Biomaterial Database

West meets east: early Greek and Babylonian diagnosis. 2004

M J Geller

University College London.

Studies of Greek medicine and Babylonian medicine usually show little awareness of the richness of source material in the other discipline. The present study attempts to begin bridging the gap by showing that early Greek medicine and late Babylonian medicine had much in common, to a surprising extent. Certain early treatises in the Corpus Hippocraticum show clear parallels with Babylonian medicine, in both form and content. These Greek medical texts pay little attention to theory, such as a theory of the four 'humours', nor to diet or venesection, but consisted of prognosis based upon observation of the patient's external features, as well as drug-based recipes, and these characteristics also reflect the current state of Babylonian medicine at that time.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008374	Manuscripts, Medical as Topic	Works about unpublished medical works.
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D049690	History, Ancient	The period of history before 500 of the common era.	Ancient History,Ancient History (Medicine),Ancient History of Medicine,History of Medicine, Ancient,Medicine, Ancient History,Ancient Histories (Medicine),Ancient History Medicine,Ancient History Medicines,Histories, Ancient (Medicine),History Medicine, Ancient,History Medicines, Ancient,History, Ancient (Medicine),Medicine Ancient History,Medicines, Ancient History
D018643	Arab World	A historical and cultural entity dispersed across a wide geographical area under the administrative, intellectual, social, and cultural domination of the Arab empire. The Arab world, under the impetus of Islam, by the eighth century A.D., extended from Arabia in the Middle East to all of northern Africa, southern Spain, Sardinia, and Sicily. Close contact was maintained with Greek and Jewish culture. While the principal service of the Arabs to medicine was the preservation of Greek culture, the Arabs themselves were the originators of algebra, chemistry, geology, and many of the refinements of civilization. (From A. Castiglioni, A History of Medicine, 2d ed, p260; from F. H. Garrison, An Introduction to the History of Medicine, 4th ed, p126)
D018645	Greek World	A historical and cultural entity dispersed across a wide geographical area under the influence of Greek civilization, culture, and science. The Greek Empire extended from the Greek mainland and the Aegean islands from the 16th century B.C., to the Indus Valley in the 4th century under Alexander the Great, and to southern Italy and Sicily. Greek medicine began with Homeric and Aesculapian medicine and continued unbroken to Hippocrates (480-355 B.C.). The classic period of Greek medicine was 460-136 B.C. and the Graeco-Roman period, 156 B.C.-576 A.D. (From A. Castiglioni, A History of Medicine, 2d ed; from F. H. Garrison, An Introduction to the History of Medicine, 4th ed)