Medical Practice In Ancient Babylonia

The theoretical basis for Traditional Chinese Medicine was primarily established between about the fifth and third centuries B.C. Confucius was born around 551 B.C., the yinyang concepts arose during the fourth century B.C., and Tsou Yenwho initiated the medicine of systematic correspondencelived from 350 to 270 B.C. In contrast, the medicine of Babylonia arose somewhat earlier. Under the Amorites, the "Golden Age of Babylonia" began roughly around two millennia B.C. Although this era was short-lived, Nebuchadnezzar later tried to revive Babylonian culture. His effort faltered, however, following his death in 561 B.C. Like Traditional Chinese Medicine, Babylonian medicine was largely based on magic. In addition, both belief systems were intimately associated with religion. Since Babylonian culture generally had a great influence on its neighbors, it is possible that some of their ideas even spread as far as China.

The term, "Mesopotamia," is Greek for "the land between the rivers (Sigerist, 1955, p. 378)." This region comprises the geographic area between the Euphrates to the west and the Tigris in the east. Both rivers originate in the mountains of Turkey and flow southeast to the Persian Gulf. The course of the Tigris is shorter; whereas the Euphrateswhich carries more waterfollows a much more tortuous route. Near Baghdad, Iraq, the distance between the two

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. Other relatively common diseases could have included acute and chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, and meningitis. Finally, located between the East and the West, Mesopotamia was an early center of trade. Such activities, however, may have made the region particularly vulnerable to acute epidemics. These diseases could have ranged from tuberculosis to bubonic plague (Sigerist, 1955, p. 381). In addition, the people of ancient Mesopotamia probably had other medical problems in addition to disease (Magner, 1992, p. 19). For example, malnutritionwhich would occur during periods of faminemay have produced various forms of illness. Moreover, wars between the various tribes surely produced different types of wounds (Jayawardane, 1991, p. 117). Mesopotamian medicine was closely related to religion; perhaps even more so than Traditional Chinese Medicine (Unschuld, 1985, pp. 17223). Religion dominated Mesopotamia from the early Classical Sumerian Age to the New Babylonian empire. In fact, many Babylonian beliefs were actually taken from the Sumerians. The Lords of Heavens, Storm, Earth, and Water (i.e., Anu, Enlil, Nintu, and Enki) were all of Sumerian origin. Local deities such as Marduk, Ashur, and others, derived thei
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Approximate Word count = 2617
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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