Our World In Medicine

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works or what causes disease.
But medicine has gone through many stages throughout history.
In prehistoric times, people believed that angry gods or evil spirits
caused disease. To cure the sick, the gods had to be pacified or the evil
spirits driven from the body. In time, this task became the job of the first
"physicians".3 The first - known surgical treatment was an operation called
trephining. Trephining involved use of a stone instrument to cut a hole in a
patient's skull. Scientists have found fossils of such skulls that date back as
far as 10,000 years.
Prehistoric people probably also discovered that many plants can be used
as drugs. For example, the use of willow bark to relieve pain probably dates
back thousands of years.4 Today, scientists know that willow bark contains the
important ingredients that is included in making aspirin.
In the Middle East, the Egyptians began making important medical
progress. Around 2500 B.C., Egyptian physicians began to ...

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