THE NEWBORN

Abstract

History shows that the long path of medicine has never been predictable. In general, it has followed the advancement of civilization. Starting, so far as is known, in Egypt, it passed to Greece and went on to Rome. During the chaos of the Middle Ages, the Arabs, especially in Moorish Spain, carried on the traditions of Greece and Rome and greatly added to medical knowledge. With the Renaissance came the development of medicine in Italy; among the governing guilds of Florence was a guild composed of physicians and apothecaries. During the next few centuries the various centers of learning throughout Europe, principally in Italy, transmitted medical ideas rather widely through their traveling students and here and there added facts which were of some importance. Toward the end of the eighteenth century English physicians made the most noted contributions to medicine. In the first half of the nineteenth century they were