OT - Ancient Baghdad puzzle

[Emmett13]

He hung up the meat, the doctor waited by it. Whoever tried to steal it was executed... Or not that doctor thing is screwing me up

[Nyarlahotep]

Originally posted by Chief Rum
I'm still not quite buying that 10th century Muslims, or even their most intelligent members, actually believed that something they couldn't see was the cause of disease and infection. To my knowledge, this sort of theory of disease (they didn't have anything at the time to confirm it) wasn't suggested for centuries, and wasn't even accepted the world over until sometime in the 19th century, I believe. And I believe that went for everyone, be they Arabic, Chinese, or European.

I do think it is quite probable that the symptoms of disease could be seen quite clearly as happening more or less frequently in different areas. That would be quite logical and well within the grasp of even European medieval culture, much less the more advanced Arabic society of the time.

It would be interesting if this doctor actually did have a personal theory of disease which involved "invisible" germ-carrying life. It is quite possible that a great thinker or healer of the time might come up with something like this, but not ever really call attention to it (maybe because of fear of being ridiculed?).

Chief Rum

The Greeks didn't have anything to confirm the existence of atoms in the 5th century BC, however this did not stop them from theorizing that matter was made of them. 10th and 11th centuries were times of great advance by Muslims. They were in fact hundreds of years ahead of their European counterparts. They required physicians to pass a test and pharmacists to be liscensed. In fact the doctor who performed the experiment in this thread wrote many books, some of which were in use in Europe until the 16th century. He did in fact associate diseases with human contamination and contagion, although it was several hundred years before Ibn Khatima stated that man is surrounded by minute bodies which enter the human system and cause disease. It was a few hundred more before Anton van Leeuwenhoek saw bacteria and a couple hundred after that when Louis Pasteur came up with his germ theory.

[Chief Rum]

So in other words I was right.

He saw the symptoms, but didn't necessarily attribute it to disease-causing microorganisms. He merely saw that sickness in humans seemed to be exacerbated in certain situations. This made a lot more sense to me.

CR