PHARMACEUTICALS
List 6 broad types of archaeological evidence that have been found to indicate pharmaceutical activities.
There is archaeological evidence of narcotics, sedatives, pain killers, stimulants, hullucinogens, and antimicrobial agents from 5000-4500 BCE onward. Scholars have found evidence of opium poppy, henbane, and thornapple to name a few.
Four ways to administer a drug orally.
What are drinks, pills, gargles or porridges?
Tools for surgery would have been made from these types of materials.
What is stone, bone, ivory or obsidian (for scalpels)?
Physicians would have given surgical patients these types of pharmakon for 'pain management'
What is opium, madragora, henbane or alcohol?
The oldest medical text we have contains a list of what?
a list of 15 prescriptions that would’ve been used by a pharmacist. It directs them on how to create compounds and it is quite simple.
Pharmacology and pharmaceutical are words we frequently use today, and these words actually come from this Greek word, meaning...
The Greek word for drug, pharmakon. Pharmakon could be used to refer to a drug that acted as a remedy, as a poison or an enchanted potion.
Five ways to administer drugs topically.
What are ointments, powders, poultices, plasters or washes?
It wouldn't be until this year that we have the earliest example of tools that we confidently say were medical tools.
What is 1450?
What type of material were sutures initially made from? And what type of material did they use to make sutures later on?
Initially made from plant material, then they were made from animal material.
This person is responsible for creating the first real systematic treatment of plant, animal, mineral, and metal materials. Simply put, this person created the first comprehensive ‘drug-making- book.
Dioscorides in De Materia Medica.
The medical material that pharmakon could be made from.
What are plant, animal, minerals, and or metal materials?
Three ways to administer drugs vaginally/rectally?
What are enemas, pessaries or suppositiories?
Surgery was generally restricted to these parts, except in extreme conditions.
What are visible parts?
The three different materials that needles were made of.
What are bone, ivory, and or metal?
The tool used for cautery could also be used to remove these types of unwanted 'growths'
What are haemorrhoids or tumours?
The methods of preparation, application, dosages, and rationale are not always clear to us. Why is that?
We have thought that this could be due to the fact that what they were doing was common knowledge within their community, thus documenting it all in detail was unnecessary.
Three ways to administer a drug with smoke/vapour.
What are fumigations, fermentation or inhalations?
Surgery often utilized cautery, which was widely practiced for many centuries. This practice entails what?
searing wounds with hot metal instruments.
This person provides instructions for creating the ideal conditions for performing surgery.
Who is Hippocrates?
The definition of irrational medicine.
Irrational medicine is based on something other than scientific reasoning. It is often equated to a belief that ‘the gods’ are responsible for the illness or disease of an individual or a community because ‘the gods’ are angry/displeased.
It is not always easy to identify the medical materials that were being used, especially the plant material. Why is that?
Plant material being used for medical purposes is difficult to identify because scholars need to find the plant itself, which should be found in an unexpected place and in larger numbers. If they cannot do so, the next best thing would be to find where it was processed as there may be residues or extracts left behind.
This person, otherwise known as the ‘Father of Botany,’ recognized the reduced efficacy of drugs with continued use.
Who is Theophrastus?
What is the purpose of cautery?
People believed that the heat would close vessels and stop bleeding.
These are the recommendations made for creating the ideal setting for surgery to take place.
(1) You don’t want to perform surgery in a place that has wind blowing in, or sun that shines in a way where it causes disturbance.
(2) The couches (aka surgical table) should be as level as possible for convenience.
The definition of rational medicine.
Rational medicine is a modern concept and it is a medicine that is based on scientific reasoning.