Final exam 2 Flashcards
iatros
Greek word for male physician
medicus
Latin/roman word for male physician
What elements of a name indicate Greek vs Roman origin?
If one or two names or a name with Greek elements - person is Greek
If 3 full names with no Greek elements - Roman name, not a slave
Slaves will often have names given to them with a piece of their owner’s name as well as an indication of where they came from.
Ex slaves are sometimes referred to as freedmen or freedwomen - ie ex slave status
iatrine
Greek female physician
We do not know if a female physician was the same or different from being a midwife…
Don’t know if they would treat male patients
medica
Roman/latin female physician
We do not know if a female physician was the same or different from being a midwife…
Don’t know if they would treat male patients
maia
midwife in Greek
Phanostrate Funerary Stele
midwife (maia) and physician (iatros) - caused pain to non, and her death was lamented by all
They used the Greek masculin word for physician… mistake or what?
Who was Hagnodice?
Young woman who wanted to study medicine. Pretended to be a man - went to study with Herophilus (?)
-learned stuff
-woman patients trusted Hagnodice after she revealed she was a woman
- other docs were thinking she was a seducer because she was getting all of the lady patients
(they thought it was even more disgraceful that she was a woman physician that a male physician seducing the patients) - but the women patients defended her.
Law was revised so that freeborn women could now learn medicine.
obstetrix
roman word for midwife
‘the one who stands before’
Tomb of Scribonia Attica
Scribonia - obstetrix
Marcus - medicus
Scribonia depicted in front of the birthing woman
nutrix lactaria
a wet nurse that would provide milk to an infant
There was no concept of nurses at this time like the ones there are today
nutrix (assa)
dry nurse (child past the breast feeding stage)
There was no concept of nurses at this time like the ones there are today
hospes
guest houses that cared for sick and tired travellers
hospes = guest, host, stranger
where the word for hospital comes from
Roman valetudinaria
infirmiries that took care of special groups (ie. slaves, gladiators, soldiers)
- groups of people who had been invested in - want something to take care of the investments
evidence for 25 of these along the front line of the Roman Empire
- appears to be some hierarchy of medical staff
with about 5000 people at each, chances are some people would be ill at any given time - place to care for that and injuries too
FOundations of the first hospitals
closely related to the rise of Christianity
- caring for the poor and sick
Constantine - first emperor to embrace Christianity fully
due to:
- public legitimization of the church’s increasing wealth
- political manoevering by christian clerics - ie. labelling as ‘looking after the most vulernable’
-or a combination of these factors.
Constantine
first emperor to embrace Christianity fully
- thought it would bring the Roman Empire military success
xenodocheion
greek word - kind of hospital
‘reception place for strangers’
These emerged ~350 CE
mostly spread in the Eastern empire
When was there a cultural split and what was this split?
By the end of the 3rd century - 294 BCE
- largely Greek-speaking Eastern Empire (hospitals), Constantinople
- largely Latin speaking Western Empire (Rome)
Funding of hospitals?
- some endowments by wealthy idvls seeking absolution or for philanthropic reasons
-some ‘hospitals’ combined with Christian monasteries/nuneries and/or orphanages.
First evidence for something that we would recognize today as moreso being a hospital
7th century CE in the Islamic world –> Bimaristun - no relationship with religion
-staffed by medical people, wards for different genders and different ailments (ie much better job at looking after the sick now compared to monks and nuns providing minimal care like before)
Was Soranus’ Gynaeclogy work illustrated?
We do not know. Mustio’s is
This is his most famous work and its on = Gynaikeia (womens things) - incl. pregnancy, woman’s ailments, and childcare, female anatomy, role of the obstetrix and wet nurse, etc
(nutrix)
How do Soranus’ thoughts about women debunk some Hippocratic ideas?
-S says that men and women are actually not all that different, they suffer from the same diseases and are the same at a basic level (same flesh)
- S says that the womb is not an animal that moves according to scent (does NOT move around the body, although it may shift)
- S says that permanent virginity is better for a woman than intercourse, pregnancy and birth.
(the answer to womans problems in the H corpus –> marriage, sex, kids). But S also recognizes that having children is necessary to perpetuate humans.
Women in Rome vs Rome in older greek world
ROman empire womens had many more freedoms than women in the Greek world
- no voting or being politician or military
BUT
-could own and inherit property and goods
-business women, borrow and lend money at will
-bring action to court and speak on their own behalf, be a witness
-use their wealth to support political candidates, make public benefactions
- enjoy the same social life as men!
After Galen in the Eastern Part of the Roman Empire
largely greek speaking
medical encylopaedias were compiled, without really much advance or new theory
Three important compilers:
Oribasius of Pergamum
Aetius of Amida
Paul of Aegina
A number of Galen and Hippocrates’ books were compiled as labeled as the medical texts that needed to be studied as a prospective physician
