Chapter 1, Problem 1P

Summary Introduction

To determine:

The factors that probably stimulated an early interest in the human body.

Introduction:

Understanding the human body has an interesting and long history. The ancestors would have been very curious about studying the mechanisms of the human body and so, they must have wondered how the body fights against various illnesses.

Explanation of Solution

A healthy body does not require much attention or demand special care. However, an injured body demands more attention. The suffering from pains and aches, whenever people were injured, broken bones, contracted infections, bled and developed diseases, they triggered the people to think about their causes.

Initially, the healers heavily relied on superstitions and magic to heal sick people. It was much later that medical workers started treating the ill and examining the human body with medical techniques. Hence, they first observed the effects of injuries and illnesses, then they noticed how the wounds heal and lastly, they examined the dead bodies of humans to determine the cause of death.

Conclusion

The factors that had probably stimulated an early interest in the human body were illnesses and injuries suffered by primitive people, which led to the discovery of medical treatments.