An Introduction to the History of the Hospital

Given the suffering of so many in our world, how can one not wish to know more about the one field which is dedicated to its relief?This introductory work provides some background about the history of medicine and its application in the institutions known as hospitals. It is meant to suggest love and battle: to indicate the huge importance of precise technical terms, and especially to recall the twenty-odd centuries of labor by mostly forgotten professionals in struggling to alleviate the suffering of other human beings. Finally it will point out something which some will find quite objectionable, and yet which is a part of the historical reality of medicine, a curious and unexpected observation which ought to inspire and motivate, not only in the medical realm but in every field of science: the idea that the compassionate love for suffering and needy fellow humans is utterly united with the intellectual hunger for knowledge of the mysteries of the living being and the will to act upon that knowledge – the gift, the discipline, the realm, the vocation which is called MEDICINE.