Trephining this was believed
to release evil spirits and
connect people with the
spiritual world.
Broken bones could be set with mud and wounds
with bandages but there was spiritual explanations
for illness and cure
Not much was known about the body
and msot people beleved in spirtual cures
Ancient Egypt
The River Nile led
to suggestions that
the body had
channels like the
Nile
purging, vomiting and blood
letting to unblock the channels when
people became ill.
The body was needed in the after life so
bodies were preserved in mummification, extracted
organ and dried them out using salt by doing this they had
knowledge of the body.
They believed the body was needed for the afterlife so
experimental dissection was not aloud. Egyptian
papyrus has been found to carry out simple surgeryT
Metal instruments were used
Ancient Greece
Improvements in
materials so surgicals
instruments improved.
Theory of four humours
Library of Alexandria.
Human dissection was only
aloud at Alexandria .
Surgeons were trained
there.
Observation was key to change.
Erasistratus found difference
between arteries, blood vessels
and nerves.
Surgery advanced a
little but was very risky.
Surgery was last
resort.Good techniques
for setting broken
bones,
Ancient Rome
Galen discoverd that the
brain controls speech not the
heart. Arteries as well as viens
carry blood and proved
animals anatomy if different
to humans.
Common treatment was bleeding. internal
operations rare due to risk. Amputations and
trephinning to releive pain
Galen made mistakes as he
only dissected animals, he
said there was holes in the
heart which let blood pass
from right to left and he
believed blood was consumed
not circulated.