Hi all,
Following the review of medicine in Byzantium, I fetched from the books used as documentation for Justinian's dream remembering something he had read.
In the centuries IV to VII were several famous cases of doctors whose abstracts surgical area have survived. Oribasius, Juliano's physician, Aetius of Amida, the protagonist in my novel, and Paul of Aegina have given us tremendous job in detailing up to 120 types of operations and instruments that are used in them. Thanks to these treaties we operating hernias, tumors, kidney stones and even mastectomy, although most invasive treatments focused on the body surface and areas where natural openings are available for access with the instrumental areas deep, like the nose and genitals (to increase the pain to read this sentence, attached an image of old medical instruments)
The point is that from the seventh century disappear surgery descriptions of Byzantine texts. Only refers to the bloodletting. Only in the ninth century appears a reference to 40 operations in the texts physicist Leon. However, there are far less detailed than those of their predecessors centuries ago, mentioned only in passing without explanation of how they performed, and even forget many of the common operations of the seventh century as a treatment for certain ailments.
This suggests a sharp decline in surgery from the seventh century. The only evidence against this theory, is an extensive list of instruments dating from a ninth century manuscript (Parisinus Latinus 11,219) According to some authors, the existence of such a comprehensive compendium of instrumental indicates that still remain in use and therefore that operations which would be even part of medical treatment of later centuries. On the contrary, there are opinions that disagree with it, they indicate that the instruments are quite general and can be used for more things and, on the other hand, it should be noted that at the time the doctor had greatly diminished prestige in the Byzantine Empire, which could be indicative of a widespread loss of knowledge in the profession for various reasons. In this regard, mention that in the eighth century Alexandria, the former medical center for excellence, was already in Arab hands, which undoubtedly had influence on the slope of experience of the Byzantine physicians.
In any case, it is an issue that remains speculation.
And that's it for today. Greetings
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