Medicine, Physick, and Surgery

Medicine, Physick, and Surgery

In the

Late Middle Ages, and Renaissance

Introduction
- This is a quick survey and overview, not an exhaustive treatise.
- The major focus is 15th-16th Centuries
Background
- Ancient
  - Prehistoric
  - Mesopotamian civilizations
  - Egyptians
- Classical Greek
  - Beginnings of rational thought / logical reasoning – Not just about medicine
- Roman
  - Galen (actually Greek living in Rome) – beginnings of anatomical study
  - Couldn’t dissect humans, so worked on animals
  - Again, knew perfectly well that his animals weren’t exactly the same as humans. However, his caveats and qualifications get corrupted into MORE dogma.
- Arabs
  - Preservation of Greco-Roman knowledge through the Dark Ages
  - Beginnings of some research and discoveries as well.
  - Famous physician – Al Zahrawi, latinized to Albucasis
Situation, by the 1400s
- Three Branches of Health Care
  - Physician
  - Surgeon
  - Apothecary
- Return / Resurrection of Ancient Knowledge
- Beginnings of Empirical study
Physician
- University-trained, upper-crust if not upper-class
- Learned in Wisdom of the Ancients
- Astrology, herbs, Hippocrates, Galen, et al.
- Examines, diagnoses, and prescribes
- Generally DOESN’T get hands dirty
Apothecary
- Tradesman (or woman) who’s undergone an apprenticeship
- Field of knowledge is herbs and remedies, and the compounding of medicines
- In addition to herbal medicine, there is some chemical (or alchemical) material being used.
- Dabbled somewhat in midwifery and surgery. Also dispensed medical advice, and patent medicines.
Surgeon
- Again, a tradesman – apprenticed anywhere from 7 to 14 years
- In places like England and France, certified by sitting for a board of the College of Surgeons
- Widely variable in skill, training, and social class
  - Mountebanks and itinerant tooth-pullers
  - Barber-Surgeons
  - Military and Court Surgeons
- Area of expertise is physical problems, and the repair thereof.
  - Small-town barber-surgeon – major business is going to be haircuts and shaves, with the occasional bleeding, purging, or tooth-drawing

Galen, 131-201CE, On the Natural Faculties. Translated by A. J. Brock. University of Adelaide, at http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/g/galen/g15nf/ Galen, while more of a theorist than Hippocrates, does display analytical thinking about medicine, rather than the magical thinking of pre-rational medicine.

Hippocrates, 460-377BCE, Works. Translated by Francis Adams. Available at the University of Adelaide, http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/h/hippocrates/ Hippocrates runs to practical applications for various ailments.

Longrigg, James, 1934-, Greek rational medicine [electronic resource] : philosophy and medicine from Alcmaeon to the Alexandrians. The link for the book is http://www.netLibrary.com/urlapi.asp?action=summary&v=1&bookid=79901. Book covers the development of medicine in Greece from pre-rational, deriving from Egyptian and Babylonian sources, through classical-period beginnings of rational practice.

Magner, Lois N., 1943-, A History Of Medicine. Second Edition, Publisher: Taylor & Francis, Pub date: c2005.

Woodall, John, The Surgions Mate. Originally published 1617. Current ed. By John Kirkup, 1978.