Stephanie’s Blog

Galen was a Greek doctor who lived in the Roman Empire. He was very famous in Roman Empire because Greek doctors were considered as really good doctors and also because he was doctor to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. He was a very experience surgeon who spent twelve years travelling to improve his knowledge; he also gained experience from working at a gladiator school where he would have obviously treated all sorts of wounds and illnesses. He also did a lot of work with animals especially animal anatomy.

People in the Roman Empire took notice of him because he came with new ideas that were practical and useful to them. He did not blame everything on the supernatural but look for explanations and causes for diseases. However, many of his ideas and theory seemed very similar to Hippocrates another famous Greek doctor who lived before him. Hippocrates believed that illness was caused by imbalanced of the Four Humours and so did Galen; yet, Galen builded on this to come with his theory of its own called the Use of Opposite. The theory suggested using the opposite humour to balance out the imbalanced humour in order to regain health. By example if you had a clod, Galen would give lot of HOT pepper as a cure.

Further, Galen encouraged other doctors to observe their patient, record and use past experience. This was also Hippocrates’ idea which is still in practice today. Galen has also dissected bodies, and this was also used by

The Egyptians, through mummification, yet Galen used it for medical purposes to find out about the body. In this picture he is seen doing his famous experiment. Here is trying to prove that it is the brain that controlled the body and not the heart as many people believed it at that time. Galen cut the vein of the squealing pig but the pig was still squealing, so then to prove his point he cuts the nerve that controls speech and the pig stop making is sound but his mouth was till moving. Galen by this experiment had shown than the brain controlled the body and not the heart, this idea was one of its own.

Another one of Galen’s idea was that he proved that different parts of the body fitted well together as well as a designed all. All this ideas were kept in the 60 books that Galen wrote but this was once again nothing new to medicine as Egyptians and Hippocrates before him also wrote down their ideas.

Galen used animal anatomy and human anatomy whilst studying in Alexandria to widen his knowledge about the body. Yet, in Rome he could have only used animals because of the traditions ad customs, yet, he encouraged doctors to use human bodies when possible. Although much of its work using animal anatomy was precise-like showing that the brain controlled the boy- some of the details of his work was often proven wrong. This however, went to prove that animal anatomy was different from Humans, because treatment that can work with animals may not work on humans.

Overall, Galen was important to medicine as he believed that illness was a natural cause, and it is this belief that made people look for causes and treatment of illness instead of blaming on the God. He came up with his own idea and through dissection he was able to build n previous ideas therefore this show to be a progress from Greek Empire.

Nevertheless, because Galen showed that different parts of the body fitted well together as well as a design whole, the church used that basis to persuade people into church as it agreed with Christian’s belief that God created humans. This meant that for the 1500 years after Galen when his books were still used no one bothered looking for more  medical explanations because the church believe that Galen had it all in his book. Therefore, to some extend Galen’s work seems to had hindered medicine as it did not encourage any more medical experiments as the church thought Galen had all answers- simply because Galen’s idea f the design body agreed with Christian teachings and beliefs.

Useful links:

• http://www.amazing-grades.com/podcasts/harry_hill.html
• http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/galen.htm
• http://web.kingsnortonhigh.bham.sch.uk/documents/vle/files/971_Galen%20Mind%20Map.jpg

Dear, friend

I am writing to you to share the greatest feeling, I ever had. As you may already for a long time I have been suffering from pains in my back. For a very long time I knew that this was the doing of Asclepuis the god of healing, giving me a punishment for the way I treated my slaves. So at the weekend, I decided to leave my wife and children and went away to Asclepuis at Epidarrus, to pray the great god, whom I hoped would forgive me and heal me by his power and help from his two daughters: Panacea and Hygenia.

An asclepion is a place of holy healing, so I knew that if I went there and slept there Asclepuis will eventually visit me and cure me. so I went to Epidarrus, a far away Asclepuis where there are large , clean communal baths which I enjoyed as soon as I got there; a gymnasium where I was offered massages and did some quality exercise , so that I was ready for Asclepuis’ visit. Before lunch I did a long walk and after that it was a pleasure to visit the library with so many great books. In the afternoon after a nice rest in the other temple I watch a match in the stadium, and then I ended my evening in the theatre where I watch a comical play.

when the evening came i got rubbed and massaged with oil so that i was relax to be visited by asclepuis , then i fell asleep. in my dream it was the most magical experience i had ever felt. it was asclepuis and his daughter curing my pains. asclepuis first approached me then told me not to be afraid. he looked at my back and examine me , in his eyes i felt that he was a man of powerful knowledge and i knew that he was going to cure me. he told hygenia to wash my back and panacea to rub it with a magic potion. he said a few word and then two snakes appeared, i wanted to run away but my body was made frozen they got on my back and lick it, when they went off , i was awaken.

when i woke up i felt amazing. the way i felt was not just unbelievable it was fantastic. i was very thankful to asclepuis and his daughters so i gave a donation to the temple . when i got home i decided to give a fairer treatment to my slaves and tell everyone i know what as happened to me. i know my experience was real and others needed to be told the truth. i do not believe in those so call philosophers that believe that illness is not the work of spirits , because i know from fact and my back is evidence that asclepuis the god of healing as cured me, so is therefore responsible foe the causes of illnesses .

your dearest,

Adeipho

In prehistoric Period, people thought that illness and diseases were caused by supernatural and natural causes. If you had a Broken leg for example, it was obvious to them that those were natural causes. Anything else that they couldn’t answer was said to be the work of evil spirit, so supernatural causes. Evidence for this comes from the study of skeletons and comparisons between the prehistoric people and the aborigines as they share similar beliefs.

Ill people in prehistoric times were treated by medicine men and family. Medicine men were healers that were valuable and significant to their tribes.this is because they knew and understand spirits and how to cope with them. Family, especially women treated illness a s part of their role as mother and wife, just like they still do today.

illness and injury was treated using herbs and plants. This was mostly used by women because they knew about their healing power. evidence for treatments with herbs and plants is found on prehistoric sites. One example is Chickweed used to treat ulcers and skin problems. the treatments and remedies had to be remembered because they were no writing and were passed on by word of mouth.

A form of surgery used by the prehistoric people was trephining, this involved cutting a hole in the skull or removing a piece of bones. Although it was dangerous because of the carved stone they had for equipment, it proves to be successful as bones were found showing evidence of healing.

This type of surgery was used for treatment against severe headaches or to ease pressure caused by swelling because of skull injury. Another idea is that trephining was used to let out evil spirits that caused illness and disease, but this idea is not proven by any evidence.

The Egyptians period witnessed a number of changes in medicine. One change was the way the Egyptians treated corpse by embalming them for after life. This enabled them to learn a little about anatomy as they knew a little about the heart, the pulse, the lungs, the brain…. ,but they didn’t know their correct functions. This is partly because embalming was done quickly because of the heat and the Egyptians did not allow dissection as it their bodies were important to them for their after life.

Another change was the ability of Egyptians to travel as their wealth enable them to trade with communities around the world in places like India, China and parts of Africa. This meant that the Egyptians and the other communities could share their knowledge and ideas about remedies.It therefore, permitted Egyptians doctors to built up a better knowledge of treatments and remedies so that they could treat illness better for both their communities and others; and this was a step from prehistoric era.

These changes were brought about by a number of factors. One such factor was improved communication. This enable trade and sharing of ideas about medicine. But another big change was the invention of writing on papyrus- a paper made from reeds- which Egyptians develop to make writing more convenient. To medicine, this invention enabled doctors to share accurately their remedies and treatments to other healers and sold to other communities.

Another factor was religion which nourished the idea of embalming. This gave a chance to Egyptians to learn about anatomy and try to understand it ; although religion objected to dissection which would have been the best way to learn about the body.

However, not everything changed. There were some continuities. For example, Egyptians also believed that illness were caused by supernatural and natural causes, although much their medicine knowledge was based on the theory of blocked channels inspired by their environment, therefore a natural cause of disease. Another continuity was that although Egyptians could had doctors for the more wealthy, illness of the less fortunate were still treated by family just like in prehistoric era.

These changes resulted in progression in medicine because treatments were getting better, doctors had better tools to carry out more complex surgery and together this enhanced life expectancy of the Egyptians compared to prehistoric people.