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
