Modern day medicine is strongly influenced by Galen, who made enormous contributions to the medical practice. His experience in gladiatorial sports, dissections, and writings were few of many factors that led him to become a well-known and respected physician. Furthermore, the practice of medicine has been revolutionizing and evolving as time passes and although, it has changed, there are still robust similarities from Galen’s time.
There were various key elements behind Galen’s medical ideas and his practice of patient care. Galen was one to believe in Hippocrates’s theory of the four humors and use the theory of opposites to solve imbalances between the humors. Because of this notion, Galen would offer a solution to an illness by giving
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Throughout Galen’s medical career, he made various discoveries and was able to explain why the body functioned as it did. I believe that his advancement in anatomy was one of his major contributions that made him influential. He believed that in order to understand medicine, it was important to know anatomy. He spent a great amount of time studying animal bodies and human bodies, when possible. He performed live dissection on animals to gain knowledge of the connection between the body and the nervous system. In one of his public dissections he demonstrated how he was able to control a pig’s squeal with the simple notion of tying the pig’s nerve with …show more content…
Some of his anatomical and physiological observations were accurate- for example, he proved that urine was formed in the kidney (as opposed to the bladder which was common belief). His most important discovery was that arteries carry blood although he did not discover circulation” (Galen, BBC).
His experience in treating gladiatorial wounds also contributed to his fame. For instance, he would clean wounds with wine and sponges to prevent infection; and if the wounds were too wide he would perform stitching. The Hippocratic bench was also an important aspect of Galen’s medical practice, it was a bed used to stretch the patient’s body and the tension would aid in aligning broken bones. He also discovered the sedative effects that opium and alcohol had on
Hippocrates (c. 460-377 BC) was born on the Aegean island of Cos, Greece. He learned his medical practices from his father, Heracleides, and Ancient Greek physician Herodicos of Selymbria. Like many big Greek names of the time, Hippocrates was thought to have come from the Gods. He was considered a descendent of Asclepios, the God of Medicine. Two major creations of Hippocrates have upheld the biggest influence on medical history. The peak of his career was during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C), where his healing tactics helped Athenian warriors (“Hippocrates”, 1998).
There he inspired many students and tutored them to become professionals in the medical field. Many of these students included Fabricius ab Aquapendente (gave the first clear description of the semi lunar valves of the veins, which later provided many people with a crucial point in his famous argument for circulation of the blood) and Volcher Coiter (described human embryology as well as the comparative osteology of animals and illustrated his own work.... ... middle of paper ...
Hippocrates' work was a breakthrough in medicinal history. He set an example of the ideal physician after which others, centuries after him, copy their existence. It was said by Celsus that "Hippocrates fist gave the physician an independent standing, separating him from the cosmological speculator, or nature philosopher.
While Charon whole-heartedly endorses Narrative Medicine, and narrative knowledge as the means to radical change of the practice of medicine, Garden takes a few steps back to objectively assess the issue. Garden goes all the way back to the eighteenth century to
Beginning around 460 BC, the concept of humoralism emerged throughout the written works of Hippocrates. These early works, some of the only medical works of this detailed nature to survive this period, delineated one of the first ways scholars and physicians viewed the body and more importantly illness. Shaped by the Hippocratics’ version of humoralism and his own interpretations of their written works, Galen resolutely supported the fundamental four-element theory, the notion of the four humors, and the essential practice of healing by applying opposites by physicians. However, Galen’s education in anatomy proved an effective advance in his medical reasoning away from a non-ontological view of illness into a considerably more ontological and
The main concern of the discipline of psychology in ancient times was the “[speculation of] the nature and locus of the mind, sensation and perception, memory, and learning”. There existed a strong connection between psychology and medicine, physiology, and neurology. The purpose of psychology, for the ancient physicians and philosophers, was to describe its procedures and demeanor in terms of science (e.g. medicine). In order to understand the emergence of psychology, the advances in medicine in these ancient cultures must be discussed. That way, one can see how psychology was linked to each one of them, in one way or the other.
Dr. David KL Quek. Is the Hippocratic Tradition Still Relevant in Today’s Medical Practice. http://www.vadscorner.com/editorial 10199.html 27 Nov. 2004
In modern medicine when an ailment arises it can be quickly diagnosed, attributed to a precise bacteria, virus, or body system, and treated with medication, surgery or therapy. During the time before rational medical thought, this streamlined system of treatment was unheard of, and all complaints were attributed to the will of the multitude of commonly worshiped Greek gods (Greek Medicine 1). It was during the period of Greek rationalism that a perceptible change in thought was manifested in the attitudes towards treating disease. Ancient Greece is often associated with its many brilliant philosophers, and these great thinkers were some of the first innovators to make major developments in astrology, physics, math and even medicine. Among these academics was Hippocrates, one of the first e...
...ways to clean and heal wounds. He realized the importance of cleaning the wounds. He also designed prosthetic limbs and the truss, which is designed to keep hernias from growing ( “Medicine”).
Hippocrates used his knowledge of natural healing to help many people recover from what ails them in an attempt to; also, learn more of people’s sicknesses. Hippocrates once thoroughly examined the king of Macedonia, who was very sick at the time, and aided him in “recovering from tuberculosis”- which he did recover from (World Biography, 4).
William Harvey was a distinguished physician of the seventeenth century. Harvey was educated by some of the great scientists of his time and was highly knowledgeable of the scientist theories preceding his time. Harvey was greatly intrigued by the views of the ancient Aristotle and developed a number of his own ideas based on Aristotle’s theories. It was from Aristotle’s theory of the primacy of blood that allowed Harvey to make breakthroughs about circulation and generation of animals. His advancements greatly enhanced the study of anatomy. Harvey also revolutionized the means by which science was performed through the use of innovative, investigational techniques. William Harvey became a well-known name in science because he made profound accomplishments that changed the way scientists performed and the way people viewed the human body.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, medicine was hardly the enlightened profession it is today. Medical practices were often barbaric, employing methods that had been used for centuries, yielding little or no results and often killing the patient with a different affliction than the original ailment. Leeching (or blood letting), purgation, poor liquid diets, and cold water dousing were common practices as late as the 1850's. Even after newer, more effective methods of medical treatment had been introduced, many of the physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries hesitated to use them. Fearing the loss of their reputations, they hung on to superstitious beliefs, doubting the effectiveness of su...
Although it is not apparent whether or not Ancient Egyptian physicians had formal training or not, their methods for diagnosing and handling illnesses were very efficient at times. As a matter of fact, we still use some of their remedies today when we make medicines. Examples of the diagnosis and remedies for diseases in Ancient Egypt can be found in the Ebers Papyrus. This is one of the oldest known documentations of ancient medical practices, dating as far back as fifteen hundred BC. Steven Gilbert, the author of A Small Dose of Toxicology: The Health Effects of Common Chemicals, defines the text as “approximately one hundred and ten pages on anatomy and physiology, toxicology, spells, and treatment recorded on papyrus. The papyrus also has many prescriptions showing the treatment of many disorders by animal, plant, and mineral toxins that still occur today.” Modern-day examples of medical ailments mentioned in the Ebers Papyrus include Asthma, Cancer, and Belly Aches. Oddly enough, the heart, rather than the brain, was regarded as the headquarters of human knowledge in the body because this was where the abundance of emotion was said to be drawn forth from. The heart was also thought to be a means of communication between the people and the gods because people were given insight and instruction pertaining to the gods will through this organ of the body. The Egyptians did not understand how important the heart was in terms of blood circulation, as we understand it today. Their belief was that the heart was connected to all the other parts of the body, via canals, which were used to transport bodily fluids and waste to their appropriate locations. The brain’s only purpose was to transport mucus to the nose, and therefore it wa...
Traces of factitious disorder were seen back in Galen’s time, a famous Roman physician from around 200 AD.
Hippocrates was a Greek physician that left a legacy that existed during his lifetime in Classical Greece and continues today. His moral and ethical standards were the foundation of his teachings, along with his meticulous writings concerning the study of the human body. He firmly believed that poor health and disease were the result of a natural process that could be discovered and cured through careful clinical reasoning and observations. Hippocrates travelled throughout Greece teaching and describing disease symptoms, and taught doctors how to analyze and treat specific illnesses or diseases. Hippocrates’s accomplishments give him the respect from doctors and medical professionals around the world that continues even today.