THE MARCH OF MEDICINE? 
By M. M. WINTROBE 
Professor and Head of the Department of Medicine 
University of Utah 
THE ORIGINS OF MEDICINE 
The progress of medicine, as might be expected, has been closely 
tied with the advance of civilization. The Golden Age of Greece, 
the Roman period, the Dark Ages, the Renaissance are all reflected in 
the history of medicine for in these same periods medicine advanced 
or declined as did civilization itself. But the opposite was also 
true. Civilization declined in part as the result of disease. Malaria 
contributed in a large measure to the decadence of Greece. The 
Greeks who surrendered to the Roman legions were very different from 
those who had fought off the Persian invaders. Malaria, according to 
Jones (1)?, an outstanding student of Greek medicine, changed them 
from brilliant, energetic, original individuals full of initiative, high 
spirit, and patriotism to vacillating, weak, cowardly, and selfishly 
cruel ones. No doubt other factors played their part as well but 
there is no question that a disease like malaria can sap the vitality of 
a people. In later years, the great plagues and epidemics were 
calamities which impeded civilization for centuries. The economic 
advancement of many parts of the world today is greatly retarded by 
the prevalence of disease. 
In the medicine of Ancient Greece we see the dawn of scientific 
medicine. This refers not to the mythical Asclepios (Aesculapius) 
and the legendary serpent, or to the medicine of the sanctuaries and 
of the priests, but to the emergence of the practice of direct observa- 
tion. Before this period medicine was variously empirical, magical, 
priestly, or.religious. There had been no concern with the discovery 
of fundamental causes and there was no attempt to arrange in logical 
sequence the cause and effect of observed phenomena. The develop- 
ment of scientific medicine was contemporary with the emergence 
of Greek philosophy. Comparable with Pericles, Herodotus, 
1 Ninth Annual Reynolds Lecture. Reprinted by permission from the Bulletin of the 
University of Utah, vol. 35, No. 12, January 17, 1945. 
2 Numbers in parentheses indicate references at end of article. 
373 
