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02 PMP1
PREHISTORIC & PRIMITIVE MEDICINE
Student report (Group 1: Abinales-Capuno) July 9, 2018
OUTLINE D. PREHISTORY

I. Medicine of Prehistory and Ancient Civilizations • It’s unlikely that people in the prehistoric era had anyone
A. Prehistory that would recognize them as real doctors today.
B. What did prehistoric people die from? • If they were like the primitive peoples for example:
C. Prehistoric life Australian Aborigines, they would probably run to
D. Prehistoric doctors “WITCH DOCTORS” to turn to when they were ill.
II. Primitive Medicine • Although they may well have treated illness in some way
III. Overview of Prehistoric Medicine caused a cure.
IV. Medicine in Ancient Mesopotamia • Prehistoric people did not have the concept of curing
A. Mesopotamia Background and its Civilization illness through medicine that we have today.
B. Cuneiform writing •
C. Babylon • However, they provided a base point from which we can
D. Mesopotamian Concept of Disease and Healing measure progress of medicine through succeeding ages.
E. Mesopotamian Medical Healers
F. Instruments/ Treatments used II. PRIMITIVE MEDICINE
G. Mesopotamia
V. Indian Medicine • Cherokees & Navahos: treated with kindness, the crippled
A. Vedas and deformed with acceptance.
B. Vedic Medicine • Eskimos: they set their old folks out unsheltered on the ice
C. Golden age of Indian Medicine when food supplies were low.
VI. Chinese Medicine • North American Indians: those who recovered from serious
A. History illness were looked upon with awe as possessed of unusual
B. Framework of Classical Chinese Medicine powers.
C. Three Celestial Emperors
• Among the Eskimos and Siberian people, psychotic behavior
D. Diagnosis, Prognosis and Treatment
might signify the qualifications for becoming a shaman.
E. Sages, Physicians, Healers and Quacks
• PRACTITIONERS:
VII. Ancient Egyptian Medicine
o Shaman: Eskimos and Siberian groups
A. History
o Witch Doctors: Congo and Australia
VIII. Medicine in Ancient Greece
o Medicine Man: North American Indians
A. 5Th Century BCE
• METHODS:
B. Asclepius
o Having taken the “history”, a witch doctor might consult
C. Tekhne of Medicine
the gods- sometimes while in a trance- to discover which
D. War
spirit or mortal was casting the spell.
E. Observation, Experience, and Experimentation
o Various means of divination were used: casting of bones,
F. Ancient Physicians
observing the reaction of animals to poison, moving
G. Greek Natural Philosophers
beads to the chanted names of likely suspects.
• TREATMENT:
I. MEDICINE OF PREHISTORY AND ANCIENT
o Herbal Medicine
A.CIVILIZATIONS
PREHISTORY o Elaborate ceremonies, chants, mystical signs, and
charms.
• There were no written records available at this time
o More direct attack was mounted.
• They were mostly based on archaeological findings.
• SURGERY:
• Much may be learned from a study of the drawings, bony
o Trepanation
remains, and surgical tools of early human.
o Circumcision
B. WHAT DID PREHISTORIC PEOPLE DIE FROM? o Amputation
• Diseases
III. OVERVIEW OF PREHISTORIC MEDICINE
• Poor diet
• Agricultural Revolution: discovery and utilization
• War
• Prehistoric Medicine and Its Areas
• Infections A. Mesopotamia
C. PREHISTORIC LIFE B. Indus River Civilization
C. Chinese Civilization
• Life was harsh and violent, only the strong survived.
• People survived through hunting and gatherings of food. IV. MEDICINE IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA
• They lived in relatively small tribes and were known as – Concept of Healers, Disease and Practice
“nomads” in which they travel occasionally.

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A. MESOPOTAMIA BACKGROUND AND ITS
CIVILIZATION
• Was popularly known as, “Land Between Two
Rivers” because it was situated between the
rivers, Tigris and Euphrates
• Has 4 towns: Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, and
Babylonia (Sumer being the most prominent
city)
• Also known as the “Cradle of Civilization”
o During this time, it was a fertile land
made by the flooding of the two
rivers – adding rich silt into the soil
o Agriculture flourished
o Towns grew and became cities
o Cuneiform writing was used
o Metal workings had begun
o Temples were built on a monumental
scale
B. CUNEIFORM WRITING
• This was their means of tracing the history of
Medicine in Ancient Mesopotamia
• System of writing established by the
Sumerians about 3100 B.C.
• Required the use of a stylus in order to make
wedge-shaped marks on wet clay; once they
were dry, they could be stored and transported
• It became the dominant system of writing in
Mesopotamia for over 2,000 years
• Other cultures, besides Mesopotamia, used
this form of writing because it provided the
historians the opportunity to study the culture
of Ancient Mesopotamian civilization
• Coded 15 pharmaceutical prescriptions which
are almost comparable to the De Materia
Medica
C. BABYLON
• next major civilization
• Hammurabi
o Most famous ruler of the Old
Babylonian dynasty
o Founded the Code of Law
▪ the most prominent work of
the period
▪ became the basis for the
regulation of medicine
practice in Ancient
Mesopotamia
• most cuneiform writings were adapted from
the Babylonian dialect and Akkadian dynasty
D. MESOPOTAMIAN CONCEPT OF DISEASE AND HEALING
• Illness was believed to be sent by gods,
demons, and other evil spirits – either as
retribution for sins or as malevolent visitations
o When you are sick, it was believed to
be caused by spirits
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o If you commit sins, the spirits would
be blamed
• Each spirit or god was only held responsible for
one disease
• If the causative factor of the illness was a
particular god or ghost, special offerings were
made to them in order for them to be cured
• Plants were used to treat the symptoms of the
disease and were not given for magical
purposes
• Lamashtu
o Demon of disease and death
o Held responsible for when various
organs would malfunction – causing
illness
• Marduk
o A priest healer
o Exemplified in a letter written to
Esarhaddon the interplay between
the spiritual and rational concepts of
illness
o “the gods of the king will quickly cure
it, and we shall do whatever is relevant
to the matter. It is a seasonal illness;
the king, my lord should not worry”
E. MESOPOTAMIAN MEDICAL HEALERS
• Baru (Seers)
o Believed to be able to foresee the
cause/s of illness in people
o Divination; dealt with diagnosis and
prognosis.
o Identify the causes and probable
outcomes of many catastrophe
o Once illness is diagnosed, the person
will be recommended either to the
Ashipu or the Asu
• Ashipu (Exorcist/Sorcerer)
o A healer who relied upon what is
called “magic”
o Drove out evil spirits or demons in
houses, farms, or bodies of sick
people by means of charm/spells.
• Asu (Healing Priests)
o Equivalent to the medical doctors of
modern times
o A medical doctor who treats illness
empirically
o Specialist in herbal remedies
o For treating wounds – Washing,
bandaging, and making plasters.
o Diseased part – washing with beer
and hot water
o Other pharmaceutical remedies were
also used such as poultices and
medicated plasters
• Gula
o Aka Ninkarrak/ Ninisinna
o The healing god pictured with a dog
behind her.
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o People go to Temple of Gula to thank o Machalle, Spices, Balsams, Oils,

her for healing them Gums, Narcotics (possible)
• Gallabu (Barbers) o Surgery- very little reference (except
o Marking and unmarking of slaves and for circumcision)
performing dental surgery o In Tulmud, they relied on the humoral
theories of the Greeks – attributed
F. INSTRUMENTS/TREATMENTS USED disease to the imbalance of the 4
• Recitations, ceremonies, prayers, and sacrifices humors of the body
as means of beseeching gods for cure o Phlegm (phlegmatic) , yellow bile
• Use of charms/amulets for protection during (choleric), blood (sanguine), black
time of illness or stress. bile (melancholic)
• Surgery, herbal and pharmaceutical remedy ▪ Greek Philosophers specify
• Empathy and encouragement (for those who the 4 elements of the
cannot be cured anymore) universe: Air, Earth, Fire,
and Water
G. MESOPOTAMIA o Barbers and uneducated leaders
• Physicians engaged in blood-letting and minor
o Taken from priestly tribes (Leviticus) mechanical procedures
o Prohibited from practicing with
deficient vision V. INDIAN MEDICINE
o Not allowed to examine patients at
twilight, during cloudy days or when
A. VEDAS
in a dim room
• Ancient Hebrew Medicine
o Jehovah: God is the giver and taker of
Life
o Contamination (illness): not a matter
of being evil spirits having passed
from the sick to the well but:
▪ A sign of one’s spiritual
impurity
▪ A punishment from God
• Sacred writings wherein Indian medicine’s earliest
• Public Health and Hygiene concepts are set out especially in metrical passages of
o Ailments were listed and classified the Atharvaveda - 2nd millennium BC
according to the location of the
symptoms
• Āyurveda: the system of medicine that was received by a
▪ Head: aches, eye and ear
certain Dhanvantari from Brahma
pains, swellings and tooth
abscesses
• Dhanvantari: “god of medicine”. His status was gradually
▪ Chest problems: cough,
reduced; earthly king who died of snakebite
pain, spitting of blood
▪ Abdomen: cramps, B. VEDIC MEDICINE
vomiting, diarrhea
o Since disease was caused by spirits
• Lasted until about 800 BC
having possessed the body, the
• Rich in:
affected person was shunned to
o magical practices (treatment of diseases)
avoid transference of the offending
o charms (expulsion of the demons)
demon
• Chief conditions: fever (takman), cough, consumption,
• Public Hygiene
diarrhoea, dropsy, abscesses, seizures, tumours, and skin
o Physical cleanliness is conducive to
diseases (including leprosy)
spiritual purity
o Lepers • Herbs are numerous
▪ unclean and ostracized
o Women undergoing menstrual cycles
▪ Considered unclean
▪ Could not participate in
religious or sexual acts until
7 days after the end of their
period
• Medications used

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C. GOLDEN AGE OF INDIAN MEDICINE

• 800 BC until about AD 1000 • Employed all five senses in diagnosis

• Production of medical treaties:
o Caraka-saṃhitā and Suśruta-saṃhitā
▪ Caraka, a physician
▪ Suśruta, a surgeon
o Vagbhata
• Basis of all writings on Indian medicine
• Hearing: distinguish the nature of the breathing, alteration in
voice, and the grinding sound produced by the rubbing
together of broken ends of bones
• Good clinical sense
• Magical beliefs still persisted until late in the classical period

- ANATOMY WAS LIMITED DIETETIC TREATMENT WAS IMPORTANT

• Hindus were prohibited by their religion from cutting the dead
body
• Suśruta-saṃhitā recommends that a body be placed in a
basket and sunk in a river for seven days
• On its removal the parts could be easily separated without
cutting
• preceeded any medical treatment
• Fats were used internally and externally
• “Five procedures” – most important methods of active
treatment
✓ the administration of emetics, purgatives,
water enemas, oil enemas, and sneezing powders

Emphasis in Hindu anatomy – bones → muscles → ligaments →

joints INDIAN MATERIA MEDICA WAS EXTENSIVE

• The nerves, blood vessels, and internal organs were very

imperfectly known.

HINDUS BELIEVE

• The body contains three elementary substances: spirit (air),

phlegm, and bile
• The seven primary constituents of the body (blood, flesh, fat,
bone, marrow, chyle, and semen) -produced by the action of
the elementary substances
• Semen was thought to be produced from all parts of the body
and not from any individual part or organ.

• Consisted mainly of vegetable drugs; indigenous plants

CARAKA AND SUSRATA
• Animal remedies (the milk of various animals, bones,
gallstones) and minerals (S, As, Pb, CuSO4, Au) were also
• Both state the existence of a large number of diseases
employed.
• “Fever” is regarded important
• collected and prepared their own vegetable drugs
• Phthisis was prevalent; Hindu physicians knew the symptoms
• As a result, hygienic measures were important in treatment
of cases likely to terminate fatally.
• Two meals a day were decreed, with indications of the nature
• Smallpox was common
of the diet, the amount of water to be drunk before and after
the meal, and the use of condiments.
• Bathing and care of the skin
HINDU PHYSICIANS

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SURGERY • Arcane Essentials from the Imperial Library by Wang Tao

Song Dynasty (960 – 1279)
• Illustrated Manual of the Practice of Acupuncture and
Moxibustion at the Transmission and other Acu-points,
for use with the Bronze Figure by Wáng Wéi Yī.
• Emergence of Wenbing School.
Yuan Dynasty (1271 to 1368)
• Exposition of the Fourteen Channels by Huá Shòu
Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644)
• Climax of acupuncture and Moxibustion.
• An Exemplary Collection of Acupuncture and
Moxibustion and their Essentials by Gāo Wǔ
• Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion by Yang
Jizhou, a milestone book.
• Compendium of Materia Medica by Lǐ Shízhēn, the most
complete and comprehensive pre-modern herb book
Qing Dynasty (1644-1912):
• Golden Reference of the Medical Tradition by Wu Quan,
sponsored by the imperial.
• The Source of Acupuncture and Moxibustion by Li
• Ancient Hindu medicine reached its zenith Xuechuan
• Suśruta: “surgeon should be equipped with 20 sharp and 101 • Systematized Identification of Warm Disease written by
blunt instruments of various descriptions” Wu Jutong, a Qing dynasty physician, in 1798 C.E.
• Made of steel
• Alcohol: narcotic drug operations
• Stone in the bladder (vesical calculus) was common in ancient
India Mao Zedong ( 1893- 1976 )
o Surgeons removed the stones by lateral lithotomy • declared that traditional treasure-house and
• Introduced plastic surgery pharmacology constituted a great treasure-house that
• modern operation is certainly derived indirectly from the must be explored and improved
ancient source • History
B. FRAMEWORK OF CLASSICAL CHINESE MEDICINE
• operated on cataracts by couching, or displacing the lens to
improve vision • Belief in the unity of nature
• Yin and Yang Dualism
• Theory of the 5 phases
• A medical practice based on the theory of systematic
VI. CHINESE MEDICINE correspondes.

A. HISTORY C. THREE CELESTIAL EMPERORS: (THE FOUNDERS OF

Warring States Period (5th century BC to 221 BC): CHINESE CIVILIZATION)
• Silk scrolls recording channels and Fu Hsi (reigned about 2000 B.C.E)
collaterals,(Moxibustion Classic of the Eleven Channels of o Important Invention
Legs and Arms) o Writing, painting, music, the original eight
• Yin Yang Shi Yi Mai Jiu Jing (Moxibustion Classic on the mystic trigrams and the yin and yang concept
Eleven Yin and Yang Channels) o I Ching or Canon of Changes
Eastern Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) to Three Kingdoms Period o most ancient of chinese books
(220 – 280 AD): Shen Nung
• Classic of Moxibustion and Acupuncture Preserved in a o “Divine Peasant”
Pillow by Huà Tuó o investigated thousand of herbs so that people
• Applying needles to trigger endorphins would know which were therapeutic and which
• Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases by Zhāng were toxic
Zhòngjǐng o experiment with poison and antidotes
Jìn Dynasty (265-420): Huang Ti
o Huang-ti Nei Ching- The Inner Cannon of the
• Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion by
Yellow Emperor
Huángfǔ Mì
o oldest and most influential of the classical
Tang Dynasty (June 18, 618–June 4, 907)
chinese medical texts
• Emergency Formulas of a thousand gold worth and
o principle of yin and yang
Supplement to the Formulas of a thousand gold worth by
Sūn Sīmiǎo.

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D. DIAGNOSIS, PROGNOSIS AND TREATMENT

• Sphygmology
o Listening to the waves of blood generated by
the heartbeat
• Acupuncture
o inserting needle at specific points on the surface
of the body
• Moxibustion
o technique in which burning Artemisia vulgaris is
applied to specific points on the skin
• Ginseng
o the most famous and most expensive Chinese
medicine.

E. SAGES, PHYSICIANS, HEALERS AND QUACKS

• In theory :
• Superior Physicians- healthy patients
• Inferior Physicians- sick patients
• Healer and Assorted Quacks - were eager to collect fees
and quite willing to serve sick and stupid patients
● 1600 BC – “The Edwin Smith Papyrus” was written.
Named after the dealer Edwin Smith who bought the papyrus in
1962. The papyrus describe the cases of fractures, wounds and
tumors.

VII. ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MEDICINE

● Oldest Documented
● Largely unchanged and was highly advanced for its time

A. HISTORY
● 2750 BC - 1st earliest known surgery to be performed.

● 1450 BC - Hearst papyrus was written, contains 18 pages of

medical transcriptions which includes treatment for urine, blood,
hair and bite treatments.

● 2600 BC - Imhotep wrote about the diagnosis and ● 800 BC - Homer, a greek writer mentioned about Egypt. “In Egypt,
treatment of 200 diseases – First Physician - Known the men are more skilled in medicine than any of human kind” and
as the god of Healing. “the Egyptians were skilled in medicine more than any other art.” -
Odyssey

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● 440 BC - Herodotus – Greek historian who wrote about Egyptian

Medicine. “The practice of medicine is very specialized among
them. The country is full of physicians, some treat the eye, some
the teeth, some of what belongs to the abdomen, and others
internal diseases” – Histories

● 19TH Century - Led to the discovery of several sets of

extensive ancient medical documents, including the
Eber’s Papyrus, the London Medical Papyrus and
other’s dating back as far as 3000 BC.

VIII. MEDICINE IN ANCIENT GREECE

• ILLNESS
- Was considered as a divine punishment
- Curse form the gods
• HEALTH OR HEALING
● 1822 - Rosetta Stone (monument) was finally translated in Paris, - Gift from Gods
France. It includes ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions and A. 5th CENTURY BCE
papyri and many facts related to medical matters (Egyptian medical
papyri). • Identify material causes for illnesses other than that of
the spiritual
• Although the two were never separated
• Greek practitioners took greater interest in the body, the
illness itself including the cause and effect of diseases.
• Trial and error
B. ASCLEPIUS
• Dispenser of healing and a skilled doctor
• Called upon by patients in temples or sanctuaries

C. TEKHNE OF MEDICINE
• “Doctors” who roamed around Greek settlements to heal
people
• “A doctor is worth many men” – Aristotle

D. WAR
• Good practice place for aspiring Greek doctors

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• Early surgery was performed here - The skillful physician is praised as a man more
• Various war related diseases such as infections, dysentery valuable than many others.
etc. were treated here. - Mortality rate among the wounded was close to
• Wounds were treated with various plants and techniques 80 percent.
• Basic human anatomy was learned by the ancient Greeks - Medical treatments are free of magical
• Human dissection was a big taboo practices but when medicine failed, healers
• Human parts were learned via wounds from either war or might resort to incantations and prayers.
accidents
• Aristotle believed that the heart controlled the body’s G. GREEK NATURAL PHILOSOPERS
processes and not the brain
E. OBSERVATION, EXPERIENCE, EXPERIMENTATION • Thales
• Illness as considered as an imbalance in the 4 humors of - Founder of natural philosophy
the body - One of the “Seven Sages” of Ancient Greece
a. Blood (Sanguine) • Pythagoras
b. Phlegm ( Phlegmatic) - Astronomer and mathematician
c. Yellow Bile (Choleric) - Pythagorean theorem
d. Black Bile (Black bile) - Anaximander
- Pupil of Thales
F. ANCIENT PHYSICIANS • Anaximenes
• Homer - 6th century philosopher who believed that air is
- An ancient and noble art the underlying component for everything
• Apollo • Parmenides
- The most powerful of the god physicians, as - Founder of Eleatic school
well as the god of prophecy - “what is” – reality
- The ancients flocked to his famous oracle, - Stated that change is impossible and existence
Pythia, who would enter a small chamber, is timeless, uniform, necessary and unchanging
inhale the sweet-smelling vapors coming from a • Anaxagoras
fissure in the earth, and succumb to a trace-like - First to bring philosophy to Anthens
state - Brought to trial because of his philosophy which
• Melampos denied the divinity of all gods, but his mind
- Cured the mad women of Argos • Empedocles
• Amphiraos - First to assert the elements of universe
- Originated as a local subterranean demon and - 2 contending guiding force which is love and
became competitor to Asclepios strife
• Tromphonios • Zeno
- Another supernatural physician from the - “Founder of dialectic” – Aristotle
underworld whose healing powers were - Famous for his arguments against motion
conveyed through snakes • Leucippus
• Orpheus - Atomist theory – all matter is made up of
- His music and poetry had power over the soul indivisible particles
- A religious sect developed around him involving • Xenophases
a belief in reincarnation and asceticism - Known for his satirical poetry ridiculing
• Hera polytheism and that gods were portrayed as
- Zeus’s wife and protector of the home, was a men
protector of women at childbirth
• Athena REFERENCES:
- Also a healer and patroness of the eyes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Asclepius (God of Medicine) 1. PPT
- Said to be the son of Apollo 2. Lecture
- Known as “blameless physician” (Illiad) 3. Notes
• Chiron
- taught Asclepius the secrets of the drugs that
relieve pain and stop bleeding. The cunning
hands of Machaon, son of Asclepius, could
heal all kinds of wounds, but it was Podalirius,
another son of Asclepius, who understood
hidden diseases and cures (Odyssey)
In the Illiad…

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