Divided Legacy

The four volumes of DIVIDED LEGACY, written over a period of thirty years, are a new interpretation of the history of Western medicine, from its origins in the Hippocratic writings of the fifth century B.C. to the most recent times. Relying on extensive quotations from major & minor medical thinkers & philosophers, DIVIDED LEGACY describes the perennial problems of diagnosis & treatment as they have presented themselves to physicians in each successive period of history. Thus it is a history of therapeutics, not of anatomy, physiology, or the other "auxiliary sciences" of medicine. And it situates the thinking of these thinkers in their own times rather than in the context of their "contribution" to the medicine of today. This approach has disclosed the existence of two opposed medical philosophies, known traditionally as Empiricism & Rationalism & reflecting two conflicting tendencies of the human mind. DIVIDED LEGACY traces the evolution of of Rationalism from Galen in the second century A.D. to its modern formulation as "scientific medicine," & it demonstrates the Empirical medical doctrine -- represented today by homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, classical osteopathy & other holistic systems -- also to possess an ancient lineage & a coherent & scientific therapeutic philosophy.