ABSTRACT
Healing practices and health care systems have developed through centuries of efforts to understand disease and illness and to find effective means to protect and restore health. Understanding this historical development is important both as an end in itself and as a means to a better understanding of current patterns. Compiled histories of medicine are not in short supply, but few of these histories attempt to place the development of medicine within a societal context. One of the most significant events in the development of scientific medicine occurred when it was discovered that many diseases can be traced to specific causes such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, and genetic impairments. Early humans used several divination procedures to read the intentions of the supernatural. Once the diagnosis was made, appropriate cures were employed. Specialists emerged to serve as intermediaries with the gods.
