Dec 17, 2009
From their earliest appearance on Earth (about 3,000,000 years ago), humans have been getting sick. Because people did not know about germs, they thought that angered gods or evil spirits caused illness and disease. They tried to appease (make happy) the spirits through religious ceremonies. In prehistoric times such superstitious beliefs resulted in the first "medical" procedure, which involved drilling a hole into the patient's skull—this practice was believed to allow evil spirits to escape the body and thereby rid the body of sickness. Fossil findings date this method of treatment to about 10,000 years ago. The practice of medicine, which formed the basis of modern medical knowledge, is thought to have originated about 5,000 years ago. Some ancient treatments of illness, such as using plants and herbs for medicinal purposes, are still applied today.
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