by Michael Shea, MD
Historical Perspective:
The Long and Winding Road In ancient times, disease was believed to be a curse of the Gods. If they favored you, you were healthy. If you were sick, you had done something to displease them. In 460 BC, a man named Hippocrates was born. He had different ideas on the cause and treatment of diseases. He believed that disease might be transported by something in the air or in the water. He suspected that epidemics occurred due to contaminated winds coming in contact with large masses of people. He proposed dietetics, exercise, cleanliness, and nutrition as the basis for prevention of illness. He also believed in the Four Humor Theory to explain and treat some illnesses. This theory proposes that the body functions on the proper proportion of these humors or liquids. They are blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. The correct balance between them was necessary to maintain good health. This led to the use of bloodletting and purgatives to treat the majority of illnesses. www.sccma.org
This medical model was also favored by another famous Greek physician, Aelius Galenus, born in 130 AD. The Four Humor Theory lasted well into the nineteenth century. Benjamin Rush was born on January 4, 1746 in Byberry Township, Pennsylvania. Perhaps no other physician in American history has influenced US medical practice as this man did. He was the surgeon general of his time. Dr. Rush championed the use of bloodletting and purgatives to treat most acute illnesses. He is most remembered for treating the yellow fever epidemic in 1793 with bloodletting and calomel. There was growing opposition to this approach, and by the mid to late 1800s, bloodletting was on the wane. The Bulletin | Third Quarter 2021 | 9
