Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña

Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud

Subject
Ingles Introductorio a las Ciencias de la Salud

Professor
Nepturne Merant

Classroom section
113-11

Sustentantes
Janneysi Meregildo Martínez 22-1624
Albelys Nicole Rodriguez 22-1863
Maria de Lourdes Calderón 22-1611
Yeranny Mercedes Vasquez 22-0946
Angimel Cuello Lucas 22-1646

Topic
Historia de la Medicina

Date
November 26th, 2022
Santo Domingo D.R
INDEX

I……………………………………INTRODUCTION…………………………………….03
II………………………………......DEVELOPMENT……………………………….04 - 15
A. PRIMITIVE MEDICINE.
B. PALEOPATHOLOGY
C. MEDICINE IN ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS.
C1. EGYPTIAN MEDICINE
C2. MESOPOTAMIAN MEDICINE
C3. HEBREW MEDICINE
C4. GREEK AND ROMAN MEDICINE
D. MEDIEVAL MEDICINE
E. OLD MEDICAL PRACTICES.
E. ANCIENT CONTRIBUTIONS TO MEDICINE.
III………………………...………CONCLUSION………………………………………..16
IV………………………………BIBLIOGRAPHIES ……………………….……….…...17
V……………………………………ANNEXES…………………………...…………...…18
 INTRODUCTION

Throughout this document we seek to present descriptive information about the history
of medicine. Where we will seek to show the first signs that gave rise to medical actions.
Identifying certain factors that denoted the medical practices and actions that we know
today. Highlighting the main civilizations and practices that were developed for the
knowledge and advancement of this science.
PRIMITIVE MEDICINE

Medicine had its beginnings in prehistory, which also has its own field of study known
as medical anthropology.

Medical anthropology, a sub-discipline of social anthropology, was consolidated in the

1970s. Medical anthropology seeks to satisfy the humanitarian and scientific demands
of the medical field by searching for the social origin of diseases. For this purpose,
research is carried out in which the obstacles that people must face when seeking
medical help and health care are sought. The ethnographic studies that are carried
out consist mainly of observations, interviews and questionnaires to find out how
people perceive health and disease, and how society, culture, politics and the
environment affect their health, positively or negatively.

When this branch already existed, it was discovered that plants, minerals and animal
parts were used, most of the time these substances were used in magic rituals by
shamans, priests, magicians, witches, animists, spiritualists or soothsayers.

Thus generating the birth of primitive medicine, which is a set of beliefs and practices
related to health. Based on beliefs, magical rites and the use of instinctive practices.
The ills of primitive man were cured with simple processes.

The superstition and imagination of primitive man resulted in the creation of various
evil spirits which they associated with animals, plants, the forces of nature and even
man himself.

The idea about the origin of the disease determined the action of the physician, the
prognosis was intended to determine the intentions of the spirit with respect to the
patient.

Due to the strong superstition that symptoms such as fever or vomiting were
punishments and spells placed by supernatural beings, rites and spells were
performed to expel or eradicate evil spirits from the patient's body.
In primitive medicine they learned how to immobilize a bone fracture, but not how to
heal it properly. They frequently performed a type of brain surgery that even today we
call trepanation.

Sometimes by a simple matter of chance these procedures were successful. When

this happened the men in charge of administering the medicine passed the information
on to the next generation of healers or priests.

Two varieties were known:

Rites of passage that signaled important changes in the life of the birth, puberty,
marriage and death, marriage and death.

The rites of intensification designed to overcome collective calamities: famine,

epidemics, etc, epidemics, etc.

PALEOPATHOLOGY

It is the science that has been able to demonstrate the presence of diseases in the
remains of in human and animal remains from ancient times. ancient times. The word
paleopathology derives from the Greek, where paleo means ancient and ducks means
suffering, term coined by Schufeldt in 1882 to define it as ''The science of the
pathological conditions present in the organs of extinct or petrified animals''.

The diseases that affected our ancestors can be ancestors can be grouped into five
major groups: trauma, arthritis and arthrosis, infectious, dental and tumor diseases.

MEDICINE IN ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS

The first human civilizations and cultures based their medical practice on two
apparently opposing pillars: a primitive and pragmatic empiricism (applied
fundamentally to the use of herbs or remedies obtained from nature) and a magical-
religious medicine, which resorted to the gods to try to understand the inexplicable.
EGYPTIAN MEDICINE

The first truly scientific methods began to develop in the Egyptian civilization,
Herodotus even wrote that in Ancient Egypt there was a doctor for every disease. It is
true that the Egyptians still had a theological view of disease, however, they were the
ones who began to look for scientific explanations to the symptoms establishing the
origin of medicine.

Knowledge of ancient Egyptian medicine is mainly found in the so-called medical

papyri. The Lahun papyrus (1800 BC) reveals obstetric knowledge dating back to 3000
BC, including contraceptive treatments. It also describes topics such as birth control,
through the use of intravaginal preparations. The Edwin Smith papyrus describes 48
cases, almost all victims of trauma.

In this treatise, specific medical and anatomical terms such as brain, fracture and
convulsion appear for the first time. The Berlin papyrus is the oldest known pediatric
treatise with incantations and medical prescriptions to protect both mother and
newborn. There are also valuable sources of information in the study of mummies.

The most common pathologies detected in the ancient Egyptians were trauma in many
forms including wounds acquired in wars, animal bites and work accidents in mines,
quarries and in the construction of great monuments. In surgery they practiced
amputation of limbs and also circumcision. Molecular biology studies show the
existence of tuberculosis, malaria, schistosomiasis, taeniasis and ascaridiasis.

It is shown that they suffered from atherosclerosis, dental caries and other dental
ailments. Cancer was infrequent. Herbs, substances of vegetable origin (oils, resins,
etc.) or minerals were part of the ancient Egyptian pharmacopoeia. There was a well-
established system of medical care, associated with a well-defined hierarchy.

MESOPOTAMIAN MEDICINE
The oldest known written documents on the practice of medicine, magic and healing
date back precisely to the time of ancient Mesopotamia. Dr. Jorge Cardenas Arevalo,
in his book "The Wonderful History of Medicine" makes a reference to ancient
Mesopotamia, saying: "the oldest written medical sources come from the
Mesopotamian and symmetrical civilizations".

Based on theories, mostly magical-religious, these civilizations created their own ways
of dealing with illnesses, and a need also arose to organize the populations, to fairly
reward the work done, and this is when the laws arose.

In this civilization, it was believed that the priest was the one who had the knowledge
of the superior or evil forces. The priest gave peace and confidence to the sick person
and thus, the patient could be placed in the best state of mind, to put in motion the
power of recovery of his organism.

The priestly class and the disease were mutually supportive, since the state of
suffering generated in the patient the propitious moment of spiritual search and the
achievement of healing reinforced the belief in their gods. Indeed, the patients felt that
they improved with those practices.

It is here that the Hammurabi code was established in 1902 in the city of Susa, Iran
by Jacques de Morgan who was a French engineer, geologist and archaeologist. He
found a sculpted black basalt column 4 meters high. It has been considered the first
written code; which outlined 10 rules of fees and penalties in case of malpractice.

These laws were engraved in cuneiform script on the basalt column and in addition to
regulating the practices of physicians, it discussed the development of public hygiene,
medical-legal articles, abortion, sexual transgressions, structure of medical practice
and social regulations. Every law carved on the basalt was strictly important to follow
and there was no way to skip a crime out of ignorance of the law.

Hammurabi's code was exposed to the public; in its highest part, the image of
Shamash, the god of justice, was engraved, delivering the laws to Hammurabi. The
text was clear and concise, they were represented as laws of the gods and not simple
arbitrary rules by mortals.

With this already existing code, a more controlled medical practice began to be
governed, where fundamental criteria for such activities were established, in addition
to establishing the responsibilities, charges, payments and details about the medical
practitioners.

The oldest pharmacological writings were developed by Sumerian physicians in

southern ancient Mesopotamia, and date from the 4th millennium BC to 539 BC.
These writings were carved on clay tablets in cuneiform, logographic script and
expressed in different languages: Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Persian, among others.

It was at that time that diseases began to be related to medicines. The Assyrians
considered illness as a punishment from the gods irritated by a sin committed and
where, in order to cure it, a catharsis or purification by magical means was necessary,
such as prayers, animal sacrifices, offerings to their gods or purification through drugs.

These practices were exercised by healers, better known as priests. In the clay
documents, about 250 drugs were exposed; therefore, they were considered as
manuals of medicine. They described how Sumerian physicians compounded their
medicines from plant substances (thyme, mandrake fig, cannabis, oil seeds, roots and
fruits), substances extracted from animals (milk, snake skin and tortoise shell, etc.)
and minerals, such as salt and potassium nitrate. They were preserved in the form of
powder, ointments for external uses and liquids for internal uses; these elements were
pulverized and later mixed with oil, water or beer.

Certainly, the traditional position assures that Mesopotamian medicine is a religious

medicine, dominated by magic and superstition. The theurgic character of medicine in
this period is due to the belief that all earthly or cosmic phenomena were dependent
on the will of the gods; any ailment or discomfort was produced by demons and in one
way or another, the cure was correlated with the intervention of the gods, beneficial or
malefic geniuses (depending on the disease).
HEBREW MEDICINE

Hebrew medicine received much influence from Mesopotamian medicine during the
Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. Illness was understood as a sign of God's wrath.

The priesthood acquired the responsibility of collecting and ordering hygienic rules
and the role of the midwife as an assistant in childbirth was very well defined. Although
the Old Testament contains few references to diseases caused by spirit intrusion, the
tone of biblical medicine is modern with a marked interest in disease prevention.

Monotheism makes medicine theurgic: Jehovah answers for health and sickness.
Monotheism in general means an advance: it facilitated the development of science
as man concentrated on a single idea. It put an end to the notion of a god for each
phenomenon of nature and each circumstance of life as polytheism postulated. This
allowed the study and investigation of the origin of everything.

The Hebrews adopted the medical precepts of the peoples with whom they came into
contact: Mesopotamia, Mesopotamia
contact: Mesopotamia, Egypt. They used mandrake, balsams, oils, gums, essences,
fruits and narcotics as medicine.

From this was born a great physician who collaborated or contributed directly to
ancient medicine, projecting advances to it, through treatises and writings that would
serve as study and analysis as time went by.
This was Maimonides who classified medicine into three divisions: preventive, curative
and that which attended to convalescents, including the invalids and the elderly.

His medical teaching, based on the then humoral pathology of Hippocrates and Galen,
was strictly rational in character. He harshly combated the use of spells, charms and
amulets in the treatment of the sick and disapproved of any blind faith in authority.

Although the lack of knowledge was a great limitation for these civilizations, we could
say that they resorted to the highest wisdom, linked to instinct. They sought ways that
were unconventional for us, but that made sense as they practiced and perfected them.
This is how pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and so on came about.

GREEK AND ROMAN MEDICINE

Greek and Roman medicines were a great impulse for humanity, in fact, during these
centuries lived some of the most famous doctors in history. The humors of Hippocrates
or the theories of Galen of Pergamon served as the basis of Western medicine for
more than a thousand years.

Among the Greek and Roman physicians practicing in the Empire, four schools were
distinguished:
The dogmatists recognized Herophilus as their founder, approved the study of
anatomy by dissection, considered theories about the causes of disease to be the
essence of medicine, imbalance of the elements, pneuma humors; migration of the
blood into the vessels carrying the pneuma; blockage of the channels of the body by
"atoms"'.

The empiricists named Erasistratus as their predecessor and opposed dissections

because they rejected the importance of anatomy in medicine.

Their position was that the causes of disease should not be sought, because the
immediate ones were obvious and the obscure ones were impossible to establish; and
therefore, understanding such things as pulse, digestion, or respiration was useless.
The most important thing in medicine was the physician's personal experience with his
patient, and what he had to do was to pick up the symptoms and treat them one by
one using remedies that had already proved effective in the past.

The pneumatists were initially dogmatic, but they separated from this sect because
they considered that the fundamental substance of life was the pneuma and that the
only cause of diseases were disorders in the organism, triggered by an imbalance of
the humors.
Greek medicine, although pragmatic and based on observation, did not escape the
ideological assumptions of the doctrines of the time, especially the Aristotelian theory
of the four elements, which would inspire the Hippocratic theory of humors, which
would constitute the doctrinal framework of his school.

Many Greeks based their healing practices on magical or religious practices. Generally
speaking, the healing cults, because of their characteristics, were located on the
outskirts of the cities and developed late. The sanctuaries were often next to a fountain
or a river, whose waters possessed medicinal virtues.

Most of the time, the healing god acted by "incubation". The ritual began for the sick
person with a purification bath, followed by a relatively modest sacrifice accessible to
all. The most fortunate benefited during sleep from the appearance of the god: he
healed them by touching the sick part of the body.

The first medical school opened its doors in the city of Cnidus in 700 B.C. Alcmeon of
Crotona, author of the first treatise on anatomy, worked in this school, and it was here
that the practice of patient observation originated.

Hippocrates is considered one of the most prominent figures in the history of medicine
and many authors refer to him as the "father of medicine" in recognition of his important
and lasting contributions to this science as founder of the school that bears his name.

This intellectual school revolutionized Ancient Greek medicine, establishing it as a

discipline separate from other fields with which it had been traditionally associated,
turning the practice of medicine into a true profession.
Hippocrates is considered the first physician to reject superstitions, legends and
popular beliefs that pointed to supernatural or divine forces as the cause of disease.
The disciples of Pythagoras considered him the man who united philosophy and
medicine.

He separated the medical discipline from religion, believing and arguing that disease
was not a punishment inflicted by the gods, but the consequence of environmental
factors, diet and lifestyle habits.
Despite these advances, Hippocrates worked with many convictions based on what is
now known to be incorrect anatomy and physiology.

Hippocratic medicine is now considered passive. The therapeutic approach was based
on the healing power of nature. According to this doctrine, the body naturally contains
the intrinsic power to heal ("physis") and care for itself.

Hippocratic therapy simply focused on facilitating this natural process. To do so,

Hippocrates believed that "rest and immobility [were] of great importance." In general,
Hippocratic medicine was very gentle with the patient: treatment was gentle and
emphasized the importance of keeping the client clean and sterile.

Hippocrates was reluctant to administer drugs or undertake specialized treatments, so

after general diagnosis, generalized therapy followed.

Medicine in Rome was completely influenced by the Greeks, where the "medicus" was
based on natural observation and not so much on superstitions and spiritual rituals.
The first medical developments came from the Greek Galen who within the Roman
Empire promoted researches that still persist today such as: anatomy, physiology,
pathology and neurology.

However, the Roman Empire is recognized for its three fundamental contributions
such as military hospitals, environmental sanitation and the legislation of practice and
teaching.

A public medical service was established, the city hired doctors, archiatrists and
provided them with premises and instruments so that they could attend free of charge
to anyone who requested their help. The salaries of these professionals were fixed by
the municipal councilors. The medical service of the imperial house, the medicus
palatinus, was also created and many patricians had physicians at their service to
attend to their families. Eventually it was also legislated that the election of a physician
to the public service should be approved by seven other members of that service.
MEDIEVAL MEDICINE

Medieval medicine fought small ailments with greater or lesser fortune and tried to
lessen the chronic ones, however, they could do little against the great epidemics that
plagued humanity during those years. Like other aspects of culture, medicine suffered
a great backwardness during the almost ten centuries of the Middle Ages. In these
centuries it was the Arab scientists who revolutionized medicine with novelties such
as alcohol cures, and names such as Avicenna, who generalized medicine. Muslim
expansion allowed many of these advances to reach the West.

In the past, most medical thinking was based on what had been said previously by
other authorities and was viewed in such a way that if it was said, it remained the truth.
This way of thinking was mostly replaced between the 14th and 15th centuries, the
time of the Black Death pandemic. Also, during the 15th and 16th centuries, anatomy
underwent a great advance thanks to the contribution of Leonardo Da Vinci, who
designed together with Marc Antonio de la Torre, an anatomist physician from Pavia,
one of the first and fundamental treatises on anatomy, called Il libro Dell 'Anatomia.
Although most of the more than 200 illustrations on the human body that Da Vinci
made for this treatise disappeared, some of the surviving ones can be seen in his
Treatise on Painting.

Europe witnessed the terrible epidemics that ravaged its population during the Middle
Ages. Anyone could fall victim to a disease whose origin and mechanism were
completely unknown. These made death a very present reality from which not even
the richest were spared.

Tuberculosis, the disease of kings, leprosy, syphilis, scrofula or diphtheria, white

plague or phthisis, war lice or typhus, malaria, smallpox, black plague

OLD MEDICAL PRACTICES

- The draining of abscesses, for which they used obsidian leaves, scarifications and
the application of baths, water, mud, spider webs, vegetables, smoke (creosote), dung,
urine, etc.

- Massages were used in all the early cultures, as well as bathing for therapeutic
purposes and corporal and spiritual cleansing.

- When fire became known, it was also used in medicine, not only to prepare
concoctions, but also to cauterize and give heat to relieve pain.
- Tobacco smoke enemas: there are countless examples of the application of enemas
throughout the history of medicine. But tobacco smoke enemas are especially striking
because of their implausibility.

- Lobotomies: this technique consisted of drilling holes in the brain and then
introducing a sharp instrument -a leucotome- with which an incision was made to cut
the connections between the frontal lobes and the rest of the brain.

- Hot irons to get rid of hemorrhoids: the problem of hemorrhoids is not exclusive to
our times. In the Middle Ages people also suffered from hemorrhoids. One of the
techniques applied to remedy them was the use of red-hot iron rods.

- Vaginal fumigation: the Egyptians used this technique as a method of contraception

and to avoid infections. "They would put seven hot stones and the corresponding herbs
in a jar.

- Roman remedy for epilepsy: physicians believed in a highly effective remedy to treat
patients with epilepsy: drinking the blood of a gladiator was considered an effective
solution to end seizures.

- A hole to madness: the famous extraction of the stone of madness. In ancient times,
a hole was drilled in the head of people who were considered mentally ill.

ANCIENT CONTRIBUTIONS TO MEDICINE.

-Hospitals: in the 4th century AD the concept of a hospital, i.e. a place where patients
could be treated by physicians with specialized equipment, was in its embryo in some
parts of the Roman Empire.

-Anatomy and dissection: medieval physicians had a deep knowledge of human

anatomy. In 1315 the Italian physician Mondino de Luzzi performed a public dissection
for his students and occasional spectators who wanted to attend this event.

-The teaching of medicine in universities: the rise of universities in Europe brought

about important changes in the practice of medicine. It was in these institutions that
physicians received their training; thus, they gradually became the main centers of
medical knowledge.

-Wound cleansing: certain ancient medical writers believed that a certain amount of
pus should be left in wounds during surgery, as they believed that this could aid healing.

-Quarantine: following the arrival of the Black Death, certain groups of sick people
began to be isolated from the rest of the population so that the disease would not
spread.

-The discovery of antibiotics was a great step forward for medicine. The first forms of
antibiotics were the sulfa drugs.
CONCLUSION

Throughout this paper we have used very relevant information about the history of
medicine, focused on its appearance from the primitive era, its development and
discovery in the various ancient civilizations, as this was transferred and transformed
from generation to generation, showing in certain scenarios its progress and setbacks
to become the medicine we know today.

We have been in charge of doing a great investigation going back to the beginning of
its appearance, with very archaic practices that were taking giant leaps, by diverse
and different implementations to the known ones, demonstrating the long trajectory of
this science.

We can see civilizations that made great contributions to its development and
evolution, highlighting the great men who were passionately dedicated to identify ways
of progress and significant discoveries so that medical practices were adequate and
with a certain logical sense under its possibilities. This allowed that over the years
there were developed bases that gave rise to the medical science we know today.
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ANNEXES