Historical story

Medicine in Ancient Greece:Erofilo's Recipe to Treat Vision Problems

Ancient medicine. The medicine of ancient Greece was, for the time, very advanced. Erofilo was a doctor who lived between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC

The ancient Greeks they were also masters in the medical field, in which excellent figures stood out and theories were developed for the time at the forefront.

Below is a recipe for treating vision problems attributed to Erofilo di Chalcedon , a Greek-Hellenistic physician who lived between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC

Here it is:

"Apply an ophthalmic ointment containing gum arabic, terrestrial crocodile dung, copper powder and hyena bile diluted in honey twice a day".

Undoubtedly the ingredients used, in addition to making us feel a pinch of disgust, make us smile today and certainly we would not have the courage to bet even a cent on the effectiveness of such a potion, but if we try to immerse ourselves only for a moment in the historical period in question, so far from ours and completely lacking in adequate scientific means, it only takes a moment to realize how much mental and practical effort it must take to get to fine-tune any type of therapy.

Nature was all that was available and from it we tried to derive useful solutions for health and well-being.