The oriental medicine differs from the western medicine in many aspects. Especially they show great differences in their understnding of diseases as the object of medical science. But their differences were often exaggerated and accentuated. In this article I would like to reveal various aspects of oriental medicine which have often been ignored by schematic comparison with the western medicine. They are as follows. 1) The pathology theory of the oriental medicine has changed as the time has gone by. 2) The pathology theory of the oriental medicine is not based on single paradigm. 3) Nosologic problems in oriental and western medicine.
Asia ; English Abstract ; History of Medicine, Modern ; Pathology/*history ; Philosophy, Medical/*history

Religion has a close relationship with medicine. We find it much stronger as we go back to the ancient times. In Three Kingdom Period, Buddhism was a dominant religion. It had deep influences upon literature, arts, philosophy, rituals and medicine of that time. Buddhism had many schools. Different schools flourished in each Kingdom and their impacts were reflected in healing practices in each Kingdom. Madhyamika was the ruling school in Kokuryo(BC 37 - AD 668). Madhyamika was based on the philosophy of Nagarjuna(AD 100-200). In fact Nagarjuna was not only a philosopher, but also a great scientist well acquainted with Indian astronomy, calendar and medicine. As his writings, including medical writings, were widely read in Kokuryo, his medical theories might have had some influence on medicine in Kokuryo. In Paek-jae(? - AD 660), Vinaya school was popular. Vinaya school was a teaching about regulating religious activities. It formulated every activities which were to be kept in Buddhist communities and do's and don'ts of Buddhist monks' everyday life. What is interesting is that it contained many sanitary regulations. These are about keeping body clean and diets. In terms of medicine, its major concern was rather preventive medicine than therapeutic medicine. As Vinaya school was popular in Paek-jae, it is probable that sanitary concepts were introduced in Paek-jae. Among many Buddhist schools in Shin-la(? - AD 935), Mantrayana school was of importance in Buddhist healing practice. Mantrayana school had somewhat mystic character. It believed that the incantation has magical power of healing. Although Mantrayana school had never become dominant one in the history of Korean Buddhism, it remains the base of Korean Buddhism.

No abstract available.
Humans* ; Korea*

Dong-Eui-Bo-Kam is a medical book of Korean traditional medicine, which is of encyclopedic characteristics. Its contents imply almost every field of medicine. There are also descriptions of human parasites in this book under the title of 'Worms'. Worms described in the book are Sam-Shi-Choong, Ku-Choong(nine worms) the Oh-Jang-Choong(worms of five oragns). Among these Sam-Shi-Choong are not real worms, but quite mythological ones which have been mentioned in the religious Taoism. It is well-known that Dong-Eui-Bo-Kam has Taoistic characteristic. We can verify this characteristics by the fact that it mentions Sam-Shi-Choong on the top of the title 'Worms'. Dominant pathologic theory in the traditional medicine is a kind of balance theory, which defines the healthy state as the harmonious equilibrium of body elements. On the contrary parasitic diseases suppose real agents as the causes of diseases. This point of view appears to be quite different from traditional pathologic view.
English Abstract ; History of Medicine, Modern ; Human ; Korea ; Medicine, Oriental Traditional/*history ; Parasitic Diseases/*history ; Philosophy/*history

Psychiatry is a branch of medicine which deals with the problem of mental health. Although psychiatric concept and treatment is not absent in traditional medicine in Korea, it was not regarded as an independent discipline of medicine. Modern psychiatry was introduced into Korea as modern Western medicine was introduced in 19th century. The American medical missionary Dr. Allen and Dr. Heron gave the first classification of mental diseases of Korean patients in their first year report of Jejoongwon hospital. The statistics are characterized by relatively high rate of hysteria patients among the patients with mental disorders. It was Dr. Mclaren who took the charge of the Psychiatric Department of Severance hospital, the successor of Jejoongwon hospital. As a psychiatrist, Dr. Mclaren had a deep interest in human nature and mind. His thinking on the subjects was based on his Christian faith and philosophy. He claimed that Christian faith plays an important role in curing mental diseases. And several medical students decided to become a psychiatrist under his influence. Among them is Dr. Lee Chung Chul who took the charge of the Department of Psychiatry after Mclaren. After graduation in 1927, Dr. Lee studied in Peking Union Medical College, Australia, and Japan. His main research interests were focused on the biological aspects of mental disorders, and he published several important papers on the subject. But his unexpected early resignation and subsequent expulsion of Dr. Mclaren from Korea by Japanese colonial government hindered further development of psychiatry in Severance Union Medical College until the Liberation from Japanese occupation in 1945. But some of their students specialized in psychiatry during the hard period of early 1940s and they played an important role in the development of modern psychiatry in Korea after the Liberation.
History, 19th Century ; History, 20th Century ; Humans ; Korea ; Missions and Missionaries/history ; Psychiatric Department, Hospital/*history ; Psychiatry/education/*history ; Religion and Psychology ; Schools, Medical/*history ; United States

Hippocrates, the father of medicine, has been represented in many ways throughout the history of medicine. His influence on later medicine took different forms from one epoch to another. Hippocrates' medical doctrine was quite influential until Renaissance period, and with the arrival of modern medicine, the method or the spirit of Hippocrates had been valued more highly than his medical doctrine. Nineteenth century French medicine shows us how the influence of Hippocrates is still vivid even in the nineteenth century. Hippocrates, as the author of the Ai Wate Places became the founder of environmental medicine with the flourishing of meteorological medicine. And in the hands of medical ideologues he also became an proclaimer of the ideology that stressed the correspondence between men, society and nature. Laennec represented Hippocrates as the true pioneer in Clinical Medicine to which he himself made a great contribution. These various images of Hippocrates show us the universal nature of his medicine.
English Abstract ; France ; History of Medicine, 19th Cent. ; History of Medicine, Ancient ; *Medicine ; Philosophy, Medical/*history

The Research Department of the Severance Union Medical College was founded on November 4th, 1914. Drs. R. G. Mills, J. D. VanBuskirk and A. I. Ludlow were the co-founders of the department. The department aimed at investigating the medical problems of Koreans which originated from the differences of diet, customs and habits. The main fields of the research were divided into three: traditional medicine, diet of the Koreans, and special diseases in Korea. As to the research of the traditional medicine, Mills conducted extensive investigations on the drugs mentioned in the pharmacopeia of the traditional medical texts. His work included the translation of the medical texts into English, which unfortunately was not published, and the collection of thousands traditional drugs and botanical specimens. To the second field, VanBuskirk contributed much. His research was mainly focused on investigating the characteristics of Korean diet, finding out its problems, and recommending more balanced diet. The third field was the research of the diseases specific in Korea. The diseases caused by various parasites were the main targets of the research. At first, the Research Department was a laboratory where research was actually being carried out. But, its nature has been changed as each department became the center of research activities. The Research Department became a research promoting center which provides research funds for each department or individual researchers. The founding of the Research Department in the Severance Union Medical College marks a turning point in the history of SUMC in the sense that academic activities began to become more important in the missionary institute.
English Abstract ; History, 20th Century ; Korea ; Research ; Schools, Medical/*history

No abstract available.

Kim Doo-jong, the founder of the history of medicine in Korea, was born on 2nd March, 1896. After finishing his primary education in his home town, he went to Seoul to receive a higher education. He entered Keijo Medical College in 1918. However, at the end of his first year, he participated in the 3 . 1 movement which protested against Japanese harsh rule over Korea. On account of his participation in the movement, he was forced to leave the college which was run by the Japanese colonial government. Then he went to Japan to enter Kyoto Municipal Medical College, from which college he graduated in 1924. After the graduation, he went to Beijing to work in a hospital run by Japanese. Having felt uncomfortable about the situation in Beijing, he moved to Manchuria, where he opened his private clinic and saw patients for 7 years. As the life as a clinician did not satisfy him, he gave up his practice, and determined to devote himself to the study of history of medicine. He was 43 years old when he started studying history of medicine at the Dong Ah Institute, an affiliated research institute of Manchuria Medical College founded by Japanese. The institute had a large and magnificent collection of ancient texts of oriental medicine. He set on historical studies on the oriental medicine from the perspective of the Western medicine. His doctorial dissertation was about anatomy in oriental medicine. He intended to continue his study on organology, myology, etc., but the sudden end of the World War II made him return to Korea. This meant that he could not make access to the large collection of the institute, and his themes of the research had to be changed. On returning to Korea, he established the Department of the History of Medicine in Seoul National University, which was the only and the first one of its kind. He wrote History of Korean Medicine, which still remains one of the most important works on the history of Korean medicine. He was very energetic and active in his academic activities even during his late years. He passed away on 18th May 1988 at the age of 92.
English Abstract ; *Historiography ; History of Medicine, 20th Cent. ; Japan ; Korea

From the 18th century traditional medicine began to be criticised by some of Korean intellectuals who attained the knowledge of Western medicine through the imported books on Western science. In the early 20th century, Western medical doctors in Korea generally had critical attitude toward traditional medicine. Their critical opinions on traditional medicine are typically recognizable in the debate between two camps that occurred in 1930s. However, some exceptional doctors such as Chang Ki-moo and Bang Hap-shin had special interest in traditional medicine despite their education in Western medicine. It was their clinical experience of the limitation of Western medicine which led them to study traditional medicine. Both of them were particularly attracted by the School of Old Prescriptions, which was a school of Japanese traditional medicine. The medical theory of the school was characterized by the simplification of vague and complicated theory of traditional medicine. The school held the theory that all diseases are caused by one poison. Consequently, treatment of all diseases consists in eliminating the poison. He also put forward a theory of one prescription for one disease, and therefore the same remedy should be applied to a disease with the same cause even though it might manifest various symptoms. Given the fact that their theory of diseases is very similar to that of Western medicine, it is understandable that they were attracted to the School of Old Prescriptions. As the doctors trained in Western medicine, they were possibly more familiar with the doctrine of the School of Old Prescriptions than the traditional medicine based on Yin Yang and Five-Phase theory.
History, 19th Century ; History, 20th Century ; Humans ; Japan ; Korea ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional/*history ; Western World/history