ἀνθρώποισι πᾶσι μέτεστι γινώσκειν ἑωυτοὺς καὶ σωφρονεῖν.
The study of the Byzantine medical texts reveals a great number of references about dental drugs. This frequency indicates that problems of oral health were common and part of the epidemiology of those times. Continue reading “Dental drugs in the Eastern Roman (‘Byzantine’) Empire”
Asthma is derived from the Greek verb aazein, meaning shortdrawn breath or panting. Continue reading “The first clinical description of asthma by Aretaeus of Cappadocia (1st century A.D.)”
Trepanation, a neurosurgical procedure in which a hole is drilled through the skull up to the dura mater, is one of the world’s earliest practiced surgical procedures. Continue reading “Medicine in Ancient India; the very interesting case of Susruta”
During a systematic search of the literature for ancient descriptions of fear of heights and seasickness in the Chinese Medical Classics and Greek antiquity, two reports of vertigo syndromes that strikingly resemble today’s definitions of vestibular migraine (VM) and Menière’s disease (MD) were discovered. Continue reading “Vestibular migraine (VM) and Menière’s disease (MD) in the writings of Aretaeus of Cappadocia and in the Chinese book Huangdi Neijing”
Ancient medical knowledge and Christian theology were connected in Byzantium as the person became their central objective and physical welfare equal to spiritual salvation. In that way the first hospitals were developed to provide medical care for the physically and mentally ill. Continue reading “Uterine cancer in the writings of Eastern Roman (‘Byzantine’) physicians”
During antiquity, ancient Greek physicians tried to explain cancer in a logical way. In 5th century BC, Hippocrates (460-377 BC) provided to science a rational and systemic basis. One of the most interesting and influential legacies of the Hippocratic approach was the humoral theory of diseases. Continue reading “Uterine cancer in the writings of ancient Greek & Roman physicians”
Novo Scriptorium 