Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-19


The result that the early history of medicine n
entangled with magic practices which were de-
signed to bring about welI-being. Therefore re-
Hgion and medicine, the priest and the medi-
cine man. came to be synonymous among many
peoples"
Today there are no means Of knowing from
contemporary records just what medicines pre-
historic man used but differences may be uadAm
from the remedies found In the earliest known
human records Of Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria.
because such knowledge must have been handed
down TO those people from their ancestors for
several generations.
The Egyptian medical papyri mention such
remedies as magnesia, lime, iron and soda.
inter, vermilion, peppermint fennel, thyme
cassla gentian. alOes, caTaway, castor OIL driR
mandrake, henbane, lnseed mustard ouSou
nankncense' myrrhs juniper, yeast, tTpentine.
salts OF copper and lead. The Assyriau medical
tablets add number Of other remedies. soma
Of which are in current use today. It Is be-
heved that ct least 80 per cent Of the cr,sdw
vegetable drugs In the modern pharmacopeas
we're known in remote antiquity
SUCH medical lore as the ancients had m.,st
be CLEANED from their ceremonial records.
Sor all primitive peoples believed that spirits az
some kind or other caused all disease and deash.
n is impossible. therefore. 10 separate their
medical practices from their religious rites.
Primitive surgery was science which pEinaS-
tive man developed himself. possibly as the re.
suit of accident. It may be that as some cave
man. or woman. raced through the forest .
thorn tore open an ulcer on his arm and the
throbbing pain was relieved by the inadvertene
letting Of the pus.s Thus he learned to use
thorns for that and similar purposes. At any
rate, in very early times large thorns fron
hardened branlbles and sharpened bits Of hard
wood, and later chips Of flint were used for such
purposes. About the same time the teeth Of fish
suggested themselves as knives and saws for
such operations.
The ancient Egyptians had learned the sur
gical use Of sharpened bits Of flint. Even the
Piney Branch Indians who once lived where
the District Of Columbia now Is, used the sharp
ened leaf-shaped hints, similar to those Of pre-
historic man, for minor surgical operations.
Somewhere, too. in those early ages primitive
man learned the value Of rudimentary hone.
setting. But surgery proper. as know il to-
day, is modern art, which has developed rap.
idly with the knowledge Of anesthetics anti
sepsis and means OF preventing shock
Among the first surgical instruments OF priun-
rive man were flint saws. knives, scrapers.
chisels and borers. The operations which he
undertook were finger, arm or other amputa-
tons, rude corrections of deformities ana sum
puration during the processes Of healing. There
are also indications Of caUterization and scarf
ncation. Remarkable skin was shown i'm setting
fractures. 1t was found that in the skeletons Of
10 men having fractured limbs, only three had
healed badly, q remarkable record for those
early caveman physicians.
JUST how early prehistoric man began cutting
= holes in the skulls Of his fellow men to re-
heve fractures and to let out the evil spirits
has not been determined, but, strangely enough
the practice Of tTephfning the skull was known
- prehistoric man in . great many unrelated
places on the earths surface. One shulI found
IN Peru showed that some early physician
worked feverishly In en- attempt 70 relieve
basal fracture Of tha skull be1@e death over
I0ok his patient. es-.4sS A
@s 't'' CCopsfishA EsSaB 20. 'sfast