MEDICINE IN ANTIQUITY

MEDICINE IN ANTIQUITY

•Medicine was dominated by magical and religious beliefs• In ancient times, health and illness were

interpreted in a cosmological and anthropological perspective•Medicine was conceived out of sympathy,

born out of necessity, the first man was the first doctor and the first woman, the first nurse

• cave paintings predict that caves were used for ritual gatherings and SHAMANS headed the rituals• Used stone and flint instruments to do

circumcision ,amputations and trephining

•Medicine was practiced to please god through

sacrifices rituals prayers driving out evil spirits witch crafts• Trying to heal snake bites through mantras

and leprosy is a punishment for ones past sins

Witch craft in Zimbabwe

• This was followed by• Ayurveda• Siddha• Unani• Chinese medicine- yin and yang• Egyptian medicine-Imhotep•Mesopotamian,Greek,Roman

INDIAN MEDICINE

• Ayurveda-knowledge of life• Dhanvanthari-Hindu deity of medicine,conceived

out of a tug of war between gods and demons• Atreya-First indian physician and teacher• Ayurveda developed in buddist times.King

Ashoka helped a lot by building schools of medicine and hospitals• Reserpine was extracted from indian snake root

and used in treatment of hypertension for a long time

• Susrutha-Father of indian surgery• Tridosha theory of disease Vata[wind] Pitta[gall] Kapha[mucus]• Disease was a disturbance of these 3• Unani- Muslim rule, traced from Greek

medicine• Homoeopathy-Treatment of diseases by use

of small amount of drugs that in healthy person produces symptoms similar to those of the disease being treated

CHINESE MEDICINE

• Yang and Yin• Yang-Active masculine• Yin-Negative feminine• Balance of these two leads to good health• Bare Foot doctors

• Egyptian-Imhotep• Pulse-speech of the heart• Believed-Disease was due to absorbtion

from the intestine of harmful substances,that gave rise to putrefaction of blood.• Treatment-Cathartics,enema,blood letting

GREEK MEDICINE

• Rejected supernatural theory and looked on disease as a natural process• Aesculapius was a god of medicine.• The rod of Asclepius, a snake-entwined

staff, remains a symbol of medicine today

DAWN OF SCIENTIFIC MEDICINE• REVIVAL OF MEDICINE• SANITARY AWAKENING• RISE OF PUBLIC HEALTH• GERM THEORY• BIRTH OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE

REVIVAL OF MEDICINE

• Paracelsus attacked the idea of superstition• Fracastorious –founder of epidemiology• Spoke about spread of disease through

minute invisible particles• Recognised syphylis spread through sexual

contact• Vasalius[anatomy]-first man of mordern

science

• Ambrose paire-Father of surgery• Establishment of United company of

barber surgeons,later called as Royal college of Surgeons• Sydenham-first distinguished

epidemiologist[ diff diagnosis of scarlet fever,dysentry,malaria and cholera]

SANITARY AWAKENING

• Industrial revolution-18th century• Led to creation of slum, over crowding,

accumulation of filth, higher sickness and death rates• Great cholera epidemic-1832• Edwin Chadwick-investigated ,reported• Led to improved housing and working

conditions• GREAT SANITARY AWAKENING-Mid 19th

century

RISE OF PUBLIC HEALTH

• CHOLERA-Father of public health• John Snow-Role of polluted drinking water• William Budd-Typhoid spread by water not

sewer gas• Beginning of 20th century,broad foundations of

public health• Clean water,surroundings• Improved housing• Control of offensive trade were laid

GERM THEORY

• Louis Pasteur-Disproved theory of spontaneous generation• Proved presence of bacteria in air• Robert Koch-Anthrax caused by bacteria• Confirmed Germ Theory•Medicine finally turned towards scientic

knowledge and stopped blaming religious beliefs and spontaneous occurences

BIRTH OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE• 17th century-role of fruits –scurvy• John hunter-small pox vaccination • Discovery of causative organisms ,germ

theory –foundation of preventive medicine• Knowledge of bacteriology-control of

diseases[quarantine,water purification,proper waste disposal,insect control]