History of pharmaceutical culture

Author: Carl Degler
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: This book outlines the development of the global pharmaceutical industry, medical concepts, medical technology inventions, and creations from ancient times to the present. Through engaging stories, comics, and fairy tales, it portrays vivid images of various medical pioneers, records the history of shamans, clergy doctors, and itinerant healers, introduces the origins and development of surgery, anatomy, ophthalmology, and obstetrics, and describes the various inventions and creations in medical science and technology. It reflects the influence and promotion of medical science on cultural development during the long process of accumulating medical experience. If we set aside the Eastern Chinese medicine, which accounts for only a few hundred words, this can be said to be a comprehensive historical work. It begins before medicine emerged as a science and traces the development and progress of medicine from ancient Greece to the Middle Ages and into the modern era, including internal and external medicine, physiological anatomy, microbiology, psychiatry, pharmacology, nursing, and anesthesia, as well as doctors and the history of medicine in these chapters. Throughout, the author pays close attention to the cultural context. Beyond palpation and auscultation, the discovery of blood circulation and the death of Servetus, there are ancient medical practices from mythological epics, Socrates drinking poison, Caesar's caesarean section, quack doctors in the Faustian style, the zodiac and bloodletting, human anatomy and painting, the Peruvian bark and the for malaria, the South American Indian "curare" and anesthesia, and the mysterious collection ritual of datura. Especially noteworthy is the journey from selling corpses for anatomists to murder, leading to the establishment of anatomical laws, from the worship of blood to modern blood transfusion, from treating diseases with natural magnets to hypnosis, to the invention of modern anesthesia, and even the doctors depicted by the French playwright Molière, medical satirical cartoons by cartoonists, and the portrayal of doctors in fairy tales. Not only is it highly narrative, but it is also deeply imbued with cultural richness. What makes it particularly interesting is that each section is accompanied by two or three illustrations, providing readers with a visual understanding of the content. These illustrations are all selected from historical works, not only being classic and precious but also many of them are masterpieces by renowned artists, offering high aesthetic value.