1) Prehistoric people were nomadic.
What does this mean?
No fixed home
• They were always moving from place to
place, looking for more food.
2) What two word phrase is used to
describe the way they got their food?
HUNTERGATHERERS
3) Did prehistoric people have a system
of writing?
NO
4) What are the two ways we have
found out about prehistoric people? [2]
1) ARCHAEOLOGY – things that have been
dug up, e.g. skeletons and tools.
2) STUDYING OTHER NOMADIC PEOPLE
– e.g. Aborigines in the 1800s in Australia.
5) What kind of beliefs or religious
system did prehistoric people have?
Believed in a spirit world.
• They thought that all natural things –
animals, plants, rivers etc. – were
controlled by spirits.
6) What was trepanning, and why was it
done? [2]
Drilling a hole in someone’s skull.
• It was done to release the evil spirits
which were thought to cause the problem
(a supernatural cure).
7) List two common-sense or natural cures.
• Broken bones were set in clay or mud.
• Herbal cures were used for stomach
problems.
8) Who was in charge of Egypt?
The Pharaoh
• (good example of strong
central government)
9) This strong government had what effect
on where people lived – how was their life
now different to prehistoric people?
• Strong government meant
people were safe.
– As a result they could stay in one place, and
start to farm.
– People were no longer nomadic (moving from
place to place). They could now live more
settled lives.
10) Why could people now do specialist
jobs?
• Because people were now farming, more and
more food was produced.
• This is called an
AGRICULTURAL SURPLUS.
• As a result not everyone had to farm all day.
People became builders, traders as well as
DOCTORS.
11) Religious beliefs led to Egyptians
doing what to dead bodies?
• Embalming or
mummifying dead bodies.
They believed the soul left the body when you
died, but at some point it would return and need
to re-use the body. It was vital therefore that the
body was preserved.
12)How did this process help medical
knowledge improve?
• Priest-doctors learnt about all the
major organs – heart, lungs,
liver – as they removed them from
dead bodies.
13) At the same time how did this
process limit medical progress?
Full dissection was banned
– as the soul would need to re-use the body.
• As a result their understanding of
ANATOMY (structure of the body)
remained limited.
14) Who was the Egyptian god of healing?
Imhotep
15) What was the first ever natural theory of
disease which the Egyptians developed?
Theory of the
Blocked Channels
F irst
E ver
N atural
T heory
Of
D isease
16) Give an example of a common-sense
(natural) cure from Egyptian times.
Willow was used
as an antiseptic.
17) Why did the Egyptians think it
was important to keep clean?
• Priest-doctors kept clean for religious
reasons – out of respect for the gods.
They shaved their hair, and always wore
clean clothes – but they did it for religious
reasons.
• Others in society copied them.
18) Who was the most important
doctor in ancient Greece?
HIPPOCRATES
19) Which medical theory did he
develop?
SENTOD
The Theory of the
Four Humours
20) Was this natural or
supernatural?
SENTOD!!
Natural!!
21) How did this theory explain
illness?
KEY WORD =
BALANCE
• The key to good health was to have all your
humours balanced. If you were unwell it
was because you had too much or too little
of one humour.
22) Name a treatment based on the
Theory of the Four Humours?
Bleeding
Or, a patient with too much
yellow bile might be made to
vomit.
23) What was another key idea of
the Greek doctors?
CLINICAL
OBSERVATION
• Taking regular exercise and
eating a healthy diet.
24) Who was the Greek god of
healing?
ASCLEPIOS
25) What buildings were built in his
honour, and what happened inside
them?
Asclepions
• Patients were put in a trancelike state, and special healing
ceremonies were performed.
26) Where in the Greek world was
a huge library established?
ALEXANDRIA
27) During which Empire was Galen a
very important doctor?
The Roman
Empire
28) Where in his early life did he learn
new medical skills? (2 answers)
1) Alexandria
2) He was a doctor at a gladiator training
school.
Both taught him a lot about ANATOMY (the
structure of the human body).
29) Did he accept the Theory of the
Four Humours?
YES
• Galen accepted most of the ideas of Hippocrates
and the Greek doctors – he was a Greek doctor
himself.
• However, he developed many of his own ideas
as well.
30) Which new theory or treatment did
he develop from it?
TREATMENT OF
THE OPPOSITES
T REATMENT
OF
T HE
O PPOSITES
31) How did this theory or treatment work?
Explain the logic of it, and give a specific
example of a cure based on it.
• If you were unwell it was because you had
too much of a certain humour.
• The way to treat it was with something
opposite to it.
• For example if you had a cold, and were
full of phlegm you would sniff some hot
pepper to help you sneeze.
32) Name another of his key ideas or
discoveries.
• BRAIN CONTROLS THE BODY
• Through dissecting a live pig he proved that the
brain controlled the body. Only when he cut one
particular nerve did the pig stop squealing.
• PERFECT DESIGN
Claimed that the
Creator fitted all organs
together perfectly.
33) For how long did his ideas dominate
medicine?
1500 years
• All the way through Roman times,
throughout the Middle Ages and right up to
the Renaissance (began in 1500).
34) Give two reasons why his ideas
lasted so long.
• 1) CHRISTIAN CHURCH ACCEPTED HIS IDEAS
Because he spoke about “the Creator” the Church
agreed with him. In the Middle Ages no-one disagreed
with the Church. This was called HERESY, and you
could be killed for it.
• 2) HIS IDEAS MADE SENSE / WERE LOGICAL
There was some logic to the 4 Humours (which he
accepted), and the Treatment of the Opposites (which he
developed). They matched the 4 seasons of the natural
world, and often seemed to work.
35) Which four things made up the
Roman public health system? [4]
• AQUEDUCTS
• PUBLIC BATHS
• PUBLIC TOILETS
• SEWERS
36) Why did the Romans think it was so
important to keep their army healthy?
HEALTHY ARMY
=
HEALTHY EMPIRE
37) As well as the army, which other
group in Roman society helped build
the public health system?
SLAVES
38) What problem had the Romans
noted about living near marshes?
• Lots of people caught a fever as a
result.
• We know today that this is called
malaria.
39) What did they do as a result?
They drained the marshes.
40) What important link had the
Romans made which was key to
explaining illness?
THE LINK BETWEEN DIRT AND DISEASE.
They had worked out that if you wanted to
stay healthy you had to stay clean.
41) In the hospitals they built, the ideas
of which type of doctors dominated?
Greek doctors, in particular:
• Hippocrates
(4 Humours and Clinical Observation)
• Galen (Treatment of the Opposites)