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The Roman Empire was a complex and vigorous combination of Greek and Roman cultural elements forged through centuries of war. Later Latin authors, notably Cato and Pliny believed in a specifically Roman type of healing based on herbs, chants, prayers and charms easily available to any head of a household. It was not until the establishment and development of military and political contacts between Greece that Greek medicine made its entry into Italy. However, It was not until the introduction of the healing god Asclepius in 291 BC and the arrival of the Greek doctor Archagathus in 219 BC that foreign medicine was publicly accepted. There was a distinct line between what could be called divine healing and the physical treatments administered by a trained physician. Surprisingly, these two types of treatment did not clash with one and other and were instead both employed by various physicians to both ensure their reputations were intact and to give treatment for the soul as well as the body.

Setting aside some of the broader implications of the Greek influence on Roman society, the effect of Greek medicine, ethnography, and meteorology was particularly pertinent in two fields: architecture and health care. This was particularly important from the perspective of the Roman army. Within the scope of the Roman military, there were many medical advancements. A medical corpus was established, permanent physicians were fixed, the valetudinarium (military hospitals) were established, and in Caesars time, the first traces of systematic care for the wounded was founded; It is also important to note that the variety and nature of the surgical instruments discovered in Roman remains indicate a good knowledge of surgery.

from: Medicine in ancient Rome

Under heading medicines:

Detail the use of mother's milk (title subject to change):

Both Greek and Roman medical texts prescribe the use of a variety of substances with varying medical and religious significance. Several compounds, such as: sulfur, asphalt and animal excrement were associated with the practice of human purification. The practice of using a woman's breast milk as a medicinal substance is one that has very early roots in Egyptian texts. There are references to the use of milk of a woman that has given birth to a male child, in several Egyptian medical texts. The practice received inspiration from depictions of the goddess Isis, who is depicted in several statues, as nursing the baby Horus. There is a distinction drawn by both Egyptian and Greek texts, that the milk used for medicinal purposes be strictly from a woman who has birthed a male child. The treatments utilizing breast milk were vastly different between Greek and Roman culture. In Greek medicine, milk was very rarely actually consumed. Instead, it was used in recipes for ointments and washes that would treat burns and other skin-related maladies. These treatments were exclusively given to women, as women's bodies were viewed as "polluted" in a sense. In stark contrast, the Roman use of Colostrum was more widespread and varied. The milk for the treatment was instead ingested by the patient, and the treatment was given to both men and Women. As a whole, the Romans seemed less hung up about the so called "pollution" of a woman's body. The bodies of both men and women were viewed as analogous.

It has been shown today, that having patients ingest mother's milk (or Colostrum), was actually a rather effective treatment. Colostrum, today, has been shown to prevent the growth of Staphylococcus bacteria, which is a known cause of several infections of the body. In fact, Colostrum is about half as effective as some antibiotics that are prescribed to patients today. That's not mentioning the effectiveness of Colostrum against the bacteria Chlamydia. This bacteria is the cause of a sexually transmitted disease and also can cause severe sight impairment, if not blindness. Thus, Colostrum was a rather effective treatment in the ancient world, as it was, in a sense, ancient antibiotics. It's sheer effectiveness at treating what is known today as bacterial infections is most likely the reason it was viewed as a divine treatment.

Dreams

The interpretation of dreams was another avenue for treatment of illnesses by physicians. Many times, the interpretations of a person's dreams would actually determine what treatment they would receive from a physician. There is a Hippocratic work called Regimen, that details a great deal of the principled outlined by Galen, specifically the humors and examples of how they could be used to prescribe treatment. The theme of this method is knowing the patient. To know how to treat a person, the physician was tasked with becoming familiar with the important aspects of their lives: the climate, their food intake, how much they sleep, how much they drink, if they were injured. A physician would then interpret the information to draw conclusions about the patient and what must be done to set them back to equilibrium. The fourth book of the Regimen, is the earliest mention of the topic of dream medicine. Dreams were used by physicians in diagnostics. They added another layer of depth to the physicians investigation of the patient. Back in these times, the soul was thought to serve the purpose that the brain has been discovered to serve. Sensation, pain, motion and other physiological concepts were thought to be the work of the soul. It was also thought that the soul continues the work of bodily upkeep even when a person is sleeping. Thus, dreams would show what ailed a person.

There were two types of dreams associated with medicine: prophetic and diagnostic. Prophetic dreams were divine in origin and foretold good or bad tidings for the future. Diagnostic dreams were a result of the soul telling what afflicted the body. If a persons dreams were of normal every day happenings, it meant their body was healthy and in equilibrium. The farther from the norm, and the more chaotic they were, the more ill a person was. The treatments that were recommended addressed what the dreams showed, and attempted to set the body right through consumption of food that carried the correct humor characteristics.

Religious Methods:

When looking at the disputes between Science and Religion today, it is easy to imagine that there was similar conflict between the clergy and the medical community of the time. This is not, in fact, the case. The overall goal of a physician was to help those afflicted by disease or injury as best as they could. However, a physician's credibility rested on their actual ability to cure people. Despite the relatively advanced healthcare that the Romans could boast, they were still unable to reliably cure anything that they came across. Sometimes the only thing a physician could hope for was that they didn't make an illness worse with their treatments. Many physicians found themselves under criticism by their peers for their inability to cure what was thought to be a simple illness. Filling in the gaps were several types of supernatural healthcare. Across many different religions, there were many different gods, some dealing in destruction and some dealing in healing. Scattered across Greco-Roman and Egyptian history, there are descriptions of healing sanctuaries that were dedicated to the various healing gods. For the Greeks and Romans, the temples were to Asclepius, the god of healing. The ill would venture to these sanctuaries, as it was said that the god actually inhabited the sanctuary and would provide divine healing to suppliants. The process itself was rather simple: the sick person would give a certain type of donation to the temple, and then undergo a process that was known as "incubation" in which they would relocate to a special room where the god would be able to contact them. This contact was often held through dreams in which the god would either prescribe care or provide it themselves. Often, the type of cure prescribed would be rather similar to the actual medical practices of physicians of the time. This type of supernatural care did not conflict with mainstream healthcare. In fact, physicians would often recommend that patients go to a healing sanctuary when they were afflicted by an illness that was incurable by the physician. This also allowed for the reputation of the physician to remain unharmed, as it was seen more as a referral than a failure.

Medical Tools:

Rectal Speculum

An instrument that was mentioned by Hippocrates. It allowed physicians to examine the rectal cavity of a patient.

Bone levers

A tool used by physicians to leverage bones back into their proper place in a limb.

Cupping vessels

A container used for bloodlettting. Vessels of different sizes were used depending on how much the body part would bleed.

Tubes

After surgery, a bronze or lead tube would be inserted into the patient to prevent adhesion or contractions.

Tile Cautery

A physicians "bread and butter" tool. This instrument was used for several purposes, such as stopping bleeding, cutting flesh or removing growths.

Surgical Scissors

The act of hair cutting was actually considered a medical procedure.

Spatula Probes

A double sided instrument that was found in almost every physicians office. One end was used for mixing medications, while the other end was flat and used to spread the medications onto the patient.

Sources:

Laskaris, Julie. “Nursing Mothers in Greek and Roman Medicine.” American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 112, no. 3, 2008, pp. 459–464., www.jstor.org/stable/20627484.

HOLOWCHAK, M. ANDREW. “Interpreting Dreams for Corrective Regimen: Diagnostic Dreams in Greco-Roman Medicine.” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, vol. 56, no. 4, 2001, pp. 382–399., www.jstor.org/stable/24623949.

Leith, David. “The ‘Diatritus’ and Therapy in Graeco-Roman Medicine.” The Classical Quarterly, vol. 58, no. 2, 2008, pp. 581–600., www.jstor.org/stable/27564187.

Soranus, of Ephesus.. Soranus' gynecology. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net.ezproxy.trincoll.edu/2027/heb.04290.0001.001.

Hey Scott, You did a great job presenting the information in a neutral manner while citing sources to back up your claims. I enjoyed how the Greek's influence is mentioned in terms of medicine and culture. I think there's a lot of information presented so it might help to provide a specific time line and focus on how medicine was presented or developed during that time. Otherwise, I think it was a great article. Davidk9302 (talk) 13:21, 6 May 2017 (UTC)