The History of Early Cures & Remedies: Part Two

The History of Early Cures & Remedies: Part Two

By Mr Ghaz, September 10, 2010

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The History of Early Cures & Remedies: Part Two

Doctors in the west continued to influence each other but knew nothing of the Chinese approach. After the fall of Rome in the fifth century AD, there was no medical teaching in Europe, but the Arabs studied and translated many Greek manuscripts, making useful additions of their own. Rhazes (865-925), chief physician at the hospital in Baghdad, was the first to distinguish between smallpox and measles. The medical works of the Persian writer Avicenna (980-1037) were compulsory reading for European medical students until about 1650.

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Medical teaching in Europe was revived in the tenth century, and Latin translations of the medical classics were made from the Arab works. Doctors still followed the teachings of Galen and Avicenna until the sixteenth century when there was a demand for them to start looking for themselves instead of slavishly following the words of the ancients. This meant dissecting bodies to find out how they worked

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In 1543, a young Belgian named Vesalius (1514-64) published the first work on human anatomy based on careful observation of the dissected human body. The work of Vesalius was not really appreciated during his lifetime. People still continued to cling to the theories of Galen. After trying unsuccessfully to promote his teachings, Vesalius gave up and burned all his unpublished manuscripts. But his work was an important step forward. The medical world was ready to move on to finding out for itself, a process that has been continued ever since.

Roman Ideas

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The Romans followed and improved upon many of the ideas put forward by Hippocrates, Galen (c. AD 130-200) was a Roman physician, who was born at Pergamum in Asia Minor. He learned that the muscles are controlled by the brain from his work as a doctor to the gladiators’ school in Pergamum. Galen later became personal doctor to five of the Roman emperors.