FOR the mind depends so much on the temperament and disposition of the
bodily organs that, if it is possible to find a means of rendering men
wiser and cleverer than they have hitherto been, I believe that it is in
medicine that it must be sought. It is true that the medicine which is
now in vogue contains little of which the utility is remarkable; but,
without having any intention of decrying it, I am sure that there is
no one, even among those who make its study a profession, who does not
confess that all that men know is almost nothing in comparison with
what remains to be known; and 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. (Descartes:
Discourse on the Method, Philosophical Works. Translated by E. S.
Haldane and G. R. T. Ross. Vol. I, Cam. Univ. Press, 1911, p. 120.)




CHAPTER I -- ORIGIN OF MEDICINE




INTRODUCTION

SAIL to the Pacific with some Ancient Mariner, and traverse day by day
that silent sea until you reach a region never before furrowed by keel
where a tiny island, a mere speck on the vast ocean, has just risen from
the depths, a little coral reef capped with green, an atoll, a mimic