Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/25

 CHAPTER I

DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCIENCE AND ART OF MEDICINE

Friedlaender says that "in the temple of history, now hoary with age, medicine also possesses its own chapel, not an accidental addition to the edifice but a large and important part of the noble building." In this chapel is preserved the record of the efforts made by man, through the ages, to maintain his body in good condition, to restore it to health when it has become affected by disease or damaged by violence, and to ward off the various maladies to which it is liable. It is a record, therefore, in which every practitioner of medicine should take a deep interest. Rokitansky, the famous pathologist of Vienna, expressed the same idea very tersely when he said: "Those about to study medicine and the younger physicians should light their torches at the fires of the ancients." Members of the medical profession, however, are not the only persons in the community who take an interest in the origin and growth of the science of medicine and the art of healing the diseased or damaged body; the educated layman is but little less interested than the physician, being ever ready to learn all he can about the progress of a branch of knowledge which so profoundly affects his welfare. But hitherto the only sources of information available for those who are not familiar with French or German have been treatises of so technical a character that even physicians have shown relatively little disposition to read them.

The science of medicine developed slowly from very humble beginnings, and for this earliest period the historian has no records of any kind which may be utilized for his