The establishment of the calendar and the invention of writing marked the dawn of recorded history. The clues to early knowledge are scanty, consisting of clay tablets bearing cuneiform signs and seals that were used by physicians of ancient Mesopotamia. In the Louvre there is preserved a stone pillar on which is inscribed the Code of Hammurabi, who was a Babylonian king of the 18th century bc. This code includes laws relating to the practice of medicine, and the penalties for failure were severe. For example, “If the doctor, in opening an abscess, shall kill the patient, his hands shall be cut off”; if, however, the patient was a slave, the doctor was simply obliged to supply another slave.

The Greek historian Herodotus stated that every Babylonian was an amateur physician, since it was the custom to lay the sick in the street so that anyone passing by might offer advice. Divination, from the inspection of the liver of a sacrificed animal, was widely practiced to foretell the course of a disease. Little else is known regarding Babylonian medicine, and the name of not a single physician has survived.

  When the medicine of ancient Egypt is examined, the picture becomes clearer. The first physician to emerge is Imhotep, chief minister to King Djoser in the 3rd millennium bc, who designed one of the earliest pyramids, the Step Pyramid at Ṣaqqārah, and who was later regarded as the Egyptian god of medicine and identified with the Greek god Asclepius. Surer knowledge comes from the study of Egyptian papyri, especially the Ebers and Edwin Smith papyri discovered in the 19th century. The former is a list of remedies, with appropriate spells or incantations, while the latter is a surgical treatise on the treatment of wounds and other injuries.

Contrary to what might be expected, the widespread practice of embalming the dead body did not stimulate study of human anatomy. The preservation of mummies has, however, revealed some of the diseases suffered at that time, including arthritis, tuberculosis of the bone, gout, tooth decay, bladder stones, and gallstones; there is evidence too of the parasitic disease schistosomiasis, which remains a scourge still. There seems to have been no syphilis or rickets.

The search for information on ancient medicine leads naturally from the papyri of Egypt to Hebrew literature. Though the Bible contains little on the medical practices of Old Testament times, it is a mine of information on social and personal hygiene. The Jews were indeed pioneers in matters of public health.

Douglas James GuthriePhilip Rhodes

The Chinese system of medicine is of great antiquity and is independent of any recorded external influences. According to legend, Emperor Huang Ti (the Yellow Emperor) wrote the canon of internal medicine called the Nei ching in the 3rd millennium bc; but there is some evidence that in its present form it dates from no earlier than the 3rd century bc. Most of the Chinese medical literature is founded on the Nei ching, and it is still regarded as a great authority. Other famous works are the Mo ching (known in the West as the “Pulse Classic”), composed about ad 300; and the Golden Mirror, a compilation, made about ad 1700, of medical writings of the Han dynasty (202 bc–ad 220). European medicine began to obtain a footing in China early in the 19th century, but the native system is still widely practiced.

Basic to traditional Chinese medicine is the dualistic cosmic theory of the yin and the yang. The yang, the male principle, is active and light and is represented by the heavens; the yin, the female principle, is passive and dark and is represented by the earth. The human body, like matter in general, is made up of five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. With these are associated other groups of five, such as the five planets, the five conditions of the atmosphere, the five colours, and the five tones. Health, character, and the success of all political and private ventures are determined by the preponderance, at the time, of the yin or the yang; and the great aim of ancient Chinese medicine is to control their proportions in the body.

The teachings of the religious sects forbade the mutilation of the dead human body; hence traditional anatomy rests on no sure scientific foundation. One of the most important writers on anatomy, Wang Ch’ing-jen, gained his knowledge from the inspection of dog-torn children who had died in a plague epidemic in ad 1798. Traditional Chinese anatomy is based on the cosmic system, which postulates the presence of such hypothetical structures as the 12 channels and the three so-called burning spaces. The body contains five organs (heart, lungs, liver, spleen, and kidneys), which store up but do not eliminate; and five viscera (such as the stomach, intestines, gallbladder, and bladder), which eliminate but do not store up. Each organ is associated with one of the planets, colours, tones, smells, and tastes. There are 365 bones and 365 joints in the body.

According to the physiology of traditional Chinese medicine, the blood vessels contain blood and air, in proportions varying with those of the yin and the yang. These two cosmic principles circulate in the 12 channels and control the blood vessels and hence the pulse. The Nei ching says that “the blood current flows continuously in a circle and never stops. It may be compared to a circle without beginning or end.” On this insubstantial evidence it has been claimed that the Chinese anticipated Harvey’s discovery of the circulation of the blood. Traditional Chinese pathology is also dependent on the theory of the yin and the yang; this led to an elaborate classification of diseases in which most of the types listed are without scientific foundation.

In diagnosis, detailed questions are asked about the history of the illness and about such things as the patient’s taste, smell, and dreams. Conclusions are drawn from the quality of the voice, and note is made of the colour of the face and of the tongue. The most important part of the investigation, however, is the examination of the pulse. Wang Shu-ho, who wrote the “Pulse Classic,” lived in the 3rd century bc, and innumerable commentaries were written on his work. The pulse is examined in several places, at different times, and with varying degrees of pressure. The operation may take as long as three hours. It is often the only examination made, and it is used both for diagnosis and for prognosis. Not only are the diseased organs ascertained but the time of death or recovery may be foretold.

The Chinese materia medica has always been extensive and consists of vegetable, animal (including human), and mineral remedies. There were famous herbals from ancient times; but all these, to the number of about 1,000, were embodied by Li Shih-chen in the compilation of Pen-ts’ao kang-mu (the “Great Pharmacopoeia”) in the 16th century ad. This work, in 52 volumes, has been frequently revised and reprinted and is still authoritative. The use of drugs is mainly to restore the harmony of the yin and the yang and is also related to such matters as the five organs, the five planets, and the five colours. The art of prescribing is therefore complex.

Among the drugs taken over by Western medicine from the Chinese are rhubarb, iron (for anemia), castor oil, kaolin, aconite, camphor, and Cannabis sativa (Indian hemp). Chaulmoogra oil was used by the Chinese for leprosy from at least the 14th century, and about a century ago it began to be used for this purpose by Western physicians. The herb mahuang (Ephedra vulgaris) has been used in China for at least 4,000 years, and the isolation of the alkaloid ephedrine from it has greatly improved the Western treatment of asthma and similar conditions.

The most famous and expensive of Chinese remedies is ginseng. Western analysis has shown that it has diuretic and other properties but is of doubtful value. In recent years reserpine, the active principle of the Chinese plant Rauwolfia, has been isolated; it is now effectively used in the treatment of high blood pressure and some emotional and mental conditions.

Hydrotherapy is probably of Chinese origin, since cold baths were used for fevers as early as 180 bc. The inoculation of smallpox matter, in order to produce a mild but immunizing attack of the disease, was practiced in China from ancient times and came to Europe about 1720. Another treatment is moxibustion, which consists in making a small, moistened cone (moxa) of powdered leaves of mugwort, or wormwood (Artemisia species), applying it to the skin, igniting it, and then crushing it into the blister so formed. Other substances are also used for the moxa. Dozens of these are sometimes applied at one sitting. The practice is often associated with acupuncture.

Acupuncture consists of the insertion into the skin and underlying tissues of a metal needle, either hot or cold. The theory is that the needle affects the distribution of the yin and the yang in the hypothetical channels and burning spaces of the body. The site of the insertion is chosen to affect a particular organ or organs. The practice of acupuncture dates from before 2500 bc and is peculiarly Chinese. Little of practical importance has been added since that date, although there have been many well-known treatises on the subject.

A bronze model, c. ad 860, shows the hundreds of specified points for the insertion of the needle; this was the forerunner of countless later models and diagrams. The needles used are three to 24 centimetres (about one to nine inches) in length. They are often inserted with considerable force and after insertion may be agitated or screwed to the left or right. Acupuncture, often combined with moxibustion, is still widely used for many diseases, including fractures. Recently people in the Western world have turned to acupuncturists for relief from pain and other symptoms. There is some speculation that the treatment may trigger the brain to release morphinelike substances called endorphins, which presumably reduce the feeling of pain and its concomitant emotions.

The most interesting features of Japanese medicine are the extent to which it was derivative and the rapidity with which, after a slow start, it became westernized and scientific. In the early pre-Christian Era disease was regarded as sent by the gods or produced by the influence of evil spirits. Treatment and prevention were based largely on religious practices, such as prayers, incantations, and exorcism; at a later date drugs and bloodletting were also employed.

Beginning in ad 608, when young Japanese physicians were sent to China for a long period of study, Chinese influence on Japanese medicine was paramount. In 982, Tamba Yasuyori completed the 30-volume Ishinhō, the oldest Japanese medical work still extant. This work discusses diseases and their treatment, classified mainly according to the affected organs or parts. It is based entirely on older Chinese medical works, with the yin and yang concept underlying the theory of disease causation.

In 1570 a 15-volume medical work was published by Menase Dōsan, who also wrote at least five other works. In the most significant of these, the Keitekishū (a manual of the practice of medicine, 1574), diseases—or sometimes merely symptoms—are classified and described in 51 groups; the work is unusual in that it includes a section on the diseases of old age. Another distinguished physician and teacher of the period, Nagata Tokuhun, whose important books were the I-no-ben (1585) and the Baika mujinzo (1611), held that the chief aim of the medical art was to support the natural force, and consequently that it was useless to persist with stereotyped methods of treatment unless the physician had the cooperation of the patient.

European medicine was introduced into Japan in the 16th century by Jesuit missionaries and again in the 17th century by Dutch physicians. Translations of European books on anatomy and internal medicine were made in the 18th century, and in 1836 an influential Japanese work on physiology appeared. In 1857 a group of Dutch-trained Japanese physicians founded a medical school in Edo (later Tokyo) that is regarded as the beginning of the medical faculty of the Imperial University of Tokyo.

During the last third of the 18th century it became government policy to westernize Japanese medicine, and great progress was made in the foundation of medical schools and the encouragement of research. Important medical breakthroughs by the Japanese followed, among them the discovery of the plague bacillus in 1894, the discovery of a dysentery bacillus in 1897, the isolation of adrenaline (epinephrine) in crystalline form in 1901, and the first experimental production of a tar-induced cancer in 1918.

E. Ashworth Underwood; Philip Rhodes