Medieval: Alchemy, Primitive Medicine

Pre-antibiotic Era
https://ccaps.umn.edu/amrls/pharmacology#pre_antibiotic .
https://amrls.umn.edu/antimicrobial-resistance-learning-site/pharmacology#pre_antibiotic .
https://amrls.cvm.msu.edu/pharmacology/historical-perspectives .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FX07HzYyqI

Form and Function of Medieval Hospitals - Professor Carole Rawcliffe > .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-to4mRVzAI .

Ancient Roman Healing & Surgery ➧

Medical Corp of Roman Army ➧

First Treatments

Many ancient cultures used molds, soil, and plants to treat bacterial infections. Tetracycline has been found in human skeletal remains in Egypt and the Sudan that are some 1,500 years old; it is speculated that it was present in materials consumed in the diet (Aminov). In ancient Serbia, Greece, and China, moldy bread was pressed against wounds to prevent infection. In Egypt, crusts of moldy wheat bread were applied on pustular scalp infections and “medicinal earth” was dispensed for its curative properties (Keyes). These remedies were believed to influence the spirits or the gods responsible for illness and suffering. Today we know that the occasional efficacy of these early treatments was due to the active metabolites and chemicals present in these concoctions, such as antimicrobial substances produced by the molds on bread.
Patent Medicines and Chemical Weapons

People living before the antibiotic era depended mainly on their immune system to survive infectious disease. However, they often sought a variety of largely untested remedies to treat their illnesses. These concoctions were of highly variable efficacy and safety and sometimes had no connection with the cure or relief from disease conditions. They were nonetheless patented, sold, and utilized by desperate people with no suitable alternatives.