[The Evolution of Modern Medicine by William Osler]@TWC D-Link bookThe Evolution of Modern Medicine INTRODUCTION 12/62
The old herbals are full of similar illustrations upon which, indeed, the so-called doctrine of signatures depends.
Observation came, and with it an ever widening experience.
No society so primitive without some evidence of the existence of a healing art, which grew with its growth, and became part of the fabric of its organization. With primitive medicine, as such, I cannot deal, but I must refer to the oldest existing evidence of a very extraordinary practice, that of trephining.
Neolithic skulls with disks of bone removed have been found in nearly all parts of the world.
Many careful studies have been made of this procedure, particularly by the great anatomist and surgeon, Paul Broca, and M.Lucas-Championniere has covered the subject in a monograph.( 2) Broca suggests that the trephining was done by scratching or scraping, but, as Lucas-Championniere holds, it was also done by a series of perforations made in a circle with flint instruments, and a round piece of skull in this way removed; traces of these drill-holes have been found.
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