Ancient medicine is a strange thing. If one was to think about the B.C. era, as pertains to medicine, I imagine that most people would think that the practice of medicine entailed painted people dancing around a fire or shaking some sort or rattle over the sick persons body to ward off the evil spirits. They might be right depending on what part of the ancient world they were thinking about, but they would be entirely wrong if they were thinking about the ancient Greeks or Egyptians. As hard as what I am about to tell you is to believe, it is true according to discoveries made by Greek archaeologists.

Evidence was discovered that a surgeon who lived before 600 B.C. in Greece had operated on the skull of a woman who had been hit by a stone in the worst possible area of her head. He used a bronze probe to check the impact point and found that it was at the point where the bones come together joining at the weakest part of the skull. This would have been a dangerous operation today, but the ancient Greek doctor performed it well and the woman was saved. This doctor had lived somewhere around 200 years before Hippocrates, the father of medicine.The woman lived for another 20 years, the surgeon was an expert and knew his job well. The surgeon had to scrape the bone in all 3 dimensions and remove all bone fragments which he did with the skill of a highly trained craftsman. But how could this be, it was 600 B.C.? That is what scientists would like to know. It seems that the ancient Greek doctors were much more advanced at a much earlier date than they had suspected. Ancient surgical instruments have been found that show that the doctors had a broad range of instruments to choose from during their operations.

Surprisingly, Homer not only describes wounds in his works, the Iliad and the Odyssey but he tells us what wounds are fatal and the different organs that that were affected. This is quite startling considering we are talking about the eight century B.C.

Egypt had plenty of time to develop medical practices. It is believed that the Nile Valley was first settled somewhere around 700,000 B.C. to 1,000,000 B.C. The oldest known Egyptian physician is Imhotep and he lived in 2725 B.C. It is not know if there were physicians before him and there are just no records of physicians from older times or he was actually the first physician in the world. Ancient Egyptian doctors went through many years of training and this was done in the temple schools. These doctors had the skills to set broken bones and were learned in the layout of the brain. Unfortunately the doctors didn't stop there, they also used spells, but also remedies to cure sick people.

Administering herbs

Ancient Egyptian doctors didn't understand things like blood circulation but they seemed to know how to treat wounds. They used Caster Oil, Tannic Acid and Coriander for different illnesses. There were over nine hundred remedies that contained honey. When the ancient Egyptian doctors started using bronze and metal blades they heated them up so that as they cut, the wound would be cauterized and limit bleeding.

These ancient doctors were certainly no fools. I get a kick out of Herodotus, Histories 2,84. It talks about specialization among the ancient doctors. " The practice of medicine is very specialized among them. Each physician treats just one disease . The country is full of physicians, some treat the eye, some the teeth, some of what belongs to the abdomen, and others internal diseases. " Does this sound familiar folks? Some ancient papyri have survived, that talk of the ancient medical procedures.

The Aztecs had an understanding of medical plants. Luckily for us, it was recorded, just 30 years after the Spanish invasion, into a book named The Badianus Codex. The book deals with over 100 different afflictions some of which effect the head, and scalp and work their way down the body. Such things as even venereal disease, tubercles of the breast and fetid breath are discussed along with armpit odor and abdominal rumbling. The Aztecs managed to hit upon some very powerful and potent medicinal compounds, most made from plants. Not all their medicine was beneficial as eating bird excrement would prove. It is amazing to see that they did find many useful drugs. One problem that exists today is that some of the plants can not be identified. The Aztecs had a cadre of learned female physicians that worked in people's homes. The male physicians were also priests and people usually had to come to them. Since the Aztecs were well nourished they had an above average resistance to disease for the time. The Aztec life expectancy was eight years more than France at the time. Cancer was not much of problem because even the Aztecs lived to only an average age of 37 years. The doctors were extremely good at treating wounds. One description of treatment was to wash away ;the blood and clean the wound with urine, then use maguey sap which had curative proprieties. Maguey sap and herbs were applied after that and the wound was bound until it healed. If the wound got infected then the maguey oil and herbs were applied several times. Aztec doctors used a plaster cast and splints to set broken bones, much as we do today. Traction was used with counter traction to reduce fractures and sprains. Plastic surgery was performed. If a nose was cut off, it would be sewn back on with hair.

Some modern medical procedures are a direct result of ancient medicine. Modern plastic surgery started in the 1700s when British surgeons saw native doctors performing it. Shushruta, a Hindu surgeon from 100 B.C. is said to have developed plastic surgery techniques. Ancient Roman doctors performed cataract operations routinely as did ancient Indian doctors before them. The operation continued into the 20th century unchanged.

Ancient medicine was far more advanced that we thought at first blush.