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Recilla, Elisha Monica A.

06/26/2013
1
st
year Medicine


History of Medicine in the Philippines


The history of medicine in the Philippines started with superstitions, different beliefs, and
traditional means of healing. During the early Spanish regime, preservation of corpses was
done by bathing and rubbing the body with camphor oil and preserved with buyo or beetle being
introduced to the mouth. Also, early Filipinos believed in signs and augurs, such as in predicting
whether death is near for a sick person with the presence of an owl. These early beliefs served
as basis on matters relating to death from illnesses and diseases. However, even before the
Spanish regime, medicinal plants were commonly used already in different treatments, and
therapeutic properties of many of these plants are actually considered by modern investigators.
Early missionaries such as, Fr. Francisco Ignacio Alcina, S.J., Fray Jose de Valencia, and Fr.
Pablo Clain, S.J., recorded their observations on the therapeutic uses of these medicinal herbs.
These experiments paved the way for botanists, chemists, pharmacists, and doctors to research
more on this field which made it possible for people to establish drugstores where necessary
medicine can be bought. Natural resources, such as coconut oil and monungal wood, were
used to treat widespread epidemics in our country. Moreover, during this time, hospitals are
being managed by the government and the missionaries. The Spaniards founded the first ever
hospital in the Philippines in the province of Cebu which was later transferred to Manila to care
for military patients. From then on, institutions of health and charity became numerous
throughout the country. The progress of surgery and development of public health services in
the Philippines soon followed the medical innovations. The Central Board of Vaccination was
created in 1806, and after the reorganization of the health services in 1883, caraballa calves
were used for the production of vaccine. Vaccines prepared from other domestic and wild
animals, the horse, goat, deer, and monkey, was also used. Since the end of the Spanish rule
up until the present time, municipal laboratories, quarantine services, health education, and
establishment of several medical schools are being improved.

Though some people from provinces still believe in albularyos or faith healers and other
native practices in traditional medicine, modern medical equipments and knowledge made
saving lives engulf high possibilities. Also modern medicines being manufactured in modern
laboratories are being used in treatments and medications. Updates on a wide range of medical
facts are being studied through experimentation and research that will improve the treatment of
diseases in the future.

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