Lesson18 Medicine　　What is medicine? And what is health? In different cultures and at differenttimes you would have received varying answers to these questions. In themodern Western medical tradition, the main objectives are first to get ridof disease, and then to keep people healthy.　　In earlier times, Western medicine depended on a muddled mixture of prayer,folk remedies, and theories going back to the Arab civilizations and beyondthat to the ancient Greeks.　　True advances in medical care did not take place until the 1800's, and itwas not until the 1900's that medicine was able to reduce the high deathrates caused by infections.　　Eastern medicine took a different line. It is believed that the whole bodyhad to be treated in order to keep it healthy and to prevent disease fromappearing.　　Chinese medicine developed from a totally different background from science-based Western medicine. It treats the whole body by restoring the balanceof forces flowing within it.　　Now, in the 21st century, Western medicine has begun to accept the idea oftraditional Eastern medicine. There is growing interest in this and otherforms of traditional medicine. muddled 混乱的，模糊的prayer 祈祷remedy 治疗法infection 感染restore 恢复，调节 医学　　医学是什么？健康是什么？不同的文化背景、不同的时期会有不同的答案。传统西医的目标是先治病，后保健。　　早先，西医是个大杂烩，有祈祷，民间秘方，及可追溯到阿拉伯文明时期、甚至古希腊时期的学说。医学直到十九世纪才有了真正的发展，到二十世纪才开始减少了由感染导致的高死亡率。　　东方医学走的是一条完全不同的道路。东方医学的理念是要治疗全身使其健康，从而预防疾病的发生。　　中医不同于建立在科学基础上的西医，它是在完全不同的背景下发展起来的。它通过调节全身精气的平衡来治疗疾病。　　在21世纪的今天，西医已经开始接受传统东方医学的理念。人们对于各种形式的传统医学的兴趣也越来越大。