Ancient Medicine: Contributions and Practices
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo performed anatomical dissections for many years, and he later worked on the preparation of an anatomical atlas with a young medical teacher at Padua, doctor Marcantonio della Torre. He drew over 200 pages of illustrations with notes about human anatomy. Leonardo examined the structure of the heart and large vessels of man and animals. He also managed to explain the role of the valves of vessels. He was greatly interested in intrauterine life of the fetus and depicted the embryo in the uterus. The author of the first anatomical atlas in the epoch of the Renaissance was Leonardo da Vinci.
Theophrastus
Theophrastus (372-287 B.C.), a pupil of Aristotle, took over as the head of the Peripatetic school of Athens. His two treatises on plants deal respectively with their description ‘The historia plantarum’ (‘Investigations into plants’) and their aetiology ‘The causes plantarum’ (‘Explanations of plant’). Using Aristotle’s writings on the animal kingdom as a model, he laid the groundwork for botany. The ‘Investigations’ classify plants into trees, shrubs, and herbs. Some 550 species and varieties are described, with habitats ranging from the Atlantic to India. The second treatise on botany consisting of seven books is intended to account for the common characteristics of plants. His rediscovery in the Renaissance led to the revival of medical botany and botanical gardens.
Stem Cells
Another great use of stem cells is organ transplants. Stem cell research is now seen as an opportunity for ‘replacing parts’. In 2009, Japanese scientists figured out how to use adult stem cells – rather than embryonic stem cells – to regenerate a fully functioning rodent’s tooth. Doctors are counting on stem cell research to give them new tissues like hair, bones, cartilage, and skin for their patients who need them, opening the future to a new branch of medicine called regenerative medicine. Stem cell treatments will lead to the cure of well-known diseases like Diabetes or the end of debilitating diseases like Multiple Sclerosis.
Ivan Sechenov
Ivan Sechenov is the father of Russian physiology. His contributions include the creation of the reflector concept of higher nervous activity, discovery in the brain of the ‘Sechenov’s inhibition center’, foundation of neurism, theory of pathogenesis, and investigation of the chemical nature of the respiration process. He is a famous Russian physiologist. His main works are ‘The centrifugal nerves of the heart’ (1883), ‘Lectures on the function of the main digestive glands’ (1897), and ‘Lectures on the functions of the cerebral hemispheres’ (1927).
Ivan Pavlov
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), Russian physiologist and Nobel Prize laureate, achieved widespread fame through his work on the conditioned reflex (‘On the Brain Reflexes’). Being a great admirer of Sechenov, Pavlov brought together neurology and physiology in his work on conditional or learned reflexes, showing that frequent repetition of specific stimuli could produce reflexes bearing no direct relationship to the stimuli. His most famous experiments centered on gastric juice secretion, controlled by the nervous mechanism. Pavlov distinguished two types of reflexes: inborn and acquired (learned). The conditional reflex that had to be learned was highly unstable and was located in the cerebral cortex.
Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine
Nanotechnology is the accurate and controlled fabrication of atoms and molecules at nanometer dimensions, into novel materials and devices with unique properties. Nanomedicine is the science that implements nanotechnology technology for diagnosing and preventing disease and traumatic injury, relieving pain, and preserving and improving human health, using molecular knowledge of the human body. This technology is still under study, and the results are promising. The Nanomedicine initiative launched in 2005 and is expected to yield its medical benefits as early as 20 years from its launching in 2005.
David Anhaght
David Anhaght, who lived in the 5th-6th centuries, was a great Armenian philosopher. He discussed issues of medicine in the following works:
- ‘Definitions of Philosophy’
- ‘An Analysis of the Introduction of Porphyry’
- ‘Commentary on Aristotle’s Analyses’
In his works, he discussed various questions of anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, hygiene, and medical ethics. It must be mentioned that in the pages of the ‘An Analysis of the Introduction of Porphyry’, we find the earliest evidence of anatomical dissection in Armenia. Being well-acquainted with the practice of dissections on man and animals in the medical school of Alexandria, he wrote: ‘The function of analysis is to separate a substance into the parts of which it is composed, as, for example, when one takes the body of a man, dissects the feet, hands, head, and then separates the body into bones, muscles, blood vessels, and nerves’. David Anhaght wrote: ‘Medicine is the creator of health because its aim is either the preservation of health or the restoration of lost health’.
Medicine of Antiquity
Medicine of Antiquity arose in the 5th century B.C. and continued until the 5th century A.D. In ancient Greece, patron deities of healing were Apollo and his son Asclepios. Asclepios was a mortal person who later became worshiped like Imhotep in Egypt. Asclepios would often be accompanied by a snake, the Drakon – hence the medical symbol of a snake wound around a staff. His two daughters, Hygeia and Panacea, were the goddesses of hygiene and pharmacology. The cult of the god Asclepios was carried on at numerous sites, with Epidaurus being the best known. In ancient Greece, the center of temple medicine was called Asclepion, and the temple physician was called asclepiad, who cured patients in the temples of Asclepios by giving them soporific drinks or drugs, hypnotizing them, and then interpreting their dreams. Besides temple medicine, in ancient Greece, there were private hospitals called iatreias, which were free of supernatural elements. In the iatreias, the methods of disease treatment included massages, physical exercises, medication therapy, dietetics, and water therapy.
Egyptian Medicine
Egyptian medicine originated in the 3rd millennium B.C., with the first medical treatises written. The patron deities of medicine were Osiris, Isis, and Horus. Imhotep, high priest at Heliopolis, was renowned as an astrologer, architect, and the first Egyptian physician. The god of medicine was also the helper of Osiris, Tot or Hermes. He invented Egyptian hieroglyphics and created sacred Hermetic books, with the first 36 devoted to magical medicine and the last 6 to empirical medicine. Hermetic books haven’t reached our time, but pieces are kept in papyri and the Book of the Dead.
Yogic Exercises
Through yogic exercises, Kundalini is awakened, raised through Sushumna to its highest extremity, and at last joined with the Sahasrara. Awakened Kundalini gives a Yogi great power and the capability to influence the activity of the inner organs, control the functions of the heart and the rhythm of breathing, endure heat, cold, and other physical and spiritual influences, as well as prevent and cure diseases. The course of yoga training consists of 8 stages: 1. Self-control (yama), 2. Self-restraint (niyama), 3. Postures of the body (asana), 4. Control of respiration (pranayama), 5. Self-distraction (pratyahara), 6. Mental concentration (dharana), 7. Meditation (dhyana), 8. Deep meditation (samadha).
Embalming Practices in Ancient Egypt
In ancient Egypt, there were three categories of embalming: supreme, middle, and lower. In the first category (supreme), a cut was made in the left side of the human body, and certain organs were removed. The heart and kidneys were untouched, with the heart being left in place as the seat of the soul. The brain was drawn out through the nose, and the body cavity was treated with palm-wine, myrrh, and an aromatic mixture. The whole body was placed in a solution of salts for about 30 or 70 days, dried, covered with a special gum paste, and wrapped in linen bandages impregnated with gum. The removed organs were cleaned and put back or preserved in special jars. For the second category of embalming (middle), a liquid cedar gum was injected through the anus into the intact abdominal cavity, and the corpse was left in the sodium alkaline solution for 70 days. Wood alcohol and creosote were used as mummification substances. For the third class of embalming (lower), the corpse was left only in the sodium alkaline solution for a long time.