Strange Medicine: A History of Medical Remedies

Strange Medicine: A History of Medical Remedies — page 3
ANCIENT MEDICINE Many herbs and natural materials have healing properties But people learned long ago that these natural medicines can often be made more effective by preparing or mixing them in certain ways This ancient art of pharmacy dates back to Ancient Egypt and beyond The Father of Pharmacy The Ancient Egyptians believed pharmacy began with the god Horus Horus lost his eye in battle but it was healed by the god Thoth Modern pharmacists write Rx on prescriptions for medicine Some believe they are writing the ancient sign for the eye of Horus Others think that Rx is just medieval shorthand for the Latin for recipe Herb Master For 1,500 years De Materia Medica About Medical Materials was the bible on medical herbs This vast book was written by the Greek pharmacist Dioscorides in the first century CE It describes more than 1,000 herbal medicines many discovered by Dioscorides himself as he followed Roman armies around Europe 8