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[English version] Die Vorstellung, körperliche Gesundheit hänge mit den Körperflüssigkeiten zusammen, war weit verbreitet. Schleim findet bereits in der ant. ägypt. Medizin Erwähnung, und auch in der babylonischen Medizin richtete man auf Menge und Farbe der Körperflüssigkeiten besonderes Augenmerk. Den Griechen galten ichṓr bei den Göttern, Blut (αἵμα) bei Menschen und Saft (χυμός) der Pflanzen als Träger des Lebens. Diese Flüssigkeiten (χυμοί/ chymoí, lat. humores) konnten im Übermaß auch gefährlich werden. Zwei Säfte, Schleim (φλέγμα) und Galle (χόλος bzw…

[English version] Masseur, ein Beruf, der im 1. Jh. n.Chr. in Mode gekommen zu sein scheint (z.B. CIL 6,9476); doch reicht die Verknüpfung von Medizin und Gymnastik bis Herodikos [1] von Selymbria (5. Jh. v.Chr.) zurück. Trimalchio wurde von drei aliptae behandelt (Petron. 28), Plinius betrachtete diesen ganzen Zweig der Medizin als Quacksalberei (nat. 29,4-5). Vespasian hingegen garantierte allen, die diese Kunst ausübten, diverse Privilegien (FIRA 1,77), und Plinius d.J. gelang es, Traian zu veranlassen, seinem ägypt. i. Harpocrates, dem er die Heilung von einer erns…

[English version] von Sardes. Lehrer und Arzt, wirkte um 390 n.Chr. Als Sohn eines Arztes und Schüler von Zenon von Zypern stand er in hohem Ansehen, v.a. wegen seiner Verdienste in der praktischen Therapie, Drogenkunde, Bandagierungskunst und Chirurgie. Er war auch Philosoph mit besonderen Fähigkeiten sowohl in medizinischer Prognostik als auch in Wahrsagerei (Eunapius, Vitae philosophorum 499). Zudem soll er als bekannter Redner und Dichter hervorgetreten sein, auch wenn keines seiner Werke überl. ist. Nutton, Vivian (London)

[English version] (Νειλεύς). Griech. Chirurg und Pharmakologe, wirkte vor 217 v.Chr., da er von Andreas [1] zitiert wird. Sein “Rosen-Kollyrion” gegen Augenkrankheiten wurde bis in die Spätant. hinein von Autoren wie Aëtios [3] (Tetrabiblos 7,110) empfohlen, während sein Mittel zur Hornhautentfernung in lat. (z.B. Cels. de medicina 5,18,9) und griech. (z.B. Aëtios, Tetrabiblos 9,15) medizin. Texten auftaucht. Er gilt als Erfinder einer Art Kiste zur Einrenkung luxierter Gelenke, insbesondere Hüftg…

[English version] (ἀρχιατρός). Seit hell. Zeit urspr. als Titel eines königlichen Leibarztes verwendet, taucht das Wort zuerst im Zusammenhang mit den Seleukiden auf (IDelos 1547, vgl. TAM V 1,689. Ein ähnlicher Titel, wr sinw, “oberster Arzt”, ist in ägypt. Texten vorptolemaiischer Zeit belegt und fehlt nur zufällig in frühen ptolemaiischen Papyri. 50 v. Chr. gibt es Belege aus Ägypten (Athenagoras, SB 5216) und Pontus (IDelos 1573) [2. 218-226]. Ein mit Augustus bekannter Arzt führt im Alexandreia des J. 7. n. Chr. ebenfalls …

[German version] Greek physician, head of an Erasistratean school in Smyrna, early 1st cent. BC (Str. 12,8,20); he wrote on  dietetics (Plin. HN 14,130; 20,35; 27,31), embryology (Tert. De anima 25) and toothache (Plin. HN 12,40). He was the inventor of a famous black plaster that ‘helped with all types of wounds’ (Gal. 13,787). Galen, who recorded four different recipes for this medication (13,780; 787; 810; 812) and cites the four authors ( Andromachus [5] the Younger,  Heras,  Heraclides [27] a…

[English version] One of the first official acts of the World Medical Association, founded in 1947, was drafting the Geneva Declaration (GD), a contemporary reformulation of the Hippocratic Oath; further improvements were made in 1968. The so-called abortion paragraph and the ban on surgery made way for more modern general provisions to respect human life from the moment of conception and always to use medical knowledge in harmony with the laws of humanity. It retained mention of a doctor's obliga…

[German version] (πυρετός/ pyretós, Lat. febris) strictly refers to a symptom only, i.e. a raise in body temperature, but all ancient medical authors frequently use this term to refer to a specific illness or class of illness. In modern diagnostic usage, the term covers a variety of conditions; thus the identification of any ancient ‘fever’ without any further sub-classification or other description of symptoms is bound to fail. Such aids to identification could consist of observations regarding the periodicity of fever attacks, as in the febris tertiana or febris quartana, when epi…

[German version] from Marseilles ( Massalia), physician, who came to Rome in the time of Nero (Plin. HN. 29,9). He gained renown when he combined astronomy with medicine by orienting the diet plans for his patients according to the course of the stars. When he died, he left 10 million sesterces after having already spent the same sum on repairing the walls and other defences in his native town. Nutton, Vivian (London)

[German version] (Δημοκήδης; Dēmokḗdēs) of Croton. Greek physician, lived about 500 BC and according to Hdt. 3,125 was the best physician of his age. He was the son of Calliphon and practised in Croton before going to Aegina. After a year the town of Aegina employed him for one talent as the community's physician but a year later he moved to Athens for a higher salary and finally into the service of Polycrates of Samos who paid two talents. After Polycrates' assassination D. was taken as a slave to…

[English version] Classical ideas of dietetics, based on the Hippocratic and Galenic notions of a balance between the four humours, continued to play an important role in medicine  into the 20th cent. (Humoral Theory). In Arabic medicine, all substances taken into the body had properties that could affect its health, for good or ill, and hence it was the doctor's duty to prescribe diets for health, as well as for disease, and equally that of his patient  to understand the rules for a healthy lifes…

[German version] A. Egypt The eye-doctors of Egypt were already famous when in about 540 BC the Persian king Cyrus [1] asked the Pharaoh Amasis for one to cure him (Hdt. 3,1; cf. 2,84). Diseases of the eyes were quite common in Egypt. Three of the seven early medical papyri are devoted to such diseases. P. Ebers alone contains more than 100 recipes for blindness. Some of these prescriptions involve Dreckapotheke, while others, for example, use liver - rich in vitamin A and a valuable remedy for xerophthalmia. Eye surgery seem to have been rarely performed and Egy…

Nutton, Vivian (London) [German version] A. Arabic Medical Historiography (CT) The historiography of ancient medicine goes back at least to Late Antiquity, when a 'History of the Physicians' is said to have been written by John Philoponus (6th cent.). Material from this work was drawn upon by Ishaq ibn Hunayn (d. 910/911), for his own 'History' ( Ta'rikh al-atibba), which is largely concerned with chronology [11]. Ishaq's example was followed by a variety of writers in Arabic, some, like the bookseller Ibn an-Nadim (fl. 987), producing largely lists of…

[German version] A. Introduction Medical ethics can be defined as the attitude of those schooled in the art of healing towards those whom they want to heal. How this appears in detail, depends on the healer's social group and standing and also the society in which he or she works. Furthermore, healers and those seeking healing may well have completely divergent views on medical ethics. It is possible to regulate for any desired attitude in the sense of the earlier definition by laws or professional …

[German version] (Νουμισιανός; Noumisianós), anatomist and teacher of medicine in the 2nd cent. AD. A pupil of Quintus, he wrote many works on anatomy in Greek, but these were hoarded by his son Heracleianus and were eventully destroyed by fire (Galen, Administrationes anatomicae 14,1). Although Galen praises his promotion of anatomy, he attributes no discovery to him. Like other Alexandrians, N. commented upon Hippocrates (Galen, In Hippocratis Epidemiarum librum II, commentum 4: CMG V 10,1, 345-3…

[English version] The doctrine that the human body was made up of four humours, blood, phlegm, bile and black bile, and that health consisted in their being in balance, was accepted as the creation of Hippocrates well before the 2nd cent. AD. Galen's authority, buttressed by his logical and rhetorical skills, ensured that it became for centuries the dominant theory in Western medicine and in its oriental siblings. It was expounded in short (often pseudonymous) tracts like the ps.-Galenic Perì chymôn [16] or the Epistula Yppocratis de quattuor humoribus [1] , as well as in large com…

Nutton, Vivian (London) [German version] A. Origins (CT) By AD 500, Greek medicine had become largely Galenic Galenism. Alternative medical theories no longer flourished, and even pragmatists like Alexander of Tralles did not reject Galenic ideas entirely. In Alexandria, and elsewhere in the Byzantine world that followed Alexandrian traditions, e.g. Ravenna, there was a teaching syllabus of Galen, the so-called 16 books - Summaria Alexandrinorum, and of Hippocrates that was commented upon by lecturers who expected of their audience also a grasp of Aristoteli…

[German version] (IDélos 1525). C. lived in about 150-120 BC; administrative official, ‘relative of king Ptolemy’, exegete (i.e. head of the civil service in Alexandria), director of the museum and ἐπὶ τῶν ἰατρῶν, a title that is often understood to mean the person responsible for all Egyptian doctors, which in turn led to the conclusion that there was a state organization of doctors. Kudlien is of the opinion that the title refers to the person responsible for the person in charge of the ‘tax on …

[German version] Physician and anatomist from Alexandria, active c. AD 152, the son of the anatomist and teacher  Numisianus. He compiled an extract of his father's works (Gal. De musculorum dissectione 18 B, 926, 935 K.), demonstrating his own considerable knowledge (Gal. Admin. anat. 16,1). He had a conversation with  Galen, when the latter arrived in Alexandria in c. AD 151, and Galen initially followed his anatomical lectures with benevolence (CMG V,9,1, p. 70). However, when Galen later requested to see the works by H.'s late father, their relatio…

[German version] A. History The Empiricists are a Greek school of physicians founded in about 250 BC by Philinus of Cos, a pupil of  Herophilus (Ps.-Galen Introductio; Gal. 14,683). According to Celsus (De med. pr. 10) it was founded somewhat later by Serapion of Alexandria. According to some doxographers the founder was Acron of Acragas (about 430 BC; fr. 5-7 Deichgräber). It is mentioned in the medical doxographies as one of the leading movements in Greek medicine even in the time of Isidorus of S…