocrates/ Hippocrates runs to practical applications
for various ailments.
Longrigg, James, 1934-, Greek rational medicine [electronic resource]
: philosophy and medicine from Alcmaeon to the Alexandrians. The
link for the book is http://www.netLibrary.com/urlapi.asp?action=summary&v=1&bookid=79901. Book covers the development of medicine in Greece
from pre-rational, deriving from Egyptian and Babylonian sources, through
classical-period beginnings of rational practice.
Magner, Lois N., 1943-, A History Of Medicine. Second Edition, Publisher: Taylor &
Francis, Pub date: c2005.
National
Institutes of Health, “Greek
Medicine from the Gods to Galen” (2002). Located at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/greek/index.html.
This is an online exhibit giving a brief overview of Greek medicine, starting with divine /
pre-rational concepts and progressing forward.
Paré, Ambroise, 1510-1590, The Apologie and Treatise of AmbroiseParé. Published by the Classics of Medicine Library, 1984.
Rawcliffe, Carole, Medicine
& Society in Later Medieval England.
Sutton Illustrated History Paperbacks Paperback - Mar 1998
Woodall, John, The Surgions Mate. Originally
published 1617. Current ed. By John Kirkup, 1978.