The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1922-09-26
SHORT SKETCH OF THE PROG
RESS OF MEDICAL SCIENCE
By DR.. E. C. Knots


By DR.. E. C. Knots s...,,,12, -,
Mother Nature, the name that has
given to the forces that govern the
life and physical processes and prog
ress of the things that live in the
world, is very inexorable mother
and very prodigal with her handi-
work. The prime law laid down by
this mythical, majestic lady is that
one termed "the survival of the, fit
test" The struggling bud or flower
is ruthlessly destroyed to make room
for harder plant or weed which
may be poisonous one. So it is with
human life, subjected to a myriad
variety of conditions that blight, and
germs that MAIN and kill, generously
supplied by nature, until life of the
human like all life, is one continuous
struggle against these evil forces and
the dark angel of death.
However a power, greater than
+, Mother Nature and more kind, has
endowed man with the supreme gift,
intelligence, and with this to guide
many humans have lived long and
useful lives when otherwise they
must have perished.. - The animals
and beasts Of the forest have been
subjugated and made stepping stones
to life, the earth has been turned
from wilderness to great fields Of
cotton, fruit and grain for the bene-
fit of man and all this by Nartue Of
but one element and that intelli-
gence. In spite Of these triumphs
man found that he was, still being
victimized by savage forces of ma
ture and was succumbing to various
and dreadful diseases. The first
concept of primitive man concerning
disease was that it was of divine or
at any rate supernatural origin. La
boring under delusion he sought the
counsel of the ruling deity or the
ministrations of its priest or witch
doctor. When it became apparent
that sapplieations to the moon, to
fire or his idol, when exhortations and
: incantations of the conjurer, when
\ stones and sticks used to beat the ev-
i genius from the body, ] say, that
when all these failed to alleviate the
disu.se or to ward off its attack, then
man by virtue Of his. intelligence be-
pan to question the ancient super
stitions and beliefs and to believe
that disease was more worldly con-
dition and then truly medical science
was born.
Handicapped by prejudice, and
heather concepts and by lack of pre-
cedent and instruments the progress
Of this, then, new science was slow.
Many Of the theories advanced were
bizarre and fantastic Esculapius,
more philosopher than a medical
man, advanced the idea that the hu-.
man body was composed Of four ele-
1nents, namely, fire, water, dirt and
air. Disease was due to a poor or
incorrect mixture of some of these
four element. Hippoerates, however,
came close to the truth by blaming
climatic conditions and personal hab-
its for disease. Galem recognized
that tuberculosis was contagious. AS
q tribute to the shrewdness and
acute observation of these ancient
writers medical history has preserv-
ed the descriptions of tuberculosis,
pneumonia and leprosy taken from
the writings of Hippocrates himself
and they have. never been improved.
But describing is not curing and is
important. in itself, only because of
its academic interest. 1t was not
until 1858 that disease germs were
discovered by Won Leeuwenhoek that
modern medicine came into being.
Many men before this time believed
and wrote that disease was caused by
microscopic, living bodies but these
were rather ingenious guesses or u1-
proved theories and did not have a
scrap of experimental demonstration
to sustain them. So with this new
field opened to man equipped with
his intelligence and his eagerness for
new knowledge, diseases We're stud
led from a new standpoint and grad
ually it was unfolded that for each
distinct disease there was specific