The healers of today belong to among the most ancient of human occupations. Evidences of the practice of ritual healing, combining religion and primitive science, are found in the earliest traces of communal living. Until the period of the Enlightenment, medical science and technology advanced at a relatively slow and steady rate in the world's major cultures. With the birth of modern science and the onset of the Industrial Revolution, the progress of medicine also began to accelerate.

Wherever humans formed social groups, some individuals took the role of the healer, responsible for preventing disease and curing the sick. Magic and the use of charms, spells, and incantations frequently were employed. Signatures--such as lion's heart, to be eaten for courage, or plants with leaves resembling body organs, to be used to cure disorders of that organ--were used worldwide. Primitive medicine men learned to set fractures; they even performed such complex procedures as boring holes in the skull to treat disease.Throughout recorded history, the rational and the magical approaches have existed side by side.

The earliest recorded history of medicine begins with Egyptians (circa. 2500 BC). The Code of Hammurabi, which constitutes wide-ranging laws inscribed on a great stone pillar, includes definitions of the conduct of a physician--what he may treat, what his fee should be--and also prescribes punishments for malpractice.The Hebrew civilization developing at about the same time placed strong emphasis on public health and sanitation. It codified these practices in the Pentateuch and Talmud as prescribed by Moses.

The healing arts in the Orient have had a long and complex history. Throughout much of their history, the Indians came into contact with the Persians, Greeks, and Chinese, with whom they exchanged information. About 900 BC the Ayurveda, written in India, combined descriptions of disease with information on herbs and magic.The first great Hindu physician known, Charaka, practiced about 1000 BC. The Nei Ching, or Book of Medicine of the Yellow Emperor, probably written in the 3d century BC, was based on the yin-yang principle; that is, the balance between active and passive, hot and cold, male and female. The Chinese also developed massage and invented ACUPUNCTURE and immunization against smallpox.

The healing art of ancient Hellenic people was associated with the worship of Apollo, for whom the Oracle at Delphi was established. HIPPOCRATES was one of the most famous physician who wrote about 70 books on the subject and the HIPPOCRATIC OATH, sworn to by newly graduated physicians to this day. The most important contributions to medicine during the Roman Empire were those of CELSUS and GALEN.

Between the fall of Rome in the 5th century AD and the Renaissance in the 15th century, knowledge of medicine flourished in the Islamic empire. Islamic medicine was highly eclectic.That is, it combined elements of a number of other systems. It was strongly influenced by Greek medicine, by the medical writings of the Talmud; and by astrologic teachings from Egypt and the Orient to which addenda and commentaries were attached, especially concerning the use of drugs. The great physicians of the Islamic world included, in the eastern caliphate, Rhazes (AD c. 860-930), a Persian who distinguished smallpox from measles, and AVICENNA, the "Prince of Physicians," who was chief physician of the celebrated hospital in Baghdad.

The Renaissance revolutionized medical thought as it did all scientific, artistic, and other intellectual activity. The 17th century was remarkable for the invention and development of the microscope. An all-inclusive system of healing was developed by Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843).He advocated treating the patient with a drug that produces the same symptoms as the disease from which he or she is suffering. This practice might have had disastrous consequences had it not been for his second principle, which stated that the smaller the dose, the more effective the drug. His system, called HOMEOPATHY, though lost much impact in the West, continues to be practiced widely in the Third World.

The 19th century made modern surgery possible by means of two great discoveries: safe anesthesia, and control of wound infection. The process of diagnosis, which involves taking a patient's medical history and then conducting a careful examination, was perfected in the 19th century. Medicine in the 20th century made enormous advances in the basic medical sciences. It also expanded to take full advantage of the equally rapid strides being made in all the other fields of science and technology.

A major progress in the art of healing came with the specialization of the curing art. The first separation came between surgeons and physicians; then each category subdivided the various parts of the body to attend to. The subtle comment by Chruchill, "Oh, Doctor, which nostril do you attend?" epitomizes the extent to which the modern medicine went in extending the philosophy of Rene Descartes, who in the 17th century proposed that soul and mind are separate entitites. Until the time of Descartes, autopsies could not be performed in reverence of the soul which was supposed to stay with the body. Having gone the total opposite way, the medical sciences began treating body as a composite of many organs independent of each other. "Heal the soul and cure the body," was a dictum lost in the 20th century. However, as we approach the next century, a new awareness and awakening is taking place in the basic philosophy of curing ailments. The body must be treated as a complete entity--the concept of holistic medicine. The general practitioner of the yore is now trained to be a specialist in family medicine--a physicians who takes care of almost 90% of ailments; surgical procedures by design must stay separate.

[05 November 1994 The Daily Dawn]