"The earlier faiths of the world which ascribed the origin of mankind to Divinity, also associated the technique of medicine with the offices of religious worship. They named gods as the first physicians; these famous hero-chieftains, gifted men who were instinct with enthusiastic fervor, the Rephaim and giant-minds among the tribes and peoples of the earth. The temples were often hospitals to which the sick resorted for counsel and healing medicines, believing that the means of cure had been revealed there by the guardian divinity of the shrine. The priests were regarded as physicians for disorders of the body; prophets and diviners were consulted for those who suffered from disease, and the wisdom of the philosophers included the knowledge of treating physical maladies. ...Pythagoras, Aristotle, Athenæos, the early Christian teachers, the mystics of later centuries, down to our own times, not only gave instructions to their disciples in arcane, metaphysical and other learning, but also treated the sick and ministered to their bodily injuries."
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Alexander Wilder, "History of Medicine: A Brief Outline..." (1901)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/History_of_medicine
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History of medicine
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