BY DR. AMBREESH PANDEY MD(HOM) PART 1 (PSYCHIATRY) BAKSON HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE GREATER NOIDA G.B. NAGAR U.P. )

TERM USED TO DESCRIBE THE USE OF MEDICINE BEFORE THE INVENTION OF WRITING. ARCHEOLOGISTS AND ANTHROPOLOGISTS WHO STUDY PREHISTORIC MAN AND PRIMITIVE TRIBES TELL US HUMAN SOCIETIES HAVE ALWAYS HAD SPECIAL INDIVIDUAL, BOTH MAN AND WOMEN, WHO TOOK THE JOB OF HEALER AND WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR PREVENTING ILLNESS AND CURING THE SICK AND INJURED. THEY CALLED AS– SHAMAN.

THE TIMING OF THE INVENTION OF WRITING VARIES PER CULTURE AND RELIGION, THE TERM PRE HISTORIC MEDICINE ENCOMPASSES A WIDE RANGE OF TIME PERIOD AND DATES. THE STUDY OF PREHISTORIC MEDICINE RELIES HEAVILY ON ARTIFACTS AND HUMAN REMAINS, AND ON ANTHROPOLOGY.

PRE HISTORIC SOCIETIES BELIEVED IN NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL THEORY FOR CAUSE OF THE DISEASE AND FOR TREATING THE DISEASE. FOR SERIOUS AND DISABLING OR SERIOUS DISEASE, FOR WHICH THERE WAS NO RATIONAL CAUSE----- BLAME WAS PLACED ON THE SUPERNATURAL -- GODS, EVIL SPRITS, AND SORCERY.

AT THAT TIME IT WAS BELIEVED THAT EVIL SPRITS, CONJURED BY A SORCERE COULD INHIBIT A PERSONS BODY AND CAUSE ILLNESS AND THAT THESE SPRITS COULD BE REMOVED FROM THE PATIENT, THROUGH THE SKULL – BY TREPANNING AND SOME OTHER TREATMENT BY – SHAMAN– A MEDICINE MAN.

LOGIC AND REASONING WERE USED TO DEDUCE THE CAUSE OF INJURIES. INJURIES FOR WHICH THERE WAS A CLEAR CAUSE, WERE NOT BLAMED ON THE SUPERNATURAL THEORY.

IN 1991 IN THE TYROLEAN ALPS IN NORTHERN VALLY, THE DISCOVERY OF A MUMMIFIED BODY SUGGESTED THAT PREHISTORIC SOCIETIES MAY HAVE HAD GREATER KNOWLEDGE THAN HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN THOUGHT. THE BODY, THAT CAME TO KNOW AS OTZI THE ICEMAN, CONTAINED IN HIS POSSESSIONS A FUNGUS THAT SCIENTISTS FOUND COULD KILL INTERNAL PARASITES.

IN A LANCET STUDY WHICH FOLLOWED BY, DR. LUIGI CAPASSO CONCLUDED THAT…. THE DISCOVERY OF THE FUNGUS SUGGESTS THAT THE ICEMAN WAS AWARE OF HIS INTESTINAL PARASITES AND FOUGHT THEM WITH MEASURED DOSES OF PIPTOPORUS BETULINUS.

IN PREHISTORIC ERA --- THERE IS EVIDENCE THAT MANY PEOPLE SUFFERED FROM ---- OSTEOARTHRITIS, CAUSED BY THE LIFTING OF HEAVY OBJECTS WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN A DAILY AND NECESSARY TASK IN THEIR SOCIETIES. CUTS, BRUISES AND BREAKAGE OF BONES WITHOUT ANTISEPTIC FACILITIES OR KNOWLEDGE OF GERMS, WOULD BECOME VERY SERIOUS IF INFECTED.

THE TRANSPORT OF HEAVY STONES, INVOLVING HYPEREXTENSION AND TORQUE OF THE LOWER BACK, WHILE DRAGGING THE STONES, MAY HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF MICROFRACTURES IN THE SPINE AND SUBSEQUENT SPONDYLOSIS. THERE IS ALSO EVIDENCE OF RICKETS BONE DEFORMITY AND BONE WASTAGE (OSTEOMALASIA), WHICH IS CAUSED BY A LACK OF VIT. D.

LIFE EXPECTANCY WAS LOW YEARS WITH MAN LIVING LONGER THAN WOMEN IN PREHISTORIC ERA. ARCHEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF WOMEN AND BABIES FOUND TOGATHER SUGGESTS THAT MANY WOMEN WOULD HAVE DIED IN CHILDBIRTHS, PERHAPS ACCOUNTING FOR THE LOWER LIFE EXPECTTANCY IN WOMEN THAN MAN.

ANOTHER POSSIBLE EXPLANATION FOR THE SHORTER LIFE SPANS OF PREHISTORIC HUMANS MAY BE MALNUTRITION. MAN, AS HUNTERS, GENERALLY RECEIVED BETTER FOOD THAN THEIR FEMALE COUNTERPARTS, WHO WOULD SUBSEQUENTLY HAVE BEEN LESS RESISTANT TO DISEASE.

PLANT MATERIALS….. PLANT MATERIALS (HERBS AND SUBSTANCES DERIVED FROM NATURAL SOURCES), WERE AMONG THE TREATMENT FOR DISEASE IN PREHISTORIC CULTURES. THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT PLANT MATERIALS WOULD HAVE BEEN FOUND THROUGH TRIAL AND ERROR. DISPENSAL AND GATHERING OF PLANT MATERIALS WAS HANDLED BY WOMEN, WHO CARED OF THE HEALTH OF FAMILY.

SINCE PLANT MATERIAL QUICKLY ROT UNDER MOST CONDITIONS, HISTORIANS ARE UNLIKELY TO FULLY UNDERSTAND WHICH SPECIES WERE USED IN PREHISTORIC MEDICINE. AN IDEA CAN BE OBTAINED BY LOOKING AT THE CLIMATE OF THE RESPECTIVE SOCIETY AND WHICH SPECIES TO GROW THERE TODAY AND THROUGH ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDIES OF EXISTING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES. NOMADIC TRIBES HAVE HAD A GREATER VERIETY OF PLANT MATERIALS AT THEIR DISPOSAL THAN OTHER SOCIETES.

PLANT MATERIALS WERE AN IMPORTANT CURE FOR DISEASE THROUGHOUT HISTORY. THEY WOULDNOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO RECORD THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT HERBS, KNOWLEDGE OF THEM WOULD HAVE BEEN PASSED DOWN ORALLY THROUGH THE GENERATIONS. EG.. PIPTBETULINS-OPORUS --- FOUND IN ALPINE ENVIRONMENT USED AS LAXATIVE BY PREHISTORRIC PEOPLE LIVING IN (NORTHERN EUROPE) THOSE AREAS, SINCE IT IS KNOWN TO BRING ON SHORT BOUTS OF DIARRHOEA WHEN INJESTED, AND WAS FOUND AMONG THE POSSESSIONS OF MUMMIFIED MAN.

USE OF EARTH AND CLAYS IT IS THE FIRST MEDICINE. IT IS RELATED TO GEOPHAGY, WHICH IS WIDE SPREAD AMONG ANIMALS IN THE WILD AS WELL AS AMONG DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. EARLY HUMANS HAVE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE USE OF VARIOUS HEALING CLAYS BY OBSERVING ANIMAL BEHAVIOR. SUCH CLAY IS USED BOTH INTERNALLY AND EXTERNALLY, SUCH AS FOR TREATING WOUNDS AND AFTER SURGERY.

SURGERY---- TREPANNING OR TREPHINNING WAS A BASIC SURGICAL OPERATION CARRIED OUT, PREDOMINENTLY BY MEDICINE MAN, IN PRE HISTORIC SOCITIES ACROSS THE WORLD. EVIDENCE SHOWS A CONCENTRATION OF PRACTICE IN PERU.

TREPANNING : A SURGICAL PROCEDURE DONE BY USING STONE INSTRUMENT TO BORE OR GRIND HOLES IN SKULL.

TREPANNING IS USED TO CURE CERTAIN CONDITION SUCH AS ---- EPILEPSY AND HEADACHE. THESE MIGHT HAVE BEEN CONSIDERD EFFECT OF AN EVIL SPRIT TRAPPED WITH IN A PERSON. PREHISTORIC MAN LERNED HOW TO SPLINT, BUT PROBABLY NOT SET BONE FRACTURE.

ARCHEOLOGISTS IN MEHRGARH IN BALOCHISTAN(PAKISTAN) DISCOVERED THAT THE PEOPLE OF INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION FROM EARLY HARAPPAN PERIOD (3300 BC) HAD KNOWLEDGE OF DENTISTRY AND MEDICINE. RESEARCH IN THE SAME AREA FOUND EVIDNCE OF TEETH HAVING BEEN DRILLED DATING BACK 9000 YEARS.

MEDICINE MAN-- SHAMANS--- MAINTAINE THE HEALTH OF THEIR SOCIETY AND TRIBE BY GATHERING AND DISTRIBUTING HERBS, PERFORMING MINOR SURGICAL PROCEDURE PROVIDING MEDICAL ADVICE AND SUPERNATURTAL TREATMENTS SUCH AS ---- CHARMS, SPELLS, AND AMULETS TO WARD OF EVIL SPRITS.

IN APACHE SOCIETY : THE MEDICINE MAN INITIATE A CEREMONY OVER THE PATIENTS, WHICH IS ATTENDED BY FAMILY AND FRIENDS. IT CONSISTS OF MAGIC FORMULAS, PRAYERS AND DRUMMING. THE MEDICINE MAN WERE BELIEVED BY THE TRIBE TO BE ABLE TO CONTACT SPRITS OR GODS AND USE THEIR SUPERNATURAL POWER TO CURE THE PATIENTS, AND IN THE PROCESS, REMOVE EVIL SPRITS.

IF NITHER THIS METHOD NOR TREPANNING WORKED, THE SPRIT WAS CONSIDERD TOO POWERFUL TO BE DRIVEN OUT OF THE PERSON. MEDICINE MAN WOULD LIKELY HAVE BEEN CENTRAL FIGURES IN THE TRIBAL SYSTEM, BECAUSE OF THEIR MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE AND BECAUSE THEY COULD SEEMINGLY CONTACT THE GODS, THIS RELIGIOUS AND MEDICAL TRAINING WERE NECESSARILY PASSED DOWN ORALLY.

SHAMANS AND HEALERS OFTEN USED SIGNATURE OR SYMBOLIC ITEMS TO TREAT THEIR PATIENTS. THIS SIGNATURE TREATMENT INCLUDE THINGS LIKE DRINKING OF BLOOD OF A WARRIOR TO INCREASE STRENGTH. 2. EATING LEAVES SHAPED LIKE BODY ORGANS TO CURE A DISEASE.

SOMETIMES THROUGH CHANCE THESE SIGNATURE WORKS. WHEN THEY DID, THE MEDICINE MAN OR SHAMNS, WOULD PASS THE INFORMATION TO THE NEXT GANERATION OF PRISTS. DIGITALIS, MORPHINE, QUININE AND EPHEDRIN, ALL ARE MODERN MEDICINES THAT HAVE BEEN PASSED DOWN TO US FROM PREHISTORIC SIGNATURE MEDICINE.

IT WAS THE TIME OF THE INVENTION OF WRITING VARIES PER CULTURE AND RELIGION, THE TERM PRE HISTORIC MEDICINE ENCOMPASSES A WIDE RANGE OF TIME PERIOD AND DATES. PRE HISTORIC SOCIETIES BELIEVED IN NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL THEORY FOR CAUSE OF THE DISEASE AND FOR TREATING THE DISEASE. LOGIC AND REASONING WERE USED TO DEDUCE THE CAUSE OF INJURIES.

PLANT MATERIALS (HERBS AND SUBSTANCES DERIVED FROM NATURAL SOURCES), WERE AMONG THE TREATMENT FOR DISEASE IN PREHISTORIC CULTURES. EARLY HUMANS HAVE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE USE OF VARIOUS HEALING CLAYS BY OBSERVING ANIMAL BEHAVIOR. SUCH CLAY IS USED BOTH INTERNALLY AND EXTERNALLY, SUCH AS FOR TREATING WOUNDS AND AFTER SURGERY.

TREPANNING OR TREPHINNING WAS A BASIC SURGICAL OPERATION CARRIED OUT, PREDOMINENTLY BY MEDICINE MAN, IN PRE HISTORIC SOCITIES ACROSS THE WORLD. THE MEDICINE MAN WERE BELIEVED BY THE TRIBE TO BE ABLE TO CONTACT SPRITS OR GODS AND USE THEIR SUPERNATURAL POWER TO CURE THE PATIENTS, AND IN THE PROCESS, REMOVE EVIL SPRITS. SHAMANS AND HEALERS OFTEN USED SIGNATURE OR SYMBOLIC ITEMS TO TREAT THEIR PATIENTS.

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