Today's health care professionals work hard to promote hygiene, prevent and detect disease, cure patients, and when that is impossible, reduce their suffering.  Still, it is worthwhile to remember that the modern practice of  medicine has not always been with us but was developed over thousands of years.  We think that you might enjoy a quick summary of its development and hope that you find our short history of western medicine interesting. 

If after viewing this section, you'd like to find out more about the subject, look in your local library catalog under "Medicine, History."  Some of the books we used to prepare this site are A History of Medicine by Lois M. Magner, The Doctor in History by Howard W. Haggard, Disease and History by Frederic F. Cartwright, The Story of Medicine by Arthur L. Murphy, and The Age of Agony by Guy Williams.  There are also several excellent medical history sites on the web that we think are well worth visiting:  

• Duke University's History of Health Sciences Web Recources 
• Galaxy's Medical History Links
• Emory University's MEDWEB History Links, History Of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine
• International Museum of Surgical Science. 

• The American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM) 
• The AAHM Newsletter 
• Graduate Programs in the History of Science and Technology.