Week 3: Medical Practice

Question 1

Equivalent of hospitals in Ancient Greece

Answer 1

Asclepeia (Temples of Asclepios)

Question 2

What services were provided in an Asclepeia?

Answer 2

a) Rational medicine
b) Faith-based healing

Question 3

What could you find in an Asclepia?

Answer 3

a) Amenities: Theaters / Shops
b) Group of practitioners / Senior physician attending the sick with the help of assistants
Note: No midwives

Question 4

Where did midwives and women obgyn practice?

Answer 4

Patients at home

Question 5

What happened in most of Greek cities?

Answer 5

Public physicians were paid by the state to offer free health care to those who needed it

Question 6

The appointment of a physician varied in Greek cities. How did it work in Athens?

Answer 6

Elected like other magistrates (e.g., generals or treasurers) where competence and honesty were of paramount importance.

Question 7

What were the requirements for designating a public physician in Athens?

Answer 7

a) No need to be Athenian citizen
b) Have a reputation as amazing doctor

Question 8

How much was a public physician paid?

Answer 8

Substantial amount

Question 9

Where did private physicians assist patients during Ancient Greece?

Answer 9

a) Traveling and visiting their patients in their homes
b) Setting up practice, so the patients went to them

Question 10

Common roles of private physicians (2)

Answer 10

a) Pharmacist: Operation of profitable pharmacies, selling concoctions
b) Witness: Appearance in court to testify on behalf of a patient

Question 11

Training of midwives

Answer 11

Skilled in a number of gynecological issues
Trained in medicine

Question 12

Role of midwives

Answer 12

a) Attending women during pregnacy/childbirth
b) Examining patient as an intermediary

Question 13

When are male doctors called?

Answer 13

Arousal of serious, systematic complications

Question 14

Example of traditional folk treatment directed at women

Answer 14

Plant should never cross an empty stock, causing a miscarriage

Question 15

External appearance of the ideal physician (4)

Answer 15

a) Proportionate size
b) Healthy appearance
c) Neat dress
d) No perfumes (Suspect of mischief)

Question 16

Moral qualities of the ideal physician (5)

Answer 16

a) Prudence
b) Clean lifestyle
c) Good manners / modesty
d) Circumspection / humanity
e) Rarely hasty

Question 17

Manners of the ideal physician (5)

Answer 17

a) Gravitas, but not austerity
b) No pride / misanthropy
c) No silly hilarity
d) Just / Guarded

Question 18

Ideal doctor’s practice (5)

Answer 18

a) Careful choice of a teacher
b) Moderately lit and north-facing
c) Comfortable but not ostentatious furnishing
d) Well-supplied with clean water
e) Good functionality, but not luxury for instruments

Question 19

Who was Erasistratos?

Answer 19

Famous anatomist, well-known for being the first in conducting human dissections and diagnosing love sickness of Antiochus (stepmother)

Question 20

What tools were necessary for the medical practice in Ancient Greece?

Answer 20

a) Several knives of various sizes
b) Clean soft towels (Wool / Linnen)
c) Bandages/Poultices/Cataplasms (Oath)
d) Cups (Humours)
e) Instruments for bleeding
f) Alcohol for disinfection
g) Hellebore as analgesic
h) Compresses

Question 21

How were tumors and ulcers treated in Ancient Greece?

Answer 21

1) Priority: Natural dissolution in the body
2) Last resource: Removal with surgical intervention

Question 22

What was special about Army medicine?

Answer 22

Treatment of battle wounds with a high severity and peculiarity

Question 23

What was Galen’s physician-philosopher ideal?

Answer 23

Moderation
Justice
Cleanliness
Appreciation of all the wants of life
Opposition to fraud and superstition
Due consideration of divine power

Question 24

What was ancient greek medicine founded on? What would happen if it is based on self-opinion?

Answer 24

a) Facts and rational processes (Knowledge)
b) Criminal and injurious to the sick

Question 25

How does the physician who disregards God look like?

Answer 25

Someone that has excessive faith in his own Omnipotence

Question 26

General expectations of the ideal physician

Answer 26

a) Urbanity b) Modesty c) Preparedness d) Have an advanced student that was carefully selected

Question 27

Why should a physician do all this?

Answer 27

Mainly due to reputation rather than external regulation by authorities a) There is no regulatory body of medical practice in some cities, so in those that existed would typically correct only excessive violations. b) His image determined the size of his clientele and his success

Question 28

Prognosis in the Hippocratic Corpus

Answer 28

Accurate prediction by understanding important indicators and drawing sober conclusions from them to control disease and modify treatment

Question 29

Topics discussed on Joints / Fractures

Answer 29

a) How to set simple fractures b) How to reduce dislocation c) Apply bandages and poultices

Question 30

Topics discussed Of the Physician

Answer 30

What a physician ought to be

Question 31

ABC of medicine

Answer 31

a) The medicines and their virtues, b) The various forms of diseases and accompanying symptoms.

Question 32

Why is warfare more important to the Ancient Physician?

Answer 32

Opportunity to study the human body

Question 33

Aristotle thought that the human heart had only one ventricle because he investigated

Answer 33

the heart of a frog

Question 34

In modern medical training, as in the ancient world, the primary method of learning is

Answer 34

on the job training

Question 35

Because of the lack of a licensing system, in order to be trusted physicians relied on

Answer 35

Reputation

Question 36

What evidence does the Hippocratic Oath suggest about medical training?

Answer 36

the existence of a guild would probably set a standard, although not universal

Question 37

Dogmatists, Methodists, and Pneumatists are

Answer 37

Different schools of thought within the medical training world

Question 38

Ancient medical training

Answer 38

Apprenticeship More organized schools offered education in their own style of medicine

Question 39

Which of the following is one of the major pitfalls of ancient medicine?

Answer 39

impossibility of performing deep surgery