Plagues, History, and the Growth of Modern Science
genwise.substack.com
An invitation from Mindy Rice to become a 'disease detective' traveling through history in this 10-hour course As long as there has been life on Earth there has been disease. And as long as human beings have lived on Earth, we have been searching for ways to prevent illness. In recent months, humanity has faced a deadly illness: Covid-19. Scientists, epidemiologists, researchers, and doctors are struggling to understand this virus and hopefully stop it in its tracks. But did you know that disease detectives have existed since the time of the Ancient Greeks? Hippocrates, often called the father of modern medicine, suggested that the environment (or as he put it: On Airs, Waters and Places) played a role in who got sick and why. Hippocrates explained that every human being was composed of four bodily humors: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. But if one of these humors was out of balance? Too much black bile or blood? Result: Disease. Another Greek philosopher, Galen wrote the book that would become the European standard until the sixteenth century. Galen studied anatomy, performed surgery, and believed in the value of observation and logic. The works of Hippocrates and Galen influenced European ideas about the causes of illness, and its cure, for centuries.
Plagues, History, and the Growth of Modern Science
Plagues, History, and the Growth of Modern…
Plagues, History, and the Growth of Modern Science
An invitation from Mindy Rice to become a 'disease detective' traveling through history in this 10-hour course As long as there has been life on Earth there has been disease. And as long as human beings have lived on Earth, we have been searching for ways to prevent illness. In recent months, humanity has faced a deadly illness: Covid-19. Scientists, epidemiologists, researchers, and doctors are struggling to understand this virus and hopefully stop it in its tracks. But did you know that disease detectives have existed since the time of the Ancient Greeks? Hippocrates, often called the father of modern medicine, suggested that the environment (or as he put it: On Airs, Waters and Places) played a role in who got sick and why. Hippocrates explained that every human being was composed of four bodily humors: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. But if one of these humors was out of balance? Too much black bile or blood? Result: Disease. Another Greek philosopher, Galen wrote the book that would become the European standard until the sixteenth century. Galen studied anatomy, performed surgery, and believed in the value of observation and logic. The works of Hippocrates and Galen influenced European ideas about the causes of illness, and its cure, for centuries.