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GENERAL REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE Herbalism See Also: Herbalism There is no actual record of when the use of plants for medicinal purposes first started, although the first generally accepted use of plants as healing agents were depicted in the cave paintings discovered in the Lascaux caves in France, which have been Radiocarbon Dated to between 13,000 - 25,000 BC. Over time and with trial and error, a small base of knowledge was acquired within early tribal communities. As this knowledge base expanded over the generations, tribal culture developed into specialized areas. These 'specialized jobs' became what are now known as healers or Shaman s. Indian medicine See Also: Ayurveda In Mehrgarh , Pakistan , archeologists made the discovery that the people of Indus Valley Civilization , even from the early Harappan periods (c. 3300 BC ), had knowledge of medicine and Dentistry . The physical anthropologist that carried out the examinations, Professor Andrea Cucina from the University of Missouri-Columbia, mgade the discovery when he was cleaning the teeth from one of the men. Later research in the same area found evidence of teeth having been drilled, dating back 9,000 years. {Link without Title} Ayurveda (the science of living), is the literate, scholarly system of medicine that originated over 2000 years ago in South Asia. Its two most famous texts belong to the schools of Caraka and Suśruta . While these writings display some limited continuities with very ancient medical ideas known from the religious literature called the Veda , historians have been able to demonstrate direct historical connections between early āyurveda and the early literature of the Buddhists and Jains. It seems that the earliest foundations of āyurveda were built on a synthesis of selected ancient herbal practices dating back to the early second millennium BC, together with a massive addition of theoretical conceptualizations, new nosologies and new therapies dating from about 400 BC onwards, and coming out of the communities of thinkers who included the Buddha and others.
According to the compendium of Caraka , the Carakasamhitā , health and disease are not predetermined and life may be prolonged by human effort. The compendium of Suśruta , the Suśrutasamhitā 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 Suśrutasamhitā 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. The āyurvedic classics spoke of eight branches of medicine: kāyācikitsā ( Internal Medicine ), śalyacikitsā ( Surgery including Anatomy ), śālākyacikitsā ( Eye , Ear , Nose , and Throat diseases), kaumārabhṛtya ( Pediatrics ), bhūtavidyā (spirit medicine), and agada tantra ( Toxicology ), rasāyana (science of rejuvenation), and vājīkaraṇa (aphrodesiacs, mainly for men). 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 alkalis. The teaching of various subjects was done during the instruction of relevant clinical subjects. For example, teaching of anatomy was a part of the teaching of surgery, Embryology was a part of training in pediatrics and Obstetrics , and the knowledge of Physiology and Pathology was interwoven in the teaching of all the clinical disciplines. At the closing of the initiation, the Guru gave a solemn address to the students where the guru directed the students to a life of chastity, honesty, and Vegetarianism . The student was to strive with all his being for the health of the sick. He was not to betray patients for his own advantage. He was to dress modestly and avoid strong drink. He was to be collected and self-controlled, measured in speech at all times. He was to constantly improve his knowledge and technical skill. In the home of the patient he was to be courteous and modest, directing all attention to the patient's welfare. He was not to divulge any knowledge about the patient and his family. If the patient was incurable, he was to keep this to himself if it was likely to harm the patient or others. The normal length of the student's training appears to have been seven years. Before graduation, the student was to pass a test. But the physician was to continue to learn through texts, direct observation ( Pratyaksha ), and through inference ( Anumāna ). In addition, the Vaidyas attended meetings where knowledge was exchanged. The doctors were also enjoined to gain knowledge of unusual remedies from hillsmen, herdsmen, and forest-dwellers.
Egyptian medicine See Also: Ancient Egyptian medicine Medical information contained in the in Egypt was performed in Egypt around 2750 BC (see Surgery ). Imhotep in the 3rd Dynasty is sometimes credited with being the 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 circa 1600 BC . 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 ( {Link without Title} ). Conversely, the ) is full of incantations and foul applications meant to turn away disease-causing demons, and other superstition. The Ebers papyrus also provides our earliest possible documentation of ancient awareness of Tumor s, but ancient medical terminology being badly understood, cases pEbers 546 and 547 for instance may refer to simple swellings. The Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus Griffith, F. Ll. ''The Petrie Papyri: Hieratic Papyri from Kahun and Gurob'' treats women's complaints, problems with conception. Thirty four cases detailing diagnosis and treatment survive, some of them fragmentarily The Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus Medical institutions, referred to as ''Houses of Life'' are known to have been established in some workers enjoyed such benefits as Medical Insurance , Pensions and Sick Leave {Link without Title} . The earliest known physician is also credited to , 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 graduated midwives at an ancient Egyptian medical school in Sais (see ''Medicine In Ancient Egypt, page 3'' ). See also the article on ancient Egyptian medicine posted at ''Indiana University: Medicine in Ancient Egypt'' . Persian medicine The practice and study of medicine in Persia has a long and prolific history. Being at the crossroads of the East and the West frequently put Persia in the midst of developments in both ancient Greek and Indian medicine. And many contributions were added to this body of knowledge in both pre- and post-Islamic Iran as well. The first generation of Persian physicians was trained at the Academy Of Jundishapur , where the teaching hospital has sometimes been claimed to have been invented. Rhazes, for example, became the first physician to systematically use alcohol in his practice as a physician. However, some scholars dispute the importance or even the existence of an ``academy'' at Jundishapur. The ''Comprehensive Book of Medicine'' (Large Comprehensive, Hawi or "al-Hawi" or "The Continence") was written by the Iranian chemist Rhazes (known also as Razi ), the "Large Comprehensive" was the most sought after of all his compositions. In it, Rhazes recorded clinical cases of his own experience and provided very useful recordings of various diseases. The "''Kitab fi al-jadari wa-al-hasbah''" by Rhazes, with its introduction on Measles and Smallpox was also very influential in Europe . The Mutazilite philosopher and doctor Ibn Sina (also known as Avicenna in the western world) was another influential figure. His '' The Canon Of Medicine '', sometimes considered the most famous book in the history of medicine, remained a standard text in Europe up until its Age Of Enlightenment . Chinese medicine See Also: Traditional Chinese medicine 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 by Taoist physicians 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. During the golden age of his reign from 2696 to 2598 B.C, as a result of a dialogue with his minister Ch'i Pai, the Yellow Emperor is supposed by Chinese tradition to have composed his ''Neijing (內經) Suwen (素問)'' or ''Basic Questions of Internal Medicine''. During the Han dynasty, Chang Chung-Ching, who was mayor of Chang-sha near the end of the second century A.D., wrote a ''Treatise on Typhoid Fever'', which contains the earliest known reference to '' Neijing Suwen ''. The Jin Dynasty practitioner and advocate of Acupuncture and Moxibustion , Huang-fu Mi (215-282 A.D), also quotes the Yellow Emperor in his ''Chia I Ching'', ca. 265 A.D. During the Tang dynasty, Wang Ping claimed to have located a copy of the originals of the Neijing Suwen, which he expanded and edited substantially. This work was revisited by an imperial commission during the eleventh century A.D., and the result is our best extant representation of the foundational roots of traditional Chinese medicine. Hebrew medicine Most of our knowledge of ancient Hebrew medicine during the 1st Millennium BCE comes from the Torah , i.e. the Five Books of Moses , which contain various health related laws and rituals, such as isolating infected people (Leviticus 13:45-46), washing after handling a dead body (Numbers 19:11-19) and burying excrement away from camp (Deuteronomy 23:12-13). Max Neuberger, writing in his "History of Medicine" says" "The commands concern prophylaxis and suppression of epidemics, suppression of venereal disease and prostitution, care of the skin, baths , food, housing and clothing, regulation of labour , sexual life , discipline of the people , etc. Many of these commands, such as Sabbath rest, circumcision, laws concerning food (interdiction of blood and pork), measures concerning menstruating and lying-in women and those suffering from gonorrhoea, isolation of lepers, and hygiene of the camp, are, in view of the conditions of the climate, surprisingly rational." Greco-Roman medicine See Also: Medicine in ancient Greece Medieval medicine Since the discovery in 1991 of the frozen and preserved body of Ötzi The Iceman in the Austrian-Italian Alps, it has been thought that the history of medicine moved further back in time. He was aged about 46 and had over 40 tattoos, most of them in locations where medical analysis also showed he had disease or pain such as arthritis. His death occurred in 3300 BC and his body, held in the museum in Bolzano , is the oldest preserved European Mummy . played a very important part in early Western medicine; most university-educated physicians were trained in at least the basics of astrology to use in their practice]] As societies developed in Europe and Asia, belief systems were replaced with a different natural system. The Greeks , from Hippocrates , developed a humoral medicine system where treatment was to restore the balance of Humours within the body. '' Ancient Medicine '' is a treatise on medicine, written roughly 400 BC by Hippocrates. Similar views were espoused in China and in India . (See Medicine In Ancient Greece for more details.) In Greece, through Galen until the Renaissance the main thrust of medicine was the maintenance of health by control of Diet and Hygiene . Anatomical knowledge was limited and there were few surgical or other cures, doctors relied on a good relation with patients and dealt with minor ailments and soothing chronic conditions and could do little when epidemic diseases, growing out of Urbanization and the Domestication of animals, then raged across the world. Medieval medicine was an evolving mixture of the Scientific and the spiritual. In the early Middle Ages , following the fall of the Roman Empire , standard medical knowledge was based chiefly upon surviving Greek and Roman texts, preserved in monasteries and elsewhere. Ideas about the origin and cure of Disease were not, however, purely Secular , but were also based on a Spiritual world view, in which factors such as destiny, sin, and astral influences played as great a part as any physical cause. Medicine was notably not one of the seven classical Artes Liberales , and was consequently looked upon more as a handicraft than as a science. Medicine did, nevertheless, establish itself as a faculty, along with Law and Theology in the first European Universities from the 12th century. Islamic medicine manuscript, dated 1200 CE, titled ''Anatomy of the Eye'', authored by al-Mutadibih.]] See Also: Islamic medicine The Islamic Civilization rose to primacy in medical science as Muslim Physician s contributed significantly to the field of medicine, including the subjects of Anatomy and Physiology , with such thinkers as Abu Al-Qasim (Abulcasis), Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Nafis , and Al-Razi (Rhazes). Ibn Nafis (d. 1288) described human Blood Circulation . This discovery would be 'rediscovered' by William Harvey in 1628 . Although it is startling that Ibn Nafis had made the discovery so long before Harvey, there is no indication that Harvey had read the treatise, or that Ibn Nafis' works were available to the West at that time. Maimonides , although a Jew himself, made various contributions to Arabic medicine in the 13th century. The ''Comprehensive Book of Medicine'' was written by Rhazes . The ''Large Comprehensive'', was the most sought after of all his compositions. In it, Rhazes recorded clinical cases of his own experience and provided very useful recordings of various diseases. The "Comprehensive Book of Medicine", with its introduction on measles and smallpox, was also very influential in Europe. Al-Kindi was a great Muslim doctor, who wrote many books on the subject of medicine. The Mutazilite philosopher and doctor Ibn Sina was another influential figure. His "The Canon of Medicine" remained a standard text in Europe up until the renewal of the Muslim tradition of scientific medicine. Ibn Nafis described human blood circulation. This discovery would be rediscovered, or perhaps merely demonstrated, by William Harvey in 1628. He generally receives most of his credit in Western history. Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis), regarded as the "father of modern surgery",Martin-Araguz, A.; Bustamante-Martinez, C.; Fernandez-Armayor, Ajo V.; Moreno-Martinez, J. M. (2002). "Neuroscience in al-Andalus and its influence on medieval scholastic medicine", ''Revista de neurología'' 34 (9), p. 877-892. contributed greatly to the discipline of medical Surgery with his '' Kitab Al-Tasrif '' ("''Book of Concessions''"), a 30-volume medical Encyclopedia which was later translated to Latin and used in European and Muslim Medical School s for centuries. Avicenna , who is considered one of the greatest medical scholars in history, wrote '' The Canon Of Medicine '' and '' The Book Of Healing '', which remained popular textbooks in the Islamic world and medieval Europe for centuries. In the 15th century, the Persian work by Mansur ibn Muhammad Ibn Al-Faqih Ilyas entitled ''Tashrih al-badan'' ("''Anatomy of the body''") contained comprehensive diagrams of the body's structural, Nervous and Circulatory System s. The Arab physician Ibn Al-Nafis , proposed the theory of Pulmonary Circulation . Other medical advancements came in the fields of pharmacology and Pharmacy .H. R. Turner (1997), pp.136—138 Unani medicine is the ancient system of medicine which is based on Arabic and Persian teaching and is widely practiced in India. George Sarton , the father of the history of science, wrote in the ''Introduction to the History of Science'':Dr. A. Zahoor and Dr. Z. Haq (1997). ''Quotations From Famous Historians of Science'' , Cyberistan . European Renaissance and Enlightenment medicine This idea of medicine was challenged in Europe by the rise of experimental investigation, principally in dissection, examining bodies in a manner alien to other cultures. The work of individuals like Andreas Vesalius and William Harvey challenged accepted folklore with scientific evidence. Understanding and diagnosis improved but with little direct benefit to health. Few effective drugs existed, beyond Opium and Quinine , folklore cures and almost or actually poisonous metal-based compounds were popular, if useless, treatments. Important figures:
Modern medicine Medicine was revolutionized in the 19th century and beyond by advances in Chemistry and laboratory techniques and equipment, old ideas of infectious disease epidemiology were replaced with Bacteriology . Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865) in 1847 dramatically reduced the death rate of new mothers from Childbed Fever by the simple expedient of requiring physicians to clean their hands before attending to women in Childbirth . His discovery predated the Germ Theory Of Disease . However, his discoveries were not appreciated by his contemporaries and came into general use only with discoveries of British surgeon Joseph Lister , who in 1865 proved the principles of Antisepsis ; However, medical conservatism on new breakthroughs in pre-existing science prevented them from being generally well received during the 19th century. After Charles Darwin 's 1859 publication of '' The Origin Of Species '', Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) published in 1865 his books on pea plants, which would be later known as Mendel's Laws . Re-discovered at the turn of the century, they would form the basis of Classical Genetics . The 1953 discovery of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick would open the door to Molecular Biology and modern genetics. During the late 19th century and the first part of the 20th century, several physicians, such as Nobel prize winner Alexis Carrel, supported Eugenics , a theory first formulated in 1865 by Francis Galton . Eugenics was discredited as a science after the Nazis ' experiments in World War II became known; however, Compulsory Sterilization programs continued to be used in modern countries (including the US, Sweden or Peru) until much later. Semmelweis's work was supported by the discoveries made by Louis Pasteur , who produced in 1880 the Vaccine against rabies. Linking microorganisms with disease, Pasteur brought about a revolution in medicine. He also invented with Claude Bernard (1813-1878) the process of Pasteurization still in use today. His experiments confirmed the germ theory. Claude Bernard aimed at establishing Scientific Method in medicine; he published ''An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine'' in 1865. Beside this, Pasteur, along with Robert Koch (who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1905), founded bacteriology. Koch was also famous for the discovery of the Tubercle Bacillus ( 1882 ) and the Cholera Bacillus ( 1883 ) and for his development of Koch's Postulates . The participation of women in medical care (beyond serving as midwives, sitters and cleaning women) was brought about by the likes of Florence Nightingale . These women showed a previously male dominated profession the elemental role of nursing in order to lessen the aggravation of patient mortality which resulted from lack of hygiene and nutrition. Nightingale set up the St Thomas hospital, post-Crimea, in 1852. Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to formally study, and subsequently practice, medicine in the United States. It was in this era that actual cures were developed for certain endemic infectious diseases. However the decline in many of the most lethal diseases was more due to improvements in public health and nutrition than to medicine. It was not until the 20th century that the application of the Scientific Method to medical research began to produce multiple important developments in medicine, with great advances in Pharmacology and surgery. During the First World War , Alexis Carrel and Henry Dakin developed the Carrel-Dakin method of treating wounds with sutures, which prior to the development of widespread antibiotics, was a major medical progress. The antibiotic prevented the deaths of thousands during the conquest of Vichy France in 1944. The great war spurred the usage of Roentgen's X-ray, and the electrocardiograph, for the monitoring of internal bodily functions, However, this was overshadowed by the remarkable mass production of penicillum antibiotics, which resulted from government and public pressure. In the early 1930s scientists in Nazi Germany definitively linked Smoking to Lung Cancer , leading to the most aggressive anti-smoking campaign ever. This knowledge was lost with the 1945 United States' occupation of Germany . (Ref: ''The Nazi War on Cancer'' Robert N. Proctor, 2000, ISBN 0-691-07051-2) Lunatic Asylum s began to appear in the Industrial Era . Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926) introduced new medical categories of mental illness, which eventually came into psychiatric usage despite their basis in behavior rather than Pathology Or Etiology . In the 1920s Surrealist opposition to psychiatry was expressed in a number of surrealist publications. In the 1930s several controversial medical practices were introduced including inducing seizures (by Electroshock , Insulin or other drugs) or cutting parts of the brain apart ( Leucotomy or Lobotomy ). Both came into widespread use by psychiatry, but there were grave concerns and much opposition on grounds of basic morality, harmful effects, or misuse. In the 1950s new psychiatric drugs, notably the antipsychotic Chlorpromazine , were designed in laboratories and slowly came into preferred use. Although often accepted as an advance in some ways, there was some opposition, due to serious adverse effects such as Tardive Dyskinesia . Patients often opposed psychiatry and refused or stopped taking the drugs when not subject to psychiatric control. There was also increasing opposition to the use of psychiatric hospitals, and attempts to move people back into the community on a collaborative User-led Group approach ("therapeutic communities") not controlled by psychiatry. Campaigns against Masturbation were done in the Victorian Era and elsewhere. Lobotomy was used until the 1970s to treat Schizophrenia . This was denounced by the Anti-psychiatric movement in the 1960s and later. The 20th century witnessed a shift from a master-apprentice paradigm of teaching of clinical medicine to a more "democratic" system of medical schools. With the advent of the Evidence-based Medicine and great advances of information technology the process of change is likely to evolve further, the collation of ideas, resulted in international global projects, such as the Human genome project; However, adversely, the conditions brought about the increasing threat of pandemic spread of mutating diseases, such as SARS, and the danger of the H5N1. Evidence-based medicine, the application of modern scientific method to ask and answer clinical questions, has had a great impact on practice of medicine throughout the world of modern medicine, for speculation of the unknown was elemental to progress. Medical inventions
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