Sociology and Medicine; A Brief History

The sociological and historical aspects of medicine are quite extensive when talking about medical theories. The humoral theory of disease, the anatomical concept of disease and the germ theory of disease all discuss the different ideas, aspects and evolutionary knowledge of what is known about the onset of disease. For example; the humoral theory of disease focuses on physical symptoms presented in the ill person, the anatomical concept of disease focuses on the connection between the pathology of the human body and symptoms presented in the person, and the germ theory of disease focuses on the transmission of germs throughout the body via the bloodstream. Each theory has a role in the evolution of the knowledge of the cause of disease. But what is more important, is how they each connect to one another in theory.

The humoral theory of disease discusses physical, rather than spiritual, symptoms to diagnose a certain disease in an ill person. In Greek history, people thought and believed that disease was brought on by the supernatural. A mentally ill person was thought to be possessed by some demon or a person struck with plague was punishment for angering the Gods. It wasn't until Hipoccrates of Cos introduced the Greeks to a new form of understanding disease and medicine. He brought about the idea of paying attention to the physical symptoms that were present in the ill; helping the Greeks better understand the reality that is disease. Healers then began to focus on the physical aspects of disease rather than believe in spiritual causation. Paying attention to the physical symptoms of diseases helped bring about Giovanni Battista Morgagni's theory of the anatomical concept of disease.

Giovanni Battista Morgagni was the first physician and anatomist to formulate a connection between physical symptoms and organs in the human body. His theory lead to the discovery of the physical pathology of the human body is directly connected to the physical symptoms presented by disease. Morgagni also discovered that disease is manifested via a third party host or outside of the body. This concept helped lead researchers and scientists to the discovery of "modern day" medical treatments during the nineteenth century and made pathology a form of detecting diseases within the human body. However, without Morgagni's theory of the anatomical concept of disease, the germ theory may never have been formulated.

During the nineteenth century, a German pathologist by the name of Rudolf Virchow made an incredible discovery; the cell. In examination of the cell, pathologists made the connection between bacteria and illness thus formulating the germ theory. The germ theory discusses the connection between bacteria infected cells transporting through the bloodstream thus infecting the human body with disease. The germ theory and the discovery of the cell threw the entire scientific community into a whole new understanding about disease and blood borne pathogens.

Each theory is dependent on each other. Without each theoretical concept of disease, our scientific knowledge of this medical phenomenon may never have existed. However, each concept does have subtle differences between them. The humoral theory used observation as a form of discovery. The anatomical concept theory used observation as well, but also used trial and error processing to formulate the theory. The germ theory used a combination of both forms, but also used science in the formulation. Each theory is crucial in the way new diseases are discovered and each theory helps doctors and scientists discover new cures and treatments to help battle disease. Without these three theories, our entire bank of knowledge and our own newly discovered concepts of health and wellness may have been very different than what we know today.

References

North, M. (2009). Greek medicine. Hippocrates and the Rise of Rational Medicine, 1. Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/greek/greek_rationality.html

Cohen, H. (1953). The Evolution of the concept of disease [Vol. 48, pp. 155-160]. (Scanned copies of original published work), Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1919122/

Klotz, O. (1932). Men and books: giovanni battista morgagni [pp. 298-303]. (Scanned copies of original published work), Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC402526/