Our World In Medicine

Our World In Medicine

One of the most important factors about people's lives is the information of, the use of, and the growing knowledge of medicine. Medicine is a science that nations all over the world use. It is a science because it is based on knowledge gained through careful study and experimentation. Medicine is also an art form because it depends on how skillfully doctors and other medical workers apply their knowledge when dealing with patients.1

Medicine is one of the most respected professions. The two important goals of medicine are to save lives and to relieve suffering, which is why it is so respected. But the medical field is not open to anyone who wants to help.

It takes many long years of college and medical school to get even a license to work with medicine.2 While some doctors are more important than others, almost all of them are on call twenty - four hour a day, seven days a week. Because they have to apply themselves to their job at all times, they are payed at very good wages.

Human beings have been suffering from disease since they first appeared on the earth about two and one -half million years ago. Throughout most of this time, they knew little about how the human body works or what causes disease.

But medicine has gone through many stages throughout history.

In prehistoric times, people believed that angry gods or evil spirits caused disease. To cure the sick, the gods had to be pacified or the evil spirits driven from the body. In time, this task became the job of the first

"physicians".3 The first - known surgical treatment was an operation called trephining. Trephining involved use of a stone instrument to cut a hole in a patient's skull. Scientists have found fossils of such skulls that date back as far as 10,000 years.

Prehistoric people probably also discovered that many plants can be used as drugs. For example, the use of willow bark to relieve pain probably dates back thousands of years.4 Today, scientists know that willow bark contains the important ingredients that is included in making aspirin.

In the Middle East, the Egyptians began making important medical progress. Around 2500 B.C., Egyptian physicians began to specialize. Some physicians treated only diseases of the eyes or teeth. Others specialized in internal diseases. Egyptian surgeons produced a textbook that told how to treat dislocated or fractured bones and as well as tumors, ulcers, and wounds.5

The civilization of ancient Greece was at its peak during the 400's B.C.

Throughout this period, sick people flocked to temples dedicated to the Greek