The Rise of Medicine

Megan Stanfield

September 10, 2011

The Rise of Medicine

Vivian Nutton, a British historian of medicine, discusses the changes of medicine through time. Nutton defines medicine as “something over and beyond mere healing, as the possession of a specific body of learning, theoretical and practical, that might be used to treat the sick” (46). With this definition, Nutton writes this piece in order to answer the question of what the “body of learning” is and “how medicine came to supersede healing” (47).

In order to answer the two questions pertaining to medicine, we as an audience must understand a brief history of medicine, which Nutton describes. While reading Nutton, the audience should keep in mind that it is assumed that evidence for healing and medicine antedates any literary text or historical event, that medicine has always been with us, that current medicine is the result of progressive accumulation, and that those who practiced were the best for consultation.

Beginning in 1700 BC, ancient healers of Babylonia kept record of “reinterpretations of fragmentary” on clay tablets. This is the first evidence that is seen of medical documentation, where people are associating symptoms with conditions and more frequently detailing an outcome. Babylonian populations would practice medicine through astronomical forecasting, “horoscopes through animal livers,” believing that the attribution of disease with the “hand of god” or a spiritual prognosis of death (48).

With the rise of Egyptian practice in 500 BC came an era of “incantations, magic, and religious cures,” and a “multitude of specialists” (49). Egyptian doctors believed that they were able to see into the patient by touching, seeing, or smelling, allowing them to purify the soul. It was believed that the patient could be cleansed with the famous wide array of drugs from the “Eastern Mediterranean, Africa, and Asia” (50).

Approaching 410 BC the Greek Era of medicine begins the independence of practice compared to years before. the Hippocratic Oath and Hippocratic Corpus both originate from this time, beginning to incorporate philosophy and the “multiplicity of competing healers,” calling medicine an open art. This allowed medical ethic to rise with an emphasis on distinguishing the difference between a good practitioner and the “useless practices of another” (51). Philosopher Aristotle began incorporating “zoological and biological” studies into medicine, highlighting the birth of anatomy. Quickly a new agenda concerning medicine was enforced by Galen and Hippocrates. This agenda consisted of a greater focus of medical study through literature and philosophy, and less on personal observation or hear-say.

The emergency of Christianity in 313 BC brought an “ambiguous attitude towards medicine,” emphasizing the “power of faith” (55). This ambiguity consisted of enforcing the proper place for the church having religious authority, placing the “priest at the beside as well as the doctor” (56). As the gradual struggle of political and military separation among the Greek and Romans occurred, so did the split of medical interpretation with faith.

Arab influence with medicine marks another point of “successful transfer of classical knowledge” to another language, expanding upon the present medical writing in Arabic. Arab influence contributed the beginning of medical specification. Influenced by Galen, Arab practitioners began experimenting a wider array of drugs than had been tampered with before, combined with the “complex mixtures designed for the individual patient” (59). Arab authors also mention the beginning ideas, derived from Galen, of “three spirits ruling the body” (59).

It is not until the Byzantine world that we start to see a complete sense of how medicine should be studied. Through “professor argued, taught, and demonstrated practice” it is evident that the “tradition of learned medicine” was socially accepted by the medical world. Medically trained staff begin to administer drugs and therapies in hospitals, bringing medicine closer to the contemporary West.

The art of professionalism and medicine begin to intertwine during the Dark Ages. No longer was the “do it yourself” mentality alive, partially because the majority populous could not read. As the writing of Galen and Hippocrates spread with translation, there was the problem of an abundance of heavily arab and philosophical influenced teachings.

The rise of University Medicine is where we begin to see a more familiar representation of medicine. Dating 1250-1500 AD institutions of high learning begin to educate students though seldomly attended because of the seven year commitment. While university medicine was “speculative and highly theoretical,” a hierarchy of institutions are put in place along with medical regulating health boards. Students of medicine were required to pass textual examination, acquire a “formidable range of learning, practical basis of therapeutics, and achieve a period of supervised practice” (66).

Medicine currently maintains the importance of the physical and mental well-being of the patient. While the context of medicine has changed over the years, it is still taught today based on Galen, Hippocrates, and Aristotle theories.