Erasistratus And Greek Experiments

Today, as we know it, medicine is getting more and more advanced., but don’t you sometimes wonder who started the development of medicine? Let’s travel way back in time, to the island of Cos, in ancient Greece, around 460 BCE, the famous greek physician, Hippocrates was born. He was not known of much by historians, but Hippocrates had introduced the ways of western medicine, and that is how he became a famous physician, and shaped the medical ways of the modern west. Through this report, you will be introduced to his childhood and how he was the first person in ancient Greece to realize that all illnesses came naturally and was not caused by the gods and goddesses.

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

While Greek Medicine particularly from the 5th century B.C onwards, increasingly used scientific method to develop cures, there still however remained people that considered medicine to be a religion. The ancient Greeks (Hellenic) made important discoveries about the human body and health, so by the sixth century BC, medicinal practices focused largely on a more clinical approach involving observation. Their discoveries were made by firstly studying the human anatomy using dissection and vivisection, finding ways to heal using things such as plants and herbs, then finally practising surgery on the human body using different instruments.

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.

Prior to the Scientific Revolution, doctors relied mainly on the work of the ancient physician Galen. Galen’s work was not a good source of information for medieval physicians because he had very limited knowledge of human anatomy, which led to his work containing many errors. During the Renaissance, more physicians made an effort to study human anatomy in order to correct previous mistakes. This rapid increase in the study of human anatomy continued and grew during the Scientific Revolution. In 1543, the first precise study of anatomy, entitled On the Structure of the Human Body, was written by Andreas Vesalius.

Religion is interwoven in the social, cultural and economic life of all civilisations and Ancient Greece was no exception. Typically, most religion in Ancient Greece was civic in nature, however, in the fifth century B.C., mystery religions began to gain popularity. Shrouded in secrecy, the mystery religions provided a more personal approach to religion, fascinating initiates and capturing the imagination of the Greek populace. The most popular of these mystery cults was the cult of Demeter, a veneration established in Eleusis around 1500 B.C. The Eleusinian mysteries were the earliest and most celebrated mysteries in classical antiquity (Karoglou, 2013). These, through their appeal to initiates, played a pivotal

In the time period between 1500 and 1800 there were changes in medical theory and philosophy, and while the ideas firmly established at the beginning and end of this period seem quite different on the surface, there are similarities. This is due to new theories incorporating pillars from previously accepted ideas and practices. Major points to take note of in this period are: the extent of improvement in quantity and the quality of medical care, the shifting relationship between theology and medical practice, and how the credibility of ancient medical theory changed.

Looking at the extraordinary medical procedures that have become routine today, one rarely stops to CONTEMPLATE the backgrounds or research that went into creating our rich medical knowledge, but not a single one of these few could ever imagine the dark background behind much of our understanding of iatrics. It would often be assumed to be a result of tests on animals, dissections of cadavers, or through observational study. On the contrary, much of it comes as a result of twisted, malicious, and inhumane experimentation on live human beings, with a complete disregard for human life. To these doctors, the victims weren’t human; they were much less than that. Seeing as they personally designed these experiments and desired to learn more

Starting soon after the achievements of Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, in 460 BC Greek medicine and treatments began to intensely develop and improve due to anatomical research. Ancient physicians and anatomists such as Erasistratus, Herophilus, Galen, and Andreas Vesalius conducted dissections on live and dead organisms to lead them to make important discoveries about the anatomy, functionality, and overall health of humans. With passing time, each person built off of their influences work by testing validity, expanding on research, and all the meanwhile making their own discovers. However, human dissection and vivisection experiments were limited due to conflicts with ethnics and the ways of the Catholic Church. There was also the

The Roman doctor Galen contributed a lot to the medical field. He wrote a book called, “The Best Physician is also a Philosopher”. This book was used as a medical book for thousands of years after it was published. He also got a better understanding of the human anatomy than what was previously known before, specifically the circulatory, nervous, and the respiratory systems. He was discovered the difference between bright and dark blood (8).

There are many contributions the ancient Greeks have made that the modern world is currently using. The Greeks were exceedingly influential towards various societies and social standards, as well as education. The ancient Greeks were an unusually superstitious civilization; they told stories and believed in different gods and monsters to explain or try to comprehend how the world works. They relied heavily on these myths until some began questioning these stories/beliefs, which is one of the reasons or causes in the development of philosophy, a main contribution the Greeks made. Besides philosophy, they also shaped democracy, science, and theatre, which are the most commonly used in our society today. Of course there are much more influences

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.

Anatomy is to physiology, as geography is to history; it describes the theatre of events. Medical culture that emphasized the study of anatomy through human vivisection peaked in Alexandria in the 3rd century BC, with Herophilus and Erasistratus- the two primary anatomists of the 3rd century- spearheading this movement. Alexandria was the ideal place to study anatomy and physiology during the Hellenistic period since the research was not tied down by civil laws, taboos, or moralism that prevailed on the Greek mainland. Although the practice of human vivisection was decreed by the priesthood throughout the rest of Egypt and Athens, it was not so in this well-insulated center of learning.

There have been many advances in the medical field such as; anesthesia, drugs, machines, etc. This has helped the doctors find alternative solutions to problems, and in return has helped them save more lives. In the article “Medicine” by Britannica, “Many new advances in anesthesia, and these in turn depend upon engineers who have devised machines and chemists produced new drugs. Other operations are made possible by new materials, such as the alloys and plastics that are used to make artificial hip and knee joints.” Advances in the medical field have truly helped modern doctors. Without the medicine, machines, technology they have now there’s no way the doctors could have saved the same amount of lives. As Brian Ward, the author of “The Story of Medicine”, states in his book, “Despite opposition, revolutionary scientists and doctors persevered and made some ground breaking discoveries,” (Ward 22). Even though the doctors during the Renaissance had little technology, they still made discoveries that impacted the medical field. The discoveries made by the Renaissance doctors were life saving. However, with the given technology that is commonly found in modern day society doctors are able to impact the medical and scientific fields and by doing so, save more lives than thought possible during the Renaissance. Within the article “Medicine” written by Britannica, it shows the importance of, “Many other developments in modern surgical treatment rest on a firm basis of experimentation, often first in animals but also in humans; among them are Renal dialysis (artificial kidney), arterial bypass operations, embryo implantation, and exchange transfusions.” Although testing on animals is cruel, it shows that modern doctors were not just experimenting on people. The modern doctors had a thought process to reduce the amount of deaths due to