A Journal Entry From An Unnamed Physician

We find that the “oldest written sources of western medicine are The Hippocratic writings from the 5th and 4th centuries BC; which covers all aspects of medicine at that time and contain numerous medical terms.”(Wulff) This was the beginning of the Greek era of the language of medicine, which lasted even after the Roman

The bio-medical model of ill health has been at the forefront of western medicine since the end of the eighteenth century and grew stronger with the progress in modern science. This model underpinned the medical training of doctors. Traditionally medicine had relied on folk remedies passed down from generations and ill health was surrounded in superstition and religious lore with sin and evil spirits as the culprit and root of ill health. The emergence of scientific thinking questioned the traditional religious view of the world and is linked to the progress in medical practice and the rise of the biomedical model. Social and historical events and circumstances were an important factor in its development as explanations about disease

The medicinal practices and problems of the Elizabethan Era were very important to the people, although they are very different from those of today. There were many different beliefs and diseases, like the Plague. Medicine was not an exact science and was related to Alchemy (Chemistry). Here, some of the many practices and beliefs of the Elizabethan Era will be discussed.

The logic and principles of medieval medicine shaped those of Modern medicine. Never was there a more efficient method perfected, so much that it remained through history through so many hundreds of years. Today’s concepts of diagnosis, relationships with the church, anatomy, surgery, hospitals and training, and public health were established in the Middle Ages.

For physicians practicing in the 19th century, there was a deep connection between mind and body. In the eyes

Before the 18th century, medicine had not advanced beyond the practices of bloodletting and balancing the four humors of the body. These medical practices were not effective and did more harm than good. It was not until the Scientific Revolution that physicians slowly started to learn more about the human body and how functions. The numerous advancements of medicine in the 18th century and resulting benefits to European Society are reflected in the lack of medical practices before the 1700s, the creation of the smallpox vaccine, and improved techniques.

In the book The Killer Angeles there were plenty of characters that were injured and had

Page 70 includes a medical prescription that was also written in a different hand style. On the last twenty-four pages, eighteen of them discuss medicine and plant lore (pages 215–227, 229-230, and 236-237 specifically). Three pages include fragmentary incantations (pages 231, 233 and 235), and three pages were left blank (pages 228, 232 and 234).

Medicine in the Early Colonies - Reason for high death rates; relied on physicians and midwives relying on 2nd century Galen's "humoralism theory" (black bile yellow bile phlegm blood) which must be equal; bleeding (done by physicians) expulsion purging; evidence of lack of scientific method

This paper is also a narrative of a man named Charles Byrne with unusual height (7ft 7in), lived in Ireland during 1793. He suffered from gigantism (familial pituitary adenoma), made a living showing of his height but worried about he would be subjected to medical experiment after his death. Hence, he had specific instructions that his body should be weighted down and buried in the sea. Another player in this paper was Dr. John Hunter, respectable member of the society, a surgeon and the founder of pathological anatomy in England who retrieved the body

Hippocrates of Cos, a physician in ancient Greece, is considered to be the father of medicine due to his many contributions to the field in his life. Through research and different experiments he was able to conclude many different principles, including on of the most important: the four humors. By observing reactions to different illnesses, sometimes leading the patient to die, he was able to develop the theory. His theory of the four humors was that the human body was filled with four basic substances, or humors, that when in balance indicate the person is healthy. If there was too little or too much of one of the four, a disease or disability would result. The four humors of Hippocratic medicine are black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm. Before the humors were introduced, many people believed that the source of illness was punishment from the Gods. It wasn’t until after Hippocrates’ introduction to medicine that the field stepped away from religion and into science.

“The Prince of Medicine” is not necessarily a study on Galen’s medical literature, instead it is a study on society during the second century, as told by Galen. Rather than focus on Galen’s medical writings, Mattern decides to focus on what Galen’s writings say about him as a person and questions how this shaped his success.

The science of medicine has been constantly developed upon through various types of experimentation and theorizing, though previously with no connection to scientific discovery but with more focus on philosophy and connecting the natural and spiritual world with how our body works. One such example of this way of thinking was with the Greeks, specifically during the Classical era. The Greek beliefs on the way to treat the dead involved respecting one’s body, as to not damage the corpse to preserve the spirit, but physicians such as Herophilus and Erasistratus used these dead bodies to perform experiments on to assist in our understanding in how the human body functions. Although the experiments performed by Herophilus and Erasistratus conflicted

25). Unfortunately, the article regarding Mr. Benson’s case did not give detail on whether or not proper documentation had occurred. However, one can assume documentation was not done properly as the wrong leg had been amputated. If proper documentation had been completed in Mr. Benson’s case, it is possible someone besides the surgeon may have caught the wrong leg was about to be amputated. An example of proper documentation would be the consenting of the patient for surgery. Mr. Benson had to have been consented for surgery, which means a doctor or a nurse practioner would discussed with the patient which leg was to be amputated, signs and symptoms of complications and what to expect after surgery. If there was any question once the patient was in the operating room, which leg to amputate, anyone could have looked in the patient’s chart to see what Mr. Benson had been consented for. Documentation of the time out could have also prevented Mr. Benson from having the wrong leg amputated. The reason being is, everyone involved in the case would have stopped and made sure the right patient was in the operating room and the right surgery was to be performed so it could be documented this act was completed. Not only proper documentation could have prevented this horrible act but also the help of the nurses could have prevented a mistake like this from happening.

However, they did not indiscriminately follow Hippocrates and Galen, adapting instead the analytical approach of the classical writers to produce their own rational, structured and logical accounts of medical practice. Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine, for example, whilst following in the Hippocratic tradition, offers a far more meticulous and systematic account of humoral theory (Ibn Sina in Brunton (2008), p186). Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine is possibly the most famous example of a systemised medical compendia, that, according to Brunton, sets ‘practice firmly on a theoretical basis, which allowed practitioners to approach the process of diagnosing and treating patients on a logical footing’ (Brunton (2008),