Lecture 2
MEDICINE OF ANCIENT WORLD
IN THE EAST AND
MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES.
In the fourth millennium before our era essential
changes took place in the level of development of
production forces in the sphere of material culture
of humanity, a new social system was constructed
in some countries which was characterized by next
features:
1. Formation of stockbreeding or shepherd tribes (first realization of
labors division).
2. The appearance and formation of agriculture (second labors
division).
3. The appearance of exchange between communities and tribes.
4. Wide utilization of metal for the manufacture of tools.
5. The invention of writing.
6. The appearance of religion.
7. Privet property on the means of production.
8. The class division of human society.
First slave-owning countries, which were
busy in agriculture, began in hot countries
in the valleys of big rivers.
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Chinese founded their own country on the Yellow
river,
 Indians - on the river Indus and Ganges,
 Babylonians on the river Tigris and Euphrates.
 Egyptians with the stream of the river Nile.
Professional craft men appeared in medicine.
Division of labors raised it is productivity which
made kneaded conditions for the development of
culture, science and medicine. National medicine
still remains the main form of medicine but new
essential peculiarities were distinguished in it:
1) National medicine forms becomes professional.
2) Temple medicine forms because of the
appearance of religion.
3) First doctor's school appears for the training of
professionals.
4) New views appear on the reasons of diseases.
In order to be a professional doctor and be
responsible for the treatment before the law, it
was necessary to have special training.
 These training doctors received in family. Father
of the family, who was busy in medical craft,
handed studies about the elements as the base of
functioning of organism is supplemented by the
studies about two polar forces, which determine
health and disease.
 Family medical school appeared n which medical
knowledge were handed over from generation to
generation.
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First medical literature appears
together with the appearance of writing.
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The main monuments of medical literature of that
time were:
 Egyptian medical papyri, clay tables about
medicine of ancient Babylon and real manuscript
books of Chinese and Indian doctors.
 These sources are the collection of prescriptions
if the elements of mysticism will be thrown aside.
 Advises how to prepare medicine, short
description of the diseases and ways of there,
treatment are given there.
The first known chemical processes were
carried out by the artisans of Mesopotamia,
Egypt, and China.
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Most of these craftspeople were employed in
temples and palaces, making luxury goods for
priests and nobles. In the temples, the priests
especially had time to speculate on the origin of
the changes they saw in the world about them.
Their theories often involved magic, but they also
developed astronomical, mathematical, and
cosmological ideas, which they used in attempts
to explain some of the changes that are now
considered chemical.
PHARMACY IN ANCIENT BABYLONIA
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Babylon, jewel of ancient
Mesopotamia, often called the cradle
of civilization, provides the earliest
known record of practice of the art
of the apothecary. Practitioners of
healing of this era (about 2600 B.C.)
were priest, pharmacist and
physician, all in one. Medical texts
on clay tablets record first the
symptoms of illness, the prescription
and directions for compounding,
then an invocation to the gods.
Ancient Babylonian methods find
counterpart in today's modern
pharmaceutical, medical, and
spiritual care of the sick.
The Mosaic Code of the Hebrews indicated
concerns with social hygiene and prevention
of disease by dietary restrictions and
sanitary measures.
In Sumerian medicine the
Laws of Hammurabi
established the first
known code of medical
ethics, and laid down a
fee schedule for specific
surgical procedures. In
ancient Babylonia, every
man considered himself a
physician and, according
to Herodotus, gave
advice freely to the sick
man who was willing to
exhibit himself to
passersby in the public
square.
PHARMACY IN ANCIENT CHINA
 China
had trade connections with many
countries of the world, which encouraged
its material and cultural development.
 China gave to the world: silk, gunpowder,
porcelain, and pottery, paper.
 Great success was in mathematics,
astronomy.
 At that time there was a map of star sky,
calendar made by Chinese.
Philosophy had a special place and its influence is
admitted in medicine.
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Book about internal human is the important
leaflet of ancient Chinese medicine.
 It performs a question about human nature.
 It is said that man is miniature of nature and has
analogical components. These are earth, water,
fire (symbol of warmth), tree (ability to grow),
and air.
 First four-element -earth, water, fire, tree - get
into human organism together with food.
Acupuncture is the introduction of the needle
into the sick organ or into the distant point on
the body.
 At that time Chinese physicians knew more than
300 points on human body,
 Modern medicine determined that projections of
these points were corresponded to' nerve trunks
and ganglions.
 Owing to acupuncture Chinese physicians
discovered the pulmonary abscess, exudative
pleurisy and the ascites.
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 Chinese physicians have
brought to medicine the
method of pulse
investigation and created
the doctrine about the
pulse.
 They distinguished more
than 200 kinds of pulse
depending on the disease
in 3rd century the science
about the pulse was
generalized in 10-volumed
treatise "The Book about
Pulse".
Quite early specialists of making and selling
drugs appeared in China.
Chinese pharmacy as a specialized establishment also
has its ancient origin. At first physicians were empirics,
but later doctors-scientists appeared.
 The great attention was paid to prophylactic actions. In
medical advises it was written that "medicine cannot
save from death but it is able to make life longer with its
advises".
 Among them was the right distribution of work, rest and
sleeping.
 One of the chief places was occupied by rational feeding,
proceeding from the conception that "an illness goes in
through the mouth".
 Diet, massage, hydro procedures, solar irradiation,
treating exercises were recommended too.
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In ancient China training of doctors was of family
character, it was also provided in temples.
Later different specialties appeared, such as:
therapeutics, surgeons, dietologists etc.
 Besides that they distinguished 5 categories
depending on the qualification.
 The most popular doctor was Ban'-Tsao (5-6
century B. C.)
 He generalized all the methods of diagnosing and
treatment that were before him:
He is considered a father of studying pulse
He has improved the acupuncture
He attached importance to prophylactic and
opportune treatment
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The arsenal of remedies in Chinese medicine
were very rich.
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There were medicines of vegetable, animal and mineral
origin.
Among the remedies of vegetable origin the main place was
occupied by ginseng. It was used to treat the tuberculosis,
the anemia and the fever;
They used also shizandra, camphor, rhubarb, ginger, and
buds of bamboo, tea, onion, and garlic.
Among the remedies of animal origin they were: the pants
(horns of young deer), the moschus, the liver and bone
marrow.
The most precious were the inner organs and the blood of
tiger.
Among the mineral substances such kinds of them were
used: mercury for treating syphilis, sulfur for treating of
scabies, gelatin to stop the inner hemorrhage.
The Chinese pharmacopoeia was
the most extensive of all the older
civilizations.
 The
Hindus seem to have been familiar with
many surgical procedures, demonstrating
skill in such techniques as nose
reconstruction (rhinoplasty) and cutting for
removal of bladder stones.
The Indian Medicine
The sources to study the history of medicine are:
the laws of Manu, Ajur-Vedas (The Books of
Life).
 In life of Indian society religion and
philosophical opinions played the main role.
 Proceeding from the doctrine about three
organic juices (bile, sputum, air) and five
universal elements (soil, water, fire, air and
ether /the source of light).
 Health was estimated as a result of their even
mixing, normal condition of sensive organs and
human mind.
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Indian medicine knew many
remedies.
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Classification of drugs were used at that time.
Among them are 760 drugs made of plants, which were met
only in India.
They considered that the main cause of diseases was shifting in
juices of the body; therefore, the main kinds of drugs they used
were diuretics, vomitives and bloodletting among the mineral
drugs the most popular were remedies containing mercury.
Medicines were used in different forms (powders, tablets,
infusions, decoctions, ointments).
During the assignment of remedies they paid attention to the
season of the year, Sushrut (One of the author Aiur-Vede).
DAYS OF THE PAPYRUS EBERS
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Though Egyptian medicine dates from about 2900 B.C., best
known and most important pharmaceutical record is the "Papyrus
Ebers" (1500 B.C.), a collection of 800 prescriptions, mentioning
700 drugs.
Pharmacy in ancient Egypt was conducted by two or more
echelons: gatherers and preparers of drugs, and "chiefs of
fabrication," or head pharmacists.
They are thought to have worked in the "House of Life." In a
setting such as this, the "Papyrus Ebers" might have been
dictated to a scribe by a head pharmacist as he directed
compounding activities in the drug room.
 People of Egypt knew anatomy
because they could embalm the
diseased. Brain was the central
organ. They distinguished
arterial, vena, and nerve. They
thought, that they include blood,
and arterial include ear
(pneumatic). Diseases are result
of bad blood and wet pneumatic.
And people should to dismiss
from blood and lymph. The
therapy includes vomiting,
laxative, uresis.
 A papyrus includes “Book of
eyes”, which describes twenty
eye's illnesses, “Treatise about a
heart and his vessels” and points
near 800 recipes.
 All of medications are classified
after a pharmacological action.
A heart is an organ which
flustered ancient Egyptians and
considered the receptacle of
mind.
 “A heart speaks, - reports a
papyrus, - if put fingers on a
head, on both hands, on feet –
everywhere meet a heart, as his
vessels pass through all of
members”.
GREEK ANCIENT MEDICINE AND
PHARMACY
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The first sources in which the medicine was
mentioned were the works by Gomer. Specifically, an
"Iliada" there are some persons, who are endowed
with knowledge of medicine and the high grade of
their practical activity is given.
There is a myth about the doctoral family
tree in the Greece mythology.
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The goddess Artemida beard a rebating to the treatment of
women.
The son of Apollo, Asclepiads, is the god of medicine art. He
was a real doctor on North of Greece, which was adored. Two
peoples of Asclepiads were two his sons.
The Machaon (surgeon) and Padaliriy (infernos).
Two daughters of Asclepiads, which entered the history of
medicine as instructors of separate brunches of medicine,
supplemented this doctor's family.
The name of one of them is Gigiyeya that means "health". She
was famous for her clever prophylactic advices.
The second daughter Panacea cosidered to be all heal. She could
treat from all diseases. The doctors and medicines, which treat
all the disease, are called Panacea.
There were more then 300 medical schools in the Greece of century B.C.
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The professional medicine was characterized, first of
all, by the appearance of hospitals, the first medical
schools, by the germ of the organization of protection of
health in the cobias.
 The rich doctors opened hospitals, which were called
"iatreya" (the dispensary).
 The medical schools were opened attached to some
separate hospitals. Their studies were paid. After the
graduation a school-leaver took the oath about the
honest service for people in front of the community of
the town.
 The students studied the properties of medicine of plant
origin, with a preparedness of medical drinks, ointment,
plasters.
Hypocrites is the father of Western medicine
The main characteristic of Hypocrite's doctrine.
1. The doctor must posses of medical
knowledge and all methods of examine a
patient.
2. The man's body we must considerate in close
connection with the nature.
3. The illness is a result of changing's in
material of a man (organs, systems).
4. The diagnostics, treatment, and the prognosis
must be individualize for the illness.
5. Such principles must be kept in the
treatment:
a) To stimulate the nature possibilities of a man,
using the huge power of a nature in
maximum.
b) To connect a treatment with a hygienic
regimen.
c) To treat opposite.
Hypocrite's thought that human body has four gastric
juice: blood, black and yellow bile.
The advantages of this or that juice create the man's temperament:
a) Sanguine person (blood)
b) Phlegmatic person (mucous)
c) Melancholic person (black bile)
d) Choleric person (yellow bile)
 Hypocrite's had an attitude to all branches of a medicine. His
collection of articles includes the main question about the
internal disease, mental illness. Surgery, hygienic, women‘s and
child's disease.
 The most interesting has his approach to the understanding of
the etiology of the disease. He thought that the main reason of
the disease was change the climate or it's disparity of the
climate the "nature" of a man.
Hippocrates created the theory of storage of medications
and classification of them after operating on an
organism.
• From medications in the days of
Hippocrates applied: water, nutritive
mucous, sweet, oils, fat, astringent, sharp,
fragrant, resinous, balsam and narcotic
(poppy, mandrake).
• Mixtures of matters were not almost used,
vegetable matters were used as decoctions
or extracts from all of plant or juices and
resins.
• Such medical forms as powders, extracts,
decoctions, ointments plasters,
suppositories, and pills were known.
• Much facilities is honey, wine, butters,
juices of plants - were medicinal
preparations and liquid and viscid liquids
and viscid environments for making of
different medical forms.
Theophrastus (about 300 B.C.), among the
greatest early Greek philosophers and natural
scientists, is called the "father of botany."
• His observations and writings dealing
with the medical qualities and
peculiarities of herbs are unusually
accurate, even in the light of present
knowledge.
• He lectured to groups of students who
walked about with him, learning of
nature by observing her treasurers at
firsthand. In his hands he holds a
branch of belladonna. Behind him are
pomegranate blooms, senna, and
manuscript scrolls. Slabs of ivory,
coated with colored beeswax, served
the students as "slates." Writing was
cut into the surface with a stylus.
THE ROYAL TOXICOLOGIST MITHRIDATES VI
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Mithridates VI, King of Pontus (about 100 B.C.), though he
battled Rome for a lifetime, found time to make not only the
art of poisoning, but also the art of preventing and
counteracting poisoning, subjects of intensive study.
Unhesitatingly, he used himself as well as his prisoners as
"guinea pigs" on which to test poisons and antidotes.
Behind him are rhizotomists, offering fresh, flowering
aconite, ginger, and gentian. At lower right is a crater - a
two-piece forerunner of the champagne bucket. His famed
formula of alleged panantidotal powers, "Mithridatum," was
popular for over a thousand years.
PHARMACY IN ANCIENT ROMA
The Romans advanced public health and
sanitation through the construction of
aqueducts, baths, sewers, and hospitals.
 Appearance of permanent army required
development of military medicine: combat
hospitals functioned, positions of soldiery
doctors, doctors of legions appeared.
 Medicine was taken almost exceptionally as raw
products: blood, dogs, hyenas, bedbugs, spiders.
Facilities of, animal and mineral nature were
accepted also as hard, liquid and soft medical
forms which required the primitive making.
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DIOSCORIDES - A SCIENTIST LOOKS AT DRUGS
• In order to study materia
medica, Dioscorides
accompanied the Roman
armies throughout the
known world. He recorded
what he observed,
promulgated excellent rules
for collection of drugs, their
storage and use. His texts
were considered basic
science as late as the
sixteenth century.
Claudius Galen - universal scientist,
author more then 180 works.
 He
wrote the books about anatomy, muscles,
interned organs, neuron system.
 Describe all parts of the spinal cord and brain.
 He first in the history of medicine were
engaged by the experiment. He proved that
arteries contain the blood, not the air, and
nerves are conductors from the brain to the
muscles.
 Galen engaged threatening practice and was
professional doctor and surgeon.
A doctor and natural scientist Claudius Galen held a
pharmacy on Via of Saera in Rome, which equipped at
an own hospital.
Galen is the founder of technology of drugs
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The apartment of pharmacy was used for preserve of raw material
and making of medications.
Galen began to apply extractions from natural matters, and also
considerably complicated and at the same time perfected
technology of medical forms.
Over 20 medical forms are developed them: powders, pills,
ointments, extracts, decoctions, solutions, mixtures. Galen set
certain gravimetric and volume correlation at making of extracts,
decoctions from different parts of medical plants. These
extractions became popular for the physicians of all countries of
Europe and it got the name of galenic preparations.
In one of his labours remembered 304 simple facilities from
plants, 61 – facilities from earth and metals, 80 – animal origin.