During the ancient period their where many changes in medicine some where good but some theories hindered. The Egyptians Greeks and Romans did a huge change in medicine but most of them where improvements but their where still some ideas that where still being supported. The ancient Egyptians helped medicine mostly in communication and technology. They created the papyrus paper that helped them to write down information and knowledge, which will helped in the future so they can know what to do when a patient is ill. They also made tools out of bronze and had bandages that helped the doctor in surgery.
They also had great herbal remedies and ideas to prevent illness they used honey, soda, scented oil, and ointments as soap. They used to always keep clean like washing there hands before they eat and cleansed them selves twice a day. Unfortunately the Egyptians still believed that the gods and evil spirits caused diseases and illness and used trephing to take out the evil spirits also chants and prayer to cure or prevent the illness. But they had a theory that like farming if the canal is flowing everything is good but if was blocked that was bad and that it was the same thing for the humans.
Of course this theory was wrong but they finally thought that not everything were caused by the gods but because of that theory the came up with vomiting, bleeding and emptying the patients vowels to unblock the channels of the human body. They also didn’t know much of anatomy becausetheir religion forbids them to do any experiments since they believed in afterlife. The Greeks have most probably showed the most development in ancient times they tried to find reasons off illness and plagues more than the Egyptians or Romans rather than mostly thinking it was the gods who did it.
But because of war, government and religion it didn’t show a lot of change. Hippocrates introduce the theory of the 4 humors- phlegm, black bile, yellow bile and blood where the cause of illness that the body was unbalanced, and to balance them back the must do like what the Egyptians did like bleeding, vomiting and emptying the patients vowels nut this theory was incorrect, it shows the they are starting do this method rather than focusing in prayers. He also made a theory that the seasons effected the human body affected the unbalances and created a system for the correct diet throughout the year.
He also noticed that for example if a patient got a cold he must it something dry and hot to cure it. Hippocrates, was great for introducing ideas such as observation, where the doctor had to observe the patient and write down records, he encouraged many young doctors to observe and write the symptoms, development and treatment. This allowed future generations to cure more people, and it helped in change because people started to document medicine more. He also introduced the Hippocrates oath which the doctors must say before doing anything, this helped people to go to doctors because it made them feel safe.
Unfortunately due to the government it was quite expensive to go to doctors so the poor went to the medicine man and magicians to get treated. He also wrote books that passed on to others doctors and if there was a treatment with no cure and one doctor found out he was able to also write on it. Hippocrates was a great impact on medicine. Claudius Galen was also a great influence to medicine. He wrote books about his and Hippocrates teaching and also came up with the theory of opposites that also helped advance medicine since it throws away the fact of the gods causing illness.
But this theory was also incorrect and thanks to religion his theirs fitted in the church beliefs so no one dare to question his theories so they lasted more than a 1000 of years. Galen also knew a good amount of knowledge in anatomy although it was illegal to dissect because of religion but he had a chance to do some dissection for sometime in Alexandria and he also did dissection on animals where he discovered that the brain not the heart controlled the speech, and that the arteries, and not just veins, carried around the body.
He also treated gladiators, the Greek government also put their money in education. The Greeks also brought Asclepions which was basically the first idea of hospitals, they were simple temples which were dedicated to the Greek god Asclepius, the god of healing son of Apollo, where priests treated the patients and encouraged them to take exercise and cleanse themselves in baths and to eat daily and plenty of rest also praying. This helped them stay strong and healthy. They also carried out simple surgery but most likely while the patient was drugged in his sleep.
As for the Romans the mainly focused on the cleanliness building sewage systems it was so great that they didn’t change it and It has been used for over a 1000 years. However the sewage system wasn’t that perfect it had some problems such as the water pipes were sometimes made of lead which lead to lead poisoning, and the sewers pipes where sometimes to large for the waste to move which needed a lot of water to flush the waste out. The Roman Empire was huge so the needed the army to stay healthy and to protect the empire which means they need clean water.
The public health system brought in aqueducts that carried fresh water into the city from the hills and the reservoirs which got the water into the piping system, where the water pipes carried the water around the towns public baths were people would cleans and exercise, public fountains gave clean water for both drinking and washing, public latrines where there waste were flushed by water from the public baths, and sewers to carry away the waste from houses which were made of stone and depended on there being enough water to flush the waste which emptied the waste into rivers.
But also when the soldiers went around the empire fighting and protecting the cities, they carried disease and plagues with them, which causes a disease spreading. And also in some cities the people would throw away their waste through the window which lands on the streets and made the city dirty which causes disease. People at that time also didn’t know the real reason of these plagues and diseases and would say that it came from the gods, so they didn’t bother to find out why.
The government didn’t help either in medicine they where to busy with fixing the cities also another thing that didn’t help was that the average age of death was at 40 that meant that there wasn’t enough time to explore and be creative in medicine due to the short life span which lead to lack of change. So to answer the question well, there was a good amount of change in medicine but, there where more things that hindered the change in medicine and in improvement.