Editing History of science (section)

====Mesopotamian medicine====
The ancient [[Mesopotamia]]ns had no distinction between "rational science" and [[Magic (paranormal)|magic]].<ref name="Farber1995">{{Cite book|last=Farber|first=Walter|date=1995 |chapter=Witchcraft, Magic, and Divination in Ancient Mesopotamia|title=Civilizations of the Ancient Near East|volume=3|location=New York City, New York|publisher=Charles Schribner's Sons, MacMillan Library Reference USA, Simon & Schuster MacMillan|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780684192796/page/1891 1891–1908]|isbn=978-0-684-19279-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780684192796/page/1891 |access-date=12 May 2018}}</ref><ref name="Abusch">{{cite book |last=Abusch|first=Tzvi|title=Mesopotamian Witchcraft: Towards a History and Understanding of Babylonian Witchcraft Beliefs and Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Slhv-0ewLHwC|location=Leiden, The Netherlands |publisher=Brill|year=2002|isbn=978-90-04-12387-8|page=56|access-date=7 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803051833/https://books.google.com/books?id=Slhv-0ewLHwC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Brown">{{cite book|last=Brown|first=Michael|date=1995|title=Israel's Divine Healer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KCzmNKnLqMkC|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan|publisher=Zondervan|isbn=978-0-310-20029-1|page=42|access-date=7 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803054328/https://books.google.com/books?id=KCzmNKnLqMkC|url-status=live}}</ref> When a person became ill, doctors prescribed magical formulas to be recited as well as medicinal treatments.<ref name="Farber1995"/><ref name="Abusch"/><ref name="Brown"/><ref name="McIntosh2005">{{cite book|last1=McIntosh|first1=Jane R.|title=Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspectives|date=2005|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, California, Denver, Colorado, and Oxford, England|isbn=978-1-57607-966-9|pages=273–276|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9veK7E2JwkUC&q=science+in+ancient+Mesopotamia|access-date=3 October 2020|archive-date=5 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205162758/https://books.google.com/books?id=9veK7E2JwkUC&q=science+in+ancient+Mesopotamia|url-status=live}}</ref> The earliest medical prescriptions appear in [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] during the [[Third Dynasty of Ur]] ({{circa}} 2112 BCE – {{circa}} 2004 BCE).<ref>{{cite journal |title=Medicine, Surgery, and Public Health in Ancient Mesopotamia |first=R D. |last=Biggs |journal=Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies |volume=19 |number=1 |year=2005 |pages=7–18}}</ref> The most extensive [[Babylonia]]n medical text, however, is the ''Diagnostic Handbook'' written by the ''ummânū'', or chief scholar, [[Esagil-kin-apli]] of [[Borsippa]],<ref name="Stol-99">{{cite book|last=Heeßel|first=N. P.|date=2004|chapter=Diagnosis, Divination, and Disease: Towards an Understanding of the ''Rationale'' Behind the Babylonian ''Diagnostic Handbook''|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p6rejN-iF0IC&q=Diagnostic+Handbook|title=Magic and Rationality in Ancient Near Eastern and Graeco-Roman Medicine|editor1-last=Horstmanshoff|editor1-first=H.F.J.|editor2-last=Stol|editor2-first=Marten|editor3-last=Tilburg|editor3-first=Cornelis|series=Studies in Ancient Medicine|volume=27|location=Leiden, The Netherlands|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-13666-3|pages=97–116|access-date=12 May 2018|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803060925/https://books.google.com/books?id=p6rejN-iF0IC&q=Diagnostic+Handbook|url-status=live}}</ref> during the reign of the Babylonian king [[Adad-apla-iddina]] (1069–1046 BCE).<ref>Marten Stol (1993), ''Epilepsy in Babylonia'', p. 55, [[Brill Publishers]], {{ISBN|978-90-72371-63-8}}.</ref> In [[East Semitic]] cultures, the main medicinal authority was a kind of exorcist-healer known as an ''[[Asipu|āšipu]]''.<ref name="Farber1995"/><ref name="Abusch"/><ref name="Brown"/> The profession was generally passed down from father to son and was held in extremely high regard.<ref name="Farber1995"/> Of less frequent recourse was another kind of healer known as an ''asu'', who corresponds more closely to a modern physician and treated physical symptoms using primarily [[folk remedies]] composed of various herbs, animal products, and minerals, as well as potions, enemas, and ointments or [[poultices]]. These physicians, who could be either male or female, also dressed wounds, set limbs, and performed simple surgeries. The ancient Mesopotamians also practiced [[prophylaxis]] and took measures to prevent the spread of disease.<ref name="McIntosh2005"/>