A History of the Medicines We Take gives a lively account of the development of medicines from traces of herbs found with the remains of Neanderthal man, to prescriptions written on clay tablets from Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC, to pure drugs extracted from plants in the nineteenth century to the latest biotechnology antibody products. The first ten chapters of the book in PART ONE give an account of the development of the active drugs from herbs used in early medicine, many of which are still in use, to the synthetic chemical drugs and modern biotechnology products. The remaining eight chapters in PART TWO tell the story of the developments in the preparations that patients take and their inventors, such as Christopher Wren, who gave the first intravenous injection in 1656, and William Brockedon who invented the tablet in 1843. The book traces the changes in patterns of prescribing from simple dosage forms, such as liquid mixtures, pills, ointments, lotions, poultices, powders for treating wounds, inhalations, eye drops, enemas, pessaries and suppositories mentioned in the Egyptian Ebers papyrus of 1550 BCE to the complex tablets, injections and inhalers in current use. Today nearly three-quarters of medicines dispensed to patients are tablets and capsules. A typical pharmacy now dispenses about as many prescriptions in a working day as a mid-nineteenth- century chemist did in a whole year.

The third edition of this magisterial account of medicine in the Greek and Roman worlds, written by the foremost expert on the subject, has been updated to incorporate the many new discoveries made in the field over the past decade. This revised volume includes discussions of several new or forgotten works by Galen and his contemporaries, as well as of new archaeological material. RNA analysis has expanded our understanding of disease in the ancient world; the book explores the consequences of this for sufferers, for example in creating disability. Nutton also expands upon the treatment of pre-Galenic medicine in Greece and Rome. In addition, subtitles and a chronology will make for easier student consultation, and the bibliography is substantially revised and updated, providing avenues for future student research. This third edition of Ancient Medicine will remain the definitive textbook on the subject for students of medicine in the classical world, and the history of medicine and science more broadly, with much to interest scholars in the field as well.

This volume highlights the people and scientific developments in military medicine through the ages, concentrating on medical advances that changed both warfare and societies at home. Thanks to advances in field medicine and improved mobility and efficiency of medical units, the death rate of soldiers injured during battle has dramatically declined in the last 100 years. Nowadays, with forward medical stations operating close to battle lines and medical transports (ground and air) at hand, injured soldiers survive their battle wounds. Military Medicine: From Ancient Times to the 21st Century provides expert coverage of the key role medical advances and practices have played in the evolution of warfare, and how many of those advances and practices have been put to work saving and improving civilian lives as well. Military Medicine surveys the development of military medicine from its prehistoric origins through modern threats and practice. That coverage is followed by over 200 of alphabetically organized entries with special emphasis placed on those areas with the most dramatic applications to civilian medicine, including triage and trauma management, treatment for infections, emergency surgical procedures, and more.

Describes medical techniques such as brain surgery, splints, taking a pulse, forceps, and sanitation in ancient civilizations including the Stone Age, Egypt, Greece, China, India, and Rome.

Time and Ancient Medicine is the first monograph to explore, on the one hand, how the introduction of new timekeeping technologies (namely, sundials and water clocks) affected the practice, rhetoric, and philosophy of ancient medicine and, on the other hand, how medical timekeeping practices affected engagement with time elsewhere in society. The study seeks, first, to offer a chronological narrative of how timekeeping technologies and medical practices evolved and influenced one another in ancient Greece and Rome, with consideration of relevant Pharaonic Egyptian and Assyro-Babylonian precedents. Kassandra J. Miller turns to a series of case studies, drawn from the Roman Imperial period, to investigate thematic questions, asking how debates over medical timekeeping interacted with debates over proper scientific methodology, the status of medicine as a formal art, and the relationships between medicine and other disciplines like mathematics, astronomy, and astrology. Throughout, this study places epigraphic, artistic, and other material evidence for hourly timekeeping in dialogue with selections from medical literature, some of which has not previously been published in modern-language translation. Ultimately, this study reveals that time and timekeeping played fundamental roles in ancient medical debates and practices and challenges the traditional narrative that the social history of "clock time" only begins with the invention of the mechanical clock in the Medieval period. It offers new insights into the specific ways that physicians of the ancient Mediterranean engaged with their evolving temporal landscapes and raises questions about the relationships between time and medicine in the modern day.