Today we extol the virtues of New Zealands manuka honey for it's health benefits.  Historically the ancient Greeks used honey to treat wounds.  Anyone know when this fell out of fashion or if other cultures used it too?

Just a few, rather random, throughts:

In the Islamic medical system, honey is considered a healthy drink and its therapeutic use is even mentioned in the Qur'an: "And thy Lord taught the bee to build its cells in hills, on trees, and in (men’s) habitations; Then to eat of all the produce (of the earth), and find with skill the spacious paths of its Lord: there issues from within their bodies a drink of varying colors, wherein is healing for men: verily in this is a sign for those who give thought". In medieval Arabic medicine, honey seems to have been used mostly for internal ailments: diarrhea, coughs, tuberculosis etc, although I seem to remember the Iranian physician, Avicenna, aka Ibn Sina (980-1037), alongside other treatments recommended honey as one of best treatments for wounds. Of course he and other Arabic scientists may well have got their information direct from ancient Greek texts. They certainly seem to have inherited the GraecoRoman principles of medicine as espoused by the Roman physician Galen (129–c. 200), by way of the exiled Nestorians, who translated Galen into Syriac when they found sanctuary in Sassanid city of Jundi Shapur and from whence this knowledge travelled throughout the Islamic Empire when the city was taken by a Muslim Arab army in 636.

In 'Epitome' by the Byzantine physician Paulus Aegineta (625-690), which is his summary of Galen's and other early medical writers' works, honey is certainly mentioned for the treatment of wounds, alongside numerous other substances: he thought cooked honey, powdered chalk, vinegar, wine, myrrh, frankincense and egg-white were all good as astringents; while to cleanse wounds he recommended raw honey, pine resin, turpentine and radish (and also rather less plausibly, lizard dung and pigeon blood).

The renaissance physician Ambroise Paré (1510–1590), who in Europe was one of the first to question Galen's principles, also used emollients made of honey, egg yolk, turpentine, or raw onion for wounds (particulaly for the 'dirty' wounds that were increasing being seen on battlefields due to the development of guns and artillery) as a gentler and more effective treatment than the then standard practice of 'sealing' wounds by cautery with hot irons or with boiling tar. (But again that's from memory and I can't find reference).

I also seem to remember that during WW1 the Russian army resorted to using honey on battlefield injuries when standard medicines (antiseptics only, as antibiotics wouldn't be discovered for a few decades to come) were unobtainable because of supply problems.

The main reason honey fell out of use was due to cost. Honey is expensive. So when cheaper mass produced anti-septics became available in the 19th century they became the go-to alternatives. The development of anti-biotics in the 20th century then sent honey out of the clinic and back to the kitchen. In the middle decades of the 20th century the use of honey as a wound dressing would have been considered an unnecessary extravagance. Interestingly this was mirrored by the use of leeches in medicine when other cheaper anti-coagulants became available such as acetylsalicylic acid – i.e. aspirin. From around the 1920s to the 1980s the use of honey and leeches in medicinal practice pretty much fell out of use. They both, however, have gradually made a comeback over the last 40 years or so.

Honey and honey-impregnated dressings are now widely used by healthcare professionals particularly by tissue viability nurses. Not only does honey have anti-microbial properties (as mentioned by Meles) but its osmosis (i.e. its ability to pass seamlessly thru tissue and membranes) means that it can stimulate synthesis between healthy and compromised tissue. In other words the honey helps fluid, vitamins and minerals leach (pun intended) to all parts of the wound thus speeding the healing process.
    
Leeches are sometimes used when targeted anti-coagulation is required in post-operative healing. For example a skin graft on the face of a burns victim is more likely to take if blood clotting is prevented with the aid of leeches.

Things which were never really used in civilian medicine but which were appreciated by military physicians for centuries are maggots. They are deemed more efficient and less painful than the use of wet disinfectants and wipes in the treating of chronic wounds and ulcers. These too have now become much more widely used in civilian practice over the last 30 years or so.

There was a TV film in the late seventies The Incredible Journey of Doctor Meg Laurel featuring Lindsay Wagner as a doctor originally from the Blue Ridge Mountains who went home after qualifying to try and bring modern medicine to the mountain dwellers.  The mountain folk were originally untrusting but Dr Meg (I can't remember it awfully well) got to know "Granny" (Jane Wyman), the local wise woman.  As I say it's awfully long ago but I believe Granny used maggots for something.   I don't recall whether honey was used in the film.