History of Medicine: Sanitation, Infectious Diseases, and Chronic Diseases

Eras of Medicine

• There are three distinct eras in the history of medicine: Sanitary Statistics (Miasma), Infectious Disease Epidemiology (Germ Theory), and Chronic Disease Epidemiology.

Ancient Egyptian Medicine

• Egyptian medicine dates back to 3150 B.C.
• They kept accurate written health records, with examples including the Edwin Smith Papyrus on surgery and trauma.
• Egyptian medicine was heavily influenced by powerful religious beliefs, involving gods such as Thot, the god of healing.
• Practices included bloodletting, monthly purging, prosthetic devices, and embalming.
• Surgeons in ancient Egypt were both priests and doctors.

Greek Medicine

• Hippocrates (460-370 B.C.) is known as the Father of Medicine.
• He was the first to attempt to separate the practice of medicine from religion and superstition.
• He wrote "On Airs, Waters, and Places" (400 BC), the earliest reference to epidemiologic thinking.
• The Hippocratic Oath originated from Hippocrates' teachings.

Galen's Contributions

• Galen was a physician, anatomist, and surgeon to gladiators.
• He had 20 scribes who documented his work.
• He dissected animals to study anatomy and applied his knowledge to humans.
• He wrote about wounds being "windows to the body".
• He believed that a motive of profit was incompatible with a serious devotion to medicine.
• He was a proponent of the miasma theory of infection, which blamed infection on poisonous gases.
• He derived the concept of the 4 humors (black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm) from the 4 elements: earth, air, fire, and water.