Prehistoric Medicine
- Created by: Snozzle23
- Created on: 26-05-15 09:35
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- Prehistoric Medicine
- Who treated the sick?
- Gods.
- Hunter-gathers had a group medicine man to treat the sick.
- Farmers also had a medicine man to cure them of illness and disease.
- Many may have gone to wise adults in the family such as their mothers or women in general.
- Causes
- Animals skins and bites caused rabies.
- Hunter-gathers believed that evil spirits caused disease.
- Hard physical work meant they suffered from painful joints.
- (The Medicine Man.)
- Curses.
- Many believed spirits and Gods caused sickness and disease as well as witches and enemies.
- Polluted Water
- Tools and Weapons.
- Gangrene.
- Treatments
- Open cuts/wounds were covered with mud and bound with strips of bark. A chant was sung to ward away evil spirits.
- Herbs and plants were used all over the world as a cure for some illnesses.
- Willow as an antiseptic.
- Smear cuts with herbs.
- Animal parts were used as treatments.
- Steam (vapour inhalation used to treat colds and coughs by putting crushed tea-tree leaves in boiling water.
- Sore throats were cured by honey and herbs drink.
- Broken limb would be covered in mud and left for it to set hard.
- The medicine man put charms an people's foreheads and said prayers to the Gods to stop them from feeling sick and tired.
- If people believed they had an evil spirit inside them, the medicine man would drill a hole in their heads to release it (trephining).
- Health Problems
- Coughs and colds.
- Sore throat.
- Hunters caught diseases such as anthrax and rabies from animal skins and bites.
- Locking jaws.
- Many died from trephining.
- Rheumatism (painful joints) from hard work.
- Animals polluted water supplies.
- Tiredness and sickness.
- Many died because some treatments failed or made illnesses worse.
- Piles of human excrement attracted disease so tribes had to keep relocating.
- Abscesses.
- Because many wounds were left open, people soon died of gangrene.
- Who treated the sick?
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