From ancient religious rituals and magical incantations, to Renaissance practices such as purging, bleeding, and trepanning, to modern day miracles such as antibiotics, CAT scans, and organ transplants, the advance of Western medicine has been nothing short of astonishing. This richly illustrated volume provides a wide-ranging history of Western medicine, charting the great milestones of medical progress--from the birth of rational medicine in the classical world right up to the present day. The history begins in ancient Greece, where medical practice, under the auspices of Hippocrates and others, first looked past supernatural explanations and began to understand disease as a product of natural causes. It chronicles the slow growth of medical knowledge through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, illuminating the work of figures such as Paracelsus, Vesalius, and William Harvey (who explained how blood circulates through the body). And it provides portraits of more modern figures like Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch (the fathers of bacteriology), Wilhelm Roentgen (the discoverer of x-rays), and Paul Ehrlich (who pioneered the use of chemicals to destroy disease-causing organisms). Authoritative, informative, and beautifully designed, this volume offers a truly fascinating introduction to medicine in the West.