CLST 301-Lecture 6

A brief overview of Greek and Roman medicine
         religion
                                Greek and                                                                                        Roman medical Culture
philosophy                                                        bio-medicine
1. Bio-medical theories
1. Theory of humours    
umor = liquid (Latin)
The four humours
Fire, Air, Earth, Water
     Fire
hot                              dry
Air                                              Earth
wet                              cold
             Water
Fire - Bile (Choler) - choleric
Earth - Black Bile  - melancholic
Water- Phlegm  -phlegmatic
Air - Blood - sanguine
2. Theory of pneuma  ("breath, "spirit")
      i. something related to arteries
3. Corpusclar Theory
1. openings within the body, and (corpucsles) flowing through them, things flowing where they shouldn't, or things blocking the corpuscles moving through which causes disease
2. Bio-medical sects
1. Dogmatism
• various theories of disease aetiology (what causes a disease)
• importance of understanding human anatomy
• importance of considering the individual patient: physical temperament, environment, symptoms
2. Empiricism
• specific disease aetiology of no interest or consequence
• understanding of anatomy unnecessary
• physician must rely primarily upon prior experience in treating a patient
3. Methodism
• specific disease aetiology of no interest or consequence
• understanding of anatomy unnecessary
• treatment based on tightening or loosening channels to allow flow of corpuscles(Corpuscular Theory)
• popular since it promised swift, gentle therapies
Wasn't much difference between the treatments of different sects
3. Therapies
The sects all used the same treatments but had different reasons for using them
Two different approaches to medical treatment:
Principle of Contraries:
• treatment opposite to symptoms (e.g. treat a "wet" illness with dryness")
Principle of Similars:
• treatment the same as symptoms (e.g. treat a "wet" illness with more "wetness")
1. Diet
2. Rest or exercise
3. bathing
4. pharmaceuticals(herbs or minerals)
5. purging, or various sorts: bleeding, vomiting, enemas
6. surgery
7. cautery (burning the skin)
I swear by Apollo the Healer, by Asclepius, by Hygeia,
and by all the powers of healing,
and call to witness all the gods and goddesses
that I may keep this oath..
Hippocratic oath
Asclepius - God of Medicine
worships
at Epidauros ( in Greece)
Process for Being Healed at a Temple of Asclepius
• undergo ritual fasting and purification
• spend the night in the temple
• be visited in your dreams by Asclepius ( and he'll heal whatever illness )
• or be given directions that must be followed in the morning
• Make a testimonial offering when healed
5. Important figures in Greek and Roman Medicine
Hippocrates of Kos
• 5th Century BC
• "The Father of Medicine"
• 60+ medical texts in his name
• Dogmatist
Plato
• Interesting in relationship between soul and body
• wrote Timaeus
Aristotle
• Instituted study of comparative anatomy
• empirical investigations
• systematic classification of natural world
Dioscorides
• 1st Century AD
• Physician and pharmacologist
• De Materia Medica (" on medical matters")
Soranus
• 2nd Century AD physician
• Methodist
• Many medical works, but only Gynaecia survives in original Greek
• Latin translations of a few other works
Galen
• 2nd Century AD Dogmatist
• immense number of extant medical texts (100s)
• dissection work important
• Galen's theories immensely influential on history of Western medicine
Greek and Latin = about 94% of all terminology in medicine & biology
(with Greek by far in predominance)
1. Historical reasons
• Greek was the first language of medicine in the West.
• Greek medical texts put into Latin very early, to form important part of western science.
2. Linguistic reasons
• Ancient Greek and Latin are static.
• Greek and Latin forms easily incorporated into almost all modern European languages.
• Greek lends itself very well to combining forms to make longer more precise terms.