Studying the history of science could help develop an understanding of the contributions made by ancient nations towards scientific advances. Although Iranians had an important impact on the improvement of science, the history of Iranian medicine seems not to have been given enough attention by historians. The present study focused on the history of anesthesia and pain management in Iranian med...

Cancer is a cohort of disorders that involves transformation, dysregulation of apoptosis, uncontrolled cell proliferation, invasion, angiogenesis and metastasis. Extensive research during the last five decades has revealed much about the biology of cancer. Drugs used to treat most cancers are those that can block cell cycle, cell signaling, including growth factor signaling; inflammation, angio...

Nowadays, Alcohol is widely used in medicine and industry. On the other hand, it is well-known for its intoxicant and addictive effects and they were common in the past. Discovery of it was imputed to Mohamad ibn Zakaria Razi (Rhazes, 925 AD) or Jaber ibn Hayan (Geber, 815 AD). The Islamic researchers’ viewpoint about alcohol and their knowledge about this substance are aimed to be explored in ...

Peripheral nerves were first distinguished from tendons by Herophilus in 300 BC. By meticulous dissection he traced nerves to the spinal cord, demonstrating the continuity of the nervous system(1). In 900 AD, Rhazes made the first clear reference to nerve repair. However, not until 1795 did Cruikshank demonstrate nerve healing and recovery of distal extremity function after repair. In the early...

In the modern medical era, facial paralysis is linked with the name of Charles Bell. This disease, which is usually unilateral and is a peripheral facial palsy, causes facial muscle weakness in the affected side. Bell gave a complete description of the disease; but historically other physicians had described it several hundred years prior although it had been ignored for different reasons, such...

Cancer chemotherapy has been practised from time immemorial and Rhazes, a Baghdad surgeon, introduced chemistry into “physic” in the ninth century A.D. In 1894 W. B. Coley used the toxins of streptococcus pyogenes and bacillus prodigiosus to treat twelve patients with inoperable bone sarcoma, and disappearance of the tumour occurred in three cases. Johnston (1962), in a carefully controlled tri...

Islamic medicine, Arabic medicine, Arab-Islamic medicine, or Greco-Arab and Islamic medicine refers to medicine developed in the Golden Age of the Arab-Islamic civilization, which extended from Spain in the west to Central Asia and India in the east. In temporal terms it covered a period of roughly nine centuries, from the middle of the seventh to the end of the fifteenth century. Medicine was ...