Medicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health
care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and
treatment of illness.
Contemporary medicine applies health science, biomedical research, and medical
technology to diagnose and treat injury and disease, typically through
medication, surgery, or some other form of therapy. The word medicine is derived
from the Latin ars medicina, meaning the art of healing.[1][2]
Though medical technology and clinical expertise are pivotal to contemporary
medicine, successful face-to-face relief of actual suffering continues to
require the application of ordinary human feeling and compassion, known in
English as bedside manner.[3]
Prehistoric medicine incorporated plants (herbalism), animal parts and minerals.
In many cases these materials were used ritually as magical substances by
priests, shamans, or medicine men. Well-known spiritual systems include animism
(the notion of inanimate objects having spirits), spiritualism (an appeal to
gods or communion with ancestor spirits); shamanism (the vesting of an
individual with mystic powers); and divination (magically obtaining the truth).
The field of medical anthropology examines the ways in which culture and society
are organized around or impacted by issues of health, health care and related
issues.e.