A+ GRADED A+ 2025/2026
✔✔wandering blood in hippocrates on girls - ✔✔if uterus starts accumulated blood + it
can't come out without sex breaking down flesh, it goes to brain or around the body
✔✔chreia (necessity) - ✔✔mistranslated to chroia (skin color)
✔✔chlorosis - ✔✔instead of not carrying out her duties like said in hippocrates on girls,
due to mistranslation, the disease causes women to change skin color to green
✔✔why is the skin color green in chlorosis? - ✔✔the ancient idea of a lovesick lover
being greener than grass
✔✔soranus - ✔✔- greek doctor practicing in rome
- methodist (moderate)
✔✔what sect did soranus believe a midwife should be? - ✔✔- methodist
- not empiricist or dogmatist
✔✔soranus midwife requirements - ✔✔- literate to read treatises
- strong + able limbs, soft hands, long fingers
- free from superstition
- free from greed
✔✔were midwives paid? - ✔✔yes, they were expected to be free from greed
✔✔identity of midwives - ✔✔- decent status due to literacy
- greek (soranus was greek)
✔✔childbirth preparation - ✔✔olive oil, warm water, pads, soft sponges, wool,
bandages, pillow, things to smell to regain consciousness, midwife stool, room, 2 beds
✔✔childbirth position - ✔✔sitting
✔✔childbirth chair - ✔✔chair with hole in bottom brought by midwife
✔✔other parts of childbirth - ✔✔- labor + delivery
- swaddling
✔✔3 tests of the midwife - ✔✔- if baby cries loudly = good, weak or lack of cry = bad
- if arms + legs stretch easily = good
- baby should react to being touched
,✔✔exposure - ✔✔if baby fails midwife tests then they are put out to die or be rescued +
raised as a slave
✔✔baby food - ✔✔- wine + hydromel (honey + water)
- we now know that bacteria in honey is bad for infants
✔✔colostrum - ✔✔- first milk produced by mother
- more protein, lower in sugar, thicker
- ancient doctors thought dangerous, but full of antibodies
✔✔breastfeeding - ✔✔- below roman women to breastfeed own baby
- breastmilk transfers values to baby
✔✔wet nurse (soranus) - ✔✔- 20-40 yrs old (older woman)
- 2-3 births
- health + body specifications
- self controlled, sympathetic, not ill-tempered
- greek
✔✔ancient contraception - ✔✔- actions taken during sex
- applications of a styptic
- oral contraceptives
✔✔actions taken during sex - ✔✔- pulling out: woman pulls away
- sneeze or jump to expel seed
✔✔applications of a styptic - ✔✔on mouth of vagina to prevent seed from going in
✔✔oral contraceptives - ✔✔poisonous herbs like silphium to kill embryo
✔✔breech birth - ✔✔- bottom-first birth
- midwife puts fingers in to reorient baby
- embryo hook
✔✔caesarian section - ✔✔- only when mother dies
- c-section babies have special blessing
✔✔caesar - ✔✔from caedo, to cut
✔✔caesar + c-section myth - ✔✔- first of the caesar clan is cut from the womb
- most famous caesar is julius caesar
- myth that caesar is a c-section baby
, ✔✔c-section later tradition: male birth - ✔✔- blessing is to make up for the loss of
mother
- or, born in a more masculine way -> misogynistic
✔✔galen's uniqueness - ✔✔- lots of surviving works
- know more about him than most of ancient world
- reshapes medicine around his own personality
✔✔galen's obsession - ✔✔- everything focused on medicine
- no patron, relationships, students, siblings
✔✔galen's ego - ✔✔wanted to be the most famous doctor ever
✔✔galen's birth - ✔✔- born to a wealthy family in pergamum
- pergamum in turkey but helenized + greek-speaking
- elite + aristocratic, rare to be a doctor
✔✔nicon - ✔✔- galen's father
- man of culture + learning
- idolized by galen
✔✔galen's mother - ✔✔hated by galen
✔✔nicon's dream - ✔✔- encouraged galen to be a doctor due to a dream
- maybe asclepius
✔✔galen's dream - ✔✔- stomach-illness
- asclepius holds right hand + points to index finger-thumb gap
- galen wakes up, makes incision there, illness cured
✔✔galen goes to alexandria - ✔✔- dump when galen went
- run down + under funded
- couldn't see dissection due to roman control
✔✔galen's return to pergmamum - ✔✔- becomes head doctor of gladiatorial school
- paid by government
- practical experience
- goes to rome after success
✔✔galen's life in rome - ✔✔- ruthless competition between sects
- gets wrestling injury that he fixes himself
- antonine plague
✔✔antonine plague - ✔✔- smallpox