6.1 Evidence | Amarantus

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6.1

6.1.1 Roman Doctors
6.1.2 The Four Humours

6.1.1 Roman Doctors

Historical background Hippocrates was a Greek philosopher and doctor who may have lived in the 4th–5th Centuries BC. His ideas were very important to medicine in the Roman world at the time of Amarantus. However, so little is known about him that historians aren't sure if he was a real person at all! Some people consider Hippocrates to be the founding father of modern medicine, as it is suggested that he and his followers were the first to reject the idea that illness was caused or cured by supernatural forces (magc, spirits or gods etc). Instead, they argued that illnesses had a natural cause, and that medical treatment should be based on close observation of the individual patient. He is credited with collecting data and doing experiments to show that the symptoms of a disease were caused by the body reacting to it and therefore not working as it should. Doctors should help the body overcome this, and work to restore health and balance to the patient. Food and diet was an important part of this. The Hippocratic Corpus is a collection of about 60 texts, and one of the oldest collections of medical documents. The writings are very varied in terms of type, style and length (some are little more than a paragraph, while others are several volumes long). Therefore it is likely that the collection was written by several authors, not just one man. The texts were perhaps the the work of numerous people practicing medicine during Hippocrates' lifetime and later. One of the most famous of these texts is the original 'Hippocratic Oath' – where doctors promise to ‘do no harm’ – a form of which is still sworn by many doctors today. Evidence Many Roman families would have relied largely on traditional home remedies, but if someone fell ill and these did not seem to be helping, then they might call on a doctor to help. As with many aspects of Roman culture, medicine in ancient Rome was largely based on Greek ideas, such as those of Hippocrates with the emphasis on natural causes and cures for disease. Many early doctors were Greek slaves or freedmen, possibly brought to Rome after the conquest of Greece, and initially medicine was not a very high-status profession in the Roman world. Later in the Imperial period however, we do find some very high status and famous doctors. There were no qualifications or governing bodies, and anyone could call themselves a doctor. If their patients tended to get better, then they would get a good reputation and more work. In this way they were like any craftsperson; probably respected by happy customers, but not necessarily part of society’s upper class. Medical training consisted mostly of following another doctor around and learning from observing them. Some doctors might serve apprenticeships at a temple to Asclepius, the god of healing. We have evidence that whilst more doctors seem to have been men, there were women who were practising medicine in the Roman world. Examples of surgical tools have been found in Pompeii and elsewhere. One of the most often used tools was the 'cautery', a metal tool which would be heated up and used to stop bleeding, cut flesh or remove growths. Sharp or blunt metal hooks were also common and were used for probing and moving tissue so doctors could see into wounds. Certain plants and herbs were also considered to have useful properties. Garlic was thought to be good for the heart, fennel was used to calm the nerves, and cabbage was recommended as a hangover cure as well as for use on wounds! Food and diet were considered to be important ways of ensuring one stayed healthy, or of treating illness when it occurred. Pedanius Dioscorides was a Greek doctor in the Roman army in the 1st century AD. He wrote a 5-volume reference text about herbal medicine and called On Medical Material. His work gave the medicinal properties of about 600 plants used in about 1,000 remedies, and was widely read for more than 1,500 years. Doctors would charge a fee for their services, and there are sources which complain that some took advantage of the vulnerability of their patients to get more money. The fees would be in line with the wealth of the patient; a doctor to the rich would themselves end up very rich as well!	Surgical tools from the House of the Surgeon in Pompeii Petronius, Satyricon, 47, trans. Heseltine Page from an early 6th Century AD illuminated manuscript of On Medical Materials showing the uses of brambles and blackberries Translation of the section of On Medical Materials explaining the uses of brambles and blackberries

6.1.2 The Four Humours

Historical background Hippocrates was a Greek philosopher and doctor who may have lived in the 4th–5th Centuries BC. His ideas were very important to medicine in the Roman world at the time of Amarantus. However, so little is known about him that historians aren't sure if he was a real person at all! Some people consider Hippocrates to be the founding father of modern medicine, as it is suggested that he and his followers were the first to reject the idea that illness was caused or cured by supernatural forces (magc, spirits or gods etc). Instead, they argued that illnesses had a natural cause, and that medical treatment should be based on close observation of the individual patient. He is credited with collecting data and doing experiments to show that the symptoms of a disease were caused by the body reacting to it and therefore not working as it should. Doctors should help the body overcome this, and work to restore health and balance to the patient. Food and diet was an important part of this. The Hippocratic Corpus is a collection of about 60 texts, and one of the oldest collections of medical documents. The writings are very varied in terms of type, style and length (some are little more than a paragraph, while others are several volumes long). Therefore it is likely that the collection was written by several authors, not just one man. The texts were perhaps the the work of numerous people practicing medicine during Hippocrates' lifetime and later. One of the most famous of these texts is the original 'Hippocratic Oath' – where doctors promise to ‘do no harm’ – a form of which is still sworn by many doctors today. Evidence One 'natural' theory of health and illness suggested in ancient Greek – and then Roman – medicine was that of the 'Humourism', as outlined in the Hippocratic text On the Nature of Man. This theory suggested that the body consists of four ‘humours’, from the Greek word ‘chumor’, meaning ‘sap’ or ‘liquid’. The ‘humours’ were liquids found in the body: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. Each had particular qualities associated with it, and a person's natural balance of humours would impact their personality as well as their health. For example someone with a lot of blood might be very sociable, but too much and they might become over-active and struggle to sit still and focus. If the amount of the different humours in a person's body got out of balance they may become ill. A doctor would observe the patient's symptoms and try to work out what humour they might have too much or too little of. They then might work with the patient to restore balance through diet, exercise, herbal remedies, or more aggressive treatments: for example, if someone had a fever – they were too 'hot' – then the doctor might suggest they had too much blood in their body, therefore the sensible thing to do would be to 'bleed' the patient and get rid of some of the blood. Eating or drinking the right things was an important way of maintaining or restoring balance. Foods were associated with the same qualities as the humours, and they could be used to address imbalances. A patient prone to too much 'cold' phlegm might do well to eat lots of 'warm' foods, such as onions, garlic, ginger or roast pork, but someone with a lot of 'warm' blood, would be advised to avoid these. Humourism remained important in medical thought for over 2,000 years, as is shown by the 18th century woodcut in the images which shows an artist's impression of the four temperaments which were considered to be linked to the four humours.	On the Nature of Man, IV Humours and their qualities Woodcut from a 1770s book by Johann Kaspar Lavater showing (above) phlegmatic, choleric, (below) sanguine, and melancholic appearences Summary of foods and their properties

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