History of medicine in the Philippines
The history of medicine in the Philippines discusses the folk medicinal practices and the medical applications used in Philippine society from the prehistoric times before the Spaniards were able to set a firm foothold on the islands of the Philippines for over 300 years, to the transition from Spanish rule to fifty-year American colonial embrace of the Philippines, and up to the establishment of the Philippine Republic of the present. Although according to Dr. José Policarpio Bantug in his book A Short History of Medicine in the Philippines During The Spanish Regime, 1565-1898 there were "no authentic monuments have come down to us that indicate with some certainty early medical practices" regarding the "beginnings of medicine in the Philippines" a historian from the United States named Edward Gaylord Borne described that the Philippines became "ahead of all the other European colonies" in providing healthcare to ill and invalid people during the start of the 17th century, a time period when the Philippines was a colony of Spain. From the 17th and 18th centuries, there had been a "state-of-the-art medical and pharmaceutical science" developed by Spanish friars based on Filipino curanderos that was "unique to the islands."
The Philippine shamans or babaylans were the first healers within the tribal communities of ancient Philippines. Later emerged folk doctors and the training and deployment of true medical practitioners as can be seen in the progression of Philippine history. At present, medical personnel trained based on Western medicine - such as Filipino nurses, physicians, physical therapists, pharmacists, surgeons among others - coexists with the still thriving group of traditional healers that do not have formal education in scientific medicine who often cater to people living in impoverished areas of the Philippines.
Folk medicine
There are ten categories of non-medical traditional healers or folk doctors in the Philippines: the babaylan, albularyo, the manghihilot or hilot, the magpapaanak, the mangluluop, the manghihila, the mangtatawas, the mediko, the faith healer, the local shaman healers. Most folk healers in Philippines believe that their "medicinal" and healing skills come from a supernatural being or given to them by God. Their practice and methods of curing ailments involves superstitions, recitation of prayers and religious rituals accompanied by the mediation of the Holy Spirit, herbology, hydrotherapy, massage therapy, and divination. Although often found active in rural communities, traditional Filipino healers can also be found in small urban and suburban neighborhoods. During Spanish times in the Philippines, the Spaniards refer to folk doctors or traditional as mediquillos, herbolarios, and sometimes as "superstitious quacks". They were even called by the Spaniards simply as matanda.Babaylan
According to sociologist and anthropologist Marianita "Girlie" C. Villariba a babaylan is a woman mystic who is "a specialistin the fields of culture, religion, medicine and all kinds of theoretical knowledge about the phenomenon of nature." In ancient Filipino society, the babaylans are believed to be a woman who had been possessed by a spirit, or a woman who had dreams or had encountered life-altering experiences, or a woman who has inherited the role to become a "mystical woman" from an elder babaylan. Their functions include the role of community leaders, warriors, community defenders, priestesses, healers, sages and seers. Although babaylans were mostly women, there were also male babaylans, which were men dressing up as women to be able to act the role of the female babaylan.
Albularyo
The albularyo is the "general practitioner" and the "primary dispenser of healthcare" in the hierarchy of traditional folk doctors in the Philippines. Because of the mass amount of different dialects spoken in the country, they have a diverse set of names depending on the region. He or she is knowledgeable in the use of medicinal herbs. The skill of the albularyo is commonly handed down from one generation to another in a family-line, involving apprenticeship. Abularyos are mostly the elders of the Barangays. The common folk diagnosis is that patients become sick due to supernatural "illness-causers" such as a duwende, a nuno, a lamang-lupa, a tikbalang, or a kapre. He or she usually includes forms of prayers, such as bulong or orasyon, while treating patients. Albularyos may also practice rituals to drive away evil spirits, such as the performance of the kanyaw, or the slaughter of pigs to search for the right type of liver that would reveal the cause of an illness. Sacrificial offerings are also sometimes used during treatments. Some albularyos choose to treat patients only on certain days of the week, such as Tuesdays and Fridays, or on the feast days of the Sto. Niño and the Black Nazarene, with the belief that healing powers are greater during those days. The methods and practices used by albularyos vary per region.Mananambal
In Cebu, located in the Visayas region of the Philippines, a traditional albularyo is called a Mananambal and their work of healing is called panambal. Like the general albularyo, mananambals obtain their status through ancestry, apprenticeship/observational practice, or through an epiphany and are generally performed by the elders of the community, regardless of gender. Their practice, or panambal, has a combination of elements from Christianity and sorcery which appear to be opposites since one involves faith healing while the other requires Black magic, Witchcraft, etc. The combinations are a reflection of the legacies left from the conversion to Catholicism of the islands from Spanish colonization, since the Indigenous of Cebu had direct contact with the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, and on-going Indigenous practices before colonization. The panambals cover natural and supernatural illnesses using a wide range of methods. Two common methods used are herbal medicine and orasyon, healing prayers deriving from a bible equivalency called the librito.Mananambals treat major and minor ailments. These ailments include but are not limited to: headache, fever, cold, toothache, dengue fever, wounds, Infection, cancer, intellectual impairment, and other illnesses thought to be caused by supernatural creatures. Aside from biological treatments, patients may also come to mananambals to form or break any form of relationships from marriage to friendships. Treatments are dependent on the type of sickness and on the mananambal themselves.
Hilot
The hilot may refer to either the manghihilot or the magpapaanak: The manghihilot uses massaging techniques to treat sprains, fractures, and other similar conditions that affect the skeletal system and the musculatory system, including ligaments. The practice treats illnesses a variety of ways based on its own universal law and natural Law. Manghihilots are either chosen by maestros or master albularyos, or through apprenticeship. Gender is not a limiting factor since they can be any gender. When chosen, their trainings include a pilgrimage to a sacred mountain to perform the oracions, or words enabling the communication with the spirit world or the panawagan. Similar to the albularyo practice, the hilot is a fusion of spiritual and medicinal practices with physical manipulation and the focus of healing the whole body being the main distinctions between the two practices. Illnesses were referred to as pilay and were defined by imbalances in the body which are explained by their enkanto, or unseen entities, elements, and manifestations in the body. This practice shares similarities with India's Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine. The magpapaanak, the other "hilot", is the folk "midwife" who does prenatal visits and check-ups to pregnant mothers. Normally a woman, she delivers babies during childbirth and often performs the ritual called the suob.Mangluluop
The mangluluop is a folk specialist who makes a diagnosis based on the resulting appearance of a burned concoction composed of freshwater shell or saltwater shell, salt, a piece of palm leaves that were blessed by Catholic priests during Palm Sunday, and charcoal resulting from coconut shells, coconut midribs. The burning of these materials is done while placed inside a tin plate accompanied by prayers and invocations and the making of the sign of the cross three times over the body of the patient. Depending on the appearance and shape of the burned materials, mangluluop refers and sends the ill person to either the albularyo, the mediko, or the manghihilot for further treatment. After the ritual and after telling the patient to which folk doctor to go next, the freshwater or saltwater shell is powdered by the mangluluop and prayerfully applies the powder following the steps of how to make sign of the cross on the patient's forehead, palms, and plantar arches of the feet. The remainder of the concoction is then thrown under the stairs at the entrance of the home to prevent evil spirits from re-invading the house.Manghihila
The manghihila uses the technique known as panghihila, wherein the patient is rubbed with coconut oil accompanied by the use of a mirror, strips of cellophane paper that were used as wrappers of cigarette boxes, strips of banana frond, or wrappings of medicinal leaves. The type of "pull" felt during the massage therapy becomes the basis of what causes the ailment.Mangtatawas
The mangtatawas determines the cause and nature of illnesses through the use of potassium alum, locally known in the Philippines as tawas as one of the primary ingredients. The other materials used in the diagnostic procedure are candles, eggs, mirrors, plain paper, and paper used for rolling cigarettes.Mediko
The mediko is a folk doctor and a specialist that combines folk medicine and some techniques used in western medicine. He or she prescribes medications and at times uses acupuncture to treat ailments.Faith healer
Filipino faith healers come from either spiritist groups, diviners or from persons who were previously saved from illnesses or death and had encountered epiphanies or mystical experiences who became convinced that they were destined to help sick people after receiving healing powers bestowed upon them by the Holy Spirit or other supernatural beings. Some of them started as an albularyo, a mediko, or a hilot. Some faith healers are psychic healers, whisperers of prayers, prayer blowers, anointers that rub saliva over the affected area of the patient, healers who hovers crucifixes and icons on the body of the patient, and psychic surgeons.Cordilleras shaman
The shamans from the Philippine Cordilleras are folk healers that heal ailments based on the beliefs of people collectively known as the Igorots. Their culture believe in rituals that involve offering of prayers and sacrifial animals, belief in supreme deities or supreme beings, lesser ranked deities, intermediation by seers or human mediums, and pleasing and appeasing the anito to prevent them from inducing diseases and misfortunes. They also cling to animism, ceremonies that are believed to cure physical and mental imbalances, those that counter witchcraft, and those that leads to bountiful harvests. Sacrifices, feasts and dances were performed as a form of thanksgiving and as entertainment for gods and goddesses. Other tribal healers dispenses magical amulets to use against illnesses and the pouring animal blood on the human body to avoid and escape death.Medicinal plants
Years before the arrival of the Spaniards in the Philippines, the use of medicinal plants was the common way of treating ailments. Early Catholic missionaries such as Fr. Francisco Ignacio Alcina, SJ and Fray José de Valencia, and Fr. Pablo Clain, SJ were able to compile and publish books regarding these medicinal plants in the Philippines. Alcina and de Valencia published theirs in 1669, while Clain published his collection in 1712. The first qualities of plant medicines in the Philippines was first recorded by Fr. Blas de la Madre de Dios, OFM through his books Flora de Filipinas and Tratado de Medicina Domestica.Early medicinal practices
Cleaning cadavers were done by bathing and then rubbing the corpses with camphor oil. After cleansing, preservation of dead bodies were done through the introduction of buyo, a type of beetle and aloes via the mouth. Persons bitten by rabid dogs were treated by curanderos using the brain of a rabid dog. For 300 years, the efficacy of oil from monungal wood scrapings and pieces were used to fight cholera.Early Filipino used hydrotherapy by bathing in natural hot springs or sulphuric body of waters. Filipinos of Spanish times, particularly those in Los Baños, Laguna, still bathe themselves even if sick. The placename Los Baños is Spanish for "the places for bathing".
To cure appendicitis, traditional Filipino healers during the Spanish period in the Philippines prescribed the intake of "water-treated fresh chicken gizzards" that would last for three consecutive Friday mornings.
Medicine in Spanish Philippines (1600s to 1800s)
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the number of medical supplies pouring into the Philippines was dependent on the yearly Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade, wherein medical supplies come mainly from Mexico. Supplies had been routed from Europe to Mexico and then to the Philippines. In addition to this, the number of certified physicians, pharmacists, and surgeons trained in Europe were concentrated at the Cuerpo Sanidad Militar located in Manila. Because of this localization of medical personnel in Manila, religious Franciscan and Dominican missionaries acted as infirmarians, hospital founders, and the surveyors of herbal medicines at the localities where they were assigned.Common diseases
Common disease during the Spanish period in the Philippines were diarrhea, dysentery, and leprosy. There were also the presence of cholera, influenza, smallpox, beri-beri, dysentery, bubonic plague, scurvy, rheumatism, asthma, syphilis, tetanus, toothache, and ulcers. Many Filipinos believed in pasma, the state of nausog, and "personalistic sorcery".Pharmacies
It was in 1830 when the "true pharmacies" were established in the Manila, Philippines. In 1871, a faculty of pharmacy was formally established at the University of Santo Tomas, and was later followed by the opening of "well-appointed drug stores".Hospitals
Both the Spanish government and Spanish missionaries established a number of hospitals in the Philippines. The first hospital was erected by the Spaniards in Cebu during 1565. That first hospital was later transferred to Manila for the purpose of treating sick and wounded military personnel. The establishment of other health and charity institutions soon followed. The missionaries who established the early hospitals in the Philippines were the Franciscans, the Brotherhood of the Misericordia, the Brotherhood of San Juan de Dios, and the Dominicans. There were also lay government people who became founders of hospitals during the time period. Among the early hospitals in the Philippines were the following:Manila
Manila had the Hospital Real de Españoles, the Hospital de los Indios Naturales, Hospital de Santa Ana, Hospital de la Misericordia, the Hospital of San Juan de Dios, Hospital de San Lazaro, Hospital de San Pedro Martir, and the Hospital de San Gabriel.Cavite
In Cavite, the Hospital del Espiritu Santo existed from 1591 to 1662. This hospital took care of sailors, marine personnel, shipbuilders, and carpenters among others.Laguna
In Laguna, the Hospital de Nuestra Señora de las Aguas Santas de Mainit existed from 1597 to 1727 and then was re-established from 1877 and still existing up to the present. The hospital was built by Franciscan missionaries on top of the location of hot springs in Los Baños, Laguna due to the therapeutic effects of the natural springs to the body of sick people, as they had observed from Filipinos of the time who bathe in hot springs despite of being ill.Naga
In Naga, the Hospital de Santiago existed from 1611 to 1691. Another hospital also named as the Hospital de San Lazaro, which is different from the one catering to leper patients in Manila, existed from 1873 and is still functioning today.Vaccination
The Central Board of Vaccination was established in 1806. After 1883, caraballa calves as well horse, goat, deer, and monkey were used for producing vaccine. By the end of the Spanish regime in 1898, there were 122 vaccinators in different Philippine provinces in addition to so-called vacunadorcillas assigned to each town.Asian medicines
Drugs and medicines from China and from some regions of Southeast Asia were part of the medical trade during the Spanish period in the Philippines. A 1637 report of Don Juan Grau y Monfalcon attested the procurement of "valuable drugs" from a Cambodian king in 1600. A 1590 report of Bishop Domingo de Salazar, OP, confirmed the existence of shops with doctors and apothecaries managed by the Chinese in the Parián of Spanish Manila.Obstetrics
In Spanish Philippines, childbirth were managed by the traditional matrona, by the mediquillos, and by some parish priests. Childbearing manuals written during the period include Fr. Julian Bermejo's Instrucciones para las Parteras, a fin de evitar los abortos y que los niños que mueran sin el bautismo and Fr. Gregorio Sanz's Embologia Sagrada. Bermejo's Instrucciones was the "earliest attempt" to manage fatal childbirthing complications.surgery
The benefit of general surgical procedures was not available to common Filipinos during the Spanish era. Although Spanish surgeons were skillful in performing amputations and mutilations in the 1800s, their services were only available to by Spanish officials stationed in Manila. One such surgery was performed by Don Juan Ventura Sarra in 1675 on his patient Don Manuel de Leon to cure the latter's obesity and corpulence. The surgery involved removal of "lumps of lipids" from de Leon's abdominal cavities. Another recorded surgical treatment performed by Ventura Sarra was on a governor named Don Juan Vargas Hurtado in 1682, an operation that removed an abscess from Vargas Hurtado's hip.
Medical literature
During the Spanish period in the Philippines, Fr. Miguel Aganduru, a Recollect priest, published the Manual de Medicinas Caseras para Consuelo de los Pobres Indios. Aganduru wrote the medical manual to help ordinary Filipinos, with the assumption that such commoners could read the text of the book that was written in Spanish. Another type of such book that was intended to help ordinary Filipinos was of the Jesuit Fr. Paul Klein's 1708 Remedios faciles para diferentes infermedades por el P. Pablo Clain de la Compania de Jesus para el alivio, y Socorro de las PP. Ministros Evangelicos de las Doctrinas de los Naturales.Other works include Dominican Fr. Fernando de Santa Maria's Manuel de Medicinas Caseras para Consuelo de las Pobres Indios en las Provincias y Pueblos donde no hay Medicina, ni Botica, Dominican Fr. Juan de Vergara's Tratado sobre medicinas caseras, Fr. Ignacio Mercado's Libro de Medicinas, Fr. Juan Biso's Tratado de Arboles y Hierbas de Indias, Fr. Antonio Llanos' La Medicina Domestica, Fr. Rodrigo de San Miguel's Manual de Medicina Domestica, and Fr. Manuel Vilches' Manuel del Mediquillo Visaya.