Medicine in ancient Rome

To increase their knowledge of the human body, physicians used a variety of surgical procedures for dissection that were carried out using many different instruments including forceps, scalpels and catheters.

Later Latin authors, notably Cato and Pliny, believed in a specific traditional Roman type of healing based on herbs, chants, prayers and charms easily available to and by the head of household.

[8] The incorporation of Greek medicine into Roman society allowed Rome to transform into a monumental[clarification needed] city by 100 BC.

Tragic famines and plagues were often attributed to divine punishment; and appeasement of the gods through rituals was believed to alleviate such events.

[8] The Romans conquered the city of Alexandria in 30 BC, which was an important center for learning; its Great Library held countless volumes of ancient Greek medical information.

[8] Cato the Elder despised every aspect of Greek society the Romans decided to mimic including sculptures, literature and medicine.

For example, a mixture of cabbage, water, and wine would be embedded in a deaf man's ear to allow his hearing to be restored.

Dioscorides wrote a 5-volume encyclopedia, De materia medica, which listed over 600 herbal cures, forming an influential and long-lasting pharmacopoeia.

[22] The survival and amendment of Hippocratic medicine is attributed to Galen, who coupled the four qualities of cold, heat, dry, and wet with the four main fluids of the body, would remain in health care for another millennia or so.

[5] Galen wrote a short essay called "The Best Doctor Is Also A Philosopher", where he writes that a physician needs to be knowledgeable about not just the physical, but additionally logical and ethical philosophy.

[25] Asclepiades studied to be a physician in Alexandria and practiced medicine in Asia Minor as well as Greece before he moved to Rome in the 1st century BC.

[26] He believed that if the atoms were too large or the pores were too constricted, then illness would present in multiple symptoms such as fever, spasms, or in more severe cases paralysis.

[26] Asclepiades strongly believed in hot and cold baths as a remedy for illness; his techniques purposely did not inflict severe pain upon the patient.

[31] Celsus is also credited with writing on four of the five characteristics of inflammation, redness (rubor), swelling (tumour), heat (calor), and pain (dolor).

Soranus's most notable work was his book gynaecology, in which he discussed many topics that are considered modern ideas such as birth control, pregnancy, midwife's duties, and post-childbirth care.

In Rome, death was caused by a combination of poor sanitation, famine, disease, epidemics, malnutrition, and warfare; this led to high Roman mortality rates.

The Roman military established these hospitals, as the army's expansion beyond the Italian Peninsula meant that the wounded could no longer be cared for in private homes.

The building also included a large hall, reception ward, dispensary, kitchen, staff quarters, and washing and latrine facilities.

Known medicines include:[57] Statues and healing shrines were sites of prayer and sacrifice for both the poor and the elite, and were common throughout the Roman Empire.

[64] In 2013, Italian scientists studied the content of a Roman shipping vessel, known as the Relitto del Pozzino, sank off the coast of Populonia, Tuscany around 120 BC, which was excavated during the 1980s and 90s.

Gaps in physician-provided care were filled with several types of supernatural healthcare; the Romans believed in the power of divine messages and healing.

[citation needed] For example, in 431 BC, in response to the plague running rampant all over the country of Italy, the temple of the Apollo Medicus was accredited with an influence of healing.

Celsus describes that doctors should first observe the color of the intestines to see that if they are "...livid or pallid or black..." in which case treatment is impossible.

Both Egyptian and Greek texts state that the milk used for medicinal purposes should be strictly from a woman who has borne a male child.

"[70] It has been shown in modern times that having patients ingest mother's milk (or colostrum) is actually a rather effective treatment due to the benefits associated with it.

A Hippocratic work titled Regimen in Acute Diseases details much of the principles outlined by Galen: specifically the humors and examples of how they could be used to prescribe treatment.

To know how to treat a person, the physician must become familiar with and interpret the important aspects of their lives: the climate, their food intake, how much they sleep, how much they drink, any injuries.

The treatments that were recommended addressed what the dreams showed, and attempted to set the body right through consumption of food that carried the correct humor characteristics.

This ancient medical practice associated that disease and parts of the body were affected by the movement or location of the sun, moon and planets.

[75] De materia medica influenced medical knowledge for centuries, due to its dissemination and translation into Greek, Arabic, and Latin.