How did ancient people use venoms as medicine. Which issues were they treating and how did venom work to achieve that ?
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Just because ancient peoples used something as medicine doesn’t mean it really worked. A lot of the time, if anything produced an obvious physiological response (vomiting, pain, a change in color, anything really) that would be taken as evidence that it was “working,” even if in reality the substance was doing nothing or making things worse.
Ancient people knew what animal venom was and knew it had the power to harm, so they probably assumed it also had the power to heal any number of totally unrelated ailments. Scientific study of venom, including the production of antivenom, didn’t happen until the 19th century.
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