history of medicine history of medicine the history of medicine is both a study of medicine throughout history as well as a multidisciplinary field of study that seeks to explore and understand medical practices, both past and present, throughout human societies. this article is about the history of human medicine. for the book, see a history of medicine. history of medicine. from top-left to bottom-right: (1) a prehistoric trepanted skull of a woman (c. 3500 bce), (2) a tablet containing medical prescriptions of medicine and incantation against poisoning (c. 1800 bce), (3) studies of embryos by leonardo da vinci (1510-1513), (4) the bloodletting by quirijn van brekelenkam (c. 1660), (5) a copy of hua shou's routes of the fourteen meridians and their functions (1716), (6) an operating theatre in new zealand (1916), (7) joycelyn elders, the first black american to serve as surgeon general of the united states (1993-1994), (8) a modern emergency centre in henan, china, (9) an example of a public outdoor automated external defibrillator (aed) (2022).the history of medicine is the study and documentation of the evolution of medical treatments, practices, and knowledge over time. medical historians often drawn from other humanities fields of study including economics, health sciences, sociology, and politics to better understand the institutions, practices, people, professions, and social systems that have shaped medicine. when a period which predates or lacks written sources regarding medicine, information is instead drawn from archaeological sources. this field tracks the evolution of human societies' approach to health, illness, and injury ranging from prehistory to the modern day, the events that shape these approaches, and their impact on populations. early medical traditions include those of babylon, china, egypt and india. invention of the microscope was a consequence of improved understanding, during the renaissance. prior to the 19th century, humorism (also known as humoralism) was thought to explain the cause of disease but it was gradually replaced by the germ theory of disease, leading to effective treatments and even cures for many infectious diseases. military doctors advanced the methods of trauma treatment and surgery. public health measures were developed especially in the 19th century as the rapid growth of cities required systematic sanitary measures. advanced research centers opened in the early 20th century, often connected with major hospitals. the mid-20th century was characterized by new biological treatments, such as antibiotics. these advancements, along with developments in chemistry, genetics, and radiography led to modern medicine. medicine was heavily professionalized in the 20th century, and new careers opened to women as nurses (from the 1870s) and as physicians (especially after 1970). prehistoric medicine yarrow, a medicinal plant found in human-occupied caves in the upper palaeolithic period. prehistoric medicine is a field of study focused on understanding the use of medicinal plants, healing practices, illnesses, and wellness of humans before written records existed. although styled prehistoric "medicine", prehistoric healthcare practices were vastly different from what we understand medicine to be in the present era and more accurately refers to studies and exploration of early healing practices. this period extends across the first use of stone tools by early humans c. 3.3 million years ago to the beginning of writing systems and subsequent recorded history c. 5000 years ago. as human populations were once scattered across the world, forming isolated communities and cultures that sporadically interacted, a range of archaeological periods have been developed to account for the differing contexts of technology, sociocultural developments, and uptake of writing systems throughout early human societies. prehistoric medicine is then highly contextual to the location and people in question, creating an ununiform period of study to reflect various degrees of societal development. without written records, insights into prehistoric medicine comes indirectly from interpreting evidence left behind by prehistoric humans. one branch of this includes the archaeology of medicine; a discipline that utilises a range of archaeological techniques from observing illness in human remains, plant fossils, to excavations to uncover medical practices. there is evidence of healing practices within neanderthals and other early human species. prehistoric evidence of human engagement with medicine include the discovery of psychoactive plant sources such as psilocybin mushrooms in c. 6000 bce sahara to primitive dental care in c. 10,900 bce (13,000 bp) riparo fredian (present-day italy) and c. 7000 bce mehrgarh (present-day pakistan). anthropology is another academic branch that contributes to understanding prehistoric medicine in uncovering the sociocultural relationships, meaning, and interpretation of prehistoric evidence. the overlap of medicine as both a root to healing the body as well as the spiritual throughout prehistoric periods highlights the multiple purposes that healing practices and plants could potentially have. from proto-religions to developed spiritual systems, relationships of humans and supernatural entities, from gods to shamans, have played an interwoven part in prehistoric medicine. ancient medicine ancient history covers time between c. 3000 bce to c. 500 ce, starting from evidenced development of writing systems to the end of the classical era and beginning of the post-classical period. this periodisation presents history as if it were the same everywhere, however it is important to note that socioculture and technological developments could differ locally from settlement to settlement as well as globally from one society to the next. ancient medicine covers a similar period of time and presented a range of similar healing theories from across the world connecting nature, religion, and humans within ideas of circulating fluids and energy. although prominent scholars and texts detailed well-defined medicial insights, their real-world applications were marred by knowledge destruction and loss, poor communication, localised reinterpretations, and subsequent inconsistent applications. ancient mesopotamian medicine a cuniform terracotta tablet describing a medicinal recipe for poisoning (c. 18th century bce). discovered in nippur, iraq.the mesopotamian region, covering much of present-day iraq, kuwait, syria, iran, and turkey, was dominated by a series of civilisations including sumer, the earliest known civilisation in the fertile crescent region, alongside the akkadians (including assyrians and babylonians). overlapping ideas of what we now understand as medicine, science, magic, and religion characterised early mesopotamian healing practices as a hybrid naturalistic and supernatural belief system. the sumerians, having developed one of the earliest known writing systems in the 3rd millennium bce, created numerous cuneiform clay tablets regarding their civilisation included detailed accounts of drug prescriptions, operations, to exorcisms. these were administered and carried out by highly defined professionals including bârû (seers), âsipu (exorcists), and asû (physician-priests). an example of an early, prescription-like medication appeared in sumerian during the third dynasty of ur (c. 2112 bce – c. 2004 bce). following the conquest of the sumerian civilisation by the akkadian empire and the empire's eventual collapse from a number of social and environmental factors, the babylonian civilisation began to dominate the region. examples of babylonian medicine include the extensive babylonian medical text, the diagnostic handbook, written by the ummânū, or chief scholar, esagil-kin-apli of borsippa,: 99 in the middle of the 11th century bce during the reign of the babylonian king adad-apla-iddina (1069–1046 bce). this medical treatise presented great attention to the practice of diagnosis, prognosis, physical examination, and remedies. the text contains a list of medical symptoms and often detailed empirical observations along with logical rules used in combining observed symptoms on the body of a patient with its diagnosis and prognosis.: 97–98 here, clearly developed rationales were developed to understand the causes of disease and injury, supported by agreed upon theories at-the-time of elements we might now understand as natural causes, supernatural magic and religious explanations.a neo-assyrian cuneiform tablet fragment describing medical text (c. 9th to 7th century bce).most known and recovered artefacts from the ancient mesopotamian civilisations centre on the neo-assyrian (c. 900 - 600 bce) and neo-babylonian (c. 600 - 500 bce) periods, as the last empires ruled by native mesopotamian rulers. these discoveries include a huge array of medical clay tablets from this period, although damage to the clay documents creates large gaps in our understanding of medical practices. throughout the civilisations of mesopotamia there is a wide range of medical innovations including evidenced practices of prophylaxis, taking measures to prevent the spread of disease, accounts of stroke, to an awareness of mental illnesses. ancient egyptian medicine magical stela or cippus of horus inscribed with healing encantations (c. 332 to 280 bce). ancient egypt, a civilisation spanning across the river nile (throughout parts of present-day egypt, sudan, and south sudan), existed from its unification in c. 3150 bce to its collapse via persian conquest in 525 bce and ultimate downfall from the conquest of alexander the great in 332 bce. throughout unique dynasties, golden eras, and intermediate periods of instability, ancient egyptians developed a complex, experimental, and communicative medical tradition that has been uncovered through surviving documents, most made of papyrus, such as the kahun gynaecological papyrus, the edwin smith papyrus, the ebers papyrus, the london medical papyrus, to the greek magical papyri. herodotus described the egyptians as "the healthiest of all men, next to the libyans", because of the dry climate and the notable public health system that they possessed. according to him, "the practice of medicine is so specialized among them that each physician is a healer of one disease and no more." although egyptian medicine, to a considerable extent, dealt with the supernatural, it eventually developed a practical use in the fields of anatomy, public health, and clinical diagnostics. medical information in the edwin smith papyrus may date to a time as early as 3000 bce. imhotep in the 3rd dynasty is sometimes credited with being the founder of ancient egyptian medicine and with being the original author of the edwin smith papyrus, detailing cures, ailments and anatomical observations. the edwin smith papyrus is regarded as a copy of several earlier works and was written c. 1600 bce. it is an ancient textbook on surgery almost completely devoid of magical thinking and describes in exquisite detail the examination, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of numerous ailments.the edwin smith surgical papyrus, written in the 17th century bce, contains the earliest recorded reference to the brain. new york academy of medicine. the kahun gynaecological papyrus treats women's complaints, including problems with conception. thirty four cases detailing diagnosis and treatment survive, some of them fragmentarily. dating to 1800 bce, it is the oldest surviving medical text of any kind. medical institutions, referred to as houses of life are known to have been established in ancient egypt as early as 2200 bce. the ebers papyrus is the oldest written text mentioning enemas. many medications were administered by enemas and one of the many types of medical specialists was an iri, the shepherd of the anus. the earliest known physician is also credited to ancient egypt: hesy-ra, "chief of dentists and physicians" for king djoser in the 27th century bce. also, the earliest known woman physician, peseshet, practiced in ancient egypt at the time of the 4th dynasty. her title was "lady overseer of the lady physicians." ancient chinese medicine main article: traditional chinese medicine zhang zhongjing - a chinese pharmacologist, physician, inventor, and writer of the eastern han dynasty. medical and healing practices in early chinese dynasties were heavily shaped by the practice of traditional chinese medicine (tcm). starting around the zhou dynasty, parts of this system were being developed and are demonstrated in early writings on herbs in classic of changes (yi jing) and classic of poetry (shi jing). china also developed a large body of traditional medicine. much of the philosophy of traditional chinese medicine derived from empirical observations of disease and illness by taoist physicians and reflects the classical chinese belief that individual human experiences express causative principles effective in the environment at all scales. these causative principles, whether material, essential, or mystical, correlate as the expression of the natural order of the universe. the foundational text of chinese medicine is the huangdi neijing, (or yellow emperor's inner canon), written 5th century to 3rd century bce. near the end of the 2nd century ce, during the han dynasty, zhang zhongjing, wrote a treatise on cold damage, which contains the earliest known reference to the neijing suwen. the jin dynasty practitioner and advocate of acupuncture and moxibustion, huangfu mi (215–282), also quotes the yellow emperor in his jiayi jing, c. 265. during the tang dynasty, the suwen was expanded and revised and is now the best extant representation of the foundational roots of traditional