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Chapter ID: CBB374130233

Geology as Medicine and Medics as Geologists (2013)

C. J. Duffin (Author)

Volume: 375
Pages: 1-6

URI: http://sp.lyellcollection.org/cgi/doi/10.1144/SP375.29

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Modern links between geology and medicine are clearly demonstrated in the rise (or some would say, re-emergence) of medical geology – the study of the influence of geological factors (such as the excess or deficiency of trace elements and minerals, radionuclides, mineral dusts and volcanic emissions, etc.) on the geographical distribution of health problems in both man and animals (e.g. Finkelman et al. 2001; Dissanayake 2005; Selinus & Alloway 2005). The purpose of the current volume, however, is to explore the historical links between geology and medicine; indeed, this is the first major publication to embrace such a project. Two major themes emerge from this study: the therapeutic use of geological materials (geopharmaceuticals), and the contributions made by medical practitioners to geology. It could be argued that both themes were well established by classical times. The Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides (c. 40–90 AD), imperial surgeon to Nero and the legions of the Roman army, probably studied medicine at Tarsus (Osbaldeston & Wood 2000). His magnum opus was a five-volume herbal entitled The Materia Medica, probably written around 64 AD. Although effectively a medicinal herbal, volume 5 of his work contains a section on ‘Metallic Stones’. The 99 entries in this part of his work embrace a wide range of materials including such unlikely things as soot gathered from torches and glassmakers, ash from burnt twigs, Mediterranean soft corals (‘Alcyonium’), sediment from old Italian wines and various oils, gums and herbal derivatives. In addition to a wide range of metallic products, he includes unprocessed geological materials in the form of earths (e.g. Lemnian earth, Samian earth), ochres, rocks (e.g. limestone, pumice, serpentinite), minerals (e.g. Chrysocolla, azurite, cinnabar, calcite, pyrite, realgar, orpiment, gypsum, hematite, magnetite, turquoise, asbestos, selenite, sapphire, siderite, corundum) and fossils (e.g. echinoid spines, jet, oysters). Unconcerned with the origins of these geological materials, he dealt solely with their perceived therapeutic benefits. His work quickly became an authoritative and essential reference, consulted widely and revered relatively uncritically for the next 1400 years.

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Book C. J. Duffin; R. T. J. Moody; C. Gardner-Thorpe (2013) A History of Geology and Medicine. unapi

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