People in antiquity were no less concerned about health, well being and the cure of illnesses than we are today. And many examples survive of treatments used, texts written, sanctuaries and sanitariums dedicated to health and healing uncovered, of surgical instruments that have changed little over the millenia and even evidence of advanced dentistry.

We know from writings such as that of Hippocrates that ancients knew that the lancing, draining and cleaning of infected wounds would promote healing, and that certain herbs, honeys, wine and vinegars had healing and disinfecting properties. For example, wild ginger was known to treat nausea, henbane was known for its anaesthetic properties and a clay found on the Greek island of Lemnos was much sought for the treatment of diarrhea and dysentry. Testing of the clay has found that it contains the natural counterparts of kaolin and bentonite which are used in modern medications.

Some surgical techniques were also advanced, such as trepanning, cataract surgery and the necessity for a clean operating area in order to prevent infection was also known. And some skeletons recovered from Roman catacombs were found to have impressive dental work, such as gold fillings.

By the 7C AD medicine as a science seperate from religious interference began to decline in the West. However, scholars in the East were still continuing the study and it is thanks to them that much of the ancient writings have survived and were expanded upon. One of the most famous Eastern physicians Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn Sina's (980-1037) work The Canon of Medicine was a mine of information on medical conditions such as rabies, stomach ulcers, different types of hepatitis, breast cancer, facial paralysis, diphtheria, leprosy, diabetes, cancer and gout. But it wasn't until the 13C that his work became known throughout Western Europe under the Latinised name of Avicenna.

What other ancient or traditional medical treatments do you know of that are still used today?

Two that immediately come to mind are leaches and maggots.

Times were when bleeding was prescribed for virtually every ailment (part of the doctrine of humours I think), and medicinal leaches were a convenient, and relatively painless and safe way of doing that. They of course had no place in 'modern' medicine. Except they are now making a comback: in microsurgery to reduce blood coagulation, and in reconstructive surgery to stimulate circulation.

And maggts. These have been used on and off since antiquity (albeit perhaps sometimes by accident) to clean wounds - eating the dead flesh back to healthy tissue. Having fought a bad image through much of the 20th century, maggot therapy is again recognised as very effective in treating wounds. There are now even fly/maggot breeding centres specialising in the best types of maggot, ie those that eat only dead flesh and leave living tissue untouched.

To quote wiki:

"In 1995, a handful of doctors in four countries were using maggot therapy. Today, any physician in the U.S. can prescribe maggot therapy. There are over 800 health care centers in the United States that have utilized maggot therapy. Over 4,000 therapists are using maggot therapy in 20 countries. Approximately 50,000 treatments were applied to wounds in the year 2006."

One practice that comes to mind is acupuncture's use in China and how it evolved from early times. There is evidence to suggest some practice may date to the Neolithic or possibly even earlier in the Stone Age. Pictographs have been found with datings from the Shang Dynasty (1600–1100 BCE)

It would seem controversy has surrounded the practice throughout the ages but it’s now accepted in many western hospital procedures.

When I was last in hospital there were two guys on the ward getting the maggot treatment and one getting leeches… I’m told laboratories in Wales are the major source of supply for these nasties, and treatment is very expensive. I’m lucky my leg wounds are not deep enough to warrant that kind of treatment.

Ancient times	Greece & India	Many ancient cultures, including the ancient Greeks and ancient India, already used moulds and other plants to treat infection. [1] This worked because some moulds produce antibiotic substances. However, they could not distinguish or distill the active component in the moulds.

Poultices made from mouldy bread were used for centuries before Fleming discovered penicillin. I read that the practice of applying such poultices to infected wounds was brought back to England from the Crusades.

what have you done temps... your work marked in red... next it will be marked 'could try harder.'

what has happend here.?

How odd! It *was* red and said something about only administrators seeing the red bits (it's only stuff off Wiki, nothing top secret).

But it's OK again now.

I hope this is nothing to do with my silly giant cat picture in the bar - I've done something awful there and I'm living in dread of the dictator's wrath....

St. John's Wort is sold everywhere these days as a remedy for depression and anxiety. It was traditionally thought to be efficacious for warding off evil spirits, and Culpepper recommended this "sunny" (ruled by Leo) herb as a remedy for melancholia.

I'll see if I can find the relevant bit from the famous Herbal.

Not from Culpepper, but found this:

PROTECTIVE HERB

A theme in common with other solar plants, is the herb's ability to counteract the forces of darkness. Not only are the forces of light, symbolised by the Sun, present in the plant, but also it is given the additional sanctity of St John, making it especially potent in this respect. In its lore, the plant is found as "a preservative against evil spirits, phantoms, spectres, storms, and thunder".[4] A simple traditional rhyme illustrates this idea:

St John's wort, scaring from the midnight heath,
the witch and goblin with its spicy breath

- while several of its names allude to this property: Fuga Daemon 'Devil's flight', Devil Chaser, and its generic name, Hypericum, which comes from a Greek word meaning 'over an apparition'. The celebration of the Summer solstice used all this symbolism when the plant was gathered on the eve of St John's day. The herb could be worn about the person to ward off witchcraft and sorcery and was also hung about doors and windows to keep evil away from the house.

These days you just swallow the tablets you get from Boots!

Quote :

I’m told laboratories in Wales are the major source of supply for these nasties,

When I read this I remember NZ had important something insecty from Wales, but I didn't think it was leeches or maggots. Finally remembered it was tarantulas, which apparently we are short of in zoos here. It wasn't explained why that mattered - I can't feel the general population feels a lack of tarantulas around. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/108341/107-tarantulas-on-their-way-to-nz

I was reading today that a study into acupuncture showed a clear difference between it and placebo treatment, but not such a difference between it and 'false acupuncture'. The needles matter?

Does placebo treatment go back a long way? The doctor says...the witchdoctor says...the medicine man says...the layer of hands says...

Well caro… you mention the placebo which I understand still plays an important part in medical research.

The mention earlier of medicinal herbs and plants etc is well known and is I believe at the forefront of near manic exploration of the rain forests to gather seeds etc and research more and more plants in an effort to beat the pending deforestation of these precious sites.

I find it amazing that say, chewing the leaf or bark of a certain tree will ease the effects of say malaria. Who discovered these age old remedies, we have few poisons in the hedgerows in England but some are extremely toxic… who was brave enough to trial them and discover how much was beneficial, and how much was deadly, the tribal medicine man?

Aaaagggghhh, I've just lost a post with pics and everything through my own stupid fault. Forgot I was using stupid inept explorer instead of firefox and pressed the wrong button. Haven't time to do it again now, will have to wait until later

Nordmann, the shortcut to posting photos in explorer is to click on properties then to copy and paste the url. But right clicking on a photo using firefox doesn't bring up a properties on the list, do you know the equivalent of posting pics using ff instead of exp.? If that makes sense?

You need to install an add-on apparently. Firefox dropped that function as standard after version 3.6

It can be found here;

Firefox image properties add-on

Thanks Nordmann, but there seems to be a gremlin in the works on this thread. No links posted so far are working, instead we have written in red - [only admins are allowed to see this link].

oops - think I know what's wrong. Give me five minutes.

edit: any better?

Yes your tinkering under the bonnet seems to have done the trick, thanks! Have a and I'll put another penny in Temp's collection box.

Edit. Whoohoo, installed add on and properties has re-appeared, that'll make things easier. Though I'm not sure if I want to do any up-dates ever again now, if they are going to take the good stuff away...

Prosthetics have been around a while, a female mummy from Egypt (1000-600BC) was found with a prosthetic toe. Her big toe had been amputated and a replacement wood and leather version fitted.



Hippocrates first described cauterisation as a means to prevent blood loss and infection. Damaged flesh is still sometimes burned away today, although with more modern tools and not fire irons, I would imagine!

Hydrotherapy has been used everywhere from Asia to the West streching back into the mysts of time. The drinking and bathing in either hot or cold water as therapy or to treat various ailments is still popular and has proven beneficial.

Abu al-Qasim al-Zahwari (936-1013 C.E.) was the first to describe the use of solid deodorants in addition to hair removal sticks, mouthwashes and poultices made of coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, and/or nutmeg, and even lotions, aromatic rubs, and nasal sprays.

And the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, Chinese, Indians, Greeks and Romans all used various forms of massage as treatment, as therapy or merely for relaxation and an improved well being.

Tattooing, it has been proposed, may have sometimes been an early form of acupuncture. Otzi is probably the best known case but there's also the mummy of a Scythian horseman. http://www.utexas.edu/courses/classicalarch/readings/Iceman_Tattoos.pdf

A large collection of Roman surgical instruments with explanation of their uses.
As scary as they look most were actually used up to 100yrs ago and some still today.

http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/artifacts/roman_surgical/

Islanddawn wrote:

A large collection of Roman surgical instruments with explanation of their uses.
As scary as they look most were actually used up to 100yrs ago and some still today

In the opening sequence of "Elizabeth I" starring Helen Mirren (a really excellent ITV mini-series from 2005), the queen is seen undergoing a gynaecological examination to determine whether or not she can bear children.

The instruments used - which do indeed look scary - are very similar to the ones we have all cringed before during our routine cervical smear tests. Rather similar, in fact, to those shown on ID's link.

Tried to post a clip from YouTube - the sequence is there, but is blocked in the UK.

PS To any young women reading this - do not be put off going for your smear test. The instruments *look* dreadful, it's true, but they do *not* hurt: the procedure for us today, as for Gloriana in the 1570s, is more undignified than painful!

Translated Egyptian Medical papyrii, giving descriptions of ailments and their suggested treatments. A few are awfully wierd to modern eyes, they seem to recommend the application of meat to wounds quite lot..

The Edwin Smith Papyrus describing surgical diagnosis and treatments,

The Ebers Papyrus on ophthalmology, diseases of the digestive system, the head, the skin and specific maladies like aAa,
which some think may have been a precursor of aids and others, perhaps
more reasonably, consider to have been a disease of the urinary tract, a
compilation of earlier works that contains a large number of
prescriptions and recipes,

The Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus,

The Hearst medical papyrus repeats many of the recipes found in the Ebers papyrus.

The Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden contains a number of spells for treating physical ailments.

And a translation of Hippocrates 400BCE http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/ancimed.html

Have you seen the Kom Ombo medical relief?



and the birthing chair.

New evidence suggests that medical treatment in Iron Age Britain was not quite as backward as assumed

In order to assess healthcare and change, Redfern examined 270 sexed
adults and 190 subadult individuals dating from the 5th c. BCE to
the end of the 4th c. CE. From the Iron Age there were 64 males, 51
females and 80 subadults. From the Romano-British period there were 96
males, 59 females, and 110 subadults. Individuals were taken from 21
cemeteries around the Dorset region. She recorded fractures based on
location, type of fracture, healing, and whether it resulted in
deformity (change in angle, rotation, shortening or bones rebuild next
to rather than end to end) or associated degenerative problems like
arthritis. Surgical treatment was identified based on the type of
trauma, presence of cut-marks, and presence of surgical artifacts.

Within the Iron Age population she found that there were a number of
high risk fractures (those that would be difficult to heal or possibly
cause nerve damage) that were well set and didn’t develop infection.
This suggests that the medical practitioners were able to effectively
cope with a wide range of traumas. Non-union was only present in one
individual, which likely means most individuals were given proper care
and rehabilitation after the fracture. There was also only one
individual who displayed apposition (where fracture bones heal next to
one rather than properly end to end), which means that splinting of bone
was highly likely to hold the break in place and properly set it. In
the Roman period there is an increase in healed fractures that are
deformed. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the medical knowledge
decreased or practitioners were worse, but may be a sign that
individuals were not given proper rehabilitation time. There is an
increase in the number of surgeries, with a variety of trepanations and
amputations occurring in the Roman period.

http://bonesdontlie.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/break-a-leg-fracture-treatment-in-iron-age-and-roman-britain/

Tablets found on a Roman ship wreck (dating 140-130BC) off the coast of Italy have been analysed by scientists, and revealed that they contain animal fats, pine resin and zinc compounds. It is thought they may have been used to treat eye infections

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20937910

Re the mentioning of the usefulness of leeches and maggots, psoriasis may - perhaps - be treated with the affected body parts being submerged in a basin with water (I don't recall whether it be fresh or sea) with a species of tiny little - tropical? - fishes eating the affected skin.

Reportedly - from a tv newscast some time ago - this is being used, again I don't recall whether it be as an acknowledged or an experimental therapy, and the feeling whilst the eating of one's flesh thus done, should be relatively mild, and not at all uncomfortable.

Nielsen, was there not a fad in Denmark for 'fish pedicures' where one sat in a shopping mall or some such with feet immersed in a tank of little fish nibbling away at the dead skin? For a while they were set up everywhere here but now seem to have disappeared.

According to the Daily Mail, it's probably safer to have unprotected sex with a promiscuous bisexual LA junkie than to have a fish pedicure:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2050342/Fish-pedicures-foot-spas-spread-HIV-hepatitis-C.html

Does look pretty revolting.

But where can you find a promiscuous bisexual LA junkie when you need one and anyway, I'm not clear why that would give you nice soft feet?

Glasgow shopping malls are gone way downhill if one can't find at least one promiscuous bisexual Lanarkshire junkie!

Lord, people actually pay for the fish pecking? Just stand in the sea for free, very early in the morning when it is still quiet, and the fish will come from everywhere to eagerly nibble at legs. But once was enough of that for me, if feels horrible and more than a little creepy.

Then we have the Bathini Fish Medicine. According to one family in India they have been curing asthma using this method for 160yrs. Medicine is stuffed inside the mouth of a live murrel fish of 2 - 2.5 ins long, and the fish is slipped into the mouth of the patient. As the fish is very slippery there is no trouble swallowing it, the live fish then wriggles tail and fins through the throat and clears away congestion. The advise is to continue taking the fish along with a strict diet for 45 days, during 3 consecutive years.

An interesting article I noticed in the widget on our shortcuts page - it concerns a 13th century dissected head, the oldest surviving surgical dissection specimen we know about. The skill indicated in its execution flies in the face of what we thought we knew about the standard of medical and surgical expertise in Europe at the time. There is an assumption that Europe was still very much in the Dark Ages in the field at the time - this specimen, wax-filled veins and all, would suggest otherwise.

Mummified head article from Scientific American website

I would say just walking along the beach barefoot would grind off a fair bit of surplus skin.

The earliest evidence of ancient dentistry we have is an amazingly detailed dental work on a mummy from ancient Egypt that archaeologists have dated to 2000 BCE

That's an impressive set of braces. One wonders if this was assembled before or after death. The middle pair of teeth seem to come from someone else (different colouring?).

The metal (if it is metal) looks like copper. I was aware that the ancient Egyptians had dental braces made from catgut (as in fiddle string) but didn't know that they had actually attempted metalwork in this. Interesting.

The above post reminds me of having orthodontics when I was 11-12 and into my early teens. When my adult teeth came through my gum became overcrowded and the front ones were crooked.  My teeth have never been particularly wonderful but now the front ones are restored with that stuff the dentist fixes while wearing (patient wears 'em also) goggles to protect from ultraviolet light.  

My fellow-posters seem to come across much more exiting things to post about than Sincerely Thine.  I can remember my mother torturing me administering to my health by making me take Minadex when I was a child - it was supposed to be "lovely" and taste of orange - it didn't, it tasted of iron.  Haliborange wasn't much better.  The old wives' tale of rubbing a stinging nettle sting with a dock leaf did seem to help from what I recall but in all honesty I don't know whether that is because of anything in the composition of the dock leaf or whether it was the old wives' equivalent of a placebo.

Consumption, White Swelling, Phthisis or Tuberculosis, the dreaded disease has had many names over the centuries. And for the first time evidence has been found in 7,000 year human remains, proving that Tuberculosis has been with us much longer than previously thought.

http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/10/2013/tuburculosis-found-in-7000-year-old-body

And for anyone interested, here is an interesting list of old medical terms with their modern equivalents. Quite useful to have when reading old books or documents

http://longislandgenealogy.com/OldMedical.html

Chilblain an archaic term? Now I'm getting old!

Some of these are odd.  Impetigo is certainly still around and referred to as such, and parents with a colicky child know all about it. And while tetanus might be unusual these days, we are still innoculated against it. And I'm sure a lot of people wish shingles was a thing of the past.  (Though I do see there may soon be a vaccination against it.)

As a child I had what was called scarletina which was then considered a different and milder form of scarlet fever, but is now just considered the same disease.  I talked to an old man once who referred to the 1918 flu epidemic as the 'black death' and I thought perhaps he was just getting muddled, but have since seen it referred to as that in other writings of the time.

An amusing article on the historical use of urine to diagnose diseases, which eventually lead to quacks using a person's wee in order to tell their fortune, or Piss Prophets as they became known.

http://thechirurgeonsapprentice.com/the-chirurgeons-casebooks-1-2/

It seems that the apple really might do what it's traditionally meant to.



 http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/270298.php

An excavation of Iron Age burials in the Champagne-Ardenne area has unearthed the remains of a female between 20 and 30 years old which - it seems likely - present us with the oldest evidence of false teeth in Western Europe. The iron pin which was found in place of one of the woman's incisor teeth, it has been conjectured, may have been there to hold in place a false tooth possibly made from wood which has not survived. The pin however has, and it is hard to know what else it might have been.

BBC report here

This was in the news just recently, a 1000 year old concoction of cow stomach bile and garlic has proved effective against MRSA;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11504166/Anglo-Saxon-cow-bile-and-garlic-potion-kills-MRSA.html

I have been to the French conversation group today.  The leader of the group had brought copies of a couple of articles with a medical bent.  One of them was about the possible development (still a work in progress) of a vaccine for Lyme Disease.  Nothing wrong with that but we discussed the topic, sometimes tangentially.  One of the things up for discussion was the fact that some parents aren't having their children vaccinated with the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine.  There was a fear that it caused autism at one time but I think that was discredited (i.e. the suggestion that the vaccine causes or possibly causes autism).

Lady,

the day before yesterday there was also overhere something in the news about the nowadays neglect about vacinations to the measles and if I recall it well due to articles on social media that it was wrong or bad for the child or something...will see if I can recapture something from the news...yes those "social media"...

Kind regards from Paul.

ferval wrote:

It seems that the apple really might do what it's traditionally meant to.



 http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/270298.php

A lot of household preventatives and home remedies hold up well in terms of modern medicine. As well as an apple a day keeping the doctor away, I’d also add a scallion a day to shore up the immune system. A spring onion is full of allicin which lubricates the throat and gut with antibacterial oil. Indeed all members of the allium family share this property to a greater or lesser extent. A warm salt-water gargle for the relief of a sore throat (common at this time of year) is made even more effective by the addition of some crushed garlic.

Bald’s Læce Boc (written sometime between the 9th and 11th centuries) provides medicinal recipes for the treatment of a host of ailments. The Leechbook (medicine book) contains several recipes for eye salves such as the following:

'Ƿiþ þon ðe eaȝan tyρen ρuðan ſeaƿ y ȝate ȝeallan y δoρan huniȝ ealρa em fela. ζīf eaȝan tyρen heoρoter hoρner ahran ðo on ȝeſƿet ƿīn. Ƿȳρe eaȝrealfe ƿiþ pænne ȝenīm cρopleac y ȝaρleāc beȝea em fela ȝecnuƿa ƿel toſomne ȝenīm ƿīn y feaρρeſ ȝeallan beȝea em fela ȝemenȝ ƿiþ þy leace ðo þonne on aρfæt læt ſtanðan niȝon niht on þam aρfate aƿρinȝ þuρh claþ y ȝehlyttρe ƿel ðo on hoρn. Y ymb niht ðo miðt feþeρe on ꝥ eaȝe ſe betſta læceðōm.'

Thomas Oswald Cockayne’s 1865 translation of it is as follows:

'In case the eyes be tearful, juice of rue, and goats gall and dumbledores honey, of all equal quantities. If eyes be tearful, add to sweetened wine ashes of harts horn. Work an eye salve for a wen, take cropleek and garlic, of both equal quantities, pound them well together, take wine and bullocks gall, of both equal quantities, mix with the leek, put this then into a brazen vessel, let it stand nine days in the brass vessel, wring out through a cloth and clear it well, put it into a horn, and about night time apply it with a feather to the eye; the best leechdom.'

The University of Nottingham’s department of English and its school of Life Sciences worked together to test this recipe out:

The AncientBiotics Project

The results were remarkable. (The short video linked to at the end of the article is well worth watching.)