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brought her a box of tea. The old woman didn't know anything about tea. But she liked the smell and invited all her friends to come and try it. When her guests arrived, she invited them to the dinner table. The old woman treated them to cakes and fruit and tea leaves. When the sailor entered the room and saw a big plate filled with tea leaves, he understood everything. He smiled when he saw his mother's friends eating tea leaves with butter and salt. They pretended they liked it. But it was clear they didn't enjoy eating tea leaves. "Where is the tea, mother?" the sailor asked. His mother pointed to the plate in the middle of the table. "No, these are only the leaves of the tea," the sailor said. "Where is the water?" "The water?" his mother asked. "I have thrown the water away, of course."
TS 20
In prehistoric times, people believed that angry gods brought disease. They cured the sick by pleasing the gods. People from church did it and became the first professional doctors.
By about 2500 ВС, the Egyptian doctors produced a textbook on how to treat different disease's.
In ancient India, the practice of medicine became known as ayurveda. By 600 to 500 ВС, they had developed great knowledge of drugs to treat illness. Indian doctors successfully performed many kinds of operations.
The civilization of Ancient Greece reached its peak during the 400s ВС. At that time, the great Greek doctor Hippocrates began showing that disease was natural but not given by gods. He became the first known doctor who called medicine a science and art different from religion.
Avicenna, an Arab doctor of the late 900s and early 1000s, produced a big medical encyclopedia called Canon of Medicine. It summed up medical knowledge of the time and described many diseases. It was used in medical education for more than 600 years.
In Europe during the Middle Ages many hospitals and the first university medical schools were founded. They became the main centre of medical learning in Europe during the 1000s and 1100s.
In 1300 to the 1600s, the first truly scientific studies of the human body began. A work called On the Structure of the Human Body appeared in 1543.
A medical revolution began around 1900. Wilhelm Roentgen from Germany discovered X-rays in 1895. X-rays became the first of many technologies that helped doctors "see" inside the human body to diagnose illnesses and injuries.
At the end of the 20th century study of genetics became the main medical problem. TS21
The name hospital comes from Latin hospes (host), which is also the root for the words hotel and hospitality. During the Middle Ages the hospital was a house for the poor or a hostel for travellers. A hospital today is an institution for professional health care given by doctors, nurses and other professionals. Some hospitals serve as centres for medical education and research. They also try to prevent disease. A hospital may be a single building or a campus. Most hospitals are divided into various units, each of which cares for certain groups of patients. Most general hospitals have several basic units. For example, children stay in a pediatric unit. Hospitals try to make pediatric units as pleasant as possible. These units have playrooms and special activities for children. Intensive care units serve critically ill patients. A hospital's surgical unit cares for patients waiting for an operation or after it. A hospital also has an emergency unit that gives care for people who have suddenly become ill. Most hospital units are intermediate care units, in which the professional staff gives care to different kinds of patients.
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