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Thanks for a little history. (^.^) Becky Hunt [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: Janet Paterson <[log in to unmask]> To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thursday, February 19, 1998 1:42 PM Subject: NEWS: Non-PD: The wonders of ancient medicine >The wonders of ancient medicine > >(February 19, 1998 00:42 a.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -- Most people have >only a vague idea of everyday life 2,000 years ago, especially specific >medical situations such as childbirth. So what was medicine like in ancient >times, in the period from first emergence of humans almost 2.5 million years >ago to 456 A.D., the fall of the Western Roman Empire? > >A society used to medical marvels of the late 20th century might naturally >assume that ancient medicine was a primitive affair. The reality, however, is >somewhat different. > >Ancient physicians had no miracle drugs to treat disease. There were no >computerized X-ray or magnetic resonance scanners, or medical laboratories, to >diagnose disease. > >Coronary bypass surgery? Joint replacements? Forget it. But they did an >amazingly competent job of treating the sick and injured. > >Some of the medical technology developed in ancient times surpassed anything >available in the modern world until the 18th century or 19th century. > >A person living at the time of Christ's birth, for instance, might have access >to better plastic surgery than someone living in Europe in the early 1700s. > >Modern plastic surgery began in the 1700s when British surgeons working for >the East India Company saw the work done by Indian surgeons. > >They used technology developed by Shushruta, a Hindu surgeon who probably >lived around 100 B.C. Modern surgeons have never found better substitutes for >some ancient techniques. > >One is the pedicle flap, which involves freeing a flap of tissue from one part >of the body and sewing it onto another to repair a defect. It was developed >2,000 years ago. > >Cataract operations were done in ancient India, and became almost routine in >ancient Rome. In 30 B.C. the famous Roman physician, Cornelius Celsus, >described the technique in his classic book, "On Medicine." The operation, >called "couching," was used into the 20th century. Celsus's book was so good >that physicians used it for more than 1,700 years. > >Claudius Galen (130-200 A.D.) wrote books on human anatomy that were best >sellers for almost as long. Galen, by the way, often gets credit for >developing a never-surpassed diagnostic procedure, taking the pulse. > >Long before Galen, ancient Chinese physicians realized that the pulse seemed >harder in people who ate a lot of salty food. It may have been the first >recognition of the link between too much table salt and high blood pressure. > >Consider another ancient medical innovation: Brain surgery. It was done in the >Stone Age, which ended around 3,000 B.C. Stone Age people did a kind of brain >surgery called "trephining." Trephining was the first known surgical >procedure. It involves cutting a hole through the skull bone to relieve excess >pressure. > >Stone Age surgeons probably did it to release "evil spirits" that they >regarded as the cause of headaches or strange behavior. Scientists have found >trephined skulls, with neatly cut holes, dating to about 8,000 B.C. On some, >the cut edges of bone show definite signs of healing. It means that the >patients lived for at least weeks or months after surgery. > >Then there's acupuncture, developed in ancient China, rediscovered by Western >medicine in the 1970s, and just given a partial endorsement by the National >Institutes of Health (NIH). > >People who did plastic surgery in India and cataract extractions in Rome 2,000 >years ago -- and brain surgery 10,000 years ago, helped build the foundations >of our modern health-care system. > >Most amazing is how much they accomplished, with so little. > >By MICHAEL WOODS, Toledo Blade. >Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service. >Copyright 1998 Nando.net >Copyright 1998 Scripps Howard > >janet paterson >50-9 / sinemet-selegiline-prozac >almonte-ontario-canada / [log in to unmask] >