Hippocratic Medicine as a Departure from its Egyptian and Mesopotamian Forerunners - Essay Example

Hippocratic Medicine as a Departure from its Egyptian and Mesopotamian Forerunners of the October 4,2006 Hippocratic Medicine as a Departure from its Egyptian and Mesopotamian Forerunners For many years Greek medicine was considered to be the foundation of medicine in the Western world. This view began to change as the Western world began gained a broader knowledge of the history of medicine, resulting to a correlation being established between the earlier Mesopotamian and Egyptian medicine and that of Ancient Greece. It is important to review this relationship to see whether the decline in the reputation of Greek medicine is justified. It is proposed to examine whether Greek medicine was in fact a radical departure from the healing based on religious beliefs that was practiced in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. This paper claims that Hippocratic medicine was in fact such a radical departure because of its use of surgical procedures, its concept of practitioner responsibility, and its basis in naturalism1 Naturalism is the idea that events are explained only on the basis of causes that exist in nature. For instance, a practitioner may attribute a patient’s sickness to a change in the weather or to a lack of exercise, an imbalance in diet, or an incorrect position of the body during treatment. Naturalism tends to determine the causes of a disease based on what can be seen and examined in the natural world rather than on supernatural forces that occur in the spiritual realm. Naturalism focuses on the concept known as cause and effect. This concept proposes that events do not happen spontaneously but only as the result of a natural force1. It is argued that surgical procedures were first used in Hippocratic medicine and that this was a radical departure from religious healing of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Procedures were developed which allowed practitioners to demonstrably treat their patient’s medical problem. Practitioners of Hippocratic medicine believed that following the correct procedure in a precise manner resulted in fewer mistakes in the treatment and in the patients being less likely to experience pain. Experiencing pain after a treatment indicated that the practitioner was not sufficiently knowledgeable. Procedures that were used to treat patients with injuries in Hippocratic medicine were based on correlations that existed in the natural world. As an example, Hippocratic medicine emphasized the dynamic force theory as one of the approaches used in explaining the causes of illness. This theory stressed that diseases or illnesses are due to an imbalance in diet. Individuals who consumed too much salt were more likely to suffer from disease than those who consumed an appropriate amount. Soft foods are considered to be a favorable diet for health after removing bandages from the forearm, because the type and the amount of food patients consumed during recuperation would determine how long it would take for the wound to heal. Patients were encouraged to consume light foods, but gradually increase their intake of heavier foods as their wounds begin to heal. Hippocratic medicine emphasized greatly the importance of having the correct body position during treatment. They believe that individuals who maintained good posture during treatment were able to recover more quickly and without experiencing pain. For this reason practitioners were responsible for encouraging their patients to maintain a good posture. Hippocratic practitioners believed that those among them who performed poorly in the results of their treatments were insufficiently knowledgeable about the correct posture for a treatment. In contrast, the outcome of Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian treatments depended on the prayer of the individual who was possessed, the ritual or the spell that was used and the procedures that were used by the practitioner to cast out the demon spirit2. While Greek medicine used natural treatment to heal people because it was believed that an individual’s problems were caused by nature, the Egyptians and Mesopotamians practitioners believed that diseases were punishments from the gods. In consequence, they were responsible in their treatments for making peace with the gods in order to drive out the damaging spirit in the individual’s body. As an example the writer of one medical papyrus started his treatment by signing an agreement with the gods and goddess in a ritual before praying to the gods to deliver the patients from the demons possessing them. Incantation was also used to drive out demons from a sick person’s body. This method was for the practitioner to drive the demon spirits out into an object which could then be destroyed. The Mesopotamians believe that by destroying the object in which the spirit resided, the demon’s existence was also ended. The object used was a clay model that was designed to symbolize the possessed person. Once the demon resided in the object it had no where to live when the model was destroyed2.. Practitioners held important positions in Hippocratic Greece, Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia because of their responsibilities. In Hippocratic medicine, practitioners were expected to encourage their patients to maintain good posture because this would lead to the best outcome. Practitioners who fail to provide good advice to their clients were considered to have behaved unethically. Practitioners in Egypt and Mesopotamia were responsible for making peace with the gods so that the evil spirit could be cast out of a sick person’s body. They were responsible for providing the correct spells and rituals that would be pleasing to the gods. They would be seen to have been successful and their rituals would be known to be pleasing to the gods if the sick person’s skin appeared without blood on it when the bandages were unwrapped from a wound2. This paper proposes that there are significant ways in which Hippocratic medicine was a radical departure from the faith-based healing in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Surgical procedures were introduced. Each problem was subject to an individual medical diagnosis in Hippocratic medicine. They dismissed supernatural disease explanations and called natural and environmental causes for diseases and natural treatment for injuries. In contrast, Egyptian and Mesopotamian practitioners prayed to the gods to deliver a patient from the demon spirit. References Lloyd, G. E. R. 1978. “The Oath” in Hippocratic Writings New York: Penguin Classics, Longrigg, James. 1998. Greek Medicine from the Heroic to the Hellenistic Age: New York: Routledge. Shackelford lecture, in class notes ( 18 September, 2006). Read More