Medical practitioners across the ancient world often came up
with novel remedies to heal people’s ailments – resulting in a
mix of effective prescriptions and crackpot cures
Doctor’s Orders
OLDEN ANTIDOTES
Text Lim Jun Xi
reflections
Apothecaries in medieval
Europe often concocted strange
medicines using odd ingredients
to heal various ailments. A
skin infection treatment might
consist of fermented crushed
onions, garlic, bull’s gall, and
wine, while complaints of a
bloated stomach might be met
with a mixture of wine, cumin,
and anise. Surprisingly, some
of these creations actually
worked – thanks to the
antibiotic or disinfecting
properties of their ingredients.
The ancient Greeks believed
that sickness was caused by
excess blood in the body.
As a cure, doctors would cut
different parts of the body and
drain out a specific volume
of blood to tackle different
illnesses. The technique was
used throughout the Western
world until around 1890, and
even today, bloodletting is still
used to improve conditions
like hemochromatosis by
getting rid of the excess iron
in the blood.The ancient Egyptians were
thought to have pioneered
the use of non-poisonous
leeches in medicine, but the
practice was widespread
across Ancient Greece
and Ancient Rome to cure
anything from headaches to
grievous wounds. Physicians
collected the leeches during
the rainy season, when they
were abundant, kept them
in jars of fresh water, and
fed them powdered dried
fish or frogs.This cure for mental disorders
was invented by a Portuguese
neurologist, António Egas
Moniz, in 1935, and became
wildly popular in Europe and
America during the 1940s.
Also known as lobotomy, it
involved removing the front
portion of a patient’s brain,
and apparently improved
their condition! In reality,
the procedure often resulted
in serious impairments or
death, and thankfully, it was
abandoned by the 1970s.Apothecary Medicines Bloodletting Hirudotherapy Leucotomy
5th century Bce 5th century Bce 16th century Bce 20th century
Apothecary MedicinesBloodlettingHirudotherapyLeucotomyDATA SOURCES: BRITISH SCIENCE MUSEUM, SCIENCE BASED MEDICINE, CHINESE MEDICINE LIVING
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