History
of Medicine: With Special Emphasis on Herbal Medicine
In
the Beginning…
Herbal
(plant derived) medicines have been used since the dawn of time.
Many species of animals (including humans, chimpanzees, and apes) have been observed to use herbal treatments.
From
the very beginning religious beliefs and sickness/health have been linked.
On
one level sickness is seen as a curse from God, the ancestors or anyone that
might have power over that particular person. In this case recovery is hastened
by the intervention of someone more powerful than your tormentor – another God,
a holy man, a magician. One may also try to appease the angry god so that
he/she will relent.
On
another level herbal potions were used as a part of healing rituals. They may
have had some value in and of themselves as medicines.
This
dualism persists today:
-Supernatural
aspect – In Christianity are urged to pray for those who are sick.
Supernatural
(Faith) healers are still around
-Natural
aspect – herbs and drugs are known to help cure illnesses by purely natural
mechanisms.
Herbalists
have been mainly concerned with the Natural (which herbs will help treat which
illness) but that doesn’t always supercede or cancel out supernatural
interventions.
Ancient
Traditions:
Egyptian:
Imhotep à a healer who became a god
Ebers
papyrus (named after German Egyptologist) is dated 1550 BC.
A
compendium of herbal recipes for treatments
Many
still recognized as useful today
African
Traditional Medicine:
Oral tradition still being practiced today but may be obscure and muddled.
Pen Tsao (compiled by Shen Nung – the god of husbandry) about 1,000 BC?
Pharmacopoeia – compilation of
recipes
Pictures of plants to help identify
them as well as description of treatments.
Ayurveda – Hindu medical
documentations
Ayu = life
Vedas = books of wisdom 4,000 B.C.
Old Testament à rules for hygiene
use of spices and healing
herbs is alluded to
Shamanism à magic, oral traditions (May be similar to
African Traditional)
Basis for El Curanderismo that came
later
Greeks:
Asclepius – the god of healing (His symbol was one snake
curled around a staff – Caduceus)
-
not
to be confused with Hermes’ Caduceus that has two snakes!
Healing
centers – temples to Asclepius – ritual, fasting, bathing, herbal treatments
& snakes?
Hippocrates 460 - 377 BC
“Father of Medicine”
Began to dissociate medicine from
ritual, mysticism and religion.
Emphasized diet, lifestyle, exercise,
sunshine & pure water
Humanitarian – Hippocratic Oath
4
elements à fire, water, earth &
air
4
humors à yellow bile, phlegm, black
bile, blood
Aristotle 384-322 BC
Aristotle's most successful
scientific writings were those on biology. He was a careful and meticulous
observer who fascinated by the task of classifying animal species and arranging
them into hierarchies.
Dioscorides 1st century BC
Materia Medica – 600+ plants,
illustrated?
A
“theriac” is a potion that had many medical properties a “cure-all.” Theriac
were popular in ancient Greece but not well appreciated by serious herbalists.
“Natural History” 77 AD -
Compilation of Greek & Roman thought. Plants created to meet human needs
for food, shelter and medicine.
Galen
of Pergamum Greek physician, writer & philosopher
130 – 200
Animal experiments (dissection) –
looking at animals can tell us how the human body works.
He maintained that “the best doctor
is also a philosopher.”
Summary
of Greek Contribution:
Philosophy
– balancing humors
Less
emphasis on supernatural
Humanitarian
Practice
– Observation and recording
Experimentation
Incorporation of various
traditions – Eastern, Egyptian, Arab
Albertus
Magnus: ~
1208 –1280
Italian saint (1933)
Albertus
wrote many books. Recognized as a great scholar and author.
Science
– Physics, Geography, Astronomy, Chemistry, Biology, “The aim of natural
sciences is not simply to accept the statements of others, but to investigate
the causes that are at work in nature.”
Pseudo-Science
- Alchemy, Magic, Powers of the Mind.
Theology
Taught
St. Thomas Aquinas
Dabbled
in the Occult?
In
General:
Christianized supernatural aspects of sickness/health.
Greek
writings still cherished.
Monks
were healers and herbalists (“Cadfael” series on TV)
Hospitals
Universities and Medical Schools –
Salerno in Italy
“Bald’s
Leechbook” in 900’s
“Book
of Healing Herbs” by Hildegard of Bigen 1100’s
“Grete
Herbal” 1526
Summary:
+
preserved texts
+
preserved herbal medicine
+
education and training
+
publishing
-
loosing
focus, stagnating
-
not
many new ideas
-
church
still fairly superstitious
-
insurmountable
health problems – plagues and so forth
Arab
& Islamic literature in the Middle Ages:
Rhazes: 9th Century
Herbal
Avicenna 980 – 1037
His
major contribution to medicine was his famous book “al-Qunun,” know as the “The
Cannon of Medicine”
His
philosophy synthesized Aristotelian tradition, Neoplatonic influences and
Muslim theology.
hospitals
medical
education
examination
and licensing of physicians
Alchemy – properties of metals and
natural compounds examined
Medical
Schools already operating at higher level of scholarship and experimentation
Openness
to new ways of experimentation and learning about nature.
New
appreciation for intellectual pursuits in science and literature
Leonardo
Da Vinci - 1452-1519
Italian painter, sculptor, architect, & engineer; famed for the breadth of
his genius, covering anatomy, architecture, hydraulics, hydrology, geology,
meteorology, mechanics, machinery, weaponry, flight, optics, mathematics,
botany, etc.
Paracelsus
(1493-1541)
Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim
– Swiss physician
“On the Virtues of Plants, Roots and
Seeds”
He
pioneered the usage of minerals and draining wounds into conventional medicinal
practices.
-
doctrine
of signatures
-
chemistry
and drugs
-
dosage
-
“like
cures like” homeopathy
Pietro
Mattioli
(1501- 1577)
Italian physician and naturalist
Published Italian version of De
Materia Medica
Andreas Vesalius: (1514 – 1564)
“The Fabric of the Human Body” –
anatomy text
surgical techniques
He was accused of dissecting a
living person.
He was one of the first
scientists to promote the free investigation of the human structure through
public dissections.
Summary:
+
published books
+
experimentation reached new heights
+
education and training formalized in Universities and Hospitals
-
new
ideas are not always better or useful ideas
-
common
people still very superstitious and given to magic.
-
serious
health problems are yet to be addressed – plagues and so forth
Nicholas
Culpeper
(1616 – 1654)
giving herbalism to the people
astrology
ran afoul of the society of
Apothecaries
He was the first to publish
two medical books in America.
Hermann
Boerhaave
(1668 – 17380
Dutch academic physician
Don’t treat the symptoms but the
underlying condition
Humors = salty, putrid, oily
Treatments = purgatives, bleeding
and diuretics
Used bedside teaching method for his
students
He is considered to be the father of Physical Chemistry.
Samuel
Hahnemann
(1755 – 1843)
Homeopathy “Organon of Rational
Medicine” 1810
Strengthen
immune system to fight disease by producing same symptoms by drugs.
Self- experimentation
Very low dosage – multiple dilutions
Harsh/poisonous substances!
Medicine
in the 1500’s – 1900’s did not necessarily look like modern medicine does now:
A theoretical schism was developing between herbalists and new physicians:
Galenists
– kinder gentler use of botanical medicine
Paracelsans
– Powerful drugs that get desired results
Modern
Advances:
These are the people and discoveries that have made Modern Medicine what it is
today.
William
Harvey: circulation of blood
1600’s
Sexual
reproduction 1630
Anton
van Leeuwenhoek – microscope 1673
Edward
Jenner – smallpox vaccine 1798
Louis
Pasteur
(1822 – 1887) Celebrated Frenchman
Germ theory
Disinfectants in hospitals and
surgery
Vaccines - He developed a vaccine
against rabies.
Pasteurization – heat destroys
microbes
Ignaz
Semmelweis
Joseph
Lister
(1827-1912)
Antiseptics & Disinfectants –
carbolic acid (phenol)
He postulated that sepsis was caused by “pollen-like dust” in the air.
Fredrich
Serturner 1805 isolated morphine from opium
Pure drugs
Active principles!
19th
Century: Hermann Kolbe, Adolf von Baeyer, Felix Hoffmann, Ludwig Knorr, Emil
Fischer, Richard Willstsatter, Perkins and others… The Chemists take over!
The
20th Century was The Pharmaceutical Century.
http://pubs.acs.org/journals/pharmcent/