Pre-Chemistry Concepts and Medical Therapy among Ancient Physicians through the Pre-Socratic Philosophers

Abstract

Background: Chemistry as experimental science began in the seventeenth century, when it began moving away from being one of the alchemical doctrines and toward analyzing matter and its transformations using scientific methods. Previously, the ancient Pre-Socratic philosophy through observation of nature was concerned with the laws that govern the natural world and the property of matter. Later, the Hellenistic Alexandrian culture took possession of the Hermetic doctrines of the Egyptians, mixing them with pre-Socratic thought and Gnosticism. At this historical moment, therefore, there was a fusion of the Greek philosophical patrimony and the Hellenistic and Alexandrian influences on medicine. The Hermetic gnosis evolved over time to become alchemy and then to usher in the birth of chemical science. Many doctors were wandering philosophers who dealt with cosmogony to understand the body and diseases and to discover new healing drugs for treatment, and thus they were the first chemist therapists.

Methods: The influence of ancient physicians through the pre-Socratic philosophy for these prochemical theories and practice has been researched through ancient texts, so these texts have been referenced to determine the legacy of paleo-chemicals doctrines.

Results: The study of various texts in particular from the Pre-Socratic age and the eminent physicians underline that, despite a different approach to the cosmogonic concepts of nature and the matter, the medicine of that age had an important influence on chemistry as an experimental science, especially concerning therapy with drugs.

Conclusion: The Pre-Socratic philosophers have influenced the medical practice and guided it toward the concept of the properties of matter for medical treatment and an understanding of the causes of diseases.

Keywords: Greek philosophy; alchemy; ancient antidotes; ancient physicians; chemistry; drugs; medicine; philosophical christian theology; poisons; pre-socratics; therapy.