Medical History Archive
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Artificial Cranial Modification in the Ancient World
Posted on November 25, 2012 | No CommentsA short paper that reviews the practices of trephination and head-shaping in the ancient world. -
Amber in the Ancient Near East
Posted on November 21, 2012 | No CommentsIn ancient India and Egypt, it was burned as incense, believed to purify temples and palaces. From antiquity, people have believed that amber has healing properties. -
Poking into medicine in ancient Egypt
Posted on November 21, 2012 | No CommentsSome medical papyri have survived (listed below); one is still being studied by a professional team at the Louvre, but we already know it is about cancer. Cancer did exist in ancient Egypt and before humans existed, as there are dinosaur specimens with traces of a previous existence of a tumour. -
Nepenthes and Cannabis in Ancient Greece
Posted on November 18, 2012 | No CommentsIn Ancient Greece, there was not much use of drugs. There is not even a word in Greek to identify the 'addicted' nor does Greek contain any concept of drug dependence -
The reported thoracic injuries in Homer’s Iliad
Posted on October 25, 2012 | No CommentsIn this poem Homer presents the battles which took place during the last year of the 10-year lasting Trojan War between Achaeans and Trojans. We wanted to examine the chest wounds, especially those which are described in detail, according to their localization, severity and mortality. -
Historical contraception: birth control before “the pill”
Posted on October 11, 2012 | No CommentsAmong the various forms of contraception described emerge three clear categories of contraception: techniques, herbo-pharmacology, and devices. -
Death in ancient times
Posted on October 10, 2012 | No Comments'Many a physician has slain a king!' the emperor Hadrian shouted aloud as he lay on his deathbed. -
To Prevent, Treat and Cure Love in Ancient Egypt
Posted on October 7, 2012 | No CommentsHaving sex initiated a set of actions: cleaning, shaving, perfuming, moisturizing, and, in some cases as today, substances to prevent or avoid ill-effects. -
Mithradates’ Antidote: A Pharmcological Ghost
Posted on October 7, 2012 | No CommentsBy attempting to develop an antidote to protect himself against the threat of poisons, Mithradates VI Eupator, King of Pontus (120-63 B.C.), originated a tradition that would last more than twenty centuries: the tradition of the Mithridatic antidote or Mithridatium. I -
The genetic composition of the inhabitants of Greece
Posted on September 23, 2012 | No CommentsEvery Greek, wheever he may be, is interested in discovering his roots and this not in order to feel more Greek, of this he is certain, but to be able to refute not only historically but also scientifically antihellenic opi- nions of some people and others who have designs on our Greek heritage.
