A Short History of Medicine

The war between disease and doctors fought out on the battleground of the flesh has a beginning and a middle but no end

Plagues and pestilences are largely of mankind’s own making

Epidemics arose with society, and sickness has been and will remain a social product no less than the medicine that opposes it

Homo sapiens appear around 150,000 BC

Hunters and gatherers face harsh conditions and dangerous environments

They had short lives

There were no plagues

Infectious disease were unknown since the population densities needed by these microorganisms did not exist

Since they were constantly moving around they never polluted their water or deposited filth which attracts disease causing insects

Lacked the tamed animals that made civilization possible but also proved a continued and often devastating source of sickness

12,000 – 10,000 years ago after the last ice age animals become scarce and humans settle down and begin to farm

Free from the threat of starvation

New problem – infectious disease

Pathogens exclusive to animals evolved into human forms (we share 60 organisms that cause disease in dogs)

Faecally polluted water spreads polio, cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, whopping cough, diphtheria

Granaries become infested with bacteria toxic fungi, rodent excrement and insects

Agriculture also led to excessive reliance on starchy monocultures like corn

Poor nutrition leads to deficiency diseases

The most momentous event for human health was Columbus’s landfall in 1492. The discovery allowed contact between two human populations that had been isolated for 1000’s of years.

The biological consequences were devastating unleashing the worst health disaster there has ever been and precipitating the conquest of the New World by old world diseases

Emerging in a disease ridden environment people sought to stop disease

Early times – “magic”

Greece 5th century BC – the beginning of medicine occurs with the Hippocratic doctors