Study of Ibn Sina medical terms

The Egyptian word "pharmacists" means "giver of healing or safety", i.e. Pharmacy, in combination with pharmacology, both in the olden days and at the present stage, constituted and constitutes the science of drugs - pharmacology. For the first time the inscription "pharmacists" was found under the image of the Egyptian god of medicine, Thoth, the secretary of the main god of Ancient Egypt, Osiris.

As for the first steps of healing, they were made with the emergence of speech, the ability to save fire, the creation of first tools, the use of hunting, farming, animal husbandry, etc. However, it was empirical medicine, which was based on empiricism, intuition, instinct , observation. Probably, the first healing agents were painkillers and wound healing plants. With the advent of hunting, animal organs were added to them: liver, blood, bile, etc.

On the basis of experience, primitive people proceeded from empirical, instinctive (pre-medicine) to self-help and mutual aid, and proceeded to conscious mutual aid — emerging medicine, i.e. to the emergence of medical and hygienic activities as a form of social practice.

The main contribution to the pharmaceutical industry was Ibn Sina.

As an authentic encyclopaedist scientist Ibn Sina worked with great success in almost all areas of knowledge. The sources mention over 450 titles of his writings, and the number of works that have reached us is about 240. They cover such areas of science as philosophy, medicine, logic, psychology, “physics” (ie, natural science), astronomy, mathematics, music, chemistry, ethics, literature, linguistics and others.

Ibn Sina did a lot of work on botany, because as a doctor, he could not help but pay due attention to the study of plants with healing properties. Carl Linnaeus (1707-17078), considering the merits of Ibn Sina in the field of this science, called an evergreen tropical plant named after him - Avicennia.

Especially great are the achievements of Ibn Sina in the field of medicine. He is rightly considered one of the greatest medical scientists in the history of mankind. According to various sources, the total number of medical works by Ibn Sina reaches 50, but about 30 of them survived to the power of 8. According to the content, they can be divided (with the exception of the “Canon”) into three groups: 1) general works, in which some sections of medicine and some of its theoretical issues are covered; 2) works on the diseases of a single organ or on one particular disease, for example, on heart diseases and means of its treatment, on colon disease (culandge), on disorders of the function of the genital organs; 3) works on pharmacology.

Ibn Sina's creativity holds a special place in the history of culture. The largest physician and thinker of his time, he was already recognized by his contemporaries, and the honorary title “Sheikh-ar-rais” (mentor of scientists) assigned to him during his lifetime accompanied his name for many centuries. The Canon of Medicine, which immortalized his name, was repeatedly translated into many European languages, was published about 30 times in Latin, and served for over 500 years as a compulsory medical guide for European universities and medical institutions. Schools of the Arab East.

The main medical work of Ibn Sina, who brought him centuries-old fame throughout the cultural world, is the “Canon of Medicine”. This is a truly medical encyclopedia, in which everything that relates to the prevention and treatment of diseases is described with logical harmony. In the “Canon of Medicine”, as well as in a number of special works on pharmacology (“The Book of Drugs for Heart Diseases”, “On the Properties of Chicory”, “On the Properties of Vinegar - Lid”, etc.) Ibn Sina not only united the scattered past experience and supplemented it with the results of his own observations, but also formed a number of fundamental provisions of the rational formation. If Ibn Abbaz (930-994) pointed out favorable conditions for checking the actions in the hospital, then Ibn Sina proposes a system for their testing, including observation of their action at the patient's bed, setting up experiments on animals, and even some semblance of a clinical trial. At the same time, Ibn Sina considers the experimental way of testing the effect of drugs to be the most reliable and offers “conditions” ensuring “purity of the experiment”. The “Canon of Medicine” contains indications of the need to identify side effects of drugs, the presence of mutual enhancement of theirs and mutual weakening of the effect of drugs when they are administered together.

The book first outlines the theoretical foundations of medicine and the general provisions of practical medicine. It defines the concept of medicine, reveals the tasks of this science, gives the doctrine of juices and nature (temperament), a compressed anatomical sketch of the so-called “simple” organs of the human body - bones, cartilage, nerves, arteries, veins, tendons, ligaments and muscles. The causes, manifestations and classifications of diseases and the general rules of their treatment are considered. Details of the teachings about nutrition, lifestyle (general diet) and maintaining health during all periods of life (general and private hygiene).

Bin Sina dealt with many problems of psychology, and mental disorders interested him not only from a purely medical standpoint, but also as an object of psychological research. Apparently, this is the reason why, when describing mental disorders, he expounds in detail his views on the nature of mental processes and the reasons for their violation. The materialist aspects of Ibn Sina’s philosophy are especially vividly manifested in the concept of the essence of mental processes: no one has ever come across such a clear idea of the connection of individual mental processes with the function of certain brain regions. It is enough to recall, for example, Ibn Sina’s instructions that bruises that destroy certain parts of the brain upset sensitivity and cause loss of some functions. Fully rejecting demonological views on the essence of mental illness, Ibn Sina considered the immediate cause of mental disorders or the influence of environmental conditions or bodily disorders. At the same time, clarifying the interrelationships and the mutual influence of the mental and somatic, apparently, was of particular interest to Ibn Sina: the “Canon” contains indications of the possibility of psychosis in acute febrile diseases, the connection of disorders of the gastrointestinal tract with mental experiences.