Medieval obsession with
death included the display of clothed corpses.
(Capuchin vaults, Palermo)
In stark contrast, the ancient
Greeks celebrated the healthy, perfected human form
Greek Warrior, found
nr. Riace, Italy, 5th century BC
Asclepios
By observing basic rules
of sanitation and hygiene, and with
doctors attached to the legions, military hospitals, and even field
medics,
a Roman soldier was more likely to survive conflict than any other
soldier
until
the
First
World War.
Biblical Guidelines –
Avoid Water!
"Drink
no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine
often infirmities."
St Paul (1
Timothy 5.23)
Prayer and Oil!
"Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church;
and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name
of the Lord:
And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him
up." James
(5.14,15)
Cloaca Maxima
Rome's 'main drain'. Originally
built in the 6th century BC, it was extensively rebuilt in the 1st
century BC. The sewer is still
in service more than 2000 years later.
In contrast, in Christian
Europe, as late as the 17th century, open sewers – water ditches,
running alongside city walls – were the
only drainage almost everywhere.
Broken
One tactic of siege warfare
was to cut the water supply to a walled city. Where the mighty aqueducts
were broken the still flowing water
formed extensive bogs. Rapidly these new swamps became a breeding ground
for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. |
'God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound
the wise;
and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty.' (1 Corinthians 1:22,27)
St Paul talked the talk. Humanity had to walk the
walk.
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'Pagan'
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'Christian'
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Surgery
2nd
- 3rd centuries AD – Roman
surgical instruments
Almost
indistinguishable from their 21st century counterparts.
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Butchery
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1100
AD
Christian
cure for illness - cauterising!
The idea was that
the blister caused by a hot iron would draw out
a bad 'humour'.
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Eye
Surgery
Roman
suction couching needle for removal of cataracts
(next to modern electric suction needle)!
Through
an extremely fine inner tube a Roman surgeon could
suck the cataract out of his patient's eye.
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Prudery
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1300
AD
Christian
medical journal. The patient keeps his drawers on!
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 Accurate
illustration of Yarrow
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Herbal
Wisdom
Fragment
from De Materia Medica by Dioscurides -
6th century copy of 1st century AD herbal guide which
detailed 500 herbs and their usage. (Prepared for
Julia Anicia, daughter of Emperor Olybrius)
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15th
century - astrology and numerology passes for medical
science.
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Astrology
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The
plant Mullein (Johnson Papyrus)
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Fragment
from 4th century AD herbal guide The Roman/Greek
world had an extensive knowledge of herbalism.
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1400
AD
'Cupping' – Heated
glass bowls used to draw the blood
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Dentistry
Roman, 3rd
century AD
The rich
diet of wealthy Romans ruined their teeth. False teeth,
set in gold.
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1500 AD
Bleeding – cure-all
for centuries. Leeches often used.
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Sanitation 1st
century AD: Roman public flushed toilets, Ephesus By
315 AD Rome had 144 public toilets which were
flushed clean by running water.
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16th
century AD: emptying the potty in Christian Europe |
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” Because
of frequent rains, the streets of the city of Nürnberg
are full of garbage and other wastes flushed by the rain
water, so that the rider has always to worry that the
horse will fall in a deep layer of the dirt and will
look and smell like a dirty swine or that his clothes
will be stained by the mud splashed by other horsemen.”
M. Strell (Die
Abwasserfrage) |
Hospitals – 2nd century
AD |
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1600
AD
Approved
clothing for dealing with plague victims – no
kidding! The beak was filled with sweet-smelling
herbs. |
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'Valetudinarium'
Roman Military Hospitals
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During the
reign of Marcus Aurelius the first true hospitals were
built to serve the needs of the Roman army. They had separate
wards, operating theatre, kitchens, baths, latrines, dispensary,
mortuary and even a herb garden. |
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Neusser:
Roman military hospital. 60 rooms, 300 patients
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Childbirth
2nd century
AD. Relief showing Roman birthing stool. |
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1700
AD
Birthing
with all due decorum! |
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Hygiene
Hadrian's Baths
- Leptis Magna (North Africa).
Bath houses
were a feature of all Romano-Greek cities.
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Pieces
of wood – medieval VD 'cure' |
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Repair
2nd century
AD. Traction tables used to put tension on a displaced
bone or joint, such as a dislocated hip, to realign the
bone correctly
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"Theriac" – dried
and powdered snake. Useless 'cure-all' for centuries |
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Clean
Water
1st
century AD - aqueducts bring fresh water hundreds
of miles. Public baths and a culture of daily
bathing kept many diseases in check.
Contrary
to popular understanding, for most of their length
Roman aqueducts ran underground, in sealed earthenware
pipes similar to modern water mains. |
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19th
century – water carriers hawk buckets in teeming
city streets. Their source – a stand pipe,
drawing water from sources polluted with human waste – worked
delightfully well in spreading cholera and typhoid. |
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The
Greek Achievement:
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Hippocrates
Galen
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Medicine
in the Ancient World
Gods
dominated the lives of the Greeks but Greek physicians
nonetheless tried to find a natural explanation for
illness. Medicine, as opposed to hocus-pocus,
was practiced at least as early as 1000 years BC. Hippocrates of
Cos (460 - 377 BC), is credited with being the first
to SEPARATE MEDICINE FROM RELIGION and DISEASE FROM
THE SUPERNATURAL. He is best remembered for his Oath
of Medical ETHICS, still honoured, in modified form,
today.
The
gods had a role to play, of course. Apollo was
consulted, as was Asclepios and
his two daughter goddesses Panacea and Hygieia.
Science and superstition coalesced at temple/hospitals – asclepeia – built
at places such as Epidaurus, Corinth, Cos and Pergamon.
They offered an 'HOLISTIC' approach to sickness:
hot baths, sleep and meditation coupled with prayer
and medical treatments. Written accounts have survived
of those who were cured.
In
the 3rd century BC Alexandria emerged
as the most important centre of medical research.
Its schools of study enjoyed international reknown
and attracted the finest minds. Alexandrian scholars
were able to take advantage of officially approved
DISSECTION and Egyptian burial practice (which removed
and preserved the internal organs). The zoological
gardens provided animal specimens.
One
of Alexandria's earliest physicians, Herophilus (335
- 280 BC), collected and compiled a group of medical
treatises known collectively as the Hippocratic
Corpus, to which he added studies of his own.
He identified the BRAIN as the centre
of intelligence, linked to the NERVOUS SYSTEM,
and the function of the HEART in
the circulation of blood.
His
successor Eristratos concentrated
on the DIGESTIVE SYSTEM and postulated
that nutrition as well as nerves
and brain influenced mental diseases. Eristratos
was the first to distinguish between sensory and
motor nerves.
Alexandria's
centuries of research into human physiology and illness
reached its zenith in the second century AD, with Galen
of Pergamon (129-216), who contributed
a lifetime of his own investigations. His treatments
involved wine-based ANTICEPTICS, the STITCHING of
wounds and STERILISED hand-crafted surgical instruments
made from 'fine iron.' Raised to the status of personal
physician to the emperor Marcus Aurelius, Galen wrote
hundreds of books on anatomy and the art of medicine,
which formed the corpus of medical knowledge of the
Roman world.
In
the 2nd century AD medical knowledge and surgical
skill reached a level never achieved again until
the early 20th century. In the centuries in between
a malevolent religion – Christianity – presided
over the destruction and misery of humanity.
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Copyright © 2004
by Kenneth Humphreys.
Copying is freely permitted, provided credit is given to the author
and no material herein is sold for profit.
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