5 ms·

A Brief History of Surgeons

39 points by Vigier 6y ago

TheCapn 6y ago
I'll use this space to recommend a podcast called Sawbones which is hosted by Sydnee and Justin McElroy. Justin might be familiar to some podcast listeners as a host of My Brother My Brother and Me or Adventure Zone while Sydnee is an MD. They go through medical topics each week and a big portion of the episodes is Sydnee recounting the medical history of whatever their topic is, often citing Greek or Egyptian origins of disease or related treatments; I always find that portion of the show fascinating.
paperwasp42 6y ago
Wonderful article, and reminds me of "The Butchering Art" by Lindsey Fitzharris. Truly eye-opening as to how recently surgery became a viable treatment, and how much determination (and dumb luck) it took to get us here.
sachdevap 6y ago
This article really short-sells Sushruta: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushruta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushruta The Sushruta-Samhita covers hernia surgery, C-sections, prostrate removal ... a huge range of topics.
- aq3cn 6y ago
  Eurocentric biases are dominate across various academic disciplines. they either deny the attribution to our culture or call it plain superstitious belief. enlightening article on devastating effect of it by śri lankan biologist: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-problem-of-colonial-science/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-problem-of-co... then the onus of proof lies with us to prove suśruta was indeed a great surgeon, whereas we never see Europeans giving evidence to establish that Euclid was a real man. Following book by prof. CK Raju on Euclid is a worthy read for anyone who wish to learn how Academic Imperialism works to perpetuate the aforementioned biases. Euclid and Jesus: How and why the church changed mathematics and Christianity across two religious wars http://ckraju.net/Euclid/ http://ckraju.net/Euclid/ https://www.amazon.com/Euclid-Jesus-mathematics-Christianity-religious/dp/9833046177 https://www.amazon.com/Euclid-Jesus-mathematics-Christianity... please do explore other work of prof. Rāju.
  - sachdevap 6y ago
    Thanks for the sources. I'll be sure to go through them. I am quite familiar with how Western history tends to misrepresent contributions of the East. It is rather unfortunate, and certainly extends beyond the realm of science.
    - aq3cn 6y ago
      In simple terms, colonial hangover is still there despite countless discourses over racism. Anyway, enjoy reading Prof. Raju. He has dobe a conference on the issue of Academic Imperialism, which is worth a watch on youtube. My favorite talk by him is on Calendars. A Tale of Two Calendars - Dr C K Raju https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvpuC7Dg4e0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvpuC7Dg4e0 > It is rather unfortunate, and certainly extends beyond the realm of science. yes, euro-centric biases extend beyond sciences. Here is one take on Kant's humorous belief about us Easterners by a professor from Singapore. Western philosophy is racist Academic philosophy in ‘the West’ ignores and disdains the thought traditions of China, India and Africa. This must change https://aeon.co/essays/why-the-western-philosophical-canon-is-xenophobic-and-racist https://aeon.co/essays/why-the-western-philosophical-canon-i...
- teleforce 6y ago
  Curiously, most of the historians from the west blatantly ignore significant contributions from the other part of the world's, for their own versions of biased history. They just conveniently sweep the other people contributions as their era of dark ages. The dark ages are for them and not for other part of the worlds. This Brief History of Surgeons article is another proof of this biased narrative. The five volumes of The Canon of Medicine book by Ibnu Sina (Avicenna) was used as one of the main reference textbooks throughout Europe including Oxford and Cambridge University for several hundred years until 18th century [1]. It also has significant original contents on surgery that were based on the work of Galen and extend them [2]. If you think the title is familiar it is because the English word "Canon" is derived from the title of this book, in a similar fashion that the word "Algebra" is derived from the title of another book by Al-Khwarizmi. There are many other significant medical works from Middle Eastern scholars on the subject of surgery since they are the pioneers of modern university based hospitals that are common in the world today. [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canon_of_Medicine https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canon_of_Medicine [2]https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32013741/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32013741/
  - sachdevap 6y ago
    You're very right. I am guilty of not being familiar with Middle-Eastern contributions to Science, although I am familiar with extensive mathematics contributions. I'll look through this. Thank you!
bobowzki 6y ago
The history of anesthesia is much shorter...
gitowiec 6y ago
For me this book was very important https://www.librarything.com/work/4357208 https://www.librarything.com/work/4357208 It opened my eyes how bad was the hygiene and how much time it took to realize doctors that they have to wash hands!

39 points by Vigier 6y ago

I'll use this space to recommend a podcast called Sawbones which is hosted by Sydnee and Justin McElroy. Justin might be familiar to some podcast listeners as a host of My Brother My Brother and Me or Adventure Zone while Sydnee is an MD. They go through medical topics each week and a big portion of the episodes is Sydnee recounting the medical history of whatever their topic is, often citing Greek or Egyptian origins of disease or related treatments; I always find that portion of the show fascinating.

paperwasp42 6y ago

Wonderful article, and reminds me of "The Butchering Art" by Lindsey Fitzharris. Truly eye-opening as to how recently surgery became a viable treatment, and how much determination (and dumb luck) it took to get us here.

sachdevap 6y ago

This article really short-sells Sushruta: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushruta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushruta The Sushruta-Samhita covers hernia surgery, C-sections, prostrate removal ... a huge range of topics.

aq3cn 6y ago
Eurocentric biases are dominate across various academic disciplines. they either deny the attribution to our culture or call it plain superstitious belief. enlightening article on devastating effect of it by śri lankan biologist: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-problem-of-colonial-science/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-problem-of-co... then the onus of proof lies with us to prove suśruta was indeed a great surgeon, whereas we never see Europeans giving evidence to establish that Euclid was a real man. Following book by prof. CK Raju on Euclid is a worthy read for anyone who wish to learn how Academic Imperialism works to perpetuate the aforementioned biases. Euclid and Jesus: How and why the church changed mathematics and Christianity across two religious wars http://ckraju.net/Euclid/ http://ckraju.net/Euclid/ https://www.amazon.com/Euclid-Jesus-mathematics-Christianity-religious/dp/9833046177 https://www.amazon.com/Euclid-Jesus-mathematics-Christianity... please do explore other work of prof. Rāju.
- sachdevap 6y ago
  Thanks for the sources. I'll be sure to go through them. I am quite familiar with how Western history tends to misrepresent contributions of the East. It is rather unfortunate, and certainly extends beyond the realm of science.
  - aq3cn 6y ago
    In simple terms, colonial hangover is still there despite countless discourses over racism. Anyway, enjoy reading Prof. Raju. He has dobe a conference on the issue of Academic Imperialism, which is worth a watch on youtube. My favorite talk by him is on Calendars. A Tale of Two Calendars - Dr C K Raju https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvpuC7Dg4e0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvpuC7Dg4e0 > It is rather unfortunate, and certainly extends beyond the realm of science. yes, euro-centric biases extend beyond sciences. Here is one take on Kant's humorous belief about us Easterners by a professor from Singapore. Western philosophy is racist Academic philosophy in ‘the West’ ignores and disdains the thought traditions of China, India and Africa. This must change https://aeon.co/essays/why-the-western-philosophical-canon-is-xenophobic-and-racist https://aeon.co/essays/why-the-western-philosophical-canon-i...
teleforce 6y ago
Curiously, most of the historians from the west blatantly ignore significant contributions from the other part of the world's, for their own versions of biased history. They just conveniently sweep the other people contributions as their era of dark ages. The dark ages are for them and not for other part of the worlds. This Brief History of Surgeons article is another proof of this biased narrative. The five volumes of The Canon of Medicine book by Ibnu Sina (Avicenna) was used as one of the main reference textbooks throughout Europe including Oxford and Cambridge University for several hundred years until 18th century [1]. It also has significant original contents on surgery that were based on the work of Galen and extend them [2]. If you think the title is familiar it is because the English word "Canon" is derived from the title of this book, in a similar fashion that the word "Algebra" is derived from the title of another book by Al-Khwarizmi. There are many other significant medical works from Middle Eastern scholars on the subject of surgery since they are the pioneers of modern university based hospitals that are common in the world today. [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canon_of_Medicine https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canon_of_Medicine [2]https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32013741/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32013741/
- sachdevap 6y ago
  You're very right. I am guilty of not being familiar with Middle-Eastern contributions to Science, although I am familiar with extensive mathematics contributions. I'll look through this. Thank you!

bobowzki 6y ago

The history of anesthesia is much shorter...

gitowiec 6y ago

For me this book was very important https://www.librarything.com/work/4357208 https://www.librarything.com/work/4357208 It opened my eyes how bad was the hygiene and how much time it took to realize doctors that they have to wash hands!