The first surviving medical sources are the papyri of ancient Egypt. At this time, medicine was already taught in special schools, although it was not separated from the higher powers, so the priests were engaged in it. The Egyptians knew the rules of hygiene, they knew how to use medicinal herbs, they knew how to cure and even make dentures (artificial teeth were attached to their own teeth with gold wire), they knew about cancer and made attempts to cure it, they knew about infectious diseases and ways of their transmission.
The founder of medicine as a science is considered to be ancient India. Just as in Egypt, human health here was subject to the gods and ruled by the elements. However, the ancient Indians already had an elaborate system for diagnosing diseases, and were able to perform surgery, and quite complex ones, such as cataract removal. The beginnings of plastic surgery were also laid here. It was Indian doctors who learned how to restore lost body parts, such as the nose or ears. In ancient India, great attention was paid to disease prevention, keeping the body healthy through hygiene, balanced diet and exercise. Indian doctors knew the properties of herbs and minerals and could prepare thousands of medicines from them. Obstetrics was also at the top of their game.
Chinese medicine is another example of a remarkably developed health care for the ancient world. In ancient China, rather complex surgical interventions were performed using anesthesia and aseptic principles. Chinese doctors also attached great importance to disease prevention, most likely it was in Ancient China where vaccination was first used – in any case, smallpox vaccinations were already practiced here 1000 years before Christ. This is also where diet therapy was developed – Chinese healers believed that food should serve not only as a source of energy, but also as a medicine.
Ancient Greek medicineThe medicine of ancient Greece was at a fairly high level of development, and some researchers consider it to be the foundation of modern medical science, although it is clear that much came to Greece from the same Egypt, China and India. Many medical terms are of Greek origin, such as “carcinoma,” and the word that has become synonymous with the word “physician” – “Aesculapius” comes from Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, and therefore he is considered the father of modern medical science. Hippocrates divided diseases into external and internal, determined their dependence on climatic conditions, age, and other factors. He developed a diagnostic system that included questioning the patient, examining him (including palpation, percussion and auscultation), and examining objective symptoms of disease. Hippocrates believed that the health of the body depends on fluids, and their imbalance leads to disease (humoral, i.e., fluid theory). Despite the fact that this theory has not been confirmed in general, it is still not entirely without basis – especially since the discovery of hormones. Hippocrates’ humoral theory was considered relevant for 2,000 years. Hippocrates also introduced the concept of “prognosis” – predicting the outcome of a disease based on observation of the course of the disease, assessment of the patient’s body, its defenses, etc. Ancient Greek surgery reaches great heights. Already at that time skull trepanation, thoracotomy and other operations were applied. An obstacle in the way of further development of surgery in Hippocrates’ time was the inability to stop bleeding during surgery, so some patients in need of extensive intervention, was considered certainly incurable. By the way, it has not been established whether the famous Hippocratic oath, which doctors give when starting medical practice, belongs to Hippocrates himself. In any case, no sources confirming or refuting this have been found.
In Ancient Rome, in general, medicine continued to develop in the direction set by Hippocrates. Physicians, particularly the famous Galen, came close to discovering the circulation of the blood. Galen described the respiratory system, the functions of the brain, and in general he was to medicine in ancient Rome what Hippocrates was to ancient Greece. Galen left behind many medical writings, even more perished, and his influence on medical thought at the time was enormous. Nevertheless, not all of Galen’s theories were correct, quite a few mistakes were made, and in this case the scientist’s great authority played a bad role, setting scientific thought on the wrong track for many years to come. However, it was in Ancient Rome that the connection between the occurrence of diseases and the human way of life was discovered, hydrotherapy and lithotomy were discovered, and the foundations of embryology were laid.