Disease and Infection

Created by: luucycraig
Created on: 31-12-16 14:59

View mindmap

Disease & Infection
- Prehistoric
  - Nomadic, hunter/ gatherers, primitive
  - Illnesses such as food poison however obesity would not have occurred. Injuries such as infected wounds
  - No written evidence, just archaeological.
    - Problems with archaeological evidence - skeletons don not give answers to everything, bones may have been damaged in excavations.
  - Little healthcare
    - Illnesses such as food poison however obesity would not have occurred. Injuries such as infected wounds
  - No issues related to old age (people did not live very long)
    - Little healthcare
  - Treating disease
    - Spirits
      - If your spirit left your body you fell ill. If an evil spirit found its way into your body whilst you were asleep you fell ill.
    - Charms
      - Wore charms to ward off evil spirits.
        Could be made from the seeds of a plant or part of the body.
    - Medicine Men
      - You would visit the 'Medicine Man' if it was believed that a spirit was causing a sickness.
        Sang and chanted to the patient, massaged and asked evil spirit to leave.
    - Herbs
      - Used herbs and plants to treat sickness, the knowledge was passed down through generations.
- Egyptian
  - Egypt - a wealthy country with powerful rulers.
    - The River Nile flooded every year and covered land with fertile soil resulting in rich harvests & good crops.
    - Wealth led to improvements in medicine. Doctors spent lots of time trying to improve understanding of medicine & health.
      - Improved writing.
    - Widespread trade links.
    - Religion helped medical knowledge - embalming.
      - Wealth led to improvements in medicine. Doctors spent lots of time trying to improve understanding of medicine & health.
        Improved writing.
  - Embalming: RELIGIOUS PROCESS NOT DISSECTION
    - Expensive process
    - Artificially preserving a dead body to stop the decaying process - believed it was necessary in order to allow the soul to survive.
    - 70 days to embalm a body.
  - Sickness & Disease
    - Healers: master physicians, priest magicians, Irj - doctor to Pharaoh, Sekhmet, Bes, Imhotep.
    - The Theory of the Channels was a NATURAL EXPLANATION.
    - The Body
      - Could identify the heart, liver, brain, pulse, lungs & blood but they did not understand the roles of these parts.
    - Treating: praying, scarab beetle, foul smelling herbs to ward off evil spirits.
    - Medicine
      - Doctors as well as medicine men. Doctors looked for logical causes of disease, could identify some parts of body.
      - New herbs were used as medicines.
- Greek
  - Asclepions
    - Greek god of healing: Asclepius
      - Daughters: Panacea (a cure for all ills) & Hygeia (hygiene).
    - Gymnasium - improved fitness, baths - cleanliness, temples - physiological.
    - Built in quiet & rural areas.
  - Cause of Illness
    - THE THEORY OF THE FOUR HUMOURS: phlegm, blood, yellow bile & black bile. NATURAL THEORY.
      - If the humours became unbalanced this could lead to illness.
      - HIPPOCRATES (born around 460BC)
        Wrote a number of medical books advising doctors how to treat their patients - gave people confidence in doctors.
    - HIPPOCRATES (born around 460BC)
      - Wrote a number of medical books advising doctors how to treat their patients - gave people confidence in doctors.
- Roman (similar to Greek)
  - Gods could cure illnesses & injuries.
  - Doctors observed patients & recorded symptoms.
  - Herbs were commonly used as treatments.
  - Doctors frequently recommended exercise and changes in diet.
  - Doctors successfully carried out simple operations
  - GALEN - more on surgery & anatomy
    - Ideas still being used up to 1400!
  - After collapse of Roman Empire, rapid decline followed by recovery.
- Medieval
  - Most illnesses were treated with herbal remedies
  - 3 Arab Doctors
    - Ibn Sina /Avicenna (980AD): was able to tell the differences between similar diseases & understood that some were contagious.
    - Rhazes (10th Century): first to use animal gut for stitches & plaster of Paris for casts.
    - Ibn Nafis (13th Century): first described the pulmonary circulation of the blood.
  - Arab/Islamic medicine -v- Christian/ European medicine
    - Arab/Islamic
      - Developed ideas of Galen & other Greek doctors.
      - Used natural explanations of disease rather than supernatural.
      - Caring for sick - religious duty.
      - Forbidden to dissect human bodies.
    - Christian/ European
      - Both supernatural and natural explanations.
      - Set up universities.
      - Caring for sick - religious duty.
  - THE BLACK DEATH/BUBONIC PLAGUE 1348
- Renaissance
  - The King's Evil (Scrofula): TB of a gland. Bet. 1660-'82 Charles II cured over 92000 people.
  - THE GREAT PLAGUE 1665
    - Supernatural & natural explanations ie. spread by breath, sweat or smell of sores of sick person, position of planets, miasma...
    - Treatments include use of vinegar, public prayers, charms...
  - Licensed healers: physician, apothecary, surgeon, midwife.
  - Unlicensed healers: family, wise woman, lady of the manor, travelling quack.
  - Death of Charles II tells us that treatment remained the same as it was at the time of the Greeks & Romans - the ideas from Galen & theory of 4 humours were still used.
- 19th Century
- 20th Century

Get Revising

Disease and Infection

Comments

Similar History resources: