Medical Development in Ancient Rome

In ancient Rome, health was a very important matter. The government built bath houses and water pipes to provide clean water in significant places and encourage the community to take care of their clean. However, the Romans did not fully understand the involvement of germs in disease. 

Some Ancient Roman herbs used in medicine were:

Fennel: It was thought to have calming properties.

Elecampane: Used to help with digestion.

Sage: Although it had little medicinal value, it had great religious value.

Garlic: Beneficial for health, particularly of the heart.

Fenugreek: Used in the treatment of pneumonia.

Silphium: Used for a wide variety of ailments and conditions—especially for birth control.

Willow: Is used as an antiseptic

Hippocrates (c. 460 BC – c. 370 BC) : The famous figure in the history of medicine perhaps, "the father of medicine", was Hippocrates. He described many diseases and medical conditions like lung cancer and cyanotic heart disease.Hippocrates began to categorize illnesses as acute, chronic, endemic and epidemic, and use terms such as, "exacerbation, relapse, resolution, crisis, paroxysm, peak, and convalescence. He is credited with being the first person to believe that diseases were caused naturally, not because of superstition and gods.

Medical Art: Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo born in 1907 in Mexico. When she was 18 years-old she was riding in a bus that collided with a trolley car. She suffered serious injuries as a result of the accident, including a broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken pelvis, eleven fractures in her right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot and a dislocated shoulder. Also, an iron handrail pierced her abdomen and her uterus, compromising her reproductive capacity.The accident left her in a great deal of pain while she spent three months recovering in a full body cast. Although she recovered from her injuries and eventually regained her ability to walk, she had relapses of extreme pain for the remainder of her life.

Her mother built a special easel for her to make paintings while she was lying all the time to recover. After the accident, Kahlo abandoned the study of medicine to begin a painting career. She painted to occupy her time during her temporary immobilization. Her self-portraits were a dominant part of her life when she was immobile.

Frida Kahlo was subjected to funnel feeding during her ongoing medical treatments. She translated her personal experience into a small, bleak painting, Without Hope. In the painting, the feeding funnel is overflowing with bloody carcasses that dwarf the tiny, bedridden Kahlo. 

Medical Development in Ancient Egypt

It is believed that the first medical treatments developed in Ancient Egypt. Medical information in the Edwin Smith Papyrus may date to a time as early as 3000 BC. According to Heredotus the practice of medicine is so specialized among them that each physician is a healer of one disease and no more. The Egyptians introduced the concepts of diagnosis and medical examination. They studied about human anatomy as a result of their believings to second life. To prepare of mummified bodies, different types of natural herbs were used. They also developed the first medical tools to separate the organs from dead body to prepare the mummy.

Thomas Mann and The Magic Mountain

Thomas Mann was a German novelist born in 1875. He known for his intelligent human observations in his novels as analysis of insight psychology with symbolic and ironic plots. Mann attended the science division of a Lübeck Gymnasium, then spent time at the Ludwig Maximillianus University of Munich and Technical University of Munich where, in preparation for a journalism career, he studied history, economics, art history and literature. His career as a writer began when he wrote for Simplicissimus. Mann's first short story, "Little Mr Friedemann" (Der Kleine Herr Friedemann), was published in 1898.

The Magic Mountain is first published in November 1924. The main character in the book is Hans Castorp, the only child of a Hamburg merchant family who, following the early death of his parents and raised by relatives. Just before beginning this professional career Castorp undertakes a journey to visit his tubercular cousin, Joachim Ziemssen, who is seeking a cure in a sanatorium in Davos, high up in the Swiss Alpes. Hans Castorp’s stay in The Magic Mountain provides him with a panoramic view of pre-war European civilization and process of medical institutionalization. Mann debates the philosophy of life and death and being ill in the novel.

Introduction

Welcome to my blog!
This personal blog is created for the lesson "Storia della Tecnologia" by Vittorio Marchis at Politecnico di Torino. I choose the book "The Magic Mountain" by Thomas Mann to analyse and share the relation between medicine and technology. I will consider other topics such as art, history and litetature to make a link between medical technologies.