Date post: | 12-Jan-2015 |
Category: |
Health & Medicine |
Upload: | brayton-college |
View: | 7,446 times |
Download: | 0 times |
Roman Medicine & Public Health
Prevention better than the cure - Roman ideas on
medicine
What we will learn today: How they developed ideas from the
Greeks. Roman ideas on what caused
illness. The nature of empirical
observation. The development of Roman Public
Health.
The Impact of Greek Medicine The impact the Greeks made on
Rome can be seen in several ways. One is the use of an Asclepion in
Rome to combat the plague that broke out in the city in 293 BC.
The second is the use of Greek doctors – look at this table.
Social and Ethnic status of Roman Doctors from 1st to 3rd century AD
Total Greek % Greek
Citizens 186 118 63
Freedmen 170 158 93
Slaves 55 54 98
Foreign (Non citizens)
31 23 74
Total 442 353 80
Why such a heavy reliance on the Greeks?
This was due to the low social standing doctors had in Roman society.
When did this change? When Julius Caesar made a decree
giving doctors citizenship and the doctors who treated the rich could also become rich themselves.
Copy this table
Total Greek % Greek
Citizens 186 118 63
Freedmen 170 158 93
Slaves 55 54 98
Foreign (Non citizens)
31 23 74
Total 442 353 80
Now let us look at public health
Prevention better than the cure. To the Romans this
can be said to be their main idea about public health.
A key example is their attempts to stop the spread of disease and death that surrounded the swamps in Rome.
Observation The Romans observed that the
people who lived near the swamps tended to get ill and die.
We now know this disease is called Malaria - they did not know this.
They tried to gain an understanding as to an effective way to deal with the illness.
Febris Febris was a minor
Roman goddess for fever - a symptom of the disease.
A temple was built where the disease was and prayers were said but no reduction in illness was observed.
Task Write the subtitle Roman Public
Health Answer this question; What do the
actions of the Romans tell you about their belief in medicine?
Empirical Observation The next step the
Romans took was to drain the swamp - this in effect shows the Romans had developed a system of EMPIRICAL OBSERVATION
EMPIRICAL OBSERVATION Did they know what caused the
illnesses? Did they realise that the swamp was in
some way connected to the problem? So, remove the swamp, remove the
problem - this is empirical observation. Acting on what they know rather than
waiting to find out all the information.
So what did they think caused disease? Bad air Bad water Bad smells Swamps or marshland Being dirty Living near sewerage In essence they had no clue but acted
on what they saw.
Task Write down a definition for
EMPIRICAL OBSERVATION. Use the Roman’s problem as an
example.
Roman Public Health - Aqueducts
Roman Public Health - Baths
Roman Public Health - Toilets
Task Using the notes in front of you,
create a booklet on Roman Public Health using the
Final Task Quick Quiz This is designed to see what you
have found out about Roman Public Health.