A very ancient profession… no, not the one you’re thinking of! However taking care of the suffering has been probably one of the survival factors that allowed us to evolve into homo sapiens. Yet if today’s medicine is still an art that strives to become a science, a couple of centuries ago it was even worse, much worse. Should you wonder how could patients then survive all those bizarre treatments, we’re asking ourselves the same thing. Probably though only the fittest made it, and for the others it was the usual story “I’m sorry ma’am, science has done everything possible but…” 🙂