Humanities and Medicine

Humanities and Medicine

1.0 Approach

My approach to this paper is to provide a fundamental historical overview of medicine leading up to the time period of the 19th century. I will then further discuss critical contributors to the development and knowledge basis of human health care.

1.1 Overview Medicinal History:

Medical information blossomed into widespread knowledge during the time of the Renaissance. The history of modern medicine is widely associated with Hippocrates, the “father of Western Medicine” who  also invented the term Hippocratic Oath for Physicians which we still use today. Hippocrates was profound in the history of medicine since he was the first to describe many diseases and medical conditions.  He is famous in the world of medicine being that he was the first to recognize that disease was caused naturally as opposed to a superstition such as upsetting the gods. Therefore, he truly separated the church from medicine. He spent his years proving that disease was not only linked to but directly caused from environmental factors, living habits, and diets.

For the first time in the world of medicine, diseases were linked to a physicality rather than a superstition. These physical attributes could be observed and measured. Concurrently, the popular thinking of science based reasoning was flourishing throughout Europe during this time period. “The scientific method is an ongoing process, which usually begins with observations about the natural world” (Wiki). This way of thinking built on found observations in order to produce theory, shaped that way that physicians approached treatment. Physicians eventually stopped practicing based on superstition and alchemy, and started to develop cures and more advanced surgical procedures. Essentially, this lead to a profound movement to attain more knowledge based on scientific findings.

The first medical school, the Schola Medica Salernitana, was opened at Salerno in Southern Italy. Because so many people came from all over the world to Salerno, the city soon was named the Hippocratic City due to its international influences. But most notably up until this time there were no dissections or clinical work done.

 Although Hippocrates was profound in his discoveries and theories proving that disease was not caused by the god, he lacked the knowledge and practice in prescribing treatments for his diagnosis. Hippocrates practiced Humorism, which is a system of medicine based on the knowledge foundation that the human body and how one feels is directly affected by the balance of the four distinct bodily fluids, known as humors ( see fig 1).  Humorism is a very holistic approach to medicine, linking physical sickness  to humor balance and seasonal temperaments.  “In essence the theory attributed sickness to an imbalance or corruption of the four basic humors, blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile” (Duffy).

Humors and the practice of bloodletting, creating a small incision to drain the body of blood,  to balance the body was predominantly used to diagnosis just about every ailment that affected people leading up to the nineteenth century. “Scientists such as Louis Pasteur, Joseph Lister, and Robert Koch showed that germs, not humors, were responsible for disease.

 Furthermore, medical statisticians tracking case histories began to collect evidence that bloodletting was not effective” (Starr). Louis Pasteur first observed that disease was caused by germs, known as microorganisms, which too small to be seen by the naked eye and only through the use of a microscope. Pasteur noted through his Germ Theory that disease was an effect of the invasion of microorganisms in the human body. Pasteur then went on to discover pasteurization and sterilization processes to kill bacteria, commonly used in manufacturing processes for human consumed products.  

1.2 Anatomy:

The medical world was based on the findings and practice of Hippocrates up until the Middle Ages. Galen was a Greek Philosopher and huge influence on medical theories and practice in Europe during the Middle Ages till the 17th century. Galen took Hippocrates trade of humors and pathology and infused his findings in anatomy through his controlled experiments. It is important to note, that Galen did most of his controlled medical experiments on animals, and no human corpses were used in any of his medical findings.

Another influence in the medical world was Paracelsus, who was a Swiss Renaissance physician and alchemist, amongst many other trades. Paracelsus was profound in the ways of his thinking since he threw out all conventional thinking aspiring from Galen. Paracelsus was the father of toxicology. His way of professional, medical thinking was based on using observations of nature, rather than looking in ancient textbooks based on superstitions. Paracelsus was also famous in his works for exploring psychological conditions rather than only physical ailments. Furthermore, he was reflective in his thinking and approach to medicine to an extent that he pioneered minerals and chemicals as medicine for disease treatment. Paracelsus was a strong opponent of patients and their diseases being treated through apothecary practices.

William Harvey was a famous English physician who was first to describe the complete circulatory system and properties of blood pumping around the ‘body’ providing critical organs a supply of blood. It is important  Belgium anatomist and physician Andreas  Vesalius was profound in humanistic ways in that he was the first to recognize the individual and how our bodies work. Before Vesalius’ time  there was not any clinical work performed ,  especially no dissections performed on the human body. The Greek Galen of the ancient world wrote all of his medicals findings from surgeries he performed on animals. In this time period, the church believed that the human body should not be touched after death. Therefore, all experiments and all knowledge known about the body was deduced from animal experiments. As mentioned above, William Henry based his findings on animal experimentation.  These texts later were the fundamental basis that all doctors were learning from. Vesalius realized the difference between an individual and an animal and wanted to explore and document and challenge earlier finding from Galen. Indeed, Vesalius found historical differences between human and animal, most being severe structural differences in organs or veins. For example, Vesalius who began the development of modern neurology, described the absence of vein collections at the base of our skull which Galen noted to be present due to findings based off of a sheep.  He later corrected over 200 of Galen’s mistakes, which improved the understanding of medical sciences and diagnosis.  In 1543, Andreas Vesalius published his anatomical discoveries in De Humani Corporis Fabrica. He described the human body as an ‘interdependent system of organ groupings’. In general, the Renaissance was a time of experimental investigation for modern medicine, especially with Vesalius dissections that profoundly advanced our knowledge of the human body.