Restoration
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Chapter I Hippocrates — Not The Father Of
Medicine By what authority do historians
give This question may come as a
surprise. Most early men of learning
taught that ALL civilization began with a single people: the
ancient Greeks. Until the
Twentieth Century, few students of medical origins have thought to question
seriously this commonly accepted
theory! In spite of advanced knowledge
of discovery, it continues to be generally
conceded that competent, modern medical procedures had their earliest
beginnings in Revolutionary Discovery Through exhaustive studies of
ancient civilizations — those of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, and Latin
America — historians in the late 1800s gradually began to understand a most
revolutionary fact: CIVILIZATION DID NOT BEGIN WITH GREECE, but with other,
more ancient nations! This was an
unexpected bolt that smashed many a cherished hypothesis. What would this discovery mean to the
accepted treatment of Medical History?
Would a simple alteration be sufficient — or was a new structure necessary? Only time and further investigation would
tell. As important as this
revolutionary new view of the origins of our present civilization was to
general history, it did not, and alone, could not, alter the already assumed historical traditions about the origin
of medicine. Serious work had yet to
be done in the field of ancient
medicine before the confusion could be unraveled. And the problems to unravel were
many! In the first place, artifacts of the most ancient medical
practice were destined to remain buried under the debris of bygone
civilizations until this century.
Gradually, certain material destined to alter present tradition was
discovered. The first records to receive
serious attention came in the form of Egyptian
papyri. The papyri form the basis
of the secular literary record of
medicine from the most ancient Clearly, the importance of these documents initially was not understood! In the case of some papyri, it was not even
recorded how, or exactly when, authorities came to be in possession of
them. It is important to note,
however, that from the available records there is no indication any medical
papyri were discovered prior to 1800! Of this group, the Ebers Papyrus is perhaps the most important
discovery to date. Discovered in 1862,
its importance continued unnoticed for another 11 years until purchased in
1873 by Georg Ebers, a
nineteenth-century German professor.
After reading but the first few lines, he immediately grasped its
significance! Here was an important
book about early medical practice! For
the introductory phrase stated: “Here
begins the book on the preparation of medicine for all parts of the human
body” (see Ebbell, The Papyrus Ebers: The Greatest Egyptian
Medical Document). This was a medical textbook full of many unintelligible words — but
obviously containing many prescriptions. In addition to the medical text, there were
calendar calculations, which dated
the contents to at least the 1500s B.C. Immediately Eber’s
mind recalled the words of Flavius Clemens, a professor in In spite of Eber’s
personal interest in this manuscript, the first attempt at translation took
place over fifteen years later in 1890.
This translation was weak and incomplete, but confirmed Eber’s contention that it was an important medical treatise! However, once fully into the translation,
it proved not to be a Hermetic book, but rather an XVIII Dynasty “copy of a series of books many
centuries older” (Singer, Science,
Medicine and History, p. 49). Suddenly, after many centuries
of mystery and doubt, a significant medical practice in ancient However, it was not until 1930
when Professor J. H. Breasted of The Smith Papyrus was adequately translated by 1930, but it was not
until 1937 that a Danish Egyptologist, Bendix Ebbell, finally rendered a satisfactory translation of
the Ebers Papyrus. Even Ebbell’s
work was to be improved by a team of Germans in 1957 (see Thorwald,
Science and Secrets of Early Medicine,
p. 59). As noted above, the facts of
ancient medical history have laid buried until recent The world lacked an Egyptologist
with sufficient pharmaceutical knowledge to express in modern terminology
ancient chemical data. When these
qualifications
became
available, The papyri only give a limited
explanation of how disease was
treated. Paleopathology, another modern
means of determining the facts of ancient medical history, presents the
amazing picture of just which diseases
were extant to treat! In 1893 Dr.
Armand Ruffer, a French physician, arrived in It becomes obvious how recent
the significant technical research in this field has been. Actually, very little of it occurred over
forty years ago. The upshot of this
revolution in the facts of medical history is that material written on the subject prior to 1930 is incomplete at best — and virtually rendered null and
void! Any work done since 1930, which
has not fully taken into account recent discoveries, is also misleading and
incomplete. To express the full impact of ancient medical
history, ALL recently developed material must
be included! History More Than Facts History is more than the simple
recording of facts. It is essentially an interpretative
art. “The reconstruction of ancient
history is an abstracting from the
facts by means of hypothesis . .
. “ (Wright, The Biblical Archaeologist Reader, p. 19). The present abstract of
MEDICAL HISTORY is
a tragic shame. BOTH THE FACTS AND A PROPER HYPOTHESIS HAVE BEEN MISSING! Laboring under the delusion that the
ancient Egyptians were a primitive people emerging from the mists of
antiquity, it has been previously impossible for the historian to ascertain
from the simple facts of history, the significance
of ancient medicine. Ancient efforts at the control
of disease have been considered, as late as 1945, to be nothing but primitive
experiments in witchcraft — sewer
pharmacology at best! In respect to
medicine, it was assumed that
mankind had remained blind, deaf, and dumb until 300-400 B.C. — the flowering
of After all, historians mused, had
not men watched the sun rise and set for a million years before Copernicus
saw the significance of this daily phenomenon? Had not apples fallen a billion The historical method based on
this theory of evolution is the
patent HYPOTHESIS of historians: i.e., that
God or other supernatural power has never intervened in the course of
history! Twentieth-century
historians have fully accepted the theory that man, apart from and without
the supernatural, has evolved from an ancient primitive culture to a modern
advanced civilization. So, students
today are presented with a radically new
interpretation of history — a history in which God and the supernatural
are summarily rejected! This is
particularly applicable to the treatment of Medical history. Every effort is made to separate “scientific”
medicine from what is depicted to be a sort of witchcraft which flourished
millennia ago. What many do not Let a modern exponent of this
new approach explain it: “. . . the
modern study of history . . . does not
take into account any intervention of God or of the devil or of demons in
the course of history . . .” (Bultman, Jesus Christ and Mythology, p. 17). This assumption has never been
proved. It remains only a hypothesis! Nevertheless, “students in particular — and the public in general — have been led to believe that archaeologists,
historians, scientists, and theologians live with full assurance and in
absolute conviction that this new
interpretation of history without God is correct” (Hoeh,
Compendium of World History, p. 2). The application of this premise
to medical history is a fatal
blow! Without considering God, the
Bible and the supernatural, it is impossible to come to an intelligent
understanding concerning the origin of this practice, and the importance of
its history to mankind! Yet, we are
“taught to reject everything supernatural from history texts — even when evidence of the intervention of
God [or the supernatural] is
recorded by eyewitnesses in ancient secular records” (Hoeh,
Compendium of World History, p.
12). This unscientific approach to
history is the universally accepted method of study. Since supernatural occurrences in history
cannot be scientifically tested today, they are rejected as myth.
Any statement referring to supernatural intervention is assumed to be
mythological, therefore worthless! Anyone seriously asserting such
intervention “must be regarded as ignorant, superstitious, the victim of
hallucination or some other form of mental aberration” (Hockett,
The Critical Method in Historical
Research and Writing, p. 62). No one wants to be
ridiculed. As a result, the ancient
records, which substantiate, in this case, the truth of medical history and
the record of the Bible have been rejected as fabulous or mythological. There has been no true respect
for the history of the Bible and for accurate [ancient] secular annals. This
suppression of part of the truth is the primary reason the world has never
learned the lessons of history (Hoeh,
Compendium of World History, pp.
5,16). Antiquity of Medicine The charge that ancient medicine
prior to Hippocrates either originated with, or was limited to, meaningless
mystic incantations of a superstitious people is false! The exposure of this myth is overdue! It
is time to learn the lessons that lie hidden in the ruins of ancient
civilizations. Hippocrates was not the father of Medicine! Furthermore, HE
KNEW IT! Notice the Hippocratic Oath
to which Hippocrates, himself, reputedly ascribed: “I [Hippocrates] swear by
Apollo Physician, by Ascalepius, by Hygieia, by Panacea,
and by all the gods and goddesses,
making them witness . . .” (Marti-Ibanez, The
Epic of Medicine, p. 65).
Hippocrates swore allegiance to earlier
practitioners of the healing art. He
knew full well that the practice of medicine did not begin with him. In fact, altogether too much
importance is placed on Hippocrates.
He is a ghost of history, a semi-fictitious character of ancient “If so little is actually known
of Hippocrates, how does it happen that
we credit so much to him” (Haggard, The
DOCTOR in History, p. 67). This is
a valid question for which there is no satisfactory answer! Another author writes: “We know little of his life — even less than we know of Christ’s youth —
YET Hippocrates of Cos has passed into History
as the Father of Medicine. Like . . .
Socrates, HIPPOCRATES NEVER WROTE A WORD . . .” (Marti-Ibanez, The Epic of Medicine, p. 49). The assertion that Hippocrates
is the Father of Medicine is indeed more tradition than fact. The truth is that “modern” medical practice
long antedates his era! By 500 B.C., medicine had passed
its ancient apex and had degenerated
greatly from previous heights of worldwide acclaim. “The decadence of the arts and sciences
[from the time of the earliest Egyptian dynasties] was accompanied by a deterioration of medicine also. Even though the new conquerors tried to
preserve the ancient traditions, and even though later, in the period of the Ptolemies [3rd century B.C.], there are found traces in medical practice
of these ancient traditions, nevertheless, EGYPTIAN MEDICINE DETERIORATED and
beca Writing on the same subject,
another author comments, “Only near the end did the latter [empirico-rational medicine] veer toward magic”
(Marti-Ibanez, The Epic of Medicine,
p. 38). Recently discoveries have begun
to reveal how advanced ancient Egyptian medicine actually was. “A capable
medical faculty was established in It was from this world-renowned
medical practice prior to its
deterioration, that the Greeks IMPORTED their knowledge of medicine. It is most important to remember
that the most ancient scientific documents are MEDICAL and mathematical . . .
there existed a scientific tradition
that was already old when This explains the inferiority of
the texts — including their bent toward witchcraft and superstition, which is
evidenced in all nations from about 800 B.C. Until recently, the high degree
of development which medicine had reached over 4000 years ago,
was never remotely suspected! Had it
been known, virtually all medical knowledge up to the accidental discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928, would have been put to shame (see Ratcliff, Yellow Magic, pp. 3-25)! In 1928
chemotherapy was in disrepute. As many
books had been written against the
use of drugs to cure disease as had been written in favor of it. However, in the wake of the
discovery of penicillin, there followed a veritable stampede to find new
drugs to fight disease. The field of
chemotherapy was suddenly wide open!
Cure with chemicals became the great hope of man’s endless war against
disease. Research men in every country
were hot on the trail of substances, which would destroy bacteria. It seemed penicillin was the destroyer
researchers had been seeking since the discovery of microbes. With this discovery, today’s physician now
possessed, for the first time, an
effective means to combat the spread of bacteria. The AGE of the ANTIBIOTOC was born — the cornerstone of modern drug therapy! As astoundingly revolutionary as
the discovery of antibiotics seemed in 1928, this principle of today’s drug therapy was not new! The operational principle of antibiotics
was common knowledge among physicians 4000 years ago! Furthermore, history records
that ancient physicians used the drugs with greater accuracy than do their medical counterparts today. Astounding, but this will be proved true in
Chapter IV! The words of Solomon, in whose day this medical practice yet
flourished, certainly rings true:
“The thing that hath been, IT IS THAT WHICH SHALL BE; and that which is done is that which shall
be done: and there is no new thing under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). No, Hippocrates was not the Father of Medicine. The origin of medicine occurred in |
