The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800Buck, Albert H. (Albert Henry)
History
The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800
Buck, Albert H. (Albert Henry)
Medicine -- History
One of the instructions given to young physicians in India when they
were about to enter upon the practice of their profession, may be
of interest to the reader. It is worded as follows: “Let thy hair
and finger-nails be cut short, keep thy body clean, put on white
garments, wear shoes on thy feet, and carry a staff or umbrella in thy
hand. Thy demeanor should be humble, and thy heart pure and free from
deceitfulness.” The following proverb, although it originated in India,
is well worthy of acceptance in every part of the world: “When you are
ill the physician will be to you a father; when you have recovered from
your illness you will find him a friend; and when your health is fully
re-established he will act as your protector.”
On a previous page the statement has been made that the science and
art of medicine developed in ancient Greece quite independently of
any influence that might have been exerted by the teachings of the
physicians of India. This statement should be somewhat modified, for it
is reasonable to suppose, although directly confirmatory evidence has
not yet been discovered, that, through the channels of trade between
the two countries, some knowledge of the doings of the physicians
of India must have reached the ears of their Greek brethren. On the
other hand, at a later period of history (after Alexander the Great
had invaded India), the relations between the two countries became
quite close and were kept up without a break for several hundred
years. During the earlier part of this later period, as appears from
the writings of Hippocrates, Dioscorides and Galen, various drugs and
methods of treatment employed by the physicians of India were adopted
by the practitioners of Greece.
_Medicine of the Chinese and Japanese._--The isolation of China
with respect to those countries which were within comparatively easy
reach and in which there was a civilization that, already several
thousand years before the Christian era, had attained a remarkable
degree of development (India, Babylonia and Egypt, for example); her
blind belief in authority; her unwillingness to tolerate any influences
that seemed to emanate from foreigners; and her complete satisfaction
with her own methods of doing things, with her own beliefs, and with
her own natural and manufactured products,--these, it is generally
believed, were the most important factors in keeping this remarkable
nation in a state of immobility as regards at least some departments
of human knowledge and accomplishment. This is particularly true in
respect of the science and art of medicine. But China is at last
waking up from this lethargic state. A wonderful change has come over
her during the past twenty or thirty years, and she is now beginning
to realize that, with her millions of population and wonderful
natural resources, she has an important part to play in advancing the
civilization of the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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