The History of Medicine

Initially disease was looked upon with superstition and cures were carried out by the priests and magicians. In Ancient Greece, people went to the temples when they were ill, to make sacrifices to the gods and drink medicated water.

In the year 400 B.C, a Greek doctor called Hippocrates, the father of Medicine declared that nature caused disease and nature alone could cure it. Later the Greek physician Galen compounded the idea that the body contained four fluids which were blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile and that the imbalnce of these fluids caused disease.

With the advent of the renaissance, knowledge grew and experiments began to form the basis of medicine. In early 15th century Vesalius began to study human dead bodies to understand the anatomy.

In 1628, an English scientist called William Harvey discovered blood circulation and he was able tto explain the system of arteries and veins in the body. Knowledge of anatomy helped in the development of surgery but deaths due to infections after an operation were high. In 1628, , Joseph Lister developed an antiseptic spray called carbolic acid which destroyed the bacteria in the operating room, thus decreasing the number of deaths.

Other breakthroughs continued over the years and are still continuing in Man’s quest to kow and cure.