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Exploring the Historical Connections Between Geology and Medicine

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Exploring the Historical Connections Between Geology and Medicine Men, methods and materials: exploring the historical connections between geology and medicine CHRISTOPHER J. DUFFIN1,2 1Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK 2146 Church Hill Road, Sutton, Surrey SM3 8NF, UK cduffi[email protected] Gold Open Access: This article is published under the terms of the CC-BY 3.0 license Historical backdrop be spoken over beads of lapis lazuli, jasper and mal- achite, which were then threaded to form an amu- A conference entitled A History of Geology and letic necklace for a sick child (Erman 1901, p. 9). Medicine, convened by the History of Geology In the Greek and Roman schools there was some Group and held at Burlington House in November intrinsic interest in geological materials (as in the 2011, formed the basis of the first known volume work of Theophrastus, for example, in the third cen- dedicated to the historical links between medicine tury BC). The greater part of the written legacy pre- and geology (Duffin et al. 2013). Although the served for us, however, is associated with the meeting was somewhat exploratory in its approach, medicinal output of Greek and Roman healers, it was obvious that the themes encountered were including Galen of Pergamon (c. 130–c. 210) and worthy of further investigation, which led directly Pedanius Dioscorides (first century), and the eclec- to a second meeting in November 2014, the fruits tic writings of Pliny the Elder (23–79), replete of which form the core of the present volume. with contemporary Roman folklore. The humoral As independent disciplines, medicine and geol- theory of medicine was overlain by emerging ogy have markedly different origins, but their prac- notions of the Doctrine of Signatures, which saw tical applications intersect very early on in human geological materials being prescribed for various history. The possible use of bone needles for sutur- ailments on the basis of common characters, form ing in the Palaeolithic, and the widespread appli- and colour; the phallic shapes of fossil cidaroid echi- cation of (and survival from) trepanation in the noid spines, for example, initially determined their Neolithic, show that elements of medical practice use in the treatment of urogenital conditions. had already been established during the Stone With the conquest of Greece by Rome and the Age. The forsaking of hunter-gatherer lifestyles in subsequent decline of the Roman Empire, the spread favour of settled agricultural existences allowed of Islam during the seventh and eighth centuries saw the development of new medical skills including a burst of Muslim scholarship characterizing the wound-healing and bone-setting, as well as encour- ‘Islamic Golden Age’, which lasted well into the aging the development of written records of medical thirteenth century. Interest in minerals was, again, knowledge, especially in Babylonian (cuneiform) primarily associated with their supposed therapeutic and Egyptian (hieroglyphic) texts. These writings virtues as, for example, in the works of Al-Biruni clearly demonstrate the burgeoning connections (Abu¯ al-Rayha¯n Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Bı¯ru¯nı¯, between medicine and geology, as mineral drugs or Alberonius_ in Latin:_ 973–1048)_ and Ahmad ibn were incorporated wholesale into the materia med- Yusuf al-Tı¯fa¯chı¯ (1184–1253). At the same time, ica; Campbell Thompson (1936), for example, iden- a new emphasis on experimentation led to profound tified 120 mineral drugs cited in the clay tablets changes in scientific methodology which, in turn, excavated from King Assurbanipal of Assyria’s resulted in a revitalization of the understanding of Library at Nineveh, and minerals are significant medicine in the hands of such luminaries as Muham- inclusions in the medicinal recipes detailed in Egyp- mad ibn Zakariya¯Ra¯zı¯ (Rhazes: 865–925) and Abu¯ tian medical papyri (Duffin 2013). Whilst many ,Alı¯ al-Husayn ibn ,Abd Alla¯h ibn Sı¯na¯ (Avicenna: minerals were used as medicinal simples, some c. 980–1037),_ each of whom also referred to the were amuletic and their magico-medicinal efficacy therapeutic application of geological materials in supposedly depended on spoken charms or religious his writings. At the same time, the rise of alchemy liturgies. One papyrus fragment in the A¨ gyptisches was able to lay the early foundations of chemistry. Museum und Papyrussammlung in Berlin (Berlin Meanwhile, in the Latin West, the centres of P.3027), for example, records how a charm should higher learning during the early Middle Ages were From:Duffin, C. J., Gardner-Thorpe,C.&Moody, R. T. J. (eds) 2017. Geology and Medicine: Historical Connections. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 452,1–8. First published online April 26, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP452.19 # 2017 The Author(s). Published by The Geological Society of London. Publishing disclaimer: www.geolsoc.org.uk/pub_ethics Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/4090603/01_sp452-1980.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 2 C. J. DUFFIN Monastic Schools that preserved the teaching performed by Andreas Vesalius (1514–64) and and continuance of science in a strongly religious published in his ground breaking work of 1543 environment. Prominent characters who incorpo- (De humani corporibus fabrica). rated geological materials in their medical writings The demand for metals stimulated the taking of and in encyclopaedic compilations of knowledge great strides in the location, extraction and refine- included the Abbess Hildegard von Bingen ment of ores, the products of which were so crucial (1098–1179), Isidore of Seville (Isidorus Hispalen- to the work of the alchemists. Georg Agricola sis: c. 560–636) and Rabanus Maurus Magnentius (1494–1555) famously published his De Re Metal- (c. 780–856). During the later Middle Ages, the lica (posthumously) in 1556 (Vesalius 1556). Inter- Monastic Schools gave way to the establishment est in the natural world during the sixteenth century of medieval universities during the twelfth century. was also marked by the incorporation of geological, Highly productive interchange between these insti- botanical, zoological, historical and ethnographical tutions and the Islamic world meant that previously specimens into cabinets of curiosity. Apothecaries lost classical texts and those of new Arabic scholar- and professors of medicine were among those who ship were made available to the West; a furious made and wrote about their collections, including programme of translation and copying at dedi- the Neapolitan Ferrante Imperato (1550–1625), cated scriptoria ushered in a medieval renaissance. Francesco Calceolari I (1521–1600 or 1522– The rise of scholasticism saw the rediscovery of 1606) from Verona, Michel Mercati (1541–93) Aristotelianism and the emergence of notable phi- from the Vatican in Rome, Ole Worm (1588– losophers and encyclopaedists, who, once again, 1654) from Copenhagen and Michael Bernhard largely combined knowledge of geological materi- Valentini (1657–1729) of Giessen. als with their suggested pharmaceutical applica- Following a period of description of the elements tions. These scholars included such famous names of the natural world, the seventeenth and eighteenth as Thomas of Cantimpre´ (1201–72), Bartholo- centuries were marked by increasingly successful maeus Anglicus (before 1203–72), Vincent de attempts to rationalize, systematize and produce Beauvais (c. 1190–1264), Albertus Magnus (c. accessible syntheses of the plant, animal and min- 1200–80) and Konrad von Megenberg (1309–74) eral realms. The establishment of learned societies (see Duffin 2013 for further details). helped to foster intellectual alliances and the cross- A pronounced philosophical shift away from fertilization of ideas, to investigate questions of Aristotelianism as part of the Northern Renaissance interest, and to disseminate the research of their (i.e. in the area north of the Alps, as opposed to the members and fellows through their publications. slightly earlier Italian Renaissance) paved the way The rise of geology as an independent scientific for a closer focus on the individual sciences. The discipline is usually traced back to the first use of advent of printing in the mid-fifteenth century the word ‘geology’ in its modern sense by Ulisse then meant that many individual texts could be pro- Aldrovandi in 1603 (Vai & Cavazza 2006). Aldro- duced rapidly and relatively cheaply (compared to vandi (1522–1605) had broad interests, which are copying texts by hand), ensuring wide and efficient reflected in a wide set of academic achievements, distribution of classical texts, commentaries and new including a degree in philosophy and medicine ideas. It was not long before the ancient and seem- from Bologna (1553), and the teaching of medical ingly unassailable authority of classical authors, botany (1556). The evolution of geological enquiry Galen, Dioscorides Pliny and others, together with benefited from the same fifteenth–seventeenth the assertions of medieval Arabic and European century philosophical and technological innovations authors, was being questioned and challenged. as did medicine, but its development proceeded Blind reliance on received wisdom and an Aristote- at a slower pace. Foundational work was certainly lian approach to scientific enquiry (utilizing obser- accomplished by a suite of renaissance philoso- vation and searching for ‘natural’ circumstances phers, many of whom trained originally in medi- through reasoning) was gradually replaced by cine: for example,
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