SUNY Upstate Medical University - Auricle Yearbook (Syracuse, NY)

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I THE ANCIENTS ' % The brain was first drawn out through the nostrils by an iron hool and the sl ull cleared of the rest by rinsing with drugs. The abdomen was then incised with a sharp flint knife, eviscerated, cleansed with wine and aro- matics, filled with myrrh, cassia, and spices and the wound sewed up. The body was then steeped for seventy days in sodium chloride or bicarbonate, and afterward washed and enveloped completely with linen bandages smeared together with gum. The relatives put it in a wooden coffin, shaped like a man, which was deposited in the burial chamber along with four Canopic jars containing the viscera. Description of an Egyptian embalming by Herodotus of Ancient Greece (5th Century B.C.) Egypt (3000-400 B.C.) Dominant medicine in the world for 2500 years Priests practiced medi- cine: jmhotep, a medical demigod, is world ' s oldest known physician (2900 B.C.) Ebers Papyrus (1550 B.C.) discovered in 1872; an encyclopedic treatise on disease, incltiding tumors Drugs tised included opium, castor oil, gentian Circumcisions performed Baldness treated with iTiixture of equal parts ink and cerebrospinal fluid Splints found on Diummies L Peru The picture at the right shows the art of TREPHINING, in which the sktills of living pa- tients were opened in order to let blood or cure epilepsy and other cere- bral disorders. Priests would seek stipernatural intervention throtigh pray- ers as the surgeon slow- ly performed this danger- ous operation. Sponsored by the Department of Neurosurgery

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nniLIS, CL JSSIMI C THEiOPHRASTI BOMBAST, AB HO- HENHEIM, DICTI PARACELSI, Operum Mecfico-Chimicorum PARA D 5e O R VJM, Tomus penui iis Scxtus, •aicinx: mmitaaitc mum ac j tncturm , Reccnter Latinefaftus in vfum AfTfckirum NouxSC Vetcris Philofbphix foras dacus, 0 I rss ACoUcgkjBu rum PalthcnL - Nobili Francofurto.

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Hippocrates (460-370 B.C.): The Father of Medicine Greece (1300-400 B.C.) Hippocrates (above) — some of his many contributions: — Dignity of the physician and an attitude of respect towards patients --HIPPOCRATIC DOCTRINE of humoral pathology: a disturbed balance of the four humors (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile) led to disease -HIPPOCRATIC OATH --Excellent, still accurate descriptions of epilepsy, puerperal sepsis Gods and Temples of Healing, in which priests offered cures according to what they saw in their dreams Therapeutics: fresh air, good diet, pur- gation, blood-letting, massage Medical instruction private, often individ- ual without formal schools Rome (300 B.C.-240A.D.) Medicine an unworthy field; medical knowl- edge begins to decline Galen (131-201 A.D.) wrote over 500 books on anatomy, physiology, disease and therapy which contained many errors but re- mained the authority for over 1200 years more Drugs: opium, turpentine, wine, honey, grape juice, barley water Public health and preventive medicine important Below is a copy of JAPYX AND AENEAS, a Pompeian painting in which the doctor Japyx is removing an arrow from the thigh of Aeneas, the hero of Troy. G R E E C E R M E