REFERENCE: Kontomanolis, E. N., Kenanidou, E., Kalagasidou, S., & Fasoulakis, Z. N. (2018).

Medicine
from Ancient Times until Renaissance: Contributions of Early Physicians and the Impact of Religion. THE
ULUTAS MEDICAL JOURNAL, 4(3), 175-183.

Introduction:

Medicine has always been part of our lives in this modern-day world. But as everything has its history so
as medicine. Starting from the ancient times, people back then used “magic” as their mode of curing or
healing a sick person. It seems that Egyptians were the first to approach medicine without magic, such
as the scrolls that were found and translated were gynecology of the papyrus of Kahun date back in
3000 BC, the pharmaceutical advices of Rameses in 1900 BC, written around 1500 B.C., the Papyrus
Ebers is one of the first descriptions of physiology and pathology, Edwin Smith's papyrus, which dates
from 1600 B.C. and contains information on physiology, anatomy, neurology, and rhinoplasty, and finally
medical information and mythological elements in the papyrus of mother and child. These are he history
of different medicinal fields during the ancient times.

This study also discussed the ancient to the renaissance period doctors who were, Abū Bakr Muhammad
ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī had Persian origins and lived and practiced medicine in the East caliphate (854-925
AD). He was one of the most famous Arab healers and he is the first doctor to use humoral theory to
distinguish one contagious disease from another Imhotep was an Egyptian chancellor to pharaoh Djoser,
between 2850 and 525 BC, often called “God of medicine”and “Prince of Peace”. He is considered one of
the first healers in ancient Egypt, Hippocrates, the Greek doctor from Kos in 460 BC he claimed every
disease had natural causes, thus rejecting supernatural causes. He is usually referred to as the Father of
Medicine. Stephanus of Alexandria of the 7th century’s Byzantine medicine that made several important
contributions in the pharmacology. Henry de Mondeville, of the 13th century. He is the author of
Cyrurgia (Surgery) and he primarily dealt with surgery during the second half of the 13th century,
Paracelsus (Theophrastus von Hohenheim) in 1541 He was one of the doctors that also contributed in
medicine by using chemical substances for therapeutic purposes, the father of toxicology. And there are
other more such as the doctor who found which diseases are contagious and which are not.

Reaction:

Medicine is an important part of science and technology in our society. Without medicine, we would’ve
been dead by now. Just like our world, medicine hold its fair share of long history from magic, to finding
out the cure to diseases, to knowing which are contagious, and which are not. But the doctors and
scientists must have had it rough during the ancient time compared to the modern day. Since resources
and knowledge are different in which cases mainly touch to the subject of human experimentation. But
without the expansion of knowledge in our modern-day society, I don’t think we would survive for very
long. Since even back in day, people would resort to all sorts of questionable methods just to cure the
sick. But how does exactly medicine connect to technology? Surgery is technology, the creation of
medicine is technology and chemistry. Scientists use different apparatus to create a cure or to create the
perfect pill and usually suffer the consequences of their own creation. Just like Friedrich Sertürner in
1804 who got addicted to his own medicine Morphine and warned people about it. I guess that is
where the idiom of “taste of your own medicine” came from.