Medical characteristics of ancient Rome

After Hippocrates, Greek medicine reached its peak in Alexandria and soon began to penetrate into Rome. But before that, Roman medicine had its own long history of development, which inherited the religious views of Cyrus, and showed the early Romans' trust in animal viscera divination. In 295 BC, Askell Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, was introduced to Rome with the image of a snake wrapped around a cane. When Rome was further ruled by Greece politically, Greek culture occupied an advantage in the Roman intellectual life, especially in the attitude, method and practice of medicine, which was almost entirely learned from Latin style.

The upper class in Rome hated manual labor as much as in ancient Greece. They think that it is not worthwhile for educated people to practice medicine. At that time, Greek medical practitioners flowed into Rome and spread in Rome. The Romans looked down on ordinary Greeks and doctors. Greeks have a low social status, and many people are still slaves. Later, because doctors played a more and more important role in treating and preventing diseases, they were given civil rights and could practice freely, so the attitudes and methods of Greece and Rome gradually merged.

Rome's attitude towards health and disease is quite similar to that of Greece. Pay little attention to incurable diseases and disabilities. The poor houses in these two countries are crowded, but the Romans pay more attention to public health and medical care. At the end of 1 century, there were 9 pipes supplying water to Rome, and there will be more in the future, mainly used for drinking water and bathing. At the same time, there are sewers to discharge sewage outside the city, and most streets, roads and alleys are kept clean. Only the army has developed hospitals. Free men and slaves in Rome could go to the doctor's house to see a doctor. It was not until the 4th century AD that hospitals for ordinary citizens appeared in the city.

Dior Scooby-Doo (about 4 1-90 AD) wrote On Drugs based on the information about medicinal plants by Dior Scoori Des in the 4th century BC and Plant Studies written by Theophrastus (about 372-287 BC), which discussed nearly a thousand kinds of drugs and provided the most classic original materials for modern plant terminology.

Born in 1 th century, Celsus is recognized as the greatest medical writer. His Medicine is one of the best medical classics, and later it was one of the earliest medical works to deal with India after the introduction of printing. Although he is not a clinician himself, he advocates cleanliness: wounds must be washed and coated with vinegar and thyme oil. These substances all have disinfection effect. He identified four basic characteristics of inflammation: redness, redness, pain and fever. According to the treatment needs of various diseases, it is divided into three parts: diet, medicine and surgical treatment. He first mentioned heart disease and psychosis, and mentioned ligation to stop bleeding. At present, the knowledge of medicine in the so-called Hellenistic period and Alexander's anatomy and surgery mainly comes from Celsus's Medicine.

Caius Pliny (AD 23-79) was another famous Roman writer. His History of Nature (Volume 37) is extremely rich in content, including animals, plants, minerals and so on. Volume 20-32 is devoted to pharmacology.

Solanas of Ephesus (AD 98- 138) was a famous Greek gynecologist and pediatrician. His works on gynecological diseases, pregnancy and baby care dominated the medical field 1 Millennium.

Rufus (110-180) is an anatomist in Rome. He clearly described the structure of optic nerve and eyeball, and realized that both motor nerve and sensory nerve are related to the brain, and heartbeat is the cause of pulse.

However, despite the achievements of so many doctors, the peak of Roman medicine came after the birth of Galen, the "holy doctor".