Medicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a
range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore
human health by the prevention and treatment of illness.
Contemporary medicine applies health science, biomedical
research, and medical technology to diagnose and treat injury
and disease, typically through medication, surgery, or some
other form of therapy. The word medicine is derived from the
Latin ars medicina, meaning the art of healing. Though medical
technology and clinical expertise are pivotal to contemporary
medicine, successful face-to-face relief of actual suffering
continues to require the application of ordinary human feeling
and compassion, known in English as "bedside manner."
Prehistoric medicine incorporated plants (herbalism), animal
parts and minerals. In many cases these materials were used
ritually as magical substances by priests, shamans, or medicine
men. Well-known spiritual systems include animism (the notion of
inanimate objects having spirits), spiritualism (a