Medicine
Overview
Medicine is the science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

 and art of healing
Healing
Physiological healing is the restoration of damaged living tissue, organs and biological system to normal function. It is the process by which the cells in the body regenerate and repair to reduce the size of a damaged or necrotic area....

. It encompasses a variety of health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...

 practices evolved to maintain and restore health
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...

 by the prevention and treatment
Therapy
This is a list of types of therapy .* Adventure therapy* Animal-assisted therapy* Aquatic therapy* Aromatherapy* Art and dementia* Art therapy* Authentic Movement* Behavioral therapy* Bibliotherapy* Buteyko Method* Chemotherapy...

 of illness
Illness
Illness is a state of poor health. Illness is sometimes considered another word for disease. Others maintain that fine distinctions exist...

.

Contemporary medicine applies health science, biomedical research
Biomedical research
Biomedical research , in general simply known as medical research, is the basic research, applied research, or translational research conducted to aid and support the body of knowledge in the field of medicine...

, and medical technology
Medical technology
Medical Technology encompasses a wide range of healthcare products and is used to diagnose, monitor or treat diseases or medical conditions affecting humans. Such technologies are intended to improve the quality of healthcare delivered through earlier diagnosis, less invasive treatment options and...

 to diagnose and treat injury and disease, typically through medication or surgery
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...

, but also through therapies as diverse as psychotherapy
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...

, external splints & traction
Splint (medicine)
A splint is a device used for support or immobilization of limbs or of the spine.It can be used:* By the emergency medical services or by volunteer first responders, to immobilize a fractured limb before the transportation; it is then a temporary immobilization;* By allied health professionals such...

, prostheses, biologics
Biologics
A biologic is a medicinal product such as a vaccine, blood or blood component, allergenic, somatic cell, gene therapy, tissue, recombinant therapeutic protein, or living cells that are used as therapeutics to treat diseases...

, ionizing radiation and others.
Quotations

"If you know neither the terminology nor the concepts, you're ignorant. If you know the terminology, but you don't know the concepts, you're dangerous."

Jacob M. Appel, Arborophilia|Arborophilia (2005)

"The unbiased opinion of most medical men of sound judgment and long experience...[holds that] the amount of death and disaster in the world would be less, if all disease were left to itself."

Harvard professor Jacob Bigelow, 1835.

"Cured yesterday of my disease, I died last night of my physician."

Matthew Prior (1664-1721)

"Our diseases are so old fashioned, they can't keep up with the new medicines."

Leonid S. Sukhorukov All About Everything

"I firmly believe that if the whole material medica, as now used, could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be better for mankind-and all the worse for the fishes."

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., 19th century physician

"The college-birs are threeLaw, Physic and DivinityAnd while these three remain combined,They keep the world oppressed and blind...Now is the time to be set free,From priests' and Doctors' slavery.

19th century rhyme associated with the Thomsonian movement

"We should not encourage the medical student to while away his time in the labyrinths of Chemistry and Physiology."

Harvard Medical School professor, 1871.

"History is replete with examples of what happens when any group of authorities do not have to answer to empirical evidence but are free to define truth as they see fit. None of the examples has a happy ending. Why should it be otherwise with therapy?"

Robert Todd Carroll, The Skeptic's Dictionary, entry on "repressed memory therapy (RMT)"

 
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