Roman ruins cast new light on a trip to doctor

[Guest guest]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/09/wroman109.xml

 

Roman ruins cast new light on a trip to doctor

 

By Anthea Gerrie in Rimini

Last Updated: 2:11am GMT 09/12/2007

An ancient doctor's surgery unearthed by Italian archaeologists has cast

new light on what a trip to the doctor would have been like in Roman

times. Far from crude, the medical implements discovered show that

doctors, their surgeries and the ailments they treated have changed

surprisingly little in 1,800 years.

 

[photo: A physician on a house call kneels to tend the hero Aeneas in

this fresco from Pompeii]

 

Sore joints were common, patients were often told to change their diets,

and the good doctor of the seaside town of Rimini even performed house

calls.

 

Archaeologists have spent the past 17 years at the Domus del Chirurgo -

House of the Surgeon - painstakingly excavating the site and compiling

the world's most detailed portrait of medical treatment in Roman times.

Their discoveries go on public display for the first time on Tuesday.

 

" This is the largest find of surgical instruments anywhere, " said Dr

Ralph Jackson, the curator of the Romano-British collection at the

British Museum and an expert in ancient medicine.

 

Among the 150 different implements is a rare iron tool used to extract

arrowheads from wounds, which suggests the doctor had experience as a

military surgeon.

Among the other items uncovered are scalpels, scales, mortars and vases

used for the preparation and conservation of medicines.

 

" It tells us a great deal of how he worked and the range of procedures

he undertook because of its completeness. All previous finds have been

only partial, " Dr Jackson said. " The healer almost certainly concocted

anaesthetic preparations of white mandrake, henbane and opium poppies. "

 

Perhaps the most unexpected find was a piece of equipment that would

delight a modern podiatrist: a ceramic hot water bottle in the shape of

a foot, into which oil or water could be poured when the foot was

inserted.

 

" Joint problems were the single most common complaint in Roman times,

and they were probably treated with heat and cold, " said Dr Jackson.

 

The discovery suggests that the doctor

used diet as a first approach to treating a disease, then drugs prepared

from plants in a pestle and mortar, and finally surgery.

That could include anything from pulling teeth - dental forceps were

part of his equipment - to opening a patient's fractured skull to remove

bone fragments.

" One of the most exciting finds was a lenticular, a small chisel used

for opening the skull safely after gouging a channel into it with

another instrument, " said Dr Jackson.

 

The Rimini find includes the scalpels as well as the ceramic foot-bath.

 

" Healers of 1,800 years ago knew in the case of a fracture it was

important to get out the bits of bone. It's also obvious, from the

bundles of instruments kept ready for rushing to the other side of

Rimini at a moment's notice, that he also went out to perform emergency

surgery. I am still analysing tiny blades kept to treat everything from

an eye to a thigh wound. "

 

The consulting rooms were similar to those in a modern surgery, complete

with a table and a high-backed leather chair for the doctor, and an

operating room with a bed along one wall. Scratched into the wall was

" Eutyches " , which is believed to have been the doctor's name.

 

The house, built in the second century BC and burnt down in about AD260,

is one of several discovered beneath Rimini's Piazza Ferrari when a tree

was uprooted in 1989. The excavation, funded by the Italian government,

has so far cost more than £750,000.

 

Tools of the trade

 

The doctor at the Domus del Chirurgo used many implements that would be

familiar to GPs today, and a few more unconventional ones. They

included:

 

.. Iron forceps used to extract arrowheads

 

.. A ceramic bath in the shape of a foot, into which heated oil or water

could be poured when the patient's foot was inside

 

.. Dental forceps for pulling teeth

 

.. A small chisel, known as a lenticular, used for opening an injured

skull to remove bone fragments