Human health is a very fragile component of life. Since ancient times, people have sought to strengthen their health and learn how to deal with various ailments that arose as a result of infections, viruses or the banal old age of the body.
The history of medicine began simply and primitively: the primitive healer’s teachings were a mixture of witchcraft and magic with the wisdom of the people. All the achievements of the ancient healers were considered the grace of the almighty gods or attributed to the "superpowers" of the healers themselves. However, the modern history of medicine has adopted many medicines and techniques that were discovered by scientists of ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece.
Historians believe that medicine as a science was formed in Ancient Egypt, and from there it spread to other civilizations developed at that time.
The medicine of Ancient Greece was founded by a native of Egypt - Aesculapius. At that time, the processes taking place in the human body, philosophers tried to explain. As a result, interest arose in the structure of the human body, in its study. In ancient Greece, autopsy began. So much knowledge has accumulated that it became possible to open medical schools and create some semblance of hospitals in the territories of churches. During this period, such areas of medicine as obstetrics, traumatology, surgery and dentistry were brought to a high level. All this knowledge passed to Alexandria after the fall of Greece and continued its development.
A warlike empire like Rome could not do without medicine. Particular attention was paid to surgery, since warriors often received injuries on the battlefield, requiring surgical intervention. The medicine of Ancient Rome took the achievements of Greece and Alexandria as the basis of their knowledge.
Of course, the development of medicine has left its traces in other ancient civilizations, for example, in Japan, Tibet, India and China. In these regions, the history of medicine had much in common. For example, an autopsy was not practiced there for a long time, and therefore the knowledge about the structure of the internal organs of a person remained very vague, and the ideas about it were fantastic. But, despite this, the diagnosis of the disease was at the highest level for that time. For example, to identify diseases, doctors used the method of calculating the pulse in various parts of the human body. They also had an idea of hygiene and the pathways of infection. For the treatment, means of plant or animal origin were used.
Even at the stage of witchcraft and magic, medicine was divided into two of its main areas: surgery and therapy. And later, other, more subtle, branches and specializations appeared.
In the Middle Ages, due to the ideology of Catholic Christianity, medicine remained at the level of Ancient Rome and Greece. Diseases were then explained by the “punishment of the Lord,” and doctors were associated with diseases and evil spirits, and sometimes called sorcerers and passed into the hands of the Inquisition. The history of medicine has stagnated.
Interest in this science appeared again only at the end of the Middle Ages. Anatomical theaters and prominent scientists in this field began to appear.
Since then, medicine has changed, and today it also continues its development. There are fewer and fewer diseases that would not be subject to modern science.