Native Healers. Anita Ralph

      Galen of Pergamon, 130–201 ce was born in the vibrant, intellectual Roman centre of Pergamon. His father had a dream given to him by the god Asclepius himself that Galen should study medicine. His 10-year training took him on to Smyrna and then Alexandria where he learned theories of medicine from ancient writings including those of Hippocrates, and more practical medicine such as surgery. His first job was as chief physician to the Roman gladiators, and this gave him much-needed experience in human anatomy. He went on to become personal physician to the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (ruled 161–180 CE). Galen published a huge corpus of works on language, logic, philosophy and many medical works on subjects such as diet, pharmacology, anatomy and physiology and surgery.

      Galen was particularly influenced by the theory of the four humours, and he elevated this theory by attributing it to Hippocrates himself. He was also a practical observer and experimenter, and is considered to be the originator of the experimental method in medicine. This extended into pharmacology where he also suggested a method to observe the properties of herbal ‘drugs’. He became so well known for this that he was often sent medicines from far around the Roman Empire to test. Some of his physiological observations were new for his time and were accurate (such as proving that urine is formed by the kidney not the bladder).

      Galen also believed in individualised medicine, and that any medical training should be accompanied by the study of philosophy. The quotation, ‘The best doctor is also a philosopher’ is attributed to Galen. He was much admired and 400 years later his ideas were taken up by other great ‘philosopher doctors’ of the Arabic world such as Maimonides (1135–1204 CE). The ‘medical logic’ of Galen was subsequently absorbed by the new universities of Europe. These were founded as theoretical institutions based on Greek, and Arabic medical works translated into Latin, the dominant language of that time.

      Galen's influence was such that after he died his works and theories became heavily modified, re-invented and re-interpreted and led to a sort of Galenism, that remained the predominant form of medicine practised in Europe right up to the 1600s.

      It took 1500 years, until the Renaissance, for Galen's theories to be successfully challenged. First to do this was the Flemish anatomist Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564) who realised Galen's anatomy (based on animal dissection) was not always correct (in the ancient world, dissection of humans was forbidden). Then, William Harvey (1578–1657), credited with the discovery of the circulation of the blood, challenged and condemned Galen's inaccurate theory of blood, although it should be remembered that Harvey himself thought his own discovery proved humoural theory, and even he did not fully complete our understanding of the circulation.

      Galenism, the dogmatic, rigid and sometimes just plain incorrect application of Galenic ideas, did much to discredit Galen into our modern time. He was however a polymath, a keen observer and empiricist, a thinking physician and surgeon, who believed in listening deeply to the patient as an individual.

      Official plant medicines once found in the British Pharmacopoeia alongside chemical medicines up until the 1970s and 1980s, were known as ‘Galenicals’. This has perhaps not helped the acceptance of modern phytotherapy among conventional doctors who may remember herbs being referred to in this way, and who think of Galen(ism) as holding back the progress of ‘modern’ medicine.

      Probably the most famous of the Arabic scholars was Avicenna (Abū ‘Alī al-usayn ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sīnā), (980–1037 CE) another polymath, physician and philosopher. Avicenna was born in what is now present-day Uzbekistan and lived during what has been called the Islamic Golden Age. At this time the West was going through what we now refer to as the Dark Ages (a mediaeval period of history), and medical knowledge from the Middle-East was significantly advanced by comparison. Muslim scholars had access to many sources of knowledge including that of Ancient Greco-Roman, Byzantine, Indian, Egyptian and Persian civilisations. It was the late middle ages before this wealth of knowledge became available to the West.

      As another polymath, Avicenna is known to have written over 450 works including 40 on medicine. Possibly his most famous work on medicine is The Canon of Medicine which became one of the standard texts in medical universities in the mediaeval West.

      There are no incurable diseases—only the lack of will. There are no worth-less herbs—only the lack of knowledge.

      —Avicenna

      

       9th-century Arabic electuary for a cough caused by catarrh.

      Equal parts of:

      •Flax seed (Linseed) ground into a powder

      •Sweet raisin (free from seed) pounded into a paste

      •Pine nuts ground into paste

      •Liquorice root ground into a powder

      •Mix with honey (bereft of broth)

      It is taken in the morning and at bedtime, it helps, God willing.

      Adapted from The Medical Formulary of Aqrabadhin of Al-Kindi (c. 800–870 CE) Arabian physician and philosopher.

      Works by Greek, Roman and Arabic physicians and others were preserved by the practice of monastic manuscript copying and translation.

      

      Many ancient texts survive because of this painstaking practice, and fuel the popular association between monks and herb gardens. Uniquely in Britain, records were kept on Anglo-Saxon medicine and so we can see the influence of Latin texts on traditional Leechbooks from around the 9th century CE (leech was the term for a doctor in those times) such as the Leechbook of Bald.^3,4 Bald was a monk, and set about recording and copying contemporary medicine into a written document that survives to this day. Monastic life also allowed for the development of new ideas within health and medicine, an example being the Abbess Hildegarde of Bingen whose writings on health and, uniquely, womens health, contributed to this corpus of knowledge.

      Hildegarde of Bingen, (1098–1179) abbess of Eibingen Abby, near Bingen, Germany. In addition to being one of the most important musical compos-ers of the period, Hildegarde wrote extensively about health and medicine.

      Her books on many subjects including Physica written during the period 1150 to 1158 and Cause et Curae were originally combined in Liber subtilitatum diversarum naturarum creaturarum (the Book of the Subtleties of the Diverse Nature of Creatures).

---

Скачать книгу