William Osler

that we could be free of an infinitude of maladies both of body and mind, and even also possibly of the infirmities of age, if we had sufficient knowledge of their causes, and of all the remedies with which nature has provided us.

the ordinary non-medical mind, there is still something mysterious about sickness, something outside the ordinary standard.

basis of medicine is sympathy and the desire to help others, and whatever is done with this end must be called medicine

Diodorus remarks, so evenly ordered was their whole manner of life that it was as if arranged by a learned physician rather than by a lawgiver.

Hammurabi Code (circa 2000 B.C.)

one has said a ruder thing of the profession, for an extant fragment reads: ". . . physicians, who cut, burn, stab, and rack the sick, then complain that they do not get any adequate recompense for it."

Alcmaeon, achieved great distinction in both anatomy and physiology. He first recognized the brain as the organ of the mind, and made careful dissections of the nerves, which he traced to the brain.

suggested the definition of health as the maintenance of equilibrium, or an "isonomy" in the material qualities of the body.

reasoned that sensations travel by definite paths to the brain.

The first is undoubtedly the note of humanity.