Medicine & Pharmacy Through Time

Since the beginning of time, human beings have been practicing medicine in some form or another. Each major age in history had their own treatments, surgeries, hospitals, public health issues and alternatives to standard medical practice. The science of medicine has evolved over time from the use of herbs and religious incantations to state of the art medical equipment and pharmaceutical drugs. If the history of medicine has proven anything, it is that the field of medicine will look drastically different a hundred years from now than it does today.

Prehistory and the Ancient World

The earliest recorded information regarding the history of medicine comes from the Stone Ages, where shamans experimented with and used different herbs for medicinal purposes, some of which doctors still use today. For example, shamans used the snake root plant in prehistoric times to calm patients, which is still used today to lower blood pressure. Extracts of Curare, used on the tip of arrows by warriors to paralyze their enemy, is now a muscle relaxant in modern medicine. The first surgical procedure, known as trepanning, occurred over 4,000 years ago. Shamans performed trepanning by scraping a hole in the top of a human’s head and through the skull. People believed this procedure allowed evil spirits to escape the body, as well as gave the shaman more power to heal the sick individual.

An Indian shaman named Susruta established the first organized practice of medicine in 6 BC. He listed 1,120 known diseases as well as the 760 herbal drugs used to treat them and organized surgical tools by sharp objects and blunt ones. The concept of medicine in ancient India centered on the idea that the human body is comprised of three parts (spirit, phlegm and bile) that must work in harmony for overall good health.

Scholars credit Ancient Egypt with establishing the first public health system by offering specialized training for doctors as well as health insurance plans for workers. They also created the first hospitals which most closely resemble those of today, moving the practice of medicine from a doctor’s home to a place of work. The Babylonians were the first civilization to introduce the concept of diagnostic testing and providing a prognosis to patients in its largest medical text The Diagnostic Handbook, published sometime between 1069 and 1046 BC.

Between 460 and 370 BC, the man known as the father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, began studying and practicing medicine in ancient Greece. He and his students published over 70 medical texts and history credits him with creating the Hippocratic oath that doctor’s still take today. Hippocrates was the first physician to categorize illnesses by severity as well as how contagious they were. The Ancient Greeks, who performed them relatively successfully on the human brain and eyes, established the advanced use of surgical procedures. The Romans were the first to invent standardized surgical tools.

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The Middle Ages

Medicine in the Middle Ages was based largely on the information and texts from the Romans and Greeks. The first true medical teaching facility, the Academy of Jundishapur, came about during this period in Persia. Most of the major medical advancements of this time came from Muslim physicians, who expounded on the work of ancient texts. Muslim doctors were the first to regularly use alcohol in their practice, for both anesthetic purposes as well as cleaning wounds, and were the first to apply mathematics to the practice of medicine, creating the earliest known pharmaceutical practices by creating systematic doses of medicines based on a particular patient’s needs. The Kitab al-Tasrif was a thirty volume medical encyclopedia developed by Muslims in this period and introduced the practice of quarantines to limit the spread of infectious diseases, as well as created the first clinical trials in history, animal testing, and discovery of the body’s structural and nervous system.

In Europe during this time, monasteries were the main practitioners of medicine, as they often had a hospital attached to them. The first medical college, founded during the 11th century, moved the practice of medicine from relying on folk-lore and religion to relying on observation and scientific fact. People of the middle ages were plagued by skin diseases brought on by their tight fighting wool clothing, intestinal diseases due to lack of proper nutrition and pandemics such as the Black Death. Treatment for these diseases often resulted in the local officials creating settlements for those suffering, especially when it came to leprosy. The Black Death killed well over 150 million people, with four out of five of those contracting the disease dying within a week. Treatments varied from diet to bloodletting (one of the few surgeries performed at this time), with smaller villages relying on witchcraft.

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The Renaissance

Doctors of the Renaissance period introduced the dissection and study of the human body and the development of modern neurology. Despite this and the improvement of diagnostic medicine, the gains in medical knowledge were not great during this period. The only major drugs of use were opium and quinine, with ancient herbal and metal based drugs still being the norm. Battlefields became a teaching ground to perfect surgical practices and the easing of a patient’s pain became a high priority for doctors. 

The only major surgeries practiced during this time were amputations of limbs. The largest discovery in this period was the fact that food and drink did not create blood as previously believed, rather the heart recycled and circulated blood. Due to the high cost of seeing a licensed physician, many turned to midwives for not only childbirth but medicinal treatments as well, and those requiring surgery turned to barbers for assistance, who would utilize their hair cutting tools to extract teeth, lance boils and practice blood-letting.

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The Industrial Revolution

Due to the filth and germs that most people worked in during the Industrial Revolution, the treatment and prevention of disease was a high priority. This time saw the invention of the x-ray machine, as well as provided the groundwork for today’s modern vaccinations. Typhoid and Cholera were the two main outbreaks of this time, and gave way to the first public health office, known as the Health of Towns Association in Europe. This group distributed information to the public regarding health issues and lobbied the government to improve sanitation. In 1860 the first hospital was opened that relied on not only cleanliness as a way to heal disease, but also on compassion from doctors and staff for the patients, completely changing the standard hospitals which were often dirty and focused more on treatment than the patients health or well being. The move towards sanitation and proper nutrition resulted in a great improvement in public health by the end of the Industrial Revolution.

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The Modern World

The improvements in chemistry and the discovery of bacteria and viruses gave way to modern medicine in the 19th century. Several discoveries played a factor in medicine during this period, beginning with the discovery in 1847 that a doctor or surgeon simply washing their hands before delivering a child or performing surgery greatly increased the likelihood of survival in the patient. Charles Darwin laid the groundwork for genetic research in 1865, and the late 1800s gave way to the process of surgical sterilization. While the late 1800s and early 1900s saw a great decline in epidemics, this was due more to the fact that sanitation and personal hygiene were improving as opposed to actual medical advancements.

Doctors first recognized mental health issues by the construction of lunatic asylums, with lobotomies being the standard treatment for many mental health issues up to 1970. With the onslaught of new technology and medical advancements, many people began to turn back to herbal medicines and practices, such as acupuncture and meditation, as a treatment for illness, citing fears of chemicals used in drugs and invasive surgeries. In 1902, the United States opened the first Public Health office, which quickly became a staple of nearly every town and city.

The advancement of chemistry resulted in today’s modern pharmaceutical companies, as well as government funded research programs and the Food and Drug Administration that overseas public health issues related to medical products and agriculture. Vaccinations against almost every major disease, such as polio, measles, and even chicken pox, occurred in modern times, and have increased the life expectancy of humans by almost ten years, and considerably lowered the rate of childhood death due to illnesses.

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