Dioscorides on Pharmacy and Medicine

Dioscorides on Pharmacy and Medicine
Author :
Publisher : University of Texas Press
Total Pages : 329
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780292729841
ISBN-13 : 0292729847
Rating : 4/5 (41 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Dioscorides on Pharmacy and Medicine by : John M. Riddle

Download or read book Dioscorides on Pharmacy and Medicine written by John M. Riddle and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 1986-01-01 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For 1,600 years Dioscorides (ca. AD 40–80) was regarded as the foremost authority on drugs. He knew mild laxatives and strong purgatives, analgesics for headaches, antiseptics for wounds, emetics to rid one of ingested poisons, chemotherapy agents for cancer treatments, and even oral contraceptives. Why, then, have his works remained obscure in recent centuries? Because of one small oversight (Dioscorides himself thought it was self-evident): he failed to describe his method for organizing drugs by their affinities. This omission led medical authorities to use his materials as a guide to pharmacy while overlooking Dioscorides' most valuable contribution—his empirically derived method for observing and classifying drugs by clinical testing. Dioscorides' De materia medica, a five-volume work, was written in the first century. Here revealed for the first time is the thesis that Dioscorides wrote more than a lengthy guide book. He wrote a great work of science. He had said that he discovered the natural order and would demonstrate it by his arrangement of drugs from plants, minerals, and animals. Until John M. Riddle's pathfinding study, no one saw the genius of his system. Botanists from the eighteenth century often attempted to find his unexplained method by identifying the sequences of his plants according to the Linnean system but, while there are certain patterns, there remained inexplicable incoherencies. However, Dioscorides' natural order as set down in De materia medica was determined by drug affinities as detected by his acute, clinical ability to observe drug reactions in and on the body. So remarkable was his ability to see relationships that, in some cases, he saw what we know to be common chemicals shared by plants of the same and related species and other natural product drugs from animal and mineral sources. Western European and Islamic medicine considered Dioscorides the foremost authority on drugs, just as Hippocrates is regarded as the Father of Medicine. They saw him point the way but only described the end of his finger, despite the fact that in the sixteenth century alone there were over one hundred books published on him. If he had explained what he thought to be self-evident, then science, especially chemistry and medicine, would almost certainly have developed differently. In this culmination of over twenty years of research, Riddle employs modern science and anthropological studies innovatively and cautiously to demonstrate the substance to Dioscorides' authority in medicine.


Dioscorides on Pharmacy and Medicine Related Books

Dioscorides on Pharmacy and Medicine
Language: en
Pages: 329
Authors: John M. Riddle
Categories: Medical
Type: BOOK - Published: 1986-01-01 - Publisher: University of Texas Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

For 1,600 years Dioscorides (ca. AD 40–80) was regarded as the foremost authority on drugs. He knew mild laxatives and strong purgatives, analgesics for heada
De Materia Medica
Language: en
Pages: 939
Authors: Pedanius Dioscorides
Categories: Botany, Medical
Type: BOOK - Published: 2000-01-01 - Publisher: Ibidis Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

De Materia Medica
Language: en
Pages: 630
Authors: Pedanius Dioscorides
Categories: Botany, Medical
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World
Language: en
Pages: 1065
Authors: Paul Turquand Keyser
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

With a focus on science in the ancient societies of Greece and Rome, including glimpses into Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China, 'The Oxford Handbook of Scienc
A Companion to Science, Technology, and Medicine in Ancient Greece and Rome, 2 Volume Set
Language: en
Pages: 1111
Authors: Georgia L. Irby
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-12-05 - Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A Companion to Science, Technology, and Medicine in Ancient Greece and Rome brings a fresh perspective to the study of these disciplines in the ancient world, w