China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Materia medica
Published in Michael Stolberg, Gabrielle Falloppia, 1522/23–1562, 2023
The move toward an empirical assessment of drug effects went hand in hand with and was promoted by a marked shift in the theoretical foundations of learned pharmacology. Plants and other medicinal substances continued to be classified according to their primary qualities – warm, cold, moist, and dry – and their secondary qualities – such as relaxing, softening, and adstringent – that were believed to derive from them. The deadly effects of opium, for example, were traditionally attributed to its intense cold, which overcame the vital heat. This was also Falloppia’s implicit explanation for the survival of the man with a paroxysm of quartan fever. However, even the most orthodox Galenist physicians among Falloppia’s contemporaries accepted that certain medicines and poisons worked by some hidden, supralementary quality. Especially the powers of substances, minuscule quantities of which had strong or indeed deadly effects on the human body, could only be explained in this way, the poison of plague and the French disease, for example, as that of snakes and scorpions. In this sense, Falloppia, like other physicians of his time, attributed the effects of “specific” medicines, like the so-called lemnic earth, and of poisons, including poisonous disease matter, to an occult property, to their “propria natura”, or, with a term that already played an important role in Galen’s work, to their “tota substantia”.84
The impossible ideal of moderation
Published in James Kennaway, Rina Knoeff, Lifestyle and Medicine in the Enlightenment, 2020
Galen described the effects of age in terms of a metaphor that Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Cicero had employed, likening life to a lamp that used up its fuel over time. When the light and heat were spent, the lamp went out: the subject died. But either surfeit or deprivation could lead to the same effects: too much fuel – food and drink – would drown the lamp and cause it to go out, while using up the fuel too rapidly would also extinguish the light. Continuing the lamp metaphor, Hippocrates and Galen argued that the human body naturally grew colder with age, so that it required less “fuel” over time. Vital heat, in comparison to the drying heat of fevers, was moist; thus its decrease over time was also a drying process. Cornaro and Lessius both referred to the lamp metaphor (Niebyl, 1971a). What would be considered a moderate diet and therefore an orderly life changed over course of the lifespan, as did the composition of that diet, tending towards warm, moist foods: thus the restriction on fruit, which was considered cold in the humoral scheme. Cornaro implied that towards the end of life one might eat next to nothing, and this too would be in keeping with the natural order of things (1634, p. 45).
Chinese Herbal Prescribing
Published in W. John Diamond, The Clinical Practice of Complementary, Alternative, and Western Medicine, 2017
Each herb has several therapeutic actions and may be used for one or for many of its individual actions in combination with other herbs used for their action or actions. The following is an explanation of all the descriptive herbal actions. Ascending: Causes energy or Qi to move to the top of the body. Used in prolapses and hemorrhoids, equivalent to using the acupuncture point GV-20.Descending: Causes activity to move downwards in the body, such as diuretics, purgatives, and Lung herbs. Also good for rising Rebellious Qi.Channel Opening: Moves energy through the channels to expel substance lodged in the channels, such as Phlegm and Wind-Damp.Invigorates Blood: Helps the circulation and nourishment of Blood in symptoms such as menstrual problems and fixed pain.Sedates: Good for sleep and anxiety with disturbance of the Shen. These are all cold, heavy minerals or resins.Drying: Is able to dry and resolve moisture and Dampness.Moisturizes: Adds to the moisture of the body such as in Yin and Blood tonics.Breaks up Blocks: Used in Qi stagnation, blockage in pain, etc.Normalizes Flow: Moves Qi in the correct direction. Seen in vomiting, nausea, flatulence, and all Rebellious Qi.Yang Tonics: Tonifies the Yang and vital Heat of the body.Yin Tonics: Moisturize and cool the body.Moving and Draining Dampness: All the diuretics.Astringing: Consolidates Qi and fluids of the body and stops excessive perspiration, bleeding, and incontinence.
The medieval cell doctrine: Foundations, development, evolution, and graphic representations in printed books from 1490 to 1630
Published in Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 2022
Aristotle did perform dissections and conducted pioneering embryological studies (inter alia, examining and dissecting the embryos of chickens at different stages of development), but his dissections of the brain were relatively primitive compared with those he performed on other organs (e.g., the heart). Aristotle ascribed the common sense or sensorium to the heart, because the heart is centrally located within the body, large blood vessels arise from it, and it is the first evident organ to develop during embryogenesis, whereas the brain is peripherally located, appears relatively avascular, and develops late during embryogenesis (Rocca 2003). Aristotle speculated that the action of vital heat on the blood in the heart generates a connate pneuma, which helps to distribute the vital heat to the body, while the connate pneuma serves as the medium for the transmission of sensation.