Palla Ákos szerk.: Az Országos Orvostörténeti Könyvtár közleményei 13. (Budapest, 1959)

Dr. I. CSILLAG and Dr. H. JELLINEK: From primitive Haemostatic Methods to Modern Vascular Surgery

That they were not afraid of bleeding is shown by the fact that already the prehistoric man had known the efficacy ot drawing away blood. They scratched the skin with a sharp instrument made of stone, bone or fish-bone to induce haemorrhage. The Papuans of New Guinea do the same today with tiny arrows. They even performed trepanation some thousand years .ago with the intention of exorcising the demons by exploring the cranial cavity. The First Medical Reliques The earliest medical relique dates from 3300 B. C. and concerns surgery in Mesopotamia. On the seal of a meelical man, Urguledinu, a servant, Edinmugi is made mention of, who performed surgical duties. Venesection and blood-letting was his task. Surgery in Egypt is known from Edwin Smith's papyrus on surgery and from the Ebers papyrus which dates from about 1500 B. C. The copyist of this papyrus collected the theses associated with the heart and vessels. The conclusions are of a still earlier elate than the papyrus itself. It says: . . . The heart is the centre of which all the vessels originate to all the limbs. The doctor may put his hand whether on the head, the nape, the hands, about the heart, on the arms, or legs, he will find the heart everywhere because the vessels of this same lead to every extremity. Thus the heart speaks in the vesel of every member. (Ebers papyrus, column 99; University Library, Leipzig). Searing was used for haemostasis (Regulation no. 872, Ebers papyrus). The ancient Jews could distinguish the ,,blood of the day" from the ,,blood of the night", that is, they may have known the difference between the colour of arterial and venous haemorrhage (Petrovsky). Accoreling to the knowledge of the ancient world it is not blood but pneuma, air, soul, that fills the arteries and only the veins contain blood. The great ancient philosophers and physicians who present in their works the concentrated knowledge