chinese medicine. traditional chinese medicine that is based on the use of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage and other forms of therapy has been practiced in china for thousands of years. ancient indian medicine main articles: ayurveda, unani, and siddha medicine ayurvedic herbal medicines the atharvaveda, a sacred text of hinduism dating from the early iron age, is one of the first indian texts dealing with medicine. the atharvaveda also contains prescriptions of herbs for various ailments. the use of herbs to treat ailments would later form a large part of ayurveda. ayurveda, meaning the "complete knowledge for long life" is another medical system of india. its two most famous texts belong to the schools of charaka and sushruta. the earliest foundations of ayurveda were built on a synthesis of traditional herbal practices together with a massive addition of theoretical conceptualizations, new nosologies and new therapies dating from about 600 bce onwards, and coming out of the communities of thinkers which included the buddha and others. according to the compendium of charaka, the charakasamhitā, health and disease are not predetermined and life may be prolonged by human effort. the compendium of suśruta, the suśrutasamhitā defines the purpose of medicine to cure the diseases of the sick, protect the healthy, and to prolong life. both these ancient compendia include details of the examination, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of numerous ailments. the suśrutasamhitā is notable for describing procedures on various forms of surgery, including rhinoplasty, the repair of torn ear lobes, perineal lithotomy, cataract surgery, and several other excisions and other surgical procedures. most remarkable was susruta's surgery specially the rhinoplasty for which he is called father of modern plastic surgery. susruta also described more than 125 surgical instruments in detail. also remarkable is sushruta's penchant for scientific classification: his medical treatise consists of 184 chapters, 1,120 conditions are listed, including injuries and illnesses relating to aging and mental illness. the ayurvedic classics mention eight branches of medicine: kāyācikitsā (internal medicine), śalyacikitsā (surgery including anatomy), śālākyacikitsā (eye, ear, nose, and throat diseases), kaumārabhṛtya (pediatrics with obstetrics and gynaecology), bhūtavidyā (spirit and psychiatric medicine), agada tantra (toxicology with treatments of stings and bites), rasāyana (science of rejuvenation), and vājīkaraṇa (aphrodisiac and fertility). apart from learning these, the student of āyurveda was expected to know ten arts that were indispensable in the preparation and application of his medicines: distillation, operative skills, cooking, horticulture, metallurgy, sugar manufacture, pharmacy, analysis and separation of minerals, compounding of metals, and preparation of alkalis. the teaching of various subjects was done during the instruction of relevant clinical subjects. for example, the teaching of anatomy was a part of the teaching of surgery, embryology was a part of training in pediatrics and obstetrics, and the knowledge of physiology and pathology was interwoven in the teaching of all the clinical disciplines. the normal length of the student's training appears to have been seven years. but the physician was to continue to learn. as an alternative form of medicine in india, unani medicine found deep roots and royal patronage during medieval times. it progressed during the indian sultanate and mughal periods. unani medicine is very close to ayurveda. both are based on the theory of the presence of the elements (in unani, they are considered to be fire, water, earth, and air) in the human body. according to followers of unani medicine, these elements are present in different fluids and their balance leads to health and their imbalance leads to illness. by the 18th century ce, sanskrit medical wisdom still dominated. muslim rulers built large hospitals in 1595 in hyderabad, and in delhi in 1719, and numerous commentaries on ancient texts were written. ancient greek medicine humors the theory of humors was derived from ancient medical works, dominated western medicine until the 19th century, and is credited to greek philosopher and surgeon galen of pergamon (129–c. 216 ce). in greek medicine, there are thought to be four humors, or bodily fluids that are linked to illness: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. early scientists believed that food is digested into blood, muscle, and bones, while the humors that weren't blood were then formed by indigestible materials that are left over. an excess or shortage of any one of the four humors is theorized to cause an imbalance that results in sickness; the aforementioned statement was hypothesized by sources before hippocrates. hippocrates (c. 400 bce) deduced that the four seasons of the year and four ages of man that affect the body in relation to the humors. the four ages of man are childhood, youth, prime age, and old age. the four humors as associated with the four seasons are black bile – autumn, yellow bile – summer, phlegm – winter and blood – spring. in de temperamentis, galen linked what he called temperaments, or personality characteristics, to a person's natural mixture of humors. he also said that the best place to check the balance of temperaments was in the palm of the hand. a person that is considered to be phlegmatic is said to be an introvert, even-tempered, calm, and peaceful. this person would have an excess of phlegm, which is described as a viscous substance or mucous. similarly, a melancholic temperament related to being moody, anxious, depressed, introverted, and pessimistic. a melancholic temperament is caused by an excess of black bile, which is sedimentary and dark in color. being extroverted, talkative, easygoing, carefree, and sociable coincides with a sanguine temperament, which is linked to too much blood. finally, a choleric temperament is related to too much yellow bile, which is actually red in color and has the texture of foam; it is associated with being aggressive, excitable, impulsive, and also extroverted. there are numerous ways to treat a disproportion of the humors. for example, if someone was suspected to have too much blood, then the physician would perform bloodletting as a treatment. likewise, if a person that had too much phlegm would feel better after expectorating, and someone with too much yellow bile would purge. another factor to be considered in the balance of humors is the quality of air in which one resides, such as the climate and elevation. also, the standard of food and drink, balance of sleeping and waking, exercise and rest, retention and evacuation are important. moods such as anger, sadness, joy, and love can affect the balance. during that time, the importance of balance was demonstrated by the fact that women lose blood monthly during menstruation, and have a lesser occurrence of gout, arthritis, and epilepsy then men do. galen also hypothesized that there are three faculties. the natural faculty affects growth and reproduction and is produced in the liver. animal or vital faculty controls respiration and emotion, coming from the heart. in the brain, the psychic faculty commands the senses and thought. the structure of bodily functions is related to the humors as well. greek physicians understood that food was cooked in the stomach; this is where the nutrients are extracted. the best, most potent and pure nutrients from food are reserved for blood, which is produced in the liver and carried through veins to organs. blood enhanced with pneuma, which means wind or breath, is carried by the arteries. the path that blood take is as follows: venous blood passes through the vena cava and is moved into the right ventricle of the heart; then, the pulmonary artery takes it to the lungs. later, the pulmonary vein then mixes air from the lungs with blood to form arterial blood, which has different observable characteristics. after leaving the liver, half of the yellow bile that is produced travels to the blood, while the other half travels to the gallbladder. similarly, half of the black bile produced gets mixed in with blood, and the other half is used by the spleen. people around 800 bce homer in the iliad gives descriptions of wound treatment by the two sons of asklepios, the admirable physicians podaleirius and machaon and one acting doctor, patroclus. because machaon is wounded and podaleirius is in combat eurypylus asks patroclus to "cut out the arrow-head, and wash the dark blood from my thigh with warm water, and sprinkle soothing herbs with power to heal on my wound". asklepios, like imhotep, came to be associated as a god of healing over time. view of the askleipion of kos, the best preserved instance of an asklepieion. temples dedicated to the healer-god asclepius, known as asclepieia (ancient greek: ἀσκληπιεῖα, sing. ἀσκληπιεῖον, asclepieion), functioned as centers of medical advice, prognosis, and healing. at these shrines, patients would enter a dream-like state of induced sleep known as enkoimesis (ἐγκοίμησις) not unlike anesthesia, in which they either received guidance from the deity in a dream or were cured by surgery. asclepeia provided carefully controlled spaces conducive to healing and fulfilled several of the requirements of institutions created for healing. in the asclepeion of epidaurus, three large marble boards dated to 350 bce preserve the names, case histories, complaints, and cures of about 70 patients who came to the temple with a problem and shed it there. some of the surgical cures listed, such as the opening of an abdominal abscess or the removal of traumatic foreign material, are realistic enough to have taken place, but with the patient in a state of enkoimesis induced with the help of soporific substances such as opium. alcmaeon of croton wrote on medicine between 500 and 450 bce. he argued that channels linked the sensory organs to the brain, and it is possible that he discovered one type of channel, the optic nerves, by dissection. hippocrates of kos (c. 460 – c. 370 bce), considered the "father of modern medicine." the hippocratic corpus is a collection of around seventy early medical works from ancient greece strongly associated with hippocrates and his students. most famously, the hippocratics invented the hippocratic oath for physicians. contemporary physicians swear an oath of office which includes aspects found in early editions of the hippocratic oath. hippocrates and his followers were first to describe many diseases and medical conditions. though humorism (humoralism) as a medical system predates 5th-century greek medicine, hippocrates and his students systematized the thinking that illness can be explained by an imbalance of blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. hippocrates is given credit for the first description of clubbing of the fingers, an important diagnostic sign in chronic suppurative lung disease, lung cancer and cyanotic heart disease. for this reason, clubbed fingers are sometimes referred to as "hippocratic fingers". hippocrates was also the first physician to describe the hippocratic face in prognosis. shakespeare famously alludes to this description when writing of falstaff's death in act ii, scene iii. of henry v. hippocrates began to categorize illnesses as acute, chronic, endemic and epidemic, and use terms such as, "exacerbation, relapse, resolution, crisis, paroxysm, peak, and convalescence." the greek galen (c. 129–216 ce) was one of the greatest physicians of the ancient world, as his theories dominated all medical studies for nearly 1500 years. his theories and experimentation laid the foundation for modern medicine surrounding the heart and blood. galen's influence and innovations in medicine can be attributed to the experiments he conducted, which were unlike any other medical experiments of his time. galen strongly believed that medical dissection was one of the essential procedures in truly understanding medicine. he began to dissect different animals that were anatomically similar to humans, which allowed him to learn more about the internal organs and extrapolate the surgical studies to the human body. in addition, he performed many audacious operations—including brain and eye surgeries—that were not tried again for almost two millennia. through the dissections and surgical procedures, galen concluded that blood is able to circulate throughout the human body, and the heart is most similar to the human soul. in ars medica ("arts of medicine"), he further explains the mental properties in terms of specific mixtures of the bodily organs. while much of his work surrounded the physical anatomy, he also worked heavily in humoral physiology. galen's medical work was regarded as authoritative until well into the middle ages. he left a physiological model of the human body that became the mainstay of the medieval physician's university anatomy curriculum. although he attempted to extrapolate the animal dissections