"For millennia, humankind has sought to understand disease and battled to find treatments and cures. "Medicine" chronicles this epic struggle and the men and women who have played their part in it. From primitive surgery -- where drilling a hole in the head to let demons out was the height of surgical sophistication -- through to the beginnings of diagnosis and the hidden world of germ theory, this book charts the stories of people who have shaped the world of medicine, including scientists, surgeons, doctors, and, of course, patients." -- Inside front cover.