ple and presumably operated from a corner shop in the street
or from his home.
Th e respective positions of these two health professionals
aff ected their approach, to some extent. Th e ashipu operated
primarily under the assumption that disease was ultimately
caused by div ine w i l l or fate; t he asû, while generally agreeing
with this position, concentrated more on natural causes of
symptoms (bites, excessive exposure to draughts or sunlight,
kidney stones, and so on). In essence, magic focused on dis-
ease, while medicine concentrated on symptoms.
It is not particularly easy to classify diseases within
Babylonian medicine, but they fall generally within catego-
ries similar to diseases within Hippocratic medicine. Some
diseases are simply associated with parts of the body, such
as head disease, tooth disease, eye disease, nose disease, and
even foot disease as well as kidney disease and anus disease.
Even baldness was treated as a disease. Th ere were a variety
of skin diseases, including rashes and pox, as well as leprosy-
like conditions aff ecting the nose and mouth, but it is im-
possible to diagnose these conditions according to modern
disease terminology.
Other diseases are listed as being “caused” by the hand of
a particular god, with special attention being given to “Hand
of the Ghost disease.” Although the diseases may have, at one
time, been thought to have originated from the actions of a
particular god, ghost, or demon, by the time we see such ter-
minology within Babylonian medical literature, these labels
identify specifi c diseases, without much in the way of reli-
gious overtones.
Typical medical texts in the Babylonian medical litera-
ture oft en consist of a brief statement of the problem and a
remedy. For urinary problems, one treatment stated that a
man “should keep drinking one sila-measure of ash of the
hoof of a spring lamb, one sila of ash of male mandrake, on
an empty stomach in water for fi ve days.” Th is was thought to
be curative. Medical literature from Babylonia always leaves
the impression of being optimistic, in the sense that most
medical remedies end with the positive statement that once
the drugs are administered, the patient will recover from the
illness. Such statements are hardly realistic, since other diag-
nostic texts, which list symptoms from many diff erent types
of diseases, oft en give a rather grim prognosis, saying that the
patient will die or that the disease will persist for a time and
then the patient will die. Th e Babylonian Diagnostic Hand-
book lists all symptoms from head to foot, in the following
case also referring to symptoms associated with the urinary
tract: “[If] his [urine] is red, it is the hand of his god, (his
disease) will be prolonged;... [If] his [urine] is black, he is
aff ected by the fatal disease, he will die;... [If] his urine is
continually blocked up, he will die; if his urine keeps fl owing,
[he will die].”
Th e question oft en asked is whether any part of Babylo-
nian medicine was actually eff ective. Did it work? Hundreds
of drugs are cited in Babylonian medical recipes, in addition
to long lists of plants and minerals used for medicinal pur-
poses, oft en with descriptions of the drugs and the diseases
for which they could be used. We have no idea, however, how
such data was compiled, since there were no such things as
clinical trials. How would ancient physicians know which
plants were eff ective against which diseases? In the absence
of any information, we can surmise that plants were identi-
fi ed over a very long period, perhaps going back to Neolithic
times, and the use of such plants was determined by the hit-
or-miss means of trying something to see what happens and
then keeping careful records of the results. Th e crucial point
was to remember, later on, if the drug seemed to work.
We have little evidence of surgery, since almost all
medical texts deal with pharmacological preparations ad-
ministered as potions, salves, ointments, fumigations, or
suppositories or as drugs blown into the urethra or ears
through bronze tubes. Surgery would have been dangerous
without either proper antiseptics or anesthesia. Nor is there
any evidence of bloodletting, an ancient remedy used in other
cultures. For this reason, the Babylonian physician probably
caused less harm to his patient than his colleagues in later
medieval Europe.ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY JUSTIN CORFIELD
In India the system of medicine using professional healers
dates to at least 2000 b.c.e. and probably developed in China
at about the same time. Th e earliest Indian literature, the Rig-
Veda, mentions herbal and other remedies. It also accredits
the divine twin gods known as the Asvins (“horsemen”) with
the power to heal the sick. Gradually the role of doctors came
to be offi cially recognized.
Medical concepts appear in the Indian Vedas, dating
back to the second millennium b.c.e. As early as 800 b.c.e.,
when many of these ideas were written down, treatments were
listed for various diseases, along with “charms” that served to
expel demons from the body—an early interpretation of the
root of diseases. One writer attributes the origin of Indian
medicine to the god Brahma, who gave the ideas to Dhanvan-
tari, later deifi ed as the god of medicine.
King Asoka, ruler of the Maurya Dynasty of eastern In-
dia, is reported to have founded some 18 hospitals through-
out his kingdom in about 230 b.c.e. An inscription notes that
Asoka “established gardens and hospitals for man and beast,”
suggesting that there were also veterinary clinics. Certainly,
medical care in India was well advanced, and many medi-
cal treatises were published, including two attributed, re-
spectively, to a physician called Caraka and a surgeon called
Suśruta. Th e former treatise dates to the fi rst century c.e.
and the latter, in its present form, to the seventh century c.e.,
though parts of it are undoubtedly much older.
One of the major problems with Indian medicine was
that Hindus were prevented by their religion from conduct-
ing surgery on dead bodies. Th is meant that they had a weak
knowledge of internal organs, believing that bodies werehealth and disease: Asia and the Pacific 549