Medicine in Ancient Rome

Medicine in ancient Rome combined various techniques using different tools and rituals. Ancient Roman medicine included a number of specializations such as internal medicine, ophthalmology and urology. The Romans favoured the prevention of diseases over the cures of them; unlike in Greek society where health was a personal matter, public health was encouraged by the government at the time; they built bath houses and aqueducts to pipe water to the cities. Many of the larger cities, such as Rome, boasted an advanced sewage system, the likes of which would not be seen in the Western world again until the late 17th century onward. However, the Romans did not fully understand the involvement of germs in disease.

Roman surgeons carried a tool kit which contained forceps, scalpels, catheters and arrow extractors. The tools had various uses and were boiled in hot water before each use. In surgery, surgeons used painkillers such as opium and scopolamine (from henbane) for treatments, and acetum (the acid in vinegar) was used to wash wounds.

Read more about Medicine In Ancient Rome:  Greek Influences On Roman Medicine, Surgical Instruments

Famous quotes containing the words medicine in, medicine, ancient and/or rome:

    Authority, though it err like others,
    Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,
    That skins the vice o’ the top.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    Good medicine is bitter to the taste.
    Chinese proverb.

    The ancient saying is no heresy,
    Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    I only know how this untimely lust has tossed
    flesh at the wind forever and moved my fears
    toward the intimate Rome of the myth we crossed.
    Anne Sexton (1928–1974)