1. Dr Samuel taiwo alawode samueltaiwo@windsor.edu
HISTORY OF MEDICINE
Dr Samuel taiwo alawode

2. “NOTHING more difficult than a beginning"
On the marble
“The longer you can look back, the further you can look forward”
Winston Churchill
And remember:
“NOTHING more difficult than a beginning"

3. Course Overview
This course provides a brief introductory survey of the history of medicine from the earliest time known to man (principally in Egypt, Greece, Roman, Arab, Europe and the United States) from classical antiquity to the early twentieth century. Relying on the primary and secondary sources used and analyzed by various authors, effort is made to learn about how humanity make progress from the antiquity; faith and healing in the medieval period until the present day advanced medical practice.

4. Aims and Objectives
To have a brief and retrospective appreciation of belief system, events and people that shaped the practice of medicine from the past to present.
To equip future medical physicians and researcher with opportunity to situate present-day medical ideas, practices and institutions within a broader historical context.
To learn and eventually practice medicine within the frame work of historical perspective.
To provide understanding of the progress and current dilemmas facing modern medical science and clinical practice today.

5. Course Outline Introduction to History of Medicine
Tools of History - Primary and Secondary Sources
Medicine in pre-historic times
Ancient Egyptian medicine
Medicine in Mesopotamia and Babylon
Medicine in ancient China
Medicine in ancient India

6. Course Outline
Medicine of ancient Greece – cradle of European medicine, school of Hippocrates
Physicians of the Antique Roman Empire
Islamic medicine
Medicine in Cordoba - meeting point of Islamic, Jewish, and Christian medical knowledge
Medicine in the Middle Ages first medical universities
Medicine in the period of renaissance
Medicine in the period of enlightenment

7. Tools of the Historian
History forms the basis of all knowledge and is a convenient avenue of approach to any subject of study.

8. Definitions
 The science and art dealing with the maintenance of health and the prevention, alleviation, or cure of disease.

9. Definitions
Historians make a serious and systematic attempt to explain the past and attempt to use the knowledge they gain to help explain human nature and contemporary affairs.”

10. Historians organize history
By dividing it into blocks of time known as periods or eras.
Into periods like decades, centuries, or time periods that are given names.

11. To date events
Before the birth of Christ or B.C., historians count backward from the year 1.
After the birth of Christ or A.D., historians count forward starting at the year 1.
THERE IS NO YEAR 0!!!

12. Historians make sense
Of the flow of dates and events by putting these things in chronological order, or the order of dates in which events happened.
By putting these events on a timeline or a diagram that shows the order of events in a time period.

13. Historians rely on
Calendars or dating systems created by the people of the past to measure time. Most of these calendars were created based on important events.

14. Timelines Are usually evenly spaced and labeled with events.
Can be single lines or multileveled.

15. Evidence
Anything within the range of the historian’s experience-document, opinion, monument, artifact, tradition, and so on-that can be used as a basis for statements about the past; often called “sources.”
Sources are artifacts that have been left by
the past. They exist either as relics, what
we might call “remains,” or as the
testimonies of witnesses of the past.

16. The material that historians rely on are classified as:
Historians study
A variety of sources to learn about the past including artifacts and documents.
The material that historians rely on are classified as:
Primary sources: These are first hand pieces of evidence from the people who saw an event.
Secondary sources: Which are created after the event by someone not involved.

17. Historians also look for
Who, what when, where and why a document was created
Whether or not the document is credible or truthful.
Whether or not the document is biased or has an unreasonable point of view.

18. Summary
Historians put all the pieces of information together to interpret and explain events in the past.

19. Tool of History
Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of human activity in the past, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts (also known as eco-facts) and cultural landscapes (the archaeological record). 

20. The role of Archaeologist
Archaeologist helps to discover and investigate human past, from human evolution to the present day. By studying archaeology we can find out about how people spent their lives, where they lived, the clothes they wore and the food they ate. Archaeology can uncover the religions, burial customs and beliefs of past societies. Through artefacts and excavations, extraordinary details of the daily lives of past generations can be investigated. Archaeology offers a perspective on broad topics, such as how different societies identified and organised themselves, how they co-existed and interacted with other communities and how they perceived and used the physical landscape in which they lived.

21. PRIMARY SOURCES IN HISTORY

22. Primary sources
Primary sources record the actual words of someone who participated in or witnessed the events described or someone who got his or her information from participants.

23. Secondary sources
Secondary sources record the findings of someone who did not observe the event but who investigated primary evidence.

24. Primary Sources

25. What are primary sources?
Original records from the past recorded by people who were:
Involved in the event
Witnessed the event, OR
Knew the persons involved in the event
They can also be objects (artifacts) or visual evidence.
They give you an idea about what people alive at the time saw or thought about the event.
Keep in mind that a primary source reflects only one point of view and may contain a person’s bias (prejudice) toward an event.

26. Examples of primary sources:
Personal Records
Printed Publications
Newspapers
Diaries
Journals
Magazines
Records
Books

27. Examples of primary sources:
Visual Materials
Visual Materials
Sculpture
Film
Maps
Drawings
Photographs
Paintings

28. Examples of primary sources:
Songs and Poems
Artifacts
Tools
Poems
Ornaments and other Objects
Songs

29. An Ancient Egyptian love poem written in about 1500 BC.
"It is seven days from yesterday since I saw my love, And sickness has crept over me, My limbs have become heavy, I cannot feel my own body. If the master-physicians come to me, I gain no comfort from their remedies. And the priest-magicians have no cures, My sickness is not diagnosed. My love is better by far for me than my remedies. She is more important to me than all the books of medicine."

30. An Ancient Egyptian spells
"These words are to be spoken over the sick person.
“O Spirit, male of female, who lurks hidden in my flesh and in my limbs, get out of my flesh. Get out of my limbs!" This was a remedy for a mother and child.”
This was added at the end of this cure:
"Come! You who drives out evil things from my stomach and my limbs. He who drinks this shall be cured just as the gods above were cured.”
‘This spell is really excellent – successful many times.’ It was meant to be said when drinking a remedy.
This was a remedy for people going bald:
"Fat of lion, fat of hippo, fat of cat, fat of crocodile, fat of ibex, fat of serpent, are mixed together and the head of the bald person is anointed with them.

31. Archaeological digs have also found evidence of men titled physicians
Archaeological digs have also found evidence of men titled physicians. The hieroglyphics on the door to the tomb of Irj described him as a physician at the court of the pharaohs. Irj lived about 1500 BC. He was described as a:
"palace doctor, superintendent of the court physicians, palace eye physician, palace physician of the belly and one who understands the internal fluids and who is guardian of the anus."

32. What are secondary sources?
Secondary sources are made at a later time.
They include written information by historians or others AFTER an event has taken place.

33. What are secondary sources?
Although they can be useful and reliable, they cannot reflect what people who lived at the time thought or felt about the event.
But they can represent a more fair account of the event because they can include more than one point of view, or may include information that was unavailable at the time of the event.

34. Examples of secondary sources:
Textbooks, biographies, histories, newspaper report by someone who was not present

35. Examples of secondary sources:
Charts, graphs, or images created AFTER the time period.

36. Name that Source!
The following slides contain examples of primary and secondary sources. See if you can classify each example as a primary or secondary source.

37. Classify these: primary or secondary?

38. Classify these:

39. Classify these:

40. Classify these:

41. Classify these:

42. Classify these:

43. Classify these:

44. Classify these:

45. The End

46. “A primary source is firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation. The nature and value of the source cannot be determined without reference to the topic and questions it is meant to answer. The same document or other piece of evidence may be a primary source in one investigation and secondary in another. The search for primary sources does not, therefore, automatically include or exclude any category of records or documents.”

47. Written Transmissions
Books
Journals
Letters
Annals
Dissertations
Public records
Census data
Eyewitness accounts
Scripture
Inscriptions
Newspapers
Diaries
Chronicles
Government documents
Personal or institutional papers
Genealogies
Manuscripts
Laws
Scrolls
Period literature and poetry

48. Oral Transmissions Speeches Anecdotes Sagas Oral histories Music
Interviews (not videotaped)
Ballads
Legends
Telephone conversations
Recordings (tape & records)
Myths
From Using Internet Primary Sources to Teach Critical Thinking Skills in History Craver, Kathleen, D C , p.19

49. Visually Transmitted Sculpture Photographs Portraits Maps Cartoons
Coins
Videotapes
Films
Posters
Engravings
Models & dioramas
Woodcuts
Architecture
Etchings
Relics
Historical paintings
Artifacts
Computer generated graphics

50. Electronically Transmitted
Faxes
Electronic mail
Machine readable databases
[Web pages]

51. All Things Considered
Authenticity
Reliability
Disagreement

52. What evidence do historians rely on to help measure time?
rulers
computers
calendars
Water tables

53. What were most historical calendars based on?
Important events
Birthdates of the pharaohs
Wars
Tree rings

54. What important event is the Western calendar based on?
Crop rotation
Lunar cycles
Season changes
Birth of Jesus

55. What does B.C. mean? British Columbia Big Clock Birth of Christ
Before Church

56. What does A.D. mean?
After death
Anno Domini
Another day
Always done

57. How do historians organize history?
Into days
Into blocks of time like decades
Into files
Into countries

58. How do historians organize history?
By region
By political times
By chronology
By event importance

59. What type of diagram do historians use to display history?
Pie chart
Bar graph
Textbook
A timeline

60. Are you Enjoying the History of Medicine class so far?
Yes No